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Sibongile Khumalo
Hurricane Dorian moves slowly past Grand Bahama Island on September 2, 2019. (Getty Images)
Sasol, which is battling several headwinds that have hammered its financial position, is now being battered by the impact of a natural disaster in the form of Hurricane Laura which has forced the closure of its Lake Charles Chemicals plant the US.
The company is under pressure to finish work at the $12.9 billion facility in Louisiana which has been hit by cost overruns and delays, contributing the its tight financial position. Last week, Sasol announced that it had temporarily shut down Lake Charles due to a severe hurricane which made landfall earlier on the US Gulf Coal, impacting operations.
“The storm resulted in widespread electrical blackouts and other damage, preventing Sasol from operating most utility systems,” the company said on Monday in an update.
It stated that high voltage transmission line corridors to the area where the plant is located were damaged, and that the assessment of the extent of the destruction was underway. The high winds caused by the inclement weather left damage to the plant’s cooling tower but no flooding damage experienced as a result of storm surge, it said.
“Sasol’s manufacturing facilities in Lake Charles remain shut down,” it said.
The alcohols unit of the complex which has six chemical manufacturing plant is already operational, but the current financial and faced by the company have forced it to sell part of the project to an investor. No decision has been made on the potential buyer.
It is not the first time that the Lake Charles has been affected by disasters. In 2017, heavy rain from Tropical Storm Harvey delayed construction, while an explosion in the low-density polyethene unit in January led to a shut down.
Sasol shares were on down nearly 1 percent at R142.59, following the news after peaking at around R150 in midday trade. – news24.com
Online Reporter