SA manufacturing output...

The Kagiso purchasing managers index (PMI) improved to 47,6 points in October, up from 45,9 points in September, with Kagiso Securities head of fixed income Andre Coetzee saying that South Africa?s manufacturing output is moving back towards expansionary territory. While the domestic manufacturing sector continued to lag international developments, a sustained improvement in global prospects should in the foreseeable future contribute to a return to growth for the local manufacturing sector, Coetzee highlighted.

China's Africa goals more...

Barely a month goes by without some new energy or mineral deal being struck between China and an African nation. These deals have transfixed the West, but China gets far more from the relationship than raw resources. Africa offers China two important things -- a chance to earn the global respect it believes it deserves in recognition of its growing economic clout, and friends who do not judge it, or who at least have little reason to directly fear China's rise.

Profit slides but margins...

Civil engineering group Protech Khuthele increased revenue by 24% to R426-million for the half-year ended August 31. This growth flowed mainly from increasing volumes of work. The strained private sector made up only 8% of the company's income for the period, with mining at 48% and infrastructure at 44%.

Oil rebounds above $77, China...

Oil rose above $77 a barrel on Monday, retracing some of the previous session's 3,6% drop, as bullish manufacturing data from China helped to allay fears about the pace of the rebound in global energy demand. However, analysts said nagging concerns about the economic outlook would limit oil's gains.

Ethiopia to develop biofuels...

Ethiopia wants to emulate Brazil by developing biofuels to cut its dependence on oil imports that cost the Horn of Africa nation more than a billion dollars a year, a government official said Ephrem Hassen, coordinator of biofuels development in the Ministry of Mines and Energy, told Reuters in an interview that Ethiopia was developing biofuel crops on more than half a million hectares of arid land.