Dear Members,

THE DAM LEVEL IS 30.3% 

Business Person of the Year Awards

Please remember to send in your nominations for Business Person of the Year (needs to be a member of the Chamber, give me a call and I can confirm for you) or Entrepreneur of the year. There are still some tables available for the Gala Dinner, book soon so as not to be disappointed.

The Corporation together with the Department of Transport has decided to postpone the implementation of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act, originally set for the metropolitan authorities of Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Nelson Mandela Bay and the City of Cape Town on 1 July 2010 and on 1 November 2010 countrywide. The proclamation to repeal the previous roll-out dates as was published in Gazette 33114 on 16 April 2010 was signed by the President on 29 June and was published on Wednesday, 30 June 2010 in Gazette No 33341.

For more information please contact Mr Collins at 012-8095202

Invitation to the International Trade Initiative to Zimbabwe 9-12 November 2010

The South African Government is committed to the Economic Development and Short Term Economic Recovery Program (STERP) of Zimbabwe. The South African Government, through the dti, will be organising an International Trade and Investment Initiative (ITI) to enhance economic cooperation, trade and investment with Zimbabwe. The ITI will involve a business programme comprising of an exhibition, business seminars and business to business meetings. The ITI will take place in Bulawayo and Harare from 9-12 November 2010. For application or information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Note: Data at close of previous trading day.

Finance: 

May’s liquidation statistics as released by Stats SA reveal a 35.7% year-on-year jump, bringing the year-to-date total to 1686 or 2.8% above the level seen in the first five months of 2009.

Domestic markets

The JSE all-share index closed 0,95 per cent weaker yesterday amid continued global concerns about growth issues, while economic data out of the US disappointed. The resources and platinum indices fell by 1,31 per cent and 1,09 per cent respectively. The gold index lost 3,25 per cent and the industrials index was 1,13 per cent lower.

The rand was on the back foot in afternoon trade yesterday.

Commodities

Gold fell yesterday, caught up in selling of other assets like equities and industrial commodities after US economic data disappointed the financial markets.

Oil fell sharply yesterday, pressured by weak economic data from China and the US that added to concerns about economic recovery and oil demand growth.

SACCI

South Africa’s June PMI disappoints.

The June BER/Kagiso PMI dipped for the fourth consecutive month to 48.4 from 51.1 the prior month. The index is now well off its recent cyclical peak of 60.4 reached in February this year. All of the five sub-components making up the headline index fell in June, with the suppliers’ performance and business activity sub-indices making up the bulk of the fall to 49.6 (55.0 prior month) and 45.2 (49.0 previously), respectively. As noted in the formal BER/Kagiso release, the dip in the business activity index could in part reflect the reduced working hours adopted by Employment conditions in the manufacturing sector, however, remain concerning, with the PMI employment index dipping for its second consecutive month to 45.9.

The disappointing PMI readings over the past few months suggest to us that the robust growth the sector has enjoyed in recent months seems to be slowing down.

While we expect a slowdown in manufacturing growth, it is important to note that the current and near-term PMI trends may continue to be influenced by developments around the SWC, which currently clouds the underlying trend in manufacturing output growth. In our view, the still-positive global growth outlook, along with domestic demand conditions that are slowly improving, should remain supportive of a recovery for the industry (albeit at a slower pace) for the remainder of 2010.

The SARB announces plans for an exchange control amnesty.

 The SARB plans to implement an exchange control amnesty for individuals and companies that contravened South Africa’s exchange control laws on 1 November 2010. Should these plans go ahead, a 10% penalty will apply on the amount contravened if the funds are paid from offshore, while a 12% penalty will apply on payments that are made from local accounts. In 2003, there was a similar amnesty, but at the time it was only for individuals. Considering the debate around the so-called “strong rand” in South Africa, this move may be viewed by some as an attempt by authorities to influence the level of the currency. In our view, however, yesterday’s announcement is nothing more than a move by the authorities to provide companies and individuals with an opportunity to regularise their affairs, which will put them on a better footing to allow for further future exchange control relaxation. As such, we do not think that the amnesty will have any significant impact on the level of the currency.

Key data releases.

New vehicle sales data from NAAMSA for June is on the menu for South Africa today. We expect total sales growth (including sales from AMH&AAD) to moderate from the 35.3% y/y growth recorded in May, mainly on the back of favourable base effects slowly starting to reverse. In the US, the June employment report is released, where our US team expects nonfarm payrolls to have fallen 100k in June (cf. consensus:-130k). This reflects their expectation that the Census Bureau would have reduced the number of census workers by 245k. They look for ex-census payrolls to rise 145k, substantially above the May gain but not as strong as in April. In the euro area, our European economists are forecasting the euro area unemployment rate to have remained unchanged at 10.1% in May, despite an expected rise in the level of unemployment by 65k m/m.

ABSA

Remember that it takes more than just showing up !

Remember that it take more than just showing up at a Networking event, you need to be prepared with sales material and/or your Business cards. 

No good just turning up and not taking the steps to meet new possible clients.

No good just turning up and standing in a corner waiting for the world to come to you.

Chamber Greetings,

Colleen Till