Europe

A world leader in engineering, procurement and construction for onshore pipeline systems with an emphasis on safety, innovative technology and getting the job done on time.

Jeff Daniels looks at what could possibly be Europe’s largest construction project gearing up at the moment beneath the streets of London.

Draw a horizontal line smack through the centre of London from Heathrow Airport in the west to the financial district of Canary Wharf in the east, and you have a rough idea of where Britain’s biggest civil construction project is to be found.

Dutch construction company Ballast Nedam has signed an agreement to design and construct the Carolina Bridge across the Suriname River in South America.

The agreement was made with the Ministry of Public Works of Suriname.

The existing bridge, which crosses the river 50 kilometres south of the country’s capital Paramaribo, is currently unusable due to its state of disrepair.

The Suriname River is 480 kilometres long.

Pittsburgh-based TMS International Corp, through its subsidiary Tube City IMS Corporation, has won its first contract in the Middle East and has also announced a further expansion in France.

A leading provider of outsourced industrial services to steel mills around the world, Tube City IMS has secured new contracts worth over $84 million in revenue over the life of the contracts at expected production levels.

The long-term contracts are for a variety of outsourced services at steel mills in Dunkerque, France, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

TRW Automotive has announced plans to expand its electrically powered steering systems facilities in Poland, in support of growing demand from a range of vehicle manufacturers.  

Approximately 9,000 square meters of additional manufacturing space will be established in Bielsko Biala close to the existing site in Czechowice-Dziedzice. Production will start in the first quarter of 2012. Initially, 250 new jobs will be created.

The news that Bombardier is to shed 1,400 jobs from its Derby train factory has unleashed a storm of protest in the UK.

After the UK government awarded a £1.4 billion contract for 1,200 carriages for the Thameslink project to German rival Siemens, Bombardier said it does not have sufficient orders to keep the plant running at its present level.

By the end of September Bombardier will have finished work on two existing contracts, and have only one remaining.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has secured a £600 million bond issue to help finance the city’s Crossrail project.

The bonds will be issued in association with Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets—the first time for 17 years that a local authority has gone to the capital markets for finance in this way.

The planned Crossrail rail route, the newest rail line in the country and the biggest single extension to the south-east network in half a century, will connect Maidenhead in Berkshire with Shenfield in Essex, passing through the West End and Canary Wharf.

UK telecommunications giant Vodafone has agreed to sell its 24.4 per cent interest in Polish telecoms operator Polkomtel for approximately €920 million.

Vodafone is selling its stake to investment vehicle Spartan Capital Holdings, which is controlled by Polish businessman Zygmunt Solorz-Zak.

The Newbury, Berkshire-based company said the sale underpinned its strategy to realise value from its non-controlled assets, adding that proceeds from the sale would be used to reduce its net debt.

Engineering powerhouse Siemens says it expects new orders to increase again in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011, driven by a major order in May for new ICx long-distance trains.

The company also anticipates a clear increase in revenue compared to the same period a year earlier.

“We're continuing to invest strongly in innovation and the expansion of our global market footprint,” said Siemens CFO Joe Kaeser at the Siemens Capital Market Day in Shanghai on Tuesday. “Our growth expectations have come along in the third quarter."

Nordic Mines has already sold some of the gold from its mine in Finland: Laiva will make Nordic one of Europe’s leading gold producers—and the timing couldn’t be better.