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Founded in 1950, Sasol is an integrated oil and gas company with substantial chemical interests. In South Africa, we support these operations by mining coal and converting it into synthetic fuels and chemicals through our world-renowned proprietary Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology. Sasol also produces natural gas in Mozambique for supply to their customers and for use as feedstock in the fuel and chemical production facilities in South Africa. In January 2007, Sasol started up its first international joint-venture gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar. This plant uses its proprietary Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate ™⁾ process.

Sasol supplies over 200 products to 120 countries world wide, with chemical manufacturing and marketing operations in South Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Description old situation (supply chain)

The FT catalyst business unit is a subset of Sasol Synfuels International, tasked with the research, manufacture and supply of FT catalyst to the GTL facilities.

The existing supply chain was not optimized and efficient enough to support the growth strategy of the GTL catalyst business. Cost, service level and location were then identified as important drivers to achieve the business objectives.

Why did Sasol choose Store-Ship

Sasol wanted a partner who achieves a high customer service level. Store-Ship’s safety systems, positive attitude, knowledge of the personnel and the willingness to continuously improve their performance were in line with Sasol’s values: excellence in all we do, customer focus, winning with people, safety, continuous improvement and integrity.

For Sasol, safety is a very important issue as the storage of the catalyst is a critical function within the Logistics channel. We simply cannot afford to loose a drum.

The location of the storage facility was another reason for choosing Store-Ship. The central position in the Port of Rotterdam meets with our expectations of storing products close to a Port. In addition to that, the premises are under close surveillance. Store-Ship is responsible for the transport of the catalyst from the BASF De Meern plant to the storage location. Besides this Store-Ship has the facilities and infrastructure for the catalyst to be off-loaded, inspection, stored and containerised for export.