3 May 2010
South African petrochemicals giant Sasol has approved the construction of a R1.9-billion ethylene purification unit at its Sasol Polymers plant in Sasolburg.
The plant is expected to go on stream in the second half of 2013 and will be ramped up to full capacity by 2015, enabling the company to boost ethylene production by approximately 48 000 tons per year.
Reducing imports
The ethylene will be used in the manufacturing of polyethylene, and will greatly benefit South Africa’s plastics conversion industry, which currently imports large quantities of this raw material.
“This investment confirms Sasol’s commitment to the South African chemical industry and will enable significant downstream value addition in terms of locally manufactured consumer products such as plastic bags, packaging materials and containers,” Sasol said in a statement last month.
Doubling production
In December 2009, the company announced that it would invest R8.4-billion to double the production of hard wax products by Sasol Wax by 2014.
The investment will also result in increased production of medium waxes, mostly used by the candle industry in southern Africa, as well as liquid paraffins used in a variety of industrial applications.
SAinfo reporter
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