Tanfield

Tanfield make Zero-emission vehicles.This is a really clever bit of marketing,as electric vehicles have been associated with milk floats for way too long.This innovative Company now makes 3.5 Ton Delivery trucks which do 80 Km/50 mph, which is more than enough to cope with urban speed limits.This has won them orders from M&S and other urban fresh food deliverers. There is little negative to say about Tanfield except I worry it may be overvalued. I'm very happy that it has gained a lot since I bought it at 105 last March as it now stands at 173,and even hit 200 briefly.Perfectly poised to deal with a rapidly expanding market for clean air urban vehicles. The partnership with Ford and the huge prospects that environmental concerns will increasingly offer enormous opportunities for profit. Running all city service vehicles on electric vehicles would also help drive the market. The potential problem could lie in demand outstripping production. And at 30 vehicles a week it won't save the world,but is a good start. The supply chain could prove interesting.Who supplies the batteies and power train ? And this prompts the thought that checking out the battery makers might prove profitable Tanfield is a stock I'm holding for the long term. The real problem is that this may be accused of simply transferring pollution generated here, pollution caused by the electricity generated. Tanfield picks up speed | Comment Archive | News | Hemscott I wrote this some time ago and since then the shareprice has been what the analysts call 'volatile' Or in Simple English all over the place.I still own shares in Tanfield. I still believe in Tanfield and perhaps foolishly didn't sell and take profit when they were at the top of the market,and then buy the same or more shares when the price gets lower. For those of you glued to multiple screens,trading profitably or not: good luck to you.

LEDs to lead to energy-saving profits

What a hectic month it has been,and what happened to my promise to post every day? Well,we all know what has happened in the markets in August. And the media here managed to terrify people,too. I don't think the sum of human knowledge is added to,either,by having news anchors ask economists questions read off a Teleprompter, when it is quite clear they have no idea what the words mean. Today I bought shares in a company I have been watching for a while,and which I would have bought soner if funds were available. The company is Cree,Inc.(NASDAQ:CREE), which has jumped 25% this week. I'm in them because they are a big maker and developer of LED lights. We're all familiar with these, the little red and green lights on the front of our set-top boxes and other electronic toys. Well, they have come a long way and now can be found in traffic lights,public areas,,anywhere there is a need for low maintenance lighting. We have all been persuaded to use CFL long-life bulbs,as they save energy and last 'up to' 6 times longer than the old incandescent bulbs we grew up on,whilst saving a lot of energy. But we don't hear so often about the drawbacks of CFLs. Top disadvantage is that they contain mercury. The light is not as good as claimed; a 20 watt CFL does not give out as much light as 100W bulbs,and they can't be dimmed,which seriously hampers sales to restaurants etc, places wanting to change atmosphere. Cree lights are found in all sorts of places,even supermarket fridges. These used use strip lighting by fluorescent tube. Cree LEDs have replaced these because their life is counted in years,not months,and they don't break as the tubes do. Now, the LED for home use is coming very soon at a popular price.(They can be bought now, Philips make them,but they are dear) As leader in this technology,and owning the intellectual property rights to much of it,there's a bright future ahead for Cree,Inc. Of course, the shares will drop back from the price I just paid. They always do. It's almost like a law of nature, as soon as I buy,the price retreats before recovering. Usually. I think the shares can go to $50 over the next 12 months or less. Right now there are rumours,persistent over the last month,that General Electric are going to buy them out,and that the much-loved Hedge Funds are speculating heavily here. Speculators apart, if Cree retains independence,this is one for the long road,with amazing prospects.Chances are this one will grow and grow.