Sasol, Asian firm to set up joint plant in China  
Carli Lourens

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Trade and Industry Editor

CHEMICALS company Sasol and Asian group Wilmar Holdings have agreed to form a joint venture to build a fattyalcohols plant in the industrial port city of Lianyungang in China at an as-yet undisclosed cost. 

At 60000 tons a year, the plant would be the first “world-scale” alcohol plant in China, Sasol’s olefins and surfactants business in Germany said yesterday.

Construction could start as soon as September this year and the plant could be commissioned by the middle of 2007, subject to the board approval of both companies.

Fatty alcohols are used to produce a wide range of goods such as cosmetics, textiles and detergents.

Sasol Olefins and Surfactants MD Anton Putter said Wilmar’s leadership in tropical oils and established presence in China, combined with Sasol`s leadership in the alcohol market, created significant synergy. 

Establishing the first world-scale alcohol plant in China would allow Sasol to continue to grow with key multinational customers as they expand their operations in Asia, he said.

Sasol would be the exclusive distributor for the sales and marketing of the alcohols produced by the joint venture. The feedstock would be fatty acid, produced at the same location by Wilmar. 

Sasol said it was the largest global producer and marketer of C6+ alcohols — a type of fatty alcohol — with capacity of more than 600000 tons a year.


Sasol Olefins and Surfactants have production operations in German, the US, Italy and SA, with smaller operations in Slovakia, the United Arab Emirates and China. 

Sasol Olefins and Surfactants accounted for 28% of Sasol’s turnover last year.