AfDB loans $50 mln for Africa satellite link

(Reuters) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $50 million loan towards the construction of a satellite to boost communications in Africa's rural areas, the bank said.

The venture will provide several telecoms services including international telephone calls and internet connections and permit radio, television, and multimedia broadcast reception in each country, AfDB's chief investment officer Hassan Farah said.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Malaysia's Proton says studying Egypt car assembly

(Reuters) - Malaysian state carmaker Proton Holdings is studying plans to assemble cars in Egypt to help expand export sales, managing director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said on Monday.

"So from Egypt -- we plan to use that as a base to enter the African continent and the Middle East," he said.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Morocco H1 c/a surplus up 72 pct, trade gap widens

(Reuters) - Morocco's trade deficit grew in the first half of 2007 as a construction boom increased demand for foreign building materials and equipment, the North African country's Exchange Office said on Friday.

However, the current account surplus, boosted by increases in remittances from Moroccans abroad and tourism receipts, rose by 72 percent year-on-year.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Resources lead S.African stock market firmer

(Reuters) - Resource shares continued to lead South African shares to higher ground on Tuesday, with heavyweight miners Anglo American and rival BHP Billiton leading the march.

"We have seen gold and copper prices up quite significantly on the back of improved global markets, which are more than anything driving our markets rather than what is happening locally," Gryphon Asset Management Chief Investment Officer, Abri du Plessis said.


Read more at Reuters Africa

South Africa eyes import tariff cuts to aid manufacturing

(Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday his government may cut tariffs on some imported equipment and goods in a bid to boost the manufacturing sector and make it more competitive internationally.

In a briefing to discuss the outcome of a mid-year meeting of his cabinet and other senior officials, Mbeki said a healthier manufacturing sector was critical to the government's efforts to narrow the country's trade deficit.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Tongaat sees H1 headline loss per share of 145 cts

(Reuters) - South African sugar group Tongaat Hullet (TH) expects a headline loss per share for the six months to end-June of 145 cents per share versus a headline profit per share of 283 cents per share a year-ago.

The company said on Friday the loss came about after accounting for expenses from restructuring the company by selling a stake to black investors and other costs.


Read more at Reuters Africa

New kit to help Africa fight deadly food poison

(Reuters) - Agricultural scientists unveiled a cheap kit on Thursday to let African farmers test crops for a deadly poison that makes them unfit to eat and costs the continent millions of dollars in lost exports.

Aflatoxin, a toxic chemical produced by a fungus, develops on maize, groundnuts, sorghum and cassava during hot weather and droughts. In large quantities it can cause cancer in humans, and it can also be fatal for animals.


Read more at Reuters Africa

S.Africa maize deliveries soar to 4.858 mln T

(Reuters) - Maize deliveries soared by 601,000 tonnes to 4.858 million tonnes last week, data showed on Wednesday, somewhat allaying worries that this season's harvest may be far smaller than feared.

It was the biggest weekly jump in deliveries since June 15, according to Reuters calculations and included 3.074 million tonnes of white maize and 1.784 million tonnes of yellow maize, the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) said.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Kenya says wins EU pledge of equal trade access

(Reuters) - Kenya has been promised the same level of access to European Union markets as received by its poorer neighbours Uganda and Tanzania once a new trade deal takes effect in 2008, Kenya's trade minister said on Tuesday.

The EU is negotiating new economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to replace the Cotonou Agreement that guarantees preferential access for their goods into Europe until the end of 2007.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Hulamin posts H1 loss, sees rosier H2

(Reuters) - Hulamin, the South African maker of semi-fabricated aluminium, posted a first-half headline loss per share of 33 cents as one-off costs outweighed revenue growth, but forecast a stronger second half.

Hulamin said on Tuesday it saw operating earnings in the second half beating those of the first half to end-June, which were undermined by one-off 160 million rand charge linked to the sale of a stake to black investors and by other costs.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Hulamin sees H1 loss due to one-off item

(Reuters) - South African semi-fabricated aluminium maker Hulamin expects a interim headline loss of about 70 million rand or 33 cents per share due to once-off corporate structuring costs, it said on Friday.

