Got a spare $111 million lying around? Buy a nuclear power plant!

A business tycoon from the US has recently made history, he became the first ever individual to purchase a nuclear power station. Franklin J. Haney, whom has made his fortune through being an innovative property developer, acquired the Alabama based nuclear power station at an auction on November 14^th.

Mr.Haney, has built himself quite the reputation on the journey to attaining his fortune, he’s established a status for ‘innovative financing’ and ‘imaginative acquisitions’, of which the ‘imaginative’ and ‘innovative’ are certainly justified in his latest purchase. However, his initial investment of $111 million is just the start of his spending intentions for this project.

After attaining a number of interested parties from the beginning, the day of the auction only actually saw 2 interested parties battling it out. Jackson Holdings of Alabama LLC, were the competition faced and made a serious challenge of it, bidding up to but no higher than $110 million.

The 75-year-old has vowed to rejuvenate numerous communities in Tennessee and Alabama, pledging that the completion of the plant will create in excess of 4’000 jobs, whilst operating the plant will create 2’000 permanent and highly-paid jobs.

Along with the incomplete 2.6GW power station, which has for years been ransacked for spare parts, Haney will get 1,400 acres of property on the Guntersville Reservoir. To hold him to his promises regarding the site, the seller, state utility Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), stipulated that Haney must invest at least $25m on the property within five years of closing the deal, and he has two years to close the deal. It contains two partially built Babcock & Wilcox pressurised water reactors. When TVA halted construction in 1988, reactor 1 was approximately 90% compete, and reactor 2 was approximately 58% complete. But after years of removing assets from the units, and following subsequent inspections, the reactors were deemed 55% and 35% complete, respectively, in 2009.

As well as the power station and the land, Haney gets switchyards, office buildings, warehouses, cooling towers, water pumping stations and railroad spurs. “The Bellefonte Nuclear Station will help transform communities across the region – many of which have been hit hard by the forced closure of coal power plants over the last decade. This project will bring new life to the region by creating thousands of jobs while providing assured access to reliable, affordable, zero-emission energy.”

 

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HS2 railway gets the green light!

Despite considerable opposition to the idea, the British government has announced they will be going ahead with plans to build the highly anticipated High-speed 2 (HS2) railway in full. The line is estimated to cost the country somewhere in the region of £56 billion and will considerably reduce travel time between some of the country’s most economically integral cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield.
The country’s transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said “HS2 will be world’s high-techest, smartest, fastest railway. It will be a state-of-the art railway. This is faster than the Japanese bullet trains, and more state-of-the-art. This will be the fastest, most modern railway in the world.” Once the entire system is fully operational, the new trains will carry 300’000 people a day, tripling the number of available seats out of London Euston station.
Much of the rail-line is going to be situated in the north of the country, which could be an immediate response to the message delivered by the Brexit vote. A large proportion of the country whom voted to leave the European Union were based in the north of England, a part of the country which for many years felt they were being neglected by the government when it came to large-scale investments. Much of the motive behinds the vote was people felt the country was chucking needles amounts of money into the European Union, whereas it could have been better used in domestic developments.
Grayling has stated that HS2 is not just about making journey’s quicker but also to address the capacity issues being felt by train operators, where many of the countries commuters are forced to stand on their journey’s due to a lack of seats. “We all know our railway system is full. Too many people have to stand, and there are too many people sitting in traffic jams on roads behind endless rows of Lorries. “You can’t solve that problem unless you build something new, and by building something new, why would we build something old-fashioned?

The government has also vowed to allow as much of the project as economically possible to be contracted to British manufacturers, which Grayling describes as “overwhelmingly good news for British business and for British skills and for British manufacturing”.

