Sasol, South Africa’s biggest company by revenue, said unabated rail snarl-ups hampered its chemical shipments and pipeline disruptions slowed deliveries to its oil refinery, highlighting the deficiency of services provided by state logistics firm Transnet.
“While overall supply-chain performance has improved and close collaboration with Transnet continues, it remains a risk to our business,” Sasol said in a production and sales update on Monday.
The company’s coal export sales remained flat in the three months through September due to “operational challenges” at the rail operator, while its 108 000 barrel-a-day Natref refinery took delivery of less crude than expected because the illegal tapping of a Transnet pipeline that supplies the plant led to eight outages. – Bloomberg