The port of Durban, responsible for 70% of Africa's container traffic, is the busiest harbour in the southern hemisphere.

Leisure and entertainment group Kersaf Investments, which holds stakes in Sun International SA (Sisa), City Lodge Hotels and Ster Century Europe and Middle East, has raised its effective stake in Sisa to 62,2% from 43,6% at a cost of R547m in a further step towards simplifying its structure and enhancing its underlying value.

THE construction sector is confident that it will again experience good growth this year after a brisk last year that saw the sector expanding by 5,32%.

Government will spend about R50bn on construction projects over the next three years. This represents real growth of 12% a year for the sector, says Carl Grim, CEO of Aveng, SA's largest construction company. The federation ofcivil engineering contractors is equally upbeat, expecting nominal turn over from civil engineering alone to rise from about R16bn last year to R20bn this year.

Optimism in the sector stems from the expected decline in inflation and
interest rates, together with the recovery of the rand against the major
currencies and other factors.

SA's economy is expected to continue expanding at a rate of 3% a year.
"This growth would in part be brought about by government expenditure as
well as private investment, which will support growth in gross fixed capital
formation," says the federation's Pierre Blaauw.

"Prudent finances have culminated in a declining budget deficit which,
coupled with government's focus on infrastructure development, holds great
promise for the civil industry," Blaauw says.

Federation members were encouraged by increased tender activity in the
latter part of last year. However, Blaauw says underspending due to
institutional capacity problems is still preventing the full benefit of
rising government capital expenditure from trickling down to the industry.

The industry is planning a summit at which some of these issues will be
discussed. Meanwhile, some construction analysts have said that SA's rate of
capital expenditure is still not high enough to catch up on the country's
R170bn social and economic infrastructure backlog.

Small investors came to the rescue of the Johannesburg city centre when they snapped up the portfolio of commercial properties auctioned by Aucor on behalf of Sanlam Property Asset Management

A decision to build the world's most advanced aluminium smelter at Coega came a lot closer yesterday with the news that Eskom and the SA Ports Authority have signed agreements with French firm Pechiney.

Upswing seen for building, construction.

Government is to appeal a court judgment compelling it to evict and provide housing for 40,000 illegal squatters occupying part of a commercial farm in Benoni.

Don't bet your shirt on speedy sector profits.

Wayne McCurrie is our regular Monday evening market commentator, but tonight we have him in a different role.

The marine tender for construction of Ngqurha is to be issued tomorrow.