News in Brief

Sasol spends R14bn on expansion

Sasol had invested R14 billion in its Sasolburg operations, the company said yesterday. First announced in March 2010, the expansion projects were well under way. The investment is the largest development on the Sasol One Site since the establishment of Sasol almost 62 years ago and is in line with Sasol’s strategy to leverage its advanced proprietary technology. The investment is also aligned with Sasol’s longer-term plans to significantly grow its chemicals businesses. Projects in progress as part of the R14bn project are the wax expansion project, which entails the construction of a wax production facility at a cost of approximately R8.4bn. Some of the plants in the first phase have been commissioned. Once phase two is complete, Sasol will have doubled its current hard wax production capacity. The petrochemical company also said that the R1.9bn ethylene purification plant, driven by good local demand for polyethylene material, would provide an additional 48 000 tons of ethylene capacity a year, allowing better use of downstream polyethylene plants. – Staff reporter

Sanctions halt SA’s Iranian oil imports

South Africa’s oil imports from Iran had ceased due to EU sanctions over that country’s nuclear programme, a senior government official said. “Right now there is nothing coming in,” Tseliso Maqubela, a deputy director-general in the Department of Energy, told reporters yesterday. “There are restrictions on insurance companies insuring Iranian cargos. That’s not a government issue, it’s a commercial issue.”- Bloomberg