DOHA: Qatar Exchange (QE) will remain closed on Wednesday, January 1, 2014. Trading will resume on Thursday, January 2. The decision is followed by the directive of Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA), QE announced yesterday.
The Peninsula
Saudi seeks bids to build gas/solar plant
KHOBAR: Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) has invited companies to build, own and operate Saudi Arabia’s first fossil-fuel fired power plant to use solar energy to cut carbon emissions, the state utility said. The 550-megawatt (MW) integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) plant will primarily burn natural gas, but will use solar thermal energy to increase fuel efficiency at the planned facility near Tabuk on the Red Sea coast. SEC, which said the planned Duba plant must also be able to burn Arabian super light crude oil as a back-up for gas, set a January 12 deadline for companies to express interest in bidding for the project. ISCC plants reduce emissions of climate-warming carbon by increasing the amount of steam available for driving power generation turbines, without having to burn more gas or oil. SEC did not say how large the solar element of the project was expected to be.
South Africa posts trade surplus
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa posted a rare trade surplus in November, official statistics showed yesterday, amid a shakeup in the way the data is calculated. Statistics South Africa said Africa’s largest economy reached a 770m rand ($74m) surplus last month, the first in almost two years. Following months of crippling auto strikes, the sector bounced back, with exports of vehicles, aircraft and vessels up 34 percent from October. But support also came from the inclusion of Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland in the data, four countries with which South Africa shares a customs union.
Agencies
