Pretoria News 2022-10-05

DIVERSIFIED miner Anglo American will establish a new renewable energy business in SA in collaboration with Électricité de France (EDF) Renewables, a global leader in renewable energy. The companies will form a new jointly-owned company, Envusa Energy, to develop a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa, they said in a statement yesterday. According to Anglo American, as part of the agreement, Envusa Energy would launch a mature pipeline of more than 600 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar projects in South Africa, a major first step towards the development of an ecosystem that is expected to generate 3 to 5 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2030. “This first phase of Envusa Energy’s renewables projects is expected to be fully funded – including by attracting debt financing that…

THE UPSIDE of the continued use of oil and gas by Africa far outweighs the risk to climate change, CEF Group chief executive Dr Ishmael Poolo said yesterday. Poking a stick at the headlong rush by developed countries into decarbonising their economies, he said in an address to the Africa Oil Week in Cape Town yesterday that instead of South Africa being rewarded for deploying 30% renewables as a percentage of its electricity-generating capacity, the country “is still chastised for its use of its natural endowment of natural resources,” such as the burning of coal. Poolo’s and comments by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe indicate that while renewable energy development may be galloping ahead elsewhere in the world, and will continue in South Africa, traditional fossil fuel energy…

THE SOUTH African Reserve Bank (SARB) will continue raising interest rates well into 2023 in a bid to stabilise monetary policy and restore price stability amid persistently high inflation. The SARB Governor Lesetja Kga-nyago yesterday said that domestic inflation outcomes have worsened as higher global food and Brent crude oil prices weighed on prices. Inflation in South Africa climbed to 7.6% in August, a slight moderation from the 7.8% hit in July, and a full 1.9 percentage points above the inflation outcome of January. Headline inflation is expected to average 6.5% in 2022, up from 4.5% in 2021, and to remain above the midpoint of the target range of 3 to 6% into 2024. As inflation and expectations of future inflation increased, the SARB’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised…

CONSUMER spending in South Africa is expected to remain depressed due to the elevated cost of living in spite of the drop in fuel prices this month. Analysts said yesterday that while the petrol price cut would bring some relief to motorists food prices were still at unaffordable levels. The Department of Mineral Re- sources and Energy (DMRE) announced the fuel price adjustment for October on Monday, decreasing the petrol price for three consecutive months. The DMRE said the price of 93-octane petrol would drop by 89 cents a litre and 95-octane petrol by R1.02 a litre. The petrol price drops to R23.36 a litre from a record high of R26.74 a litre in July. The wholesale price for illuminating paraffin will fall 61c a litre. Diesel will…

SOUTH Africa’s mining sector delivered a sterling performance in the past year, despite several local and global challenges, and all stakeholders received much-welcomed value, according to the PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PwC’s) SA Miner 2022 report. The report released yesterday gives an analysis of the mining results, and other factors including the economic context, infrastructure-related challenges in the sector, and industry and market analysis. Minerals account for more than half of South Africa’s export revenue. In 2021, the two largest export categories – precious metals and stones as well as ores, slag and ash – contributed 43.2% of total export revenue. Mineral fuels, including coal, accounted for a further 8.3% of export revenue, the report said. According to the report, the industry’s financial performance exceeded expectations on most fronts. “Distributions to shareholders more…

OCEANA Group plans to sell off its cold storage business, Commercial Cold Storage Group, or CCS Logistics, for R760 millon, so that it can focus on new opportunities in the fish protein sector. The business would be sold to the minority interests in CCS Namibia, net of the value accruing to minority interests in the Namibian (CCS Namibia 31%) and Duncan Dock (CCS Ports 30%) operations. The implied 100% enterprise value including minorities of the transaction was R895m. Oceana said the purchaser was a special purpose vehicle owned by a consortium comprising Old Mutual Life Assurance Company, acting on behalf of the Infrastructural, Developmental and Environmental Assets Managed Fund (Ideas), and the African Infrastructure Investment Fund 4 Partnership (AIIF4). The main beneficial owners of the consortium members are Ideas Fund,…