Kemper News

Kineteco International, a U.K. spring starter manufacturer, appointed a new European and Russian distributor to push export sales. Kineteco added Hatraco, a Netherlands-based supply company, which will be tasked with increasing sales and raising Kineteco’s profile across continental Europe and Russia, aside from the Benelux countries. This deal follows the earlier appointments of Atlantic Diesel Services (ADS) as UK distributor and Kemper en Van Twist (KVT) for the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Southern Co will take a $235 million charge in the first quarter and delay the startup of its $5.5 billion coal-gasification power plant in Kemper County, Mississippi, the company said in a filing with regulators on Tuesday. Southern Co, based in Atlanta, is scheduled to release its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday. Southern has previously taken $729 million in charges related to more than $1 billion in cost overruns at the 582-megawatt Kemper County plant, one of only two integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) plants in the nation. Mississippi Power, Southern's smallest utility, owns the facility and plans to complete the gas-fired, combined cycle portion of the project this summer.

Since the exclusivity agreement with Azimut Yachts ended, Seakeeper has brought on one new US and six new international distributors to keep up with increasing demand. In North America, Seaworthy Marine Supply will now cover Texas from its headquarters in Fulton. The company will supplement Seakeeper's established US distributors, Mack Boring & Parts Co. of Union, New Jersey and Atlantic Marine Power Systems of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Located in Dordrecht, Kemper van Twist of the Netherlands will handle its homeland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Athens-based Motocraft will manage Greece and the Turkish market will be served by Marina Deniz. Across the globe, Marine Express will cover Brazil from Sao Paulo, while Super Marine will service the Persian Gulf region, including Kuwait and the UAE.

Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) teams from Africa and Europe finished a week's worth of Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO) training June 8 by conducting compliant boardings on USS Simpson (FFG 56) during Phoenix Express 2006. Two officers and two enlisted members of the Simpson VBSS team prepared formal training lessons and devised practical training plans to train Algerian, Moroccan and Spanish VBSS teams during the tactical phase of Phoenix Express 2006. “We’re the perfect ship to provide this training because this is what we’ve been doing for the past five months,” said Cmdr. John Uhl, commanding officer of Simpson. Simpson joined USS Saipan (LHA 2) in Rota…