Sasol celebrates completion of Fischer-Tropsch Wax Expansion Project in South Africa

Sasol Limited celebrated the full completion of its ZAR 13.6 billion (USD 1.13 billion) Fischer-Tropsch Wax Expansion Project (FTWEP) at its Sasolburg Operations in South Africa last week. Phase 1 was commissioned in 2015 while Phase 2 began beneficial operations in March 2017, enabling Sasol to double its South African production of hard wax.

“With the completion of this project, South Africa is now one of the leading countries of wax production globally. We’re enormously proud of this achievement and believe it is a fine symbol of South Africa’s industrial prowess,” said Bongani Nqwababa, joint president and chief executive officer, Sasol Limited.

“As one of the leading producers of medium and hard waxes worldwide, Sasol leverages our expertise and proprietary technologies to produce premium waxes that offer unique properties and superior performance for our customers,” added Stephen Cornell, Sasol Limited’s joint president and chief executive officer.

Marketed by the Performance Chemicals team, hard waxes, medium waxes, liquid paraffin and waxy oils are supplied to a variety of industrial and specialty applications. Hard waxes are used in hotmelt adhesives, PVC processing, inks, paints, coatings and asphalt applications; medium waxes are used in candle markets and emulsions in the manufacturing of construction boards.

FTWEP is one of a number of major capital investments Sasol has made in South Africa. Throughout the duration of the project, there were 49 service providers and approximately 5,500 construction workers on site. The project was resourced by 450 engineers, with some 22,000 isometric drawings created and 904 pieces of mechanical equipment installed. In excess of 31 million hours were worked with a safety record of 0.15 recordable case rate (RCR), below the benchmark of projects of this scale.

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