Company News March 2003

* Caterpillar
Caterpillar Inc. and 10 of its European dealers have combined to establish and operate a company – Energyst Rental Solutions (ERS) – which will offer energy rental services in Europe. ERS will compete in Europe’s temporary energy business, a fast-growing sector whose worth is projected to exceed US$ 1 billion by 2010. The company will build on Caterpillar dealers’€™ existing power rental operations and serve a large array of clients including the utilities, the telecommunications and processing industries, and those responsible for large temporary projects.
ERS will supply, commission and operate temporary energy solutions including electrical power, heating, cooling and refrigeration. ’We have a goal of becoming a European leader, providing the most innovative and responsive energy business solutions,’€™ says James J. Parker, Caterpillar Vice President with responsibility for the company’€™s Power Systems Marketing Division.
The participating dealers are: Avesco, Switzerland; CGT, Northern Italy; Eltrak, Greece; Eneria, France and Poland; Finning, Great Britain; Finanzauto, Portugal and Spain; Geveke, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden; McCormick Macnaughton, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland; Treco, Belgium and Luxembourg; and Zeppelin, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
More information is available at https://www.cat.com.

* Niton Europe
Niton Europe GmbH, the European sales and service center of Niton, the U.S. manufacturer of portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) instrumentation for alloy analysis and
environmental testing, has relocated closer to the heart of lively Munich, Germany.
The new addresss: Joseph-Dollinger-Bogen 9, 80807 München, Germany, Phone +49 89 3681 380, Fax +49 89 3681 3830, E-mail: [email protected], Website: www.niton.com

* Comsigua/Midrex
In the face of historically-low metals prices, Complejo Siderurgico de Guayana, C.A. (Comsigua) of Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, has produced nearly 4.6 million tonnes of hot briquetted iron (HBI) in its Midrex Direct Reduction Plant since operations began in October 1998. The COMSIGUA plant is the world’€™ s largest DR module for the production of HBI and has averaged nearly 120% of production capacity during its first four years of operation. Last year, it recorded more than 130% of its annual rated capacity.
While HBI prices have improved of late, they remain well below historical averages. In addition to capacity records, Comsigua has continued to better HBI product quality targets with 93.5% metallisation and 1.0-1.2% carbon content.
Comsigua is, and will continue to be, the world’€™s lowest total cost producer of HBI for the foreseeable future, the company maintains.
Website: www.midrex.com.

* Deceuninck Group
Belgium’€™s Deceuninck Group has closed down its subsidiary Deceuninck Recycling, with Govaerts of Limburg in Belgium set to purchase the machinery and customer database. The group will continue its PVC recycling activities which are focused at a plant in Hooglede-Gits, Belgium.
Deceuninck Recycling has been concerned primarily in the recycling of mainly non-PVC plastic residues into posts and planks used in the manufacture of town and park furniture.
The company opted to close its non-PVC recycling operation due to a decline in sales, as well as a steep drop in investment by the Belgian authorities in PVC projects.

* CVB EcoLogistics
Dutch recovered paper company Heijnen Tilburg BV has changed its name to CVB EcoLogistics BV. The company – which has a total of seven branches in Belgium, The Netherlands and the U.K. – handled around 400 000 tonnes of recovered paper in 2002.
CVB EcoLogistics BV is based at Wilhelminapark 37, 5041 EC Tilburg, The Netherlands, Phone: +31 13 4647999, Fax: +31 13 464 7991.