Manufacturing

Swiss food giant Nestlé has agreed to acquire Pfizer Nutrition for $11.85 billion, it has been announced.

Nestlé said the acquisition would be a strategic fit with its infant nutrition business, given US-based Pfizer Nutrition’s complementary portfolio and strong presence in high-growth markets.

Nestlé described Pfizer Nutrition as a high-quality, high-growth infant nutrition business with strong brands, value-creating and accretive to the Nestlé model.

GE, the largest industrial company in the United States, reported its eighth consecutive quarter of operating earnings growth in Q1 2012.

While total revenue fell 8 percent to $35.2 billion compared with the same quarter of 2011, this year’s figures do not include revenues from NBC Universal, in which a majority stake has been sold to Comcast.

University College Dublin (UCD) has signed a memorandum of understanding with a leading Chinese dairy producer, Dairy United.

The agreement, which is expected to bring about multi-million Euro contracts for products and services, sets out the development of a China-Ireland Agricultural demonstration farm in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, as well as collaborative research projects, the provision of education and training, and collaboration on creating a trade corridor to facilitate the export of Irish products to Inner Mongolia.

Otis Brazil has won a significant contract to install 21 energy-efficient elevators and escalators at Rio de Janeiro's famous Maracana Stadium, the site of the 2014 FIFA World Cup final championship match and the 2016 Summer Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies.

Otis Brazil, a unit of Otis Elevator Company and United Technologies Corp, also recently won contracts to supply equipment at two other Brazilian World Cup stadiums, the Salvador Arena in Bahia and Pernambuco Arena in Sao Lourenco da Mata.

Irish convenience food producer Greencore Group has announced it will acquire US-based Marketfare Foods for £22.6 million.

Marketfare, which is headquartered in Arizona, is a leading manufacturer of food-to-go products for convenience and small stores in the US. Its principal customer is 7-Eleven, with whom it has partnered for over 20 years.

South Kazakhstan boasts one of the biggest phosphate deposits in the world. General director Mukash Iskandirov explains to Gay Sutton how the phosphate mining and manufacturing company Kazphosphate is introducing the latest technology to take advantage of the growing market for high quality phosphate products.

Indian steel giant Tata has announced it plans to invest £800 million into Wales’ steel making industry over the next five years.

First minister Carwyn Jones recently met the vice chairman of Tata Steel, Mr B Muthuraman, in Mumbai as part of a government trade mission to the country.

Clinicians from across Africa attended a week-long workshop in Durban, South Africa, to learn about image-guided RapidArc IMRT technology.

Doctors and decision makers from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya and Angola gathered at Addington Hospital in Durban, which has treated 250 patients with RapidArc since becoming the first public hospital in Africa to use this technique in 2010.

Chemical solutions company PI Industries has an outstanding reputation, both as a supplier of agrichemicals and a researcher of fine chemicals, that it has built up over the past half century. By developing close relationships with both customers and suppliers, it has become a significant force in the Indian and world markets, as Jane McCallion finds out.

Japanese car maker Nissan has announced that its all-new mid-sized hatchback will be produced at its Sunderland plant in the UK.

The as-yet unnamed new medium hatchback will create an additional 225 jobs at Nissan and 900 jobs at component companies supplying Nissan in the UK. The car will be manufactured from 2014.

The news follows the announcement at last month's Geneva Motor Show that Sunderland will also produce a mainstream B-segment compact car based on Nissan’s Invitation concept from next year.