Earnings Labs

Sasol Limited (SSL)

Q4 2012 Earnings Call· Mon, Sep 10, 2012

$13.10

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-0.36%

1 Week

+2.85%

1 Month

-7.62%

vs S&P

-7.46%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Sasol Year-End Financial Results Conference Call. Today’s call will be hosted by David Constable, Chief Executive Officer and Christine Ramon, Chief Financial Officer. I would like to remind participants that we will be connecting to a live meeting in Johannesburg. Following the formal presentation by Sasol management, an interactive Q&A session will be available. A copy of today’s slide presentation is available on www.sasol.com. (Operator Instructions)

Raj Naidu

Management

Okay. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Sasol Ltd.’s Results Presentation. I’m Raj Naidu, Executive, Investor Relations. Today, David Constable, Chief Executive Officer; and Christine Ramon, Chief Financial Officer will present our results for the financial year ended 30th June, 2012. They’re also joined by Nolitha Fakude, Johann Strauss, Andre de Ruyter and Bernard Klingenberg as well as other members of our Group Executive Committee as well as some managing directors and functional leaders. Before we proceed, in the case of an emergency, please exit by the main auditorium doors and follow the exit signs, the emergency exit back to the left and right of the auditorium, and there will be safety marshals to also guide you around the process. Before David takes the podium, we want to showcase some of our recent projects in a short video. (Video Presentation)

David Constable

Management

Well good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss our Year-end Results Presentation today. As you’ve seen in the videos, Sasol is a great organization and it is delivering results not only here in South Africa but also as we expand globally. As a company, we are committed to exercise excellence in all we do and we now that in working in partnership with others, we are better able to deliver exceptional results on on-going basis. I’ve been with Sasol just over a year now and it is certainly, have been both an eventful and exhilarating first year. Today, we will be announcing record full year earnings as you know and before I begin, I would like to recognize and congratulate and thank all staff of people throughout the world for their dedication, hard work and perseverance in the past financial year. We’ve been through a lot together – from strikes, to plant instabilities, from a continuing global economic crisis, to factions and from volatile commodity prices to softening product demand, especially in our chemicals businesses. Notwithstanding a year of ups and downs, as an organization we ended our 2012 financial year in solid platform. Let me start with an overview of what you’re going to hear today. First of all, our record full year earnings are due to the fact that notwithstanding the challenges we faced, particularly in the first half of the financial year, we delivered on several key milestones both in South Africa and abroad and significantly, improved our operational performance in the second half. We’ll expand on both of these areas later in the presentation. Next, we’ll highlight our strategic agendas better aligning the organization, how we intend to execute on our agenda through our FY 2013 priorities. We’ll wrap up this afternoon’s session…

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Thanks, David, and good afternoon everyone. It’s certainly my pleasure to present another solid set of results to you today amidst of all these challenging environments. Before discussing the results in detail, I’d like to make some introductory remarks. Firstly, management continued focus on costs and operational performance has enabled delivery on our stated performance target. Second, our second half profits were significantly impacted by once-off charges and extraordinary effect, exacerbated by lower chemical prices and depressed U.S. gas prices. And finally, our strong balance sheet continues to position Sasol well to pan growth amidst the still volatile and uncertain global macroeconomic environment, as well as deliver superior returns to our shareholders through our progressive dividend policy. The past year was characterized by a predominantly favorable but volatile macroeconomic environment. The global economy remained weak with the European debt crisis has taken its toll. China has experienced lower growth whilst there has been a slowdown in the U.S. recovery. Despite this, oil and commodity prices were strong throughout most of the financial year with the rand-dollar exchange rate being 11% weaker than last year. The chemical’s market are either challenging with chemical prices softening on the back of weaker demands and downstream markets. Capitals with higher feed stock prices, this lead to an industry wide margin squeeze. . And we have gas prices were lower, reflecting the ever increasing disconnect between crude oil and gas prices in the U.S. Although this did have a negative impact from our Canadian operations, in the short term, it certainly remains positive for our GTL value proposition in the longer term. South African PPI for the past year averaged at 8.6% while CPI was 5.9% and although a weaker rand-dollar exchange rate is overall positive for our profitability and contributed to an already challenging…