Hulamin said it incurred costs of about 160 million rand after the introduction of black investors into the firm.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Mozambique plans to revamp national parks

(Reuters) - Mozambique plans to invest $54 million to revamp national parks and wildlife still struggling to recover more than a decade after the end of the African country's 17-year civil war, a senior official said on Friday.

National Tourism Director Albino Mahumana told Reuters the government-sponsored investment would start this year and run for five years, with a goal of boosting Mozambique's status as an African safari destination.


Read more at Reuters Africa

US trade act seen as mixed blessing for Africa

(Reuters) - Nora Bannerman checks the pristine white uniforms made for American pharmacist Walgreens in her factory in the humid heart of the Ghanaian capital Accra.

Her Sleek Garments company exports shirts, pants and uniforms under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a 2000 U.S. law that allows nearly 40 African countries to export some goods free of duties and quotas into the United States.


Read more at Reuters Africa

World Bank panel probing West Africa gas pipeline

(Reuters) - A World Bank panel is probing possible violations of bank procedures around its funding for the West African Gas Pipeline operated by Chevron Corp..

Washington-based environmental group Friends of the Earth said on Friday the investigation by the bank's Inspection Panel will officially begin on July 15.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Naspers braces for pay-TV price war in S.Africa

(Reuters) - South African pay-TV monopoly Multichoice expects the onset of competition next year to spark a profit-eroding price war and says fixed-line phone operator Telkom will be its toughest rival.

Multichoice, which is owned by media firm Naspers and runs Africa's DStv pay-TV network, says it may have to cut its prices when South Africa's regulator licences competitors next year and is braced for higher content costs.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Credit Suisse Cuts South African Stocks Recommendation to `Underweight'

(Bloomberg) -- Investors should reduce holdings of
South African stocks because share prices have risen too high and
mining companies may suffer in an economic slowdown, according to
Credit Suisse Group.

South African shares were cut to an ``underweight''
recommendation, meaning investors should hold fewer of the stocks
than are represented in emerging-market indexes, Alexander Redman
wrote in a strategy note distributed today. The previous stance
was ``market weight.''


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Burundi tea earnings down 13 pct on quality - board

(Reuters) - Burundi tea export earnings were down 13 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, mostly due to poor quality, an official said on Wednesday.

The state-run Burundi Tea Board (OTB) says the tiny central African country made $5 million in the first six months of 2007 from the sale of 3,686 tonnes of tea. It earned $5.73 million in the first half of last year by selling just 3,387 tonnes.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Platinum Rises on Strike Threat as Wage Talks in South Africa Unresolved

(Bloomberg) -- Platinum climbed to its highest in
more than a month in Asian trading on concern that output could
be disrupted by a possible strike at Impala Platinum Ltd., the
world's second-biggest producer.

The National Union of Mineworkers today said talks with
Impala failed and it will take a legal step toward striking.
Salary negotiations at South African miners, including Anglo
Platinum Holdings Ltd., the world's biggest producer, started in
May and have yet to conclude.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Cocoa Falls From Four-Year High as Rains Bolster Harvests in West Africa

(Bloomberg) -- Cocoa fell from a four-year high on
speculation that rains will swell harvests in Ivory Coast and
Ghana, the world's biggest producers.

The West African nations, which grow 70 percent of the
world's cocoa, may get thunderstorms during the next three days,
according to Meteorlogix LLC of Woburn, Massachusetts. Showers
and thunderstorms over the weekend cooled speculation that dry
weather would reduce the crop, said Jay Schukin, a trader with
Man Commodity Advisers in New York.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Strike halts most S.African metal, engineering work

(Reuters) - Some 260,000 workers went on strike at 9,000 South African metal and engineering firms on Monday, bringing most of the industry to a halt, a union said on Monday.

Trade union Solidarity said most workers in the heavily unionised industry had joined the strike and thousands held rallies in Johannesburg and other main cities to demand better pay and to highlight a skills shortage in the country.


Read more at Reuters Africa