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Plastics and Synfibres

Safer conveying with plastic belts

By: Mariaan Webb 4th March 2005 The new range of modular plastic conveyor belts, HabasitLink, distributed by Bearing Man’s specialist belting division, Belting Solutions, provides support for efficient and safe conveying of fresh and frozen foods. →

Tristar Plastics

25th February 2005 Tristar Plastics, a division of packaging group Astrapak, manufactures plastic packaging, including pallet stabilisation products. →

Sasol defends safety record, union still worried

By: Martin Czernowalow 10th February 2005 Following a spate of fatalities and injuries at several of South African petrochemicals giant Sasol's operations recently, chief executive Pieter Cox yesterday vehemently defended the group's safety record and highlighted efforts to further improve occupational safety standards. →

Packaging group spends 70% of R650m capex in SA

By: Ollie Madlala 28th January 2005 Packaging is an essential part of modern life. It protects and preserves commodities so that today’s consumers can have a bewildering array of ready-to-consume products from all over the world in their own homes. →

Imported plastics materials gain in popularity

By: Ollie Madlala 28th January 2005 Imported plastics raw materials are quickly gaining more acceptence in South Africa, MD of MBT South Africa (MBTSA) Dick Coates tells Engineering News. →

Global plastics industry to focus on advanced solutions

By: Ollie Madlala 28th January 2005 Global competitiveness in plastics-application development is set to centre on a sustained commitment to relating the “parts to the whole” of plastics-materials technology. →

Packaging sector fuels moulding-machines demand

By: Ollie Madlala 28th January 2005 Some 800 Ferromatik Milacron plastic injection-moulding machines are believed to be in operation in South Africa, Ferromatic Milacron MD Toni Goncalves tells Engineering News in an interview at the company’s offices in Johannesburgh. →

Firm working on developments to exceed customers’ demands

By: Ollie Madlala 28th January 2005 JJ Precision Plastics (JJPP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the JSE Securities Exchange-listed Astrapak group, is currently working on several new developments, GM John Hall tells Engineering News in an interview at the company’s facilities in New Germany, Kwazulu-Natal. →

R2,5bn petro-pipeline upgrade advancing

By: Irma Venter 21st January 2005 The feasibility study of a R2,5-billion project to upgrade the 700 km Durban–Johannesburg pipeline (DJP), owned by Petronet, will be completed by March next year. →

Plastic bottle recycling plant opens in Gauteng

By: Keith Campbell 10th December 2004 THE new recycling plant established by Hosaf at Alrode in Alberton is opening a whole new sector for the company. →

Sub consortium, Daun team up to create jobs

By: Keith Campbell 10th December 2004 THE national industrial participation (Nip – that is, civilian offsets) programme from the German Submarine Consortium (GSC) has resulted in an endeavour which has already created just over 360 jobs and is set to create almost 400 over the next year, for a total of 700 sustainable new jobs. →

Project will gulp down 20-million litres of water daily

By: Nicola Mawson 3rd December 2004 Project Turbo requires 20-million litres of various qualities of water daily but, because of persistent droughts in Southern Africa, an innovative solution had to be found to supplement the existing raw-water supply. →

East Rand firm delivers specialised pumps

By: Nicola Mawson 3rd December 2004 The first consignment of API610 eighth-edition pumps from East Rand-based APE Pumps was due to be on site at Project Turbo by the end of last month. →

Switchgear orders come in at R32m

3rd December 2004 Local switchgear company RBF Technology was awarded with various orders to supply low and medium-voltage electrical switchboards to Sasol for different plants within Project Turbo. →

Gauteng firm wins order to supply 1 200 t of steel

3rd December 2004 Gauteng company Cosira International has secured its first project in the petrochemicals field with the award of a contract to detail, fabricate and erect some 1 200 t of steelwork at Sasol’s Secunda works. →

Construction firm clinches phase two of Secunda project

3rd December 2004 As a result of the success of the first phase of the building works at Sasol Secunda, which are part of Project Turbo, WBHO Construction has been awarded the second phase of the project. →

Biggest industrial project on course for completion by 2006

By: Nicola Mawson 3rd December 2004 With a price tag of R12,2-billion, Project Turbo is regarded as one of the highest-value projects in South African industrial history. →

