Ford South Africa has appointed Ryan Searle as its new sales director, effective May 1. Searle joins Ford after six years as the head of Volkswagen passenger sales where he was responsible for sales and market share performance for its South African dealer network, including sales strategy and demand planning for the various sales channels.

TransUnion Africa CEO Lee Naik says a tough economic environment characterised by cost-of-living challenges, high fuel costs and currency depreciations have resulted in a notable decline in vehicle sales and financing in South Africa. However, while this contraction is expected to persist, manufacturers and dealerships are stepping up their efforts to help consumers enter, or re-enter the auto market, he notes.

Independent power producer Mulilo reports that Jan Fourie has officially assumed the role of CEO, where he will oversee the company’s growth ambitions in South Africa’s public-procurement and private-offtake markets for both renewable energy and battery storage. Fourie, who is an electrical engineer with a master’s in business administration, has 17 years of experience in the African power sector, most recently as a senior executive as Scatec.

Industry organisation the Energy Council of South Africa has welcomed the passing of the Climate Change Bill by Parliament on April 25. “The Climate Change Bill is a critical piece of legislation that seeks to enable the development of an effective climate change response and a long-term just transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy and society for South Africa,” the council points it.

City of Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda announced on Thursday that the City intends to add an additional 50 MW of power to its grid by bringing online the Durban Street Substation, in the next financial year. Gwamanda was presenting the State of the City Address in Johannesburg, where he said the City has also planned for an additional 100 MW of energy by the financial year's end. “Our dedication towards avoiding loadshedding reflects in these actions aimed at protecting our citizens from discomfort and distress,” he said. He said that for “too long” the city had been struggling with the “endemic loadshedding” that has plagued South Africans. “…however, I am pleased to declare that we are taking firm measures to confront this obstacle directly. We recognise that we cannot tackle this crisis alone. It is for this reason that we have established partnerships with the Gauteng provincial government and Eskom to address it collectively,” he said. He noted and said he appreciated the increased focus on planned maintenance at Eskom, which he said had allowed the City to enjoy a temporary reprieve from loadshedding over the last month, with predicted record low stages of loadshedding for the coming winter months. Gwamanda noted that through the City’s partnership with the Gauteng government and Premier Panyaza Lesufi in particular, the John Ware substation's open gas turbine has been brought back into operation, enabling the infusion of a noteworthy 50 MW into the City’s network.

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) CEO Kobus Verster has confirmed that the company will be converting one of its three blast furnaces into an electronic arc furnace (EAF) within the next four years. The company currently has two blast furnaces in operation at its Vanderbijlpark facility. However, since one of these is due for a refurbishment and relining in 2029, the decision has been made take the opportunity to rather convert it to an EAF, as the latter produces fewer emissions.

Total air passenger demand grew by 13.8% in March, in year-on-year (y-o-y) terms, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports. (IATA is the global representative body for the airline sector.) International demand increased by 18.9% and domestic demand by 6.6%. Total passenger capacity went up by 12.3%, with international capacity rising by 18.8% and domestic capacity increasing by 3.4%. In March, the total load factor came to 82%, which was one percentage point higher than the figure for March 2023. The load factor for international flights was 81.6%, which was a 0.1 percentage point improvement on that for March last year. The domestic load factor was 82.6%, which represented a 2.5 percentage points increase over the March 2023 figure.

Cie Maritime Belge (CMB), a Belgian shipping company, expects green hydrogen production in Namibia to start in the fourth quarter, a project that could see $3.5-billion in investment over the next five years. Belgium’s King Philippe is on Thursday touring what’s expected to be Namibia’s first operating green hydrogen plant. The Antwerp-based shipping company seeking to power its fleet plans to open the first stage of the hydrogen fuel and ammonia project through a joint venture with Namibia’s Ohlthaver & List Group.

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) is planning to start construction on a 200 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant at its Vanderbijlpark facility, in Gauteng, towards the end of the year, CEO Kobus Verster has told Engineering News. He explained that the installation would serve as one of AMSA’s first steps towards decarbonising the company’s energy requirements.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported that March was the fourth month in a row in which global air cargo demand grew by double digits, in year-on-year (y-o-y) terms. IATA was the global representative body for the airline (including air cargo) industry. “Air cargo demand grew by 10.3% over the previous March,” highlighted IATA director-general Willie Walsh. “This contributed to a strong first quarter performance which slightly exceeded even the exceptionally strong 2021 first quarter performance during the Covid crisis. With global cross-border trade and industrial production continuing to show a moderate upward trend, 2024 is shaping up to be a solid year for air cargo.”