 

How drones are revolutionizing the construction industry

Drones have been one of the fastest growing phenomenon’s in the last few years, both in terms of private and commercial use. To be the expansion into context, back in 2012 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimated that by 2012, 30’000 drones will be operating in US airspace; at this current time (2016) around 2.5 million drones are operational in the United States, of which 500’000 are being used commercially. Unsurprisingly, the FAA has since revised their forecast and now predicts the country will have 7 million drones in the air by 2020.
Many believe drones are the next step in the process of the ‘industrial revolution’. Before the availability of the modern cranes and industrial equipment, we rely so heavily upon today, laborers would be forced to complete every single job on the construction site by hand. Jobs that today take months to complete would have in years gone by taken years, and in maybe 20 years time, the jobs we see today taking months could take weeks, thanks to the use of drones.
Assessing the earth for the foundations of construction is also something that a drone can be considerably more efficient for. Traditional land survey equipment gets the job done and provides accurate results, however, when the apt software is installed into a drone, it will also attain accurate result but it will complete the job in a time 85-percent quicker at a cost of 10 times cheaper than traditional methods.
Furthermore, the job a project manager is also made fundamentally easier through the assistance of drones. In years gone by builders manually assessed project dimensions, which would predominantly be unreliable, timely and costly.  By using drone data tools, the drone can automatically measure essential projects components, such as stockpile volumetric, whilst also sending instant feedback to the project manager who can begin analysis.
Drones are becoming increasingly common in day-to-day life but this is just for leisure, more importantly, drones are becoming more and more prevalent in a variety of industries but none more crucially than construction. Construction is an industry very much built on efficiency, in the sense of cost and time; hence the reason drones potentially have such a pivotal role to play, when the above reasons are taken into consideration.

You would be a brave person to bet against drones being a key player in the next industrial revolution.

Hotel developments to lead the way for growth in African tourism

A number of the world’s largest hotel chains are betting on Africa being their next big investment opportunity. Africa’s tourism sector is already on a momentous upwards slope and this is the obvious trend that has caught the attention of some of the world’s most renowned hotel names, such as, The Hilton, Fairmont and the Jumeirah group. Starwood, Marriot and the Four Seasons have also publically stated they intend on investing heavily across North, South and Central Africa in the five-years between now and 2021 that experts predict will be one of the largest periods of hotel growth in the continent’s history.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa is currently rising at an astronomical rate; last year, the global growth rate of FDI was 1%, whereas in Africa they experienced a 7% growth. Paul Frimpong, Investor Analyst at international business facilitation experts Naseba, said: “The enormous potential of the African continent cannot be emphasized enough. Africa is the fastest growing region for FDIs in the world. Aggregate household consumption will reach $1.4 trillion with collective GDP hitting $2.6 trillion in 2020 alone. These facts show that with the understanding of the growth momentum, combined with the right strategies, presents handsome rewards for current and prospective investors in the region.”

Not only does the hotel boom in Africa provide more opportunity for the tourism industry but it also presents an abundance of opportunity for the continents architects, interior designers, real estate developers, buyers and engineers working on not only hospitality, but retail, commercial and residential developments.

 

HIGH SHANGHAI : SKYSCRAPERS IN THE BIGGEST CITY OF CHINA

China is the biggest expanding country in the world right now. With it’s population of over 1.35 billion, this ever-growing country has also BIG DREAMS to fulfill.

Literately, these dreams are made of metals. Lots and lots of metal are needed to build SKYSCRAPERS.

Especially in Shanghai, skyscrapers have an imposing figure in the city. You could even consider it’s main symbol  as an urban landscape view of buildings and skyscrapers.

The Bund, Shanghai (as seen on Google Images)

Therefore skyscrapers are not just basic human construction, they are symbols of economic success and prosperity of one’s city and country. Some people think that buildings mean a realized and achieved dream.

This building, called the SHANGHAI TOWER, is the tallest one in China and second world’s tallest with it’s 600 meter height and 128 floors.

As cited from dznworld.com :

As the skyline’s most prominent icon, the tower’s transparent, spiral form will showcase cutting-edge sustainable strategies and public spaces that set new standards for green community. Shanghai Tower will house Class-A office space, entertainment venues, retail, a conference center, a luxury hotel and cultural amenity spaces.

Like we said before, skyscrapers are synonym of economical success. The very name of this supertall skyscraper confirms it all : SHANGHAI WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER, is the second tallest building made in Shanghai.

