Aveng order book strong

Listed construction and building material group Aveng chairman Richard Savage said that trading conditions in all three of Aveng's business clusters continued to be buoyant.
 
Speaking at the group's annual general meeting, Savage said the order book in Grinaker-LTA was strong, reflecting the upturn in the industry experienced over the past 12 months. He attributed the upturn to government's massive infrastructure development ahead of the Fifa 2010 World

Cup. He added that Eskom and Transnet's multibillion-rand infrastructure revamps would ensure that favourable trading conditions continued over at least the next five years.
 
The group's Australian construction company - McConnell Dowell - continued to perform well and had significant prospects going forward, said Savage, adding that Aveng's opencast engineering and project management services operation, Moolmans, also had a strong order book.
 
"E+PC, our engineering and project management services operation, continues to perform well and going forward, has good prospects for further growth," he said.
 
Work on hand at 30 September 2006 for the Engineering, Construction and Contract Mining cluster, at 12.5 billion rand had grown some 11% since 30 June 2006. The increased demand for services within the construction and engineering sector was placing significant pressure on resources generally and this pressure was expected to increase as government's infrastructure and world cup projects come on stream, Savage stated.
 
He said that demand for products of the businesses in the Steel and Allied cluster remained strong on the back of the buoyant construction industry and continuing demand from the automotive and manufacturing sectors.
 
However, said Savage, trading conditions were not expected to change significantly during the current trading period.
 
The Cement cluster, which comprises the company's 46% interest in Holcim South Africa, continues to operate at full capacity.
 
Referring to the recent cautionary announcement, relating to the announcement by Holcim Switzerland that it is to sell 85% of its 54% interest in Holcim (South Africa) to a black empowerment consortium, Savage said discussions with Holcim Switzerland to reach a mutually acceptable outcome for Aveng, Holcim and the potential new stakeholder in Holcim SA, were continuing.
 
Savage further announced the appointment of Angus Band as deputy chairman.

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