MechChem Africa July 2017

⎪ Products and industry news ⎪

Major seaports play key role in traffic flow

cleaning products as ‘safe to use and less harmful to your health and environment than conventional alternatives such as bleach and ammonia’. Gavin Herold, general manager of Africa and the Middle East for Nilfisk, one of the world’s leading suppliers of cleaning equip- ment, believes that recent supply crises in South Africa in both electricity and water have helped to focus managers on sustain- able cleaning issues, especially the urgent need to reduce wastage in cleaning. www.industroclean.co.za The team then managed to secure the optimal storage and logistics solutions by partnering with third parties for storage and barge facilities. In doing so, the busi- ness secured healthy shore storage tank capacity, barges and a dedicated pipeline for receipt and loading of barges. Engen tightly manages inbound logis- tics into Port Louis, daily price volatility andfinancingof theproduct toensure that it is always competitive. Engen Petroleum Mauritiusmanages the in-country storage andoutbound logistics throughmarketing and delivery to customers. Christian Li, Engen commercial busi- ness development manager; Christian Musindi, trading manager; Anmarie Kleinhans, marine sales and operations manager; andRicardoAimee, commercial executive teamed up to create awareness to local and international customers on product quality and availability. Engen has thus succeeded in growing its market share of fuel oil by more than tenfold. www.engen.co.za Deal Party since 1984 until the strategic decision was taken to enhance the re- gion’s supply chain network. With the establishment of the ASU in the Coega IDZ, Air Products has strengthened its infrastructure in the Eastern Cape as it was no longer necessary to truck in the industrial gas over long distances from other provinces. Establishinga secure sup- ply further supported the competitiveness and sustainability of the business. Richardson concludes: “We believe that the quality of our technology and our strong emphasis on safety, quality and customer servicewill enable us to add fur- ther value tomanufacturing and industrial processes in the region for years to come.” www.airproducts.co.za

UpanddownAfrica’scoasts,majorseaports withbunkeringfacilitiesplayakeystrategic roleinkeepingseatrafficflowingandindus- triesgrowing.Itisbigbusinessandincludes the storage of bunker (ship) fuels and the provision of fuel to vessels. Bunkering in- cludestheshipboardlogisticsofloadingfuel and distributing it among bunkers. In 2014, the Mauritian authority that sources fuel for the country’s require- ments, liberalised the importation of

heavy fuel for bunkering in order to sup- port Port Louis as a bunkering hub for the region. Heavy fuel contributes 62%of the bunkering sales in Mauritius and is used by many industries, including fishing and cargo ships. The invitation to players (including Engen) specified a 380 CST grade fuel, which for Engen proved to be non-com- petitive in terms of price, due to the avail- ability of dedicated storage facilities and barges to target big customers. Convinced that Engen’s 180

CSTwould do a better job than the380CSTGrade,ajointteam was assembled fromEngenand tasked with formulating and executing a strategy to get the company into play. The first phase involved a number of high-level stakeholder engage- ments, which saw the business get approval for 180 CST.

A barge in St Louis, Mauritius, bunkering Engen’s 180 CST Grade fuel.

Taking the lead to provide a secure supply ofindustrialgastotheindustriesinEastern Cape, Air Products launched the first air separation unit (ASU) in the EasternCape in theCoega IndustrialDevelopment Zone (IDZ) back inNovember 2014. The impact of this investment and its contribution to Air Products a top 50 company in the Eastern Cape economic growth was highlighted with Air Products being selected as one of the top 50Companies inNelsonMandela Bay (NMB) for 2017.

According to managing director Rob Richardson, the facility in the Coega IDZ formed part of a long-term capital invest- ment pipeline of R2-billion andwas aimed at establishing gas supply to serve the lo- cal industries. “Air Products was the 29 th operational investor in the IDZ and we truly appreciate this award, which recog- nises our contribution to thegrowthof the EasternCape’s regional economy,” he says. Air Products hadbeen serving custom- ers in NelsonMandela Bay and surround- ing areas from the cylinder fill facility in

Air Products built the first air separation unit (ASU) in the Eastern Cape in back in November 2014.

Environmentally friendly cleaning of urban spaces The cleaning industry is one of themost per- vasive in the world. In spite of its scale, local industry leaders believe there is nowhere near enough understanding in South Africa of the significant role the cleaning industry should play in sustainability, pointing to a weight of environmental legislationdirected at land and wildlife but not enough aimed at the environmentally friendly maintenance of urban spaces. There are three commonly accepted pil- lars to sustainability in cleaning: • Genuinelyeco-friendlycleaningproducts. • Reducing wastage of water, electricity and disposables. • Longer lasting and recyclablemachinery. Industry watchdogs caution about wide- spread green product claims. According to Stephen Ashkin of The Green Cleaning Network, particular scepticismshould be re- servedfor ‘chemical-free’labelsashebelieves fewproducts trulywarrant that description.” However, there are now many options available in South Africa that meet the standard US Occupation Health & Safety Administration (OHSA) definition of green

36 ¦ MechChem Africa • July 2017