David Constable

Management

Thanks, Christine. Our strategic agenda continues to serve us well obviously. With Sasol, our primary strategic focus is to increase shareholder returns on a sustainable basis. We achieve this by, first enhancing our existing operations which form an integral part of our foundation pillar you see there. And second, accelerate our growth aspirations under our sustainable growth pillar. Our group imperatives, down the side, described what – is we must focus on to ensure our overarching definition of victory is secured. Operations excellence, here, we continue our drive to ensure the reliability, stability and maintainability of all of our facilities. As Christine mentioned earlier, to capital excellence we strive to attain excellence in capital allocation and we’ll concentrate execution delivery. With business excellence, we look to enhance our overall approach to doing business. This one should and we know exactly what levers to pull to maximize financial impact. And to embed values-driven organization, this imperative has been expanded and now focused on our shared values being driven by everyone in the company. To execute on our strategic agenda, our annual top priorities are key. Looking at FY 2013, you’ll note that our priorities cover five areas: number one, improving safety performance; number two, enhancing operational performance; number three, accelerating sustainable growth; four, driving a high performance culture in Sasol; and five, strengthening stakeholder relationships. Looking at safety, in FY 2013, we are looking to further improve recordable case – the recordable case rates of less than 0.32. Through our leading indicator metrics and our safety improvement plans, we believe that zero harm is achievable. Next, we are looking to further enhance our operational performance to improve these efficiencies and cost optimization. Turning to third row, to accelerate sustainable growth, we are capitalizing on current projects and continuously identifying new ones…

Raj Naidu

Management

Thanks, David. We’ll now open to the floor for few minutes and then cross over to the conference call, okay.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions)

Alex Comer

Management

...there tend to be with regard to the mines? Are you seeing any impacts on those problems in your own business? And also, on the topic, the ZAR1.1 billion for I think future provisions, what exactly is that? That’s the first question. And then, I was just wondering, with regard to Canada, you’ve got quite a high level of CapEx, but you obviously will be drilling that many wells. Where else is the money going into? And then with regard to the polymers business, it seems to be struggling without a great deal of confidence of a recovery. Is it time to restructure that business? That’s my three questions.

David Constable

Management

Thanks, Alex. Let me just make sure I got the first one right, you asked about the current mine issues in the country and how that may be affecting us?

Alex Comer

Management

Yes.

David Constable

Management

And about the...

Alex Comer

Management

Your comments on your wage inflation, I think 7.5% to 8% is pretty good. Yes, are you happy the – are you already happy with that and there’s not going to be any...

David Constable

Management

Okay.

Alex Comer

Management

Ongoing problems given, yes, obviously the strike last year.

David Constable

Management

Okay, thanks. And then we’ll get into the future provisions and the kind of the CapEx in polymers. Let me just start on the mine issue, where we’ve successfully completed all of our agreements with our three Collective Bargaining in chemicals, and mining, and petroleum. And that was completed in early August and with both sides very, very comfortable. Mining ended up in a range of I believe, about 7.75% this year. If you total it all up, 7.75% over the – over FY 2013 and we have a very good relationship right now with all of our unions, met with all of Sasol trade union representatives, August 14, just before the . Americana incidents. And had a great session with them, talking about strategy and the way forward and what we’re trying to achieve with one Sasol approach and moving away from us and them. And gaining much more open dialog with all of our union representatives including with the CEO office and getting good feedback, making sure everyone’s voices are heard. And I think it’s going quite well and we’re certainly optimistic that we can continue that. We’re going to double up our focus on our stakeholder relationship and focus, so positive there, this ZAR1.1 billion future provisions, I think I’ll ask possibly Christine to talk through that.

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Yes. Thanks for the question, Alex. I just like to confirm, are you referring to the one under one source?

Alex Comer

Management

The period is this period over incentive provisions.

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Yes, period incentive provisions. I suppose, these are clearly incentive provisions relating to the past financial year that it pays in the – clearly, there is a cash flow difference because it is paid in the new financial year but it relates to the prior financial year 2012.

Alex Comer

Management

Okay. So that came – went through the P&L, so – what about...

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Yes. It was under employee costs, that’s with the numbers.

David Constable

Management

Okay. Thanks, Christine. No, we’ve got some more answers first. Canada CapEx, right? We’re drilling wells out there and we’ve got a few rigs out there. I think four rigs down to three right now or – Leon, can you talk about where all that money is spent?

