Industrial and specialty gas products manufacturer Air Products South Africa in November purchased the A2100 air separation unit (ASU) from Sasol chemicals division Sasol Chemical Industries, says Air Products MD Mike Hellyar.

He says the ASU was designed, constructed and commissioned by Air Products on behalf of Sasol Chemical Industries in 1997. Air Products has operated and maintained the plant on a contract basis for Sasol since 1997.

“This agreement represents an investment of R600-million, which comprises the buying price of the asset, refurbishments to the asset and associated back-ups, as well as logistical infrastructure, to ensure integration into Air Products’ existing supply chain.”

Hellyar says Air Products and Sasol first entered into discussions about the acquisition in 2012. Approval for the transaction was obtained  from restrictive business practices evaluator the Competition Commission of South Africa and the purchase agreement came into effect on December 1 last year.

In terms of the agreement, Air Products has taken ownership of the plant but will continue to supply oxygen and nitrogen produced on the plant to Sasol on a long-term contract basis. The plant is already integrated into Air Products’ supply network and the company has an existing operations and maintenance team at the plant, explains Hellyar.

He says Air Products will undertake further integration and refurbishment upgrades to the plant to achieve energy efficiency between the company’s Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg sites. The refurbishment project will be managed by Air Products’ in-house projects team.

Air Products expects a contractor labour force of 40 people to be employed during the peak of the project, says Hellyar.

Capital Investment Pipeline
Air Products launched two new ASUs during the course of last year, one in June at its flagship Vanderbijlpark facility – the R800-million ‘G-Plant’ – and another one in November at its Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) site in the Eastern Cape, worth R300-million.

The energy-efficient facility at the IDZ is the first of its kind to be commissioned in the Eastern Cape and is the sixteenth ASU to be commissioned countrywide by Air Products.

The ‘G-Plant’ and Coega ASUs form part of the company’s long-term capital investment pipeline worth R2-billion. The investment pipeline is aimed at establishing a solid national gas production and supply footprint.

Customer Satisfaction

Air Products prides itself on its capacity to identify innovative solutions to meet its customers’ needs. Central to the company’s customer service ethos is the ability to provide long-term security of supply, reliability and flexibility which matches customers’ changing requirements.

A good example of this is Air Products’ CryoEase mode of supply, an innovative and flexible solution which provides ‘total gas management’.

“When it comes to customers’ industrial gas requirements, we ensure total peace of mind for them. This means assuring them of the highest levels of long-term security of supply, in such a way that they do not ever need to worry about gas availability. This frees them up to concentrate on their own core business, thereby epitomising our company’s commitment to ‘service that delivers the difference’,” says Hellyar.

One of Air Products’ long-term customers recently made the switch from a cylinder-based mode of supply to CryoEase, and is reaping the multiple benefits thereof.

Budget Sheet Metal Engineering, a family-run business which specialises in the manufacture of sheet metal parts and finished products has used cylinder gas supply from Air Products for more than a decade.

When Budget Sheet Metal upscaled its operational footprint from two smaller premises to one large, 2 600 m² space in Randburg, the company decided to review its gas supply contract with Air Products, and looked at various options.

“We did our industry researcH and this exercise confirmed for us that Air Products has similar organisational values and ethics as us, as well as an equally high regard for customer service excellence. In addition, they provided us with a practical solution to our supply needs. Thanks to their recommendation regarding CryoEase, we have not looked back,” says Budget Sheet Metal Engineering MD Claudio Ferrari.