Malaysia to lift cement ceiling price

Right about 1 month after Malaysia liberalize the steel market, the government is going to lift the ceiling price on cement effective Thursday 5 June 2008 to ensure development projects in the country are not delayed due to the tight cement supply. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in a statement that this move was necessary as global cement prices had risen above the government-controlled price.

This move to lift the ceiling price has been long awaited by Lafarge (3794), CIMA (2844), YTL Cement (8737) and Tasek (4448). Artificially low prices had discouraged these producers from supplying more of the material, and had hampered the development of national and domestic projects.

Under the new structure, cement importers will on the other hand:

• pay a flat rate of 10% import duty for ordinary Portland cement (previously 50%)
• pay a flat rate of 10% import duty for ordinary hydraulic cement (previously 25%)
• exempted from having to obtain import licences (applicable to East Malaysia only)

Cement prices have increased 30% to 40% in past 3-4 years. The lowering of import tax on cement will overall be good in long term for the local construction and property industry and help to sustain cement supply in the country.

Static electric shocks when getting out of car

Many people experience shocks when they get out of their car. That is caused by static electric discharged from the person's body or clothes to the metallic car body.

When sitting in the car, electrostatic charges are generated on the car seat and the person's body due to contact and movement between the clothes and the seat. The charges is accumulated if the person is wearing a good insulating shoe. It is observed that fabric and true leather seats normally generate more static charges than PU leather seats. If you wear synthetic fibre clothing, you also have more chance to accumulate higher level of static.

Having the air-conditioner blowing directly at you will also accumulate more static, as the air blown out from the air-conditioner is full of charged particles. If your car is full of dust and dirt, static will also be generated as a result of such particles "rubbing" with the air flow as you drive.

An ionizer can help to neutralize some of the static charges in the car. If you still experience the shocks when getting out of the car, you can hold the car key and let the key contact with the metallic car body first before you touch the door. This will discharge the static through the keys instead of your fingers, and you could hardly feel it, therefore avoiding the shocks.

Fact about maintenance-free battery of car

Nowadays, most car battery is a lead-acid storage electrochemical device that can converts chemical energy into electrical energy. A standard 12-volt, lead-acid battery is made up of 6 cells connected in series. Each electrolyte filled cell produces approximately 2 volts. The charge of this 12-volt battery is actually at 12.6 volts, and can vary slightly depending on the concentration of the electrolyte in its acidic solution.

The "maintenance-free" battery, similar in design to its conventional counterparts that need to refill with distilled water from time to time to maintain the fluid level, is actually just a heavier-duty version of the same arrangement. Many of the components in the maintenance-free battery have thicker construction. Different, more durable materials are typically used. For example, the plate grids often contain calcium, cadmium or strontium, to reduce gassing (which causes water loss) and self-discharge. This design is called a lead-calcium battery. The heavier-duty parts ensure that fluid loss is kept to a minimum and that components have a much longer life, making it a closed system.

The advantages of maintenance-free battery are: less preventative maintenance, theoretically longer life, faster recharging, greater overcharge resistance, reduced terminal corrosion and longer shelf life. However, they are more prone to deep discharge (dead battery) failures due to increased shedding of active plate material.