Leon Reddy

Management

Yeah. Actually, quite frankly, we’ve spent quite a lot of money which we spend to sort of midstream downstream. Obviously, we have to do land clearance and the per establishment that we build the central project facility, for the gas also, a refrigeration facility for future liquids production. We’ve built a lot of internal pipelines. We had a water pipeline supply system. We’ve built a base camp and operation room, water treatment there. A lot of pre-establishment cost that we had to put in there, we’re also obviously building for a bigger size, the Northern – this related to production for today only. So there was a significant upfront in there.

Jacob Shulman

Management

So there should be a material cut in CapEx this year than?

Leon Reddy

Management

We’re looking forward for next year. This year’s CapEx has been fixed. We do this on an annual basis with Talisman, so that will speak for calendar year 2012. But we are looking at reducing CapEx money this year.

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

I think just to make that point ORYX success, approximately 9% of the total CapEx estimates that I’ve given you for financial years 2013 and 2014 relates to Canada, so should be making changes in trying to influence the numbers.

Alex Comer

Management

Thanks, Christine.

David Constable

Management

To the last questions on Polymers and the pressure that business is under, we’ve – still we got some CapEx projects coming along to help with efficiency and more sales volume. Andre, could you talk about the Polymers situation?

Andre de Ruyter

Management

Alex, thanks. We are doing whatever we can to improve Polymers profitability and there’s some very challenging market conditions. Christine referenced the decline in polymer pricing compared to long-term price spins. But the real fundamental factor that’s squeezing our margins relates to the fact that in rand terms, feedstock prices have gone up by 30% and our product prices have only gone up by 10%. That’s really put us under a lot of pressure in already challenging market conditions for the polymer industry globally. What we’re doing about it is we are regularly conducting a comprehensive molecule allocation exercise to confirm that placing our olefins into polymers is still the most appropriate way to go and the most profitable routes from an overall Sasol bottom line point of view, and we regularly confirm that. That is in fact the case. We’ve also taken a long hard look at our customer portfolio and we eliminated some low net back customers, and we have moved into high net back regions. And then, we are also continuously looking at cost optimization. So we’re pulling the levers that we have at our disposal. If by restructuring, you mean shutting down some of our South African plants, that would not be in the best interest of business. And we have investigated those options but they don’t make that much sense at this point in time.

Alex Comer

Management

Thanks, Andre. Thank you.

Andre de Ruyter

Management

Okay, great. Just raise your hands, and then the mic will come around to you, but (inaudible). Gerhard Engelbrecht – Renaissance Capital: This is Gerhard Engelbrecht – sorry, from Renaissance Capital, Edward. I’ve got three questions around Synfuels and just maybe another one. Firstly, your production guidance for Synfuels now puts us back to where – kind of where we were in 2010. My question is when do we see the growth program kick in? The additional 3% that you really – that you’ve invested in recent years? Secondly, when do you expect the additional and extraordinary maintenance that you’re spending at Synfuels to come to an end? And then the last question on Synfuels is you are now extending the lines of your mines to what you’re saying 2039. I think that’s much longer than the Synfuels depreciable life. Do you have an estimate of how much capital you’d be spending on Synfuels to extend Synfuels’ life to match or exceed the lives of the mines? And I guess (inaudible). Thanks.

David Constable

Management

Thanks. Right, so production, you saw a 7.2 million achieved this year on a great second half. We’re guiding 7.2 million to 7.4 million tons in FY 2013 and guiding, I believe, 7.3 million to 7.5 million in FY 2014 which will get up very close to – unless we will get up to the increases that we’re – for the growth program in FY – end of FY 2014. Gerhard Engelbrecht – Renaissance Capital: Yes.

David Constable

Management

But additional extraordinary maintenance. Bernard why don’t you fill us now how that’s going to play out.

Bernard Klingenberg

Management

Yes, thanks, David. In this year, we actually made a conscious decision to spend a little more money on maintenance to see improvement of our ability and availability, and we’ve seen that a little good results. We anticipate that for this financial year 2013, the next year will continue with additional spend on maintenance and then we expect that come off, going forward.

David Constable

Management

On the life of synfuels, we have an aspiration out there to look at synfuels going to 2050 and that takes a lot of effort on our side as far as capital goes and we’re in those – in that process right now, looking at the capital cost and working through that certainly take well into the next year to evaluate and get a better handle on it. That’s – the plan right now is to look at that type of extension and the related businesses just to support that type of aspiration. So that’s in the strategy right now. Gerhard Engelbrecht – Renaissance Capital: Okay, and just the last question you showed quite a big currency translation going in the first half, and I think the forward exchange contracts related to Canada.

