South African biodiesel production company First In Spec BioDiesel was planning to build a R250-million biodiesel plant that would convert waste vegetable oil into biodiesel, a company official said on Monday.

MD Louis Nyiri told delegates at the African biofuels conference, in Midrand, on Monday, that it was planning to build a plant to produce 50-million litres a year of biodiesel.

The company had already signed letters of intent for about 15-million litres a year of feedstock from companies abroad, as it would be cheaper to import the feedstock from foreign countries.

The plant would require between three-million and four-million litres a month of feedstock, he said.

Nyiri noted that the company could bring R50-million in equity to the table and was looking to acquire funding for the rest of the project costs.

He added that if biofuels project developers had a good plan, they stood a good chance of obtaining funding, even in economically difficult times. Bringing in more parties to share the debt would also likely make it easier to obtain financing, said Nyiri.