Liquid Fuels Wholesalers Association of South Africa CEO Peter Morgan says the impact of the Transnet strike in the oil industry is concerning.
The company told its business partners that it won’t be able to fulfill its legal commitments because of the Transnet strike.
Sasol notes that this impacted the movement of certain feedstock and products between its inland operations and the Durban and Richards Bay ports.
Morgan says this only proves how much problems the strike has brought.
“Production rates at selected plants at Sasolburg are the issue but it also says backlogs across the ports in rail systems, now Sasol makes fuel from coal they don’t import anything but for me it hass happened before in April because of the floods. They also declared force majeure in July because they had a problem in crude oil shipments.
It means that whenever there is a problem the independent fuel sellers are the first to feel the pinch. So, it’s concerning for us in a number of areas but there’s a bigger issue we need to introduce to this discussion. It is time that the oil industry and the department got together and agreed on at least 30 days to choose stocks and all products. If we do that, we wouldn’t be having all these hiccups we keep on having.”
Counting the cost of the strike
Transnet National Ports Authority in KwaZulu-Natal said on Thursday that it’s still counting the cost of the crippling strike.
The strike affected operations for almost 12 days:
This week Transnet signed a three-year wage with the United National Transport Union (UNTU), the major union at the state freight rail company.
The agreement will see workers receiving a 6% wage increase in the first year, 5.5% in the second year and 6% in the third year.
