Sasol’s US venture finally gets into gear; taxman’s hopes dashed

SASOL said its US ethane cracker plant was now producing enough ethylene for use, bringing it closer to completing its Lake Charles Chemicals Project, which has been hit by delays and cost hikes. Sasol expects to have the remaining units up and running by the first quarter of 2020.

BIDVEST subsidiary Adcock Ingram said profits improved in the year to end-June, thanks in part to better sales of prescription medication. Turnover from over-thecounter products was flat, while prescription medication turnover surged 22.4% to R2.7bn.

ESKOM said it had produced power from its last remaining unit at Medupi power station and synchronised it with the grid. Eskom said it produced 190MW at unit 1, making it the last of the six units to be synchronised. The next step would be testing and optimisation of unit 1 so it could reach its full 800MW capacity and become commercially operational.

SA is not growing enough for the South African Revenue Service to meet its targets, according to Mark Kingon, a senior

Sars official. In April, Sars set itself a revenue target of R1.422-trillion for this fiscal year but will likely miss its target for a sixth consecutive year.

SIBANYE-STILLWATER said it fell into the red in the first half of the year due to a five-month strike at its South African gold operations. Production was hit by the strike over pay and job cuts that ended in April and cost Sibanye more than $100m in lost revenue.

ESKOM could run out of money by the end of March 2020 if it fails to raise necessary finance, and this would require more government funding, Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane told parliament on Wednesday. This would be in addition to the R59bn already provided. He stressed the need to cut staff costs, including the salaries of top Eskom executives.