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Yes. Gerhard Engelbrecht – Renaissance Capital: And then you mentioned currency translation losses of ZAR1.1 billion in the second half, yet the rand weakened. Can you maybe explain why there were currency translation losses in the second half?

David Constable

Management

Christine?

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Yeah. I think there’s talks to the realization of the unrealized profit that we actually booked relating to the Canadian forward exchange contracts. And clearly, those would have had sort of different exchange rates factored in from that actually conspired in the first half compared to the second half. And starting clearly in the realization and the unwinding of debt coming through, that’s where we saw the reversal complete the first half. But I mean it clearly offsets each other, sort of really and neutrally big. I think there’s, clearly, I’ll have to give more detail on that. I think in the analyst book, we actually do disclose what’s open in terms of forward exchange contract. Can I get back to you on the actual number but they had various expiry date and their range lasts through to 2014. So clearly, one would have to take what exchange rates are applicable to the different year.

Raj Naidu

Management

Thanks. Next up, Nishal. That will be followed by our last question from the floor, Nishal? Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: Hi. Yes. Nishal from UBS. Just a couple of things from my head. So one is can you maybe just give an update in terms of what your plans in terms of upstream explorations? And maybe linked to that, would your acreage that you actually had in accrual, was stopping exploration? Have you given up that acreage? Do you need to reapply for that or you already hold that? And just maybe in Arya, could you maybe just give an update in terms of the difficulty in doing business in Arya. I see you say volumes or production is quite strong but are you able to ship that product quite easily out and are you able to actually tally that as global prices or are you just pricing that as a bit of a discount? And maybe just on CapEx. So for your CapEx profile for FY 2013 and FY 2014, can you maybe just indicate how much is for the growth project? And I see you make mention of some possible acquisition of gas assets, is that included in those figures?

David Constable

Management

Okay, thank you. Let’s see, start with Lean, if you can tell us about the . financial upstream exploration and I’ll take . crude and then we’ll end from there.

Giullean Strauss

Management

Our focus on the upstream is firstly in Mozambique. We are currently busy drilling a well in M-10. We hope to reach the target this, in this month. We’re also doing seismic on Block A in Mozambique. We continue to drill in (inaudible) where we have our oil production to sustain the production and obviously, we focus on Canada to further produce and derisk at Montney. We have one more asset in Australia, AC/P 52, but at this stage, we’re still doing seismic and we have – we will take a decision on drilling there or not probably early next year.

David Constable

Management

Thanks, Lean. On the crude acreage, that was a technical cooperation permit we had between November 2010 and November 2011 with Chesapeake Energy and Statoil which we – . the desktops that is on for that that acreage, that block. And for technical reasons and economic viability, we decided to let that acreage lapse. So that wasn’t right in the crude, it’s in the crude basins that. As I said earlier, we’re extremely interested in getting involved in crude shale gas if we see that we can get the right best practices in place in the country and we’ll be looking at that very seriously going forward. Arya difficulties, let’s ask Andre to talk to that. Thanks, Andre.

Andre de Ruyter

Management

Edward, thanks. I think the first point to make is that Sasol is very serious about compliance with sanctions legislation, U.S., EU and UN, and we regularly consult with the regulatory authorities in the U.S. to ensure that we do in fact remain compliant. We haven’t had serious challenges in terms of shipping out polymer products. It is still – we are still able to move out that product at market related prices. And you will see that profitability this plant is still – or this complex of plants rather, is still pretty good. On ethylene shipping, there are sometimes challenges in terms of insurance on vessels, but that is as a consequence of sanctions legislation being enforced against both insurers as well as ship owners. But all in all, I think we’re managing the situation. We are making progress on the divestiture process and that’s about all that we can say at this stage and further announcements will follow in due course. Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: Thanks, Andre. And then on CapEx, ZAR32 billion and ZAR34 billion in FY 2013, FY 2014, that does not include any gas acquisitions upstream. But from a growth perspective, Christine can you break that down for us, please? Thank you.

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Yes. I think of the top for FY 2013 approximately about ZAR19 billion with the growth, and for FY 2014, ZAR22 billion with the growth project. And some of the big projects that – that does relate to is really some of the (inaudible) growth program CapEx that needs to be spent under the South African energy tester, and the international figures include the Canada CapEx and