Page 6 - AfrElec Week 49 2022

AfrElec PERFORMANCE AfrElec

Sasol performance marred by

flooding, poor coal quality

SOUTH AFRICA OPERATIONAL stoppages, poor coal quality, the local supply and export of certain chemicals
rain damage at a key processing facility and a products at the beginning of November after
strike at a state logistics utility have all impacted workers at logistics utility Transnet had ended
South Africa’s chemicals giant Sasol’s production their strike, a shortage of rail cars resulted in the
and sales volumes over the past half year. declaration of yet another force majeure on the
In a trading update for the six months ending local supply of ammonia again in that month.
November 31 released on Thursday (December Due to the foregoing and other factors, Sasol
1), Sasol said the factors not only affected the sec- reduced its coal production guidance at Secunda
ond quarter of its 2023 financial year, but also the to 6.6mn – 6.9mn tonnes, from 7.0mn –
outlook for the remainder of the period. 7.2mn. Liquid fuels sales volumes are likely to
The company, which produces a wide range total 52mn –55mn barrels, lower than previous
of chemicals through the processing of coal, guidance of 53mn – 56mn barrels while Chem-
said flooding at its Secunda synthetic fuels plant icals Africa sales volumes of 0 – 4% higher than
north of the capital, Johannesburg took the fac- the prior year, will be lower than previous guid-
tory out for several days. ance of 6 –12% higher than prior year.
“In the restart of the plant, we also experi- While its performance in its second quarter
enced unplanned outages on the reforming was largely muted, Sasol expects earnings and
units,” said Sasol. headline earnings per share for the six months
“We are faced with prolonged downtime ending December 31 to increase by more than
on 2 of 17 reformers, which are expected back 20%.
online before the end of the 2023 financial year. The company plans to enhance coal blending
The continued challenges with coal quality have through more focused purchases of higher-qual-
impacted gasifier availability, and although ity coal from external suppliers to supplement
we took decisive action to improve equipment own production.
availability, a further deterioration of coal qual- “Given the heightened risk associated with
ity during October and November 2022 has the rainy season in South Africa, we have taken
impacted production.” proactive measures at our Secunda site to reduce
Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange the risk of flooding. Restoration of the reform-
in South Africa and the New York Stock ing units will be prioritised to ensure that we can
Exchange, the firm has operations in 22 coun- maximise use of any available natural gas in the
tries and a head office in South Africa. remainder of financial year 2023 to maximise
Although Sasol lifted its force majeure on production,” it said.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 49 07•December•2022