Sasol Selects Technip to Design and Construct a New Polypropylene Unit in South Africa

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Significant movement has occurred concerning Sasol's new polypropylene unit in South Africa, since originally reported by Industrialinfo.com in September of 2001. Sasol Polymers (Randburg, South Africa), part of the Sasol Group, has awarded the engineering and construction contract for the $200 million polypropylene unit addition to French-based Technip (NYSE:TKP) (Lyon, France). The unit will be built at Sasol's existing site in Secunda, South Africa and will produce 300,000 metric tons a year once operational. Construction is expected to begin in late 2004, or early 2005, with a tentative completion date scheduled for early 2006.

Technip will utilize its office in Lyon, France, for the design and project management, as well as its office and personnel in South Africa. This endeavor represents Technip's continued resolve to increase its involvement in the polypropylene production field, the South African market, and their relationship with Sasol.

The selected process technology for the unit is BP's Innovene process, which is a proprietary gas phase technology, currently used in sixteen countries by 24 manufacturers and collectively producing 4.5 million metric tons a year worldwide. This process also includes their proprietary CD catalyst, which is a fourth generation polypropylene catalyst. BP began developing this process during the 1970's and added impact copolymer production in the late 1980's. BP has close to forty years of polypropylene development and manufacturing experience.

View Project Report - 85000113