Pretoria News 2022-06-24

SOUTH African companies are expecting trade activity for the next six months to deteriorate as the cost of business escalates, with declining sales due to record high consumer inflation driven up by rising fuel prices. The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said yesterday that businesses were currently facing a challenging trade environment. Sacci’s trade conditions survey for May showed that expectations for trade activity for six months mirrored the prevailing uncertainty in the global market. The trade expectations index subsided into negative territory and lost 12 index points between April and May as the majority of companies surveyed were pessimistic about the future. Sacci economist Richard Downing said only 48 percent of the respondents in May expected trade conditions to improve six months from now compared to…

THE DEPARTMENT of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) is calling on Tiger Brands to halt the discussions on retrenchment following its announcement that it intended to close its Langeberg & Ashton Foods (L&AF) division. Dtic Minister Ebrahim Patel said in an interview with Business Report that following the announcement by Tiger Brands of its intention to close or dispose of its L&AF division, the department had engaged with the company to consider alternatives in view of the high number of jobs that would be affected. Patel said he had assembled an experienced team of officials who had identified potential options over the last two weeks. These include the identification of possible buyers of the operation. “We call on Tiger Brands to allow the process the opportunity to be completed.…

Industry is one of largest creators of jobs and gross domestic product in South Africa; ban on gatherings and international travel choked economy THE TOURISM industry plans to cele-brate the end of all Covid-19 restrictions with a series of events, starting with the Hollywoodbets Durban July horse racing and fashion show in Durban next weekend, after a long two years and three months of limitations on large gatherings. This comes as Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla yesterday officially announced that all Covid-19 regulations on mask-wearing, limits on gatherings and Covid tests for incoming travellers crossing the South African borders have been repealed. Phaahla said restrictions had been lifted because of the decline in the positivity rate of the virus, with the peak infection experienced during a dissipating limited 5th wave…

OFFICE and retail commercial property sales showed signs of weakening in the second quarter, likely due to the impact of rising interest rates, according to FNB’s Commercial Property Broker Survey released yesterday. While office and retail saw declines in perceived market sales activity, the industrial property market’s activity rating rose further. The percentage of broker respondents perceiving business conditions to be satisfactory also fell slightly from 47 percent in the prior quarter to 46 percent, following a prior rising trend, and remaining at a mediocre level. “This reflects an economy battling to fully recover from the very deep recession of 2020, and more recently pressured by rising interest rates,” FNB Commercial Property commercial strategist John Loos said in a statement. When brokers were asked for their ratings of…

CONSTRUCTION sector activity remained subdued in the first quarter even though several sectors in the economy recovered and went into a new expansion phase since the lifting of most of the lockdown regulations, the Afrimat Construction Index (ACI) showed. Economist Dr Roelof Botha said while the index showed there was construction activity, as evidenced by relatively high retail hardware sales figures for the past five quarters, not enough big projects were being awarded if infrastructure development was to succeed, due to red tape, inefficiencies by state organisations and a disconnect between the government and private sector to co-operate. “Just for example, take roads. Nearly 1 000 new vehicles take to the roads in Gauteng alone every calendar day of the year. We need much more road development. “The private…

THE COMPETITION Tribunal yesterday said it had granted Northam Platinum the limited right to participate in the merger proceedings involving Impala Platinum (Implats) and Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat). This as Northam tries to fend off a takeover by its rival Implats of RBPlat. Northam has since grown its RBPlat stake to roughly 35 percent. In a statement, the tribunal said Northam’s participation in the merger proceedings would be limited to making written and oral submissions on two potential theories of harm. The first theory was the vertical effects of the proposed merger, including the effect on competition in the local upstream market for the production and sale of primary concentrate. The second was the extent to which the merger effects could be prejudicial to junior miners in South Africa.…