China’s architectural design are known for it’s originality too. The Oriental Pearl Tower, with it’s famous shape is very well-known in the city and by others who have visited the city of Shanghai.

“The Golden Prosperity Building” also known as the Jinmao Building or Jinmao Tower again, reflects this idea of success in the city. 

There it is, Shanghai as China’s biggest city, offers also the tallest skyscrapers in the world. An international city like this one has to show the world and it’s people that it can keep up with everyone’s expectations. These skyscrapers are known worldwide for their outstanding height, as China’s economical situation and influence keep on growing to have higher goals in the future.

Simple elements like metal can contribute to achieve bigger dreams and that’s what Shanghai Metal Corporation can provide you !

As representatives of the metal industry, Shanghai Metal Corporation is one of the leading businesses in the manufacturing of metal quality products in the global field. As a major producer of stainless steel, copper, aluminium, steel and other metal products and service, we essentially are committed to the universal use that metal can offer by delivering overseas and promoting environmental sustainability.

To know more about our company please visit our website. Also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also download our new mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

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Maria // SMC Editor

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Maria // SMC Editor

The Tallest Skyscrapers Made of STEEL

Skycrapers above clouds – source: missions haringknowledge.com

The term skyscraper was originally used to describe buildings of 10 to 20 stories,

The increase in urban commerce in the United States in the second half of the 19th century augmented the need for city business. So the story of skyscrapers began in second part of the 19th century when steel became one of the cornerstones of the world’s industrial economy. Steel became available in large quantities and at low price and was quickly the material of choice for building construction. but by the late 20th century the word skycraper was used to describe high-rise buildings of unusual height, generally greater than 40 or 50 stories.

Thanks to Steel framing and steel reinforced concrete made curtain-wall architecture possible and the use of the material  made the evolution of skyscrapers possible by allowing them to reach new heights.

in 1895 The 10-storey (42 m high)Home Insurance Building was built in Chicago and was considered the first tall building to be supported by a steel skeleton of vertical columns and horizontal beams.
As skyscrapers grew taller, architects and engineers were faced with a new enemy: wind. They had to experiment with new styles and building methods in order to build taller and more innovative structures.

The following buildings are today’s 3 tallest buildings in the world and have all been possible thanks to the amazing properties of steel and the hard work of engineers and architects that brought many innovations in the metal field.

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE (829.8 m – 163 foors)

Burj Khalifa is the tallest man-made structure in the world it uses a bundled tube design (which is a system that uses a number of interconnected tube frames) and a composite of steel and concrete to hit its record height. Approximately 39,000 tonnes of steel bar were needed for the construction and 15.500 m² of embossed stainless steel for cladding. Proportionally, the design uses half the amount of steel used in the construction of the Empire State Building thanks to the tubular system. 

Tokyo Skytree (634m – 29 floors)

tokyo skytree tower – source: wikipedia.org

The tower is the primary television and radio broadcast site for the Kantō region.
The structural steel columns of the tower are diagonally jointed at different angles, and their shapes differ from one another. Under these stringent conditions, engineers were required to solve the kind of problems that they have never experienced in past projects

Shanghai Tower, Shanghai (632m – 128 floors) 

Shanghai Pudong Panorama – source: wikipedia.org

The Shanghai Tower is the tallest building in China and the second-tallest in the world, surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. high strength steel, ultra-thick plates of over 100mm in thickness and other high-end construction steels have been used for the construction of the tower. In addition to that The design of the tower’s glass facade, which completes a 120° twist as it rises, is intended to reduce wind loads on the building by 24%. This reduced the amount of construction materials needed; the Shanghai Tower used 25% less structural steel than a conventional design of a similar height saving approximately US$58 million in material costs.

source : http://www.worldsteel.org, wikipedia.org 

Steel is an amazing material that is both economic and sustainable. That’s why Shanghai Metal Corporation manufactures and distributes a large range of Steel products of high quality all over the world.
For more information, you can visit the company’s website or contact us for any inquiry.

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Houria // SMC Editor