Qatar Concrete Company is pioneering a new concrete mixing technology that may well revolutionise the production of this essential construction material in hot countries. Executive directorAntoine Abboud talks to Gay Sutton about the challenges and solutions.

Alan Swaby talks to a South African mining software company that is resisting being pigeon-holed and, in the process, carving out a successful path for itself.

Is it a mining-savvy IT company or an IT-savvy mining company? At one time it might have been the first; but these days, MineRP is very much a rounded supplier of mining solutions and actually wants to get much rounder. 

Zimbabwe-based Meikles has spent three years rebuilding its retail, hotel and tea growing business in the aftermath of devastating hyperinflation. Executive director Mark Wood talks to Gay Sutton about new business opportunities and plans for growth.

Meikles is a household name in Zimbabwe: 17 Meikles-branded department stores and a luxury five-star Harare hotel form the face of a company that has extensive experience in retail, hospitality and agriculture dating back to 1892.

Alan Swaby looks at one of the largest crane manufacturers in the world—which ironically comes from one of the smallest countries in the world.

Watch any strong man competition and the odds are there will be a Finn in the final. For a country with a population of far less than Greater London, Finland manages to create some of the biggest and strongest specimens in the world.

IPP Resources of Tanzania has a double distinction: not only is the company Tanzania’s largest diversified resources group, but also Tanzania’s only wholly indigenous mining and exploration entity.

A restructure in 2008 has transformed the fortunes and profile of one South African organisation completely, as Alan Swaby reports.

The name is the same. Many of the business sectors and activities are the same. But the profile and vision of Imperial Holdings has undoubtedly changed from what it was five years ago.

After cleaning and greening South Africa, Judy Nankervis, managing director of Blendwell Chemicals, talks to Jayne Alverca about extending the company’s reach across the African sub-continent and beyond.

In a host of industrial, commercial and manufacturing settings, cleanliness has vital implications for employee and customer safety and satisfaction. Grease and dirt is not only unsightly, it can harbour all manner of unpleasant micro-organisms and easily lead to litigation, especially in food handling industries.

As 2012 begins, Jannie Viljoen, manufacturing director of the new Mount Edgecombe site of Altech UEC South Africa, is presiding over the African continent’s most advanced facility of its type. Jayne Alverca reports.

UK-based Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, has reached an agreement with ConocoPhillips to acquire its non-operated interests in the gas and oil producing Statfjord field for £142 million.

Caterpillar delivered record-breaking 2011 sales and revenues of $60.14 billion, an increase of 41 percent from $42.59 billion in 2010.

Profit in 2011 was $4.93 billion, an increase of 83 percent from $2.70 billion in 2010. Profit per share of $7.40 was up 78 percent from $4.15 in 2010.

Excluding the impact of the acquisition of Bucyrus International, Inc, 2011 profit was $7.79 per share, up 88 percent from a year ago.