The most complex petrochemicals project - managing contractor

By: Nicola Mawson 3rd December 2004 On track and on target. →

Fully-automated warehouse for Sasolburg plant

By: Nicola Mawson 3rd December 2004 Engineering company Siemens Southern Africa is involved in the building a fully-automated warehouse for Sasol as part of the petrochemicals giant’s Project Turbo. →

Auto-plastic technology transfer project launched

By: elizabeth rebelo 26th November 2004 The Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro) in association with the Automotive Industry Development Centre (AIDC) and the CSIR have launched a three-year technology-transfer programme to improve the quality of plastic-injection moulded components used in the automotive sector. →

Quick-fix solutions for damaged pipelines

By: abdul cook 19th November 2004 Pipeline corrosion and mechanical damage in the form of cracks, dents and gouges can cause costly downtime for processing and manufacturing industries. →

Refinery in six-week maintenance shutdown

By: abdul cook 19th November 2004 A six-week maintenance shutdown from October 14, following 20 months of forward planning, is being under taken by Sapref. →

Poor-quality fuel may cost fleet owners dearly

19th November 2004 The quality of South African diesel has become quite an issue, says fuel-analysis firm WearCheck Africa. →

SA petroleum sales up 4,5% year-on-year

4th November 2004 Following a number of years of slow growth, even some years in which growth was negative, overall sales of petroleum products performed considerably better in 2003, exceeding those in 2002 by 4,2%, the South African Petroleum Industry Association said in a statement yesterday. →

SA technology fuels China's large coal-to-liquids plans

By: Ollie Madlala 1st November 2004 A prefeasibility study is under way into the economic viability of constructing two $3-to-$4-billion coal-to-liquids (CTL) plants in China, Sasol Synfuels International MD Willem Louw tells Engineering News in an interview in Johannesburg. →

Polymer market hits fly-up

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 The international polymer market has hit a price fly-up, with strong global demand for polymers exceeding supply, Sasol Polymers MD Terry Bates tells Engineering News in an interview at the company’s corporate offices in Bryanston. →

SA technology fuels China’s large coal-to-liquids plans

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 Two synfuels plants together size of Secunda operation →

Sevenfold GTL expansion is expected in Qatar

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 Plans also under discussion to add base oils to the product bouquet →

$900m polymers project is well-advanced in Iran

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 South Africa’s petrochemicals giant Sasol is participating in a $ 900-million Iranian polymer joint venture, construction of which is now well advanced. →

Tenders in for Nigerian GTL

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bids for Nigeria’s Escravos gas-to-liquids (EGTL) have been received. →

Sasol's safety

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 Sept 1, the time 9:40 am, there's an explosion →

First World share with the Third World rating

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 Sasol’s challenge is to increase its percentage of foreign shareholders, says Andisa non-mining resources analyst David Brennan. →

Upstream production up

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 Sasol has increased gross oil production at the Etame oil field, offshore southern Gabon in West Africa, from 15 000 to greater than 22 000 barrels of oil a day (bbl/d) through the successful completion of an additional production well, and also the discovery of two promising new oil fields nearby. →

Downstream hopes rise

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 The placing by National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor), of an R800-million-a-year petroleum-products contract on Sasol and its Namibian black economic-empowered (BEE) partner, Namibia Liquid Fuels (NLF) is raising the hopes of further downstream activity in Namibia’s domestic... →

R50 000 to promote 'playing for peace'

By: Martin Creamer 29th October 2004 Duze Primary School in the Mbumbulo area south of Durban has inaugurated a R50 000 basketball court donated to engage learners in ‘playing for peace’. →

Get cracking on GTL, analyst urges

By: Ollie Madlala 29th October 2004 Leading Johannesburg petrochemicals analyst Leila Reddy of Barnard Jacobs Mellet is optimistic about Sasol’s gas-to-liquids (GTL) prospects, but is keen to see the group accelerate the global rollout of the technology. →

New safety solution for plastics industry

25th October 2004 Liquid packaging solutions supplier Nampak Liquid broke the plastic industry's safety and quality mould when its Industria plant became the first plastics plant in South Africa to receive Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) accreditation last week. →

New plant for service centre

By: elizabeth rebelo 15th October 2004 Stainless-steel engineering service centre, Plasma Cut, has received new equipment to the value of R2,5-million. →