Creamer Media's Energy Roundup is a monthly report providing a synopsis of energy-related news from South Africa. The February 2021 roundup covers activities in January 2021, and includes details of Electricity Intensive Users Group of Southern Africa’s concerns about the operational and financial stability of Eskom; the South African government’s plans to launch three procurement rounds for 6 800 MW of renewable energy over the next year; and Renergen’s appointment of three companies for the engineering studies for Phase 2 of its Virginia gas project.

South Africa’s telecommunications landscape has undergone significant transformation over the past decade, with a shift from offering telecommunications services to a myriad of digital services that are highly dependent on data, across some of the most advanced infrastructure in Africa. Mobile subscriptions and Internet penetration continue to increase year-on-year and data consumption continues to grow. Further, commercial fifth-generation service deployments are under way and fibre networks and data centre markets are expanding rapidly to meet the growing user base. Creamer Media’s Telecommunication 2020/21 report reviews South Africa’s telecommunications market in this context focusing on the country’s major telecommunications companies, industry trends and challenges, international connectivity and policy and regulatory developments.

The need to drive the world's carbon emissions down has prompted widespread interest in the development of green hydrogen, with the number of policies and projects increasing rapidly worldwide. The aim is helping countries and regions to not only meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement but also recover and rebuild, following the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Creamer Media’s Hydrogen 2020/21 report delves into the global hydrogen sector, focusing on developments in South Africa and Africa, as well as the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. The emphasis of this report is primarily the potential of this sector to be a source of clean energy that will help decarbonise world economies and assist in achieving global climate change mitigation goals.

Creamer Media's Energy Roundup is a monthly report providing a synopsis of energy-related news from South Africa. The December 2020 roundup covers activities in November 2020, and includes details of a report by Climate Transparency, which warns against quick-fix Covid-19 stimulus packages that favour fossil fuel industries; six steps that could be taken immediately by the South African government and the energy regulator to unlock more self-generation investment to combat power shortages and reduce the threat of load-shedding; and South Africa’s Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries’ order that State-owned power utility Eskom comply with pollution limits at three of its coal-fired power plants.

Creamer Media's Energy Roundup is a monthly report providing a synopsis of energy-related news from South Africa. The November 2020 roundup covers activities in October 2020, and includes details of the gazetting of amendments to the electricity regulations for new electricity generation capacity; energy expert Clyde Mallinson’s call for government to urgently overhaul its Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme; and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s approval to process licence applications for self-generation facilities of above 1 MW.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic kicked lumps out of the South African economy, the country was on the back foot when it came to fixed investment projects and its pipeline of new investments. Public-sector spending was waning, despite huge backlogs and community protests over the lack of services, while the private sector lacked the policy certainty and confidence needed to proceed with major projects. Now that the virus has further undermined the financial capacity of government and its poorly managed State-owned entities to stimulate the economy through large-scale infrastructure programmes, any infrastructure-led recovery will require new delivery, funding and business models. Only through extreme transparency will South Africa attract investors motivated by fair returns over the project life cycle, rather than predatory opportunists and rent seekers. Another critical component lies in having a ready-made pipeline of projects that are immediately bankable, rather than merely aspirational. That pipeline must include not only projects directed at meeting the country’s most pressing infrastructure needs but those that can also be immediately funded through sustainable fiscal transfers, user-pay tariffs or a combination of the two. South Africa, therefore, needs to adopt a far more innovative and collaborative approach to the conceptualisation, financing, implementation, operations and maintenance of public infrastructure if it is to have any hope of truly using such investments to stimulate a recovery from the economic devastation wrought by Covid-19. These difficulties are partially reflected in the second edition of the Projects in Progress supplement.

Creamer Media's Energy Roundup is a monthly report providing a synopsis of energy-related news from South Africa. The October 2020 roundup covers activities in September 2020, and includes details of State-owned power utility Eskom’s issue of a no-obligation request for information to gain insight into what flue gas desulphurisation technologies are available for use at one of its new coal-fired power stations; the official start of work on the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan; and the launch of Phase 2 of the Karoo Deep Drilling and Geo-environmental Base Programme, in Beaufort West, in the Western Cape.

The billions of rands in investment already spent on South Africa's roads and rail transport infrastructure, including public transport, in recent decades, needs to be substantially increased if the country is to deal with infrastructure backlogs and to cater for anticipated future growth. Parastatal the South African National Roads Agency Limited has various large-scale projects in the pipeline to expand and develop existing and new roads itself, or through concessionaires, as well as plans to invest in the maintenance of existing road infrastructure. Fellow State-owned commuter rail services provider the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa is, in addition to measures to maintain existing rolling stock, also procuring new rolling stock and undertaking other modernisation programmes to improve service delivery. This is despite the agency conceding that its operational performance has been markedly deteriorating, while revenue has been declining and costs rising. State-owned transport and logistics company Transnet is also continuing to invest in scaling up its freight rail infrastructure as it seeks to move more rail-friendly cargo off the country's roads and back onto the railways. In this context, Creamer Media’s Road and Rail 2020 Report considers South Africa’s ongoing investment in road and rail infrastructure, with a particular focus on the size and state of this infrastructure, and the funding and maintenance of these respective networks.

Creamer Media's Energy Roundup is a monthly report providing a synopsis of energy-related news from South Africa. The September 2020 roundup covers activities in August 2020, and includes details of State-owned power utility Eskom and the Special Investigating Unit’s issuance of summonses in the North Gauteng High Court on August 3 to recover funds from former Eskom executives, board members and members of the Gupta family and their associates, as well as others; the much-anticipated procurement process for 2 000 MW of ‘emergency power’ under the so-called Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme; and chemicals and energy group Sasol’s plans to issue a request for proposals for wind and solar projects with a combined capacity of between 200 MW and 300 MW.

Creamer Media’s Real Economy Year Book has been divided into separate reports under the banner Real Economy Insight, and investigates key developments in the automotive, construction, electricity, road and rail, steel, water, manufacturing, pumps, coal, gold, iron-ore and platinum sectors. This six-page brief is a synopsis of key developments in the steel sector over the past 12 months. It provides an overview of the global and South African steel markets, the setbacks that South Africa is facing as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the South African government’s development of a steel master plan.