GlobalAtlanta | Companies in the News

GE Energy Signs $500 million in Contracts in Saudi Arabia

Atlanta-based GE Energy has signed contracts worth more than $500 million to provide gas turbines and generators for Saudi Arabia’s top electricity supplier.

GE Energy, a unit of General Electric Co., will supply projects at power plants owned by Saudi Electricity Co. in six cities as economic and population growth have contributed to 8 percent annual growth in electricity demand across the country.

The announcement comes less than a month after GE Energy broke ground on a new 125,000-square-foot technology training facility in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

GE Energy has more than 600 employees and three offices in Saudi Arabia.

Visit www.geenergy.com.

Tour de Georgia Spins Bigger Economic Impact for State

A month after the Tour de Georgia’s completion, a study run by Georgia colleges has concluded that the annual cycling competition had a direct impact of $38.6 million on the state economy.

This surpassed last year’s $27 million by 40 percent.

An increase in international visitors taking advantage of the weak U.S. dollar was partly responsible for the greater number, said Phyllis Isley, director of the Bureau of Business Research and Economic Development at Georgia Southern University.

Inflation also may have helped boost the bottom line, Ms. Isley added.

The impact was determined using data collected by crowd surveys at all start and finish host venue locations.

North Georgia College and University managed the survey development and data collection, and Georgia Southern’s bureau crunched the numbers.

For a GlobalAtlanta story about international companies sponsoring cycling teams, click here.

Click here to see how a Chinese cycling team made its North American debut at this year’s event or here to see how the Tour de Georgia helped build an Athens coffee company’s international ambitions.

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Delta Launching Two South America Routes From JFK

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. is launching two routes this summer to South America from its growing hub in New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

More than two months after receiving preliminary approval from the Department of Transportation for a nonstop route to Bogota, Colombia, the airline announced last week that daily service there will begin Aug. 19.

As part of a broader expansion into South America, Delta will also start on June 1 service to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, a small country east of Venezuela on the continent’s northern Atlantic coast.

With that thrice-weekly nonstop flight and the Bogota route, Delta’s flights from JFK to South America and the Caribbean now total 18.

Visit www.delta.com.

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Quebec Office to Host Companies at Southern Builders’ Show

The Quebec Government Office in Atlanta is sponsoring a pavilion at the Southern Building Show and Conference June 11-13 at the Cobb Galleria Center to promote seven companies based in the Canadian province exhibiting at the event.

The show is held annually to showcase and provide networking between architects, contractors and others in the construction industry with operations or sales in the Southeast.

The Quebec exhibiting companies include Dracme Inc., a Sainte Julie, Quebec-based stone fireplace designer and builder. Geometrix, a concrete construction company based in La Prairie, Quebec, is also to attend.

Laval, Quebec-based Illustra is to exhibit its software for 3-D design and virtual tours. Nordic Engineered Wood based in Montreal is to present its technology and methods for cutting and shaping wood.

Other exhibitors include Open Joist 2000 Inc., a Trois-Rivieres, Quebec-based flooring manufacturer and Saint-Martin-de-Beauce, Quebec-based stairway, window and door parts producer Matra.

For more information, call Virginia Rand-Hill at the Quebec Government Office at (404) 584-2995 ext. 59913 or e-mail her at virginia.rand-hill@mri.gouv.qc.ca.

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