Europe

ABB has won an order worth $43 million from South African electric utility Eskom to supply equipment for a new thermal power plant being built in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

The new Kusile coal-fired plant comprises six supercritical combustion units with a total generating capacity of 4,800 MW.

Greenergy, a supplier of fuel to UK supermarket petrol stations, has launched a £1 billion bid to buy the UK retail network of Total France.

The French oil major, which is the world's fourth largest energy group, is selling its 780 petrol station forecourts as part of a review of its UK downstream operations.

Greenergy's new chief executive Paul Lester said he had held preliminary talks with Total about the sale.

Based in Russia, Vagonmash has achieved a number of firsts in the railway car production sector; and with a commitment to innovation and excellence in design, the company is continuing to go from strength to strength.

Last week the European Commission said: "The EU pays the price for its outdated and poorly interconnected energy infrastructure." Today the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) publishes a new report with a vision for a modern renewable energy power system, which sets out how the grid can integrate increasing amounts of wind energy.

Sotkamo Silver is in the process of breathing life into the Taivaljarvi silver mine project. CEO Dr Timo Lindborg talks to Gay Sutton about building a sound investor base and the future development of the company.

Rolls-Royce has won an order worth $1.8 billion from Air China to supply and service engines to power 20 new aircraft.

The contract, , is for engines for ten Airbus A350 XWBs and ten A330s, and includes a TotalCare long-term service agreement.

Rolls-Royce will supply Trent XWB engines for the A350s and Trent 700 engines for the A330s.

The Chinese market is fast growing with a clear need for additional aircraft capacity. Rolls-Royce is well established in China, where it now enjoys a 56 per cent share for large civil aero engines.

SABMiller, the world’s second biggest brewer by volume, has reported a 13 per cent rise in interim profits.

The London-based brewer’s results were boosted by this summer’s World Cup and sales growth in emerging markets.

The group’s portfolio of brands includes international beers such as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft and Grolsch, as well as brands such as Aguila, Castle, Miller Lite, Snow and Tyskie. SAB is also one of the world’s largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products.

Irish convenience foods group Greencore has announced it will merge with UK-based rival Northern Foods to form a new company called Essenta.

The 50-50 merger will create a company with sales of £1.7 billion (€2 billion) and 17,000 staff, with projected synergies of £40 million a year.

It is expected that the new company will achieve annual savings in overheads of £15 million; about £20 million in purchasing; and £5 million in tax efficiencies, with at least half of the cost benefits expected to be achieved within 12 months.

Irish oil and gas company Providence Resources has announced new interpretations of old data that suggest that a field off the west coat of Ireland contains as much as 200 million barrels of oil.

Providence’s Spanish Point project is located around 170 kilometres off the west coast of Ireland in the Porcupine Basin. Drilling, at a depth of 400 metres, is expected to begin in 2012, with oil and gas potentially flowing by late 2014 or 2015.