Page 159 - CW E-Magazine (4-2-2025)

News from Abroad

REVIVAL PLANS
Sasol looks to turn around its international chemical

business

South African chemicals firm, ing year. Mr. Baloyi said “a fire sale of
Sasol, is looking to revive its inter- assets” would be avoided as it would
national chemical business, to boost lead to “value destruction”. A review he
earnings and open up an option to announced in August, when the com-
potentially list it, a Bloomberg report pany took a 56.7-bn-Rand write-down
said quoting the company’ CEO, Mr. largely on low chemical prices, is intend-
Simon Baloyi. ed in the next three to four years to make
the units capable of sustaining their own
The company reported its first loss operating costs and help pay interest on
since 2020 last year and took billions of debt. Sasol is also looking at all assets
dollars in write-downs. The company “In the future, at the peak of the to determine which “are bleeding cash,”
has about $4-bn of debt and suspended chemical market, it’s going to give which require fixing, and which have to
dividend payouts. us lots and lots of strategic options to be shut down if they can’t be improved,
create shareholder value, where you he said. Another unanticipated obstacle
Mr. Baloyi, who took over as CEO can have an option to either list it by to emerge for Sasol in recent years is the
in April, expects the company’s $12.8-bn itself or you can merge it with someone declining quality of coal it produces and
Lake Charles chemicals facility in else,” said Mr. Baloyi. uses to feed its Secunda manufacturing
Louisiana (US) to play a significant role hub in South Africa. That’s become an-
in generating cash and raising investor The Lake Charles chemicals pro- other priority, and Sasol has taken a final
confidence. “It’s a fantastic asset that ject was originally designed to expand investment decision on a de-stoning pro-
Sasol has, and we have to make sure Sasol’s operational footprint abroad, but ject to improve the coal quality, accord-
it starts making money,” he said in an suffered from mismanagement issues, ing to Mr. Baloyi.
interview with Bloomberg. The compa- hurricanes and billions of dollars in cost
ny separated the international chemical overruns that ballooned the company’s To make up for this, Sasol has
business from operations in South Africa debt. In 2020, the year it reached com- bought about 4-mt of the fuel annually,
and has set targets to increase its con- pletion, Sasol sold a $2-bn stake in the something he considers a waste of
tribution to earnings and strengthen it US based-chemicals business to form a money. “We shouldn’t be buying coal
as a standalone entity. While chemicals joint venture with LyondellBasell to cut because we have the infrastructure, we
make up about a third of earnings, the debt. It also accelerated an asset-sale have the people, we have everything to
regional contribution of the US is just 6%. programme that wrapped up the follow- mine the coal,” he said.

Elkem begins strategic review of silicones business

Norway’s Elkem has initiated a dynamics in the silicones business, the upstream and downstream specialty
strategic review of its silicones division. company informed. markets.
The company said the move is aimed
at streamlining the company, as well as The silicones business is a fully in- The business reported operating
to enable allocation of capital to accelerate tegrated operation covering production income for the first three quarters (till
growth in the silicon products and of silicon metal to upstream siloxane Sept 2024) of NOK 10,962-mn (€933-
carbon solutions divisions. and downstream silicone specialties. mn), up 2% compared to the corre-
The division has multiple application sponding period in 2023. The company
The review comes after a thorough areas and exposure to several growing attributed the improvements in 2024 to
assessment of the growth and return end-markets, and a global production “operational efficiencies, better utili-
prospects of Elkem, as well as its capital footprint with key sites in France and sation and higher volumes, as well as
allocation strategy and the market China with exposure both to the ramp-up of new capacity.”

Chemical Weekly February 4, 2025 159

Contents Index to Advertisers Index to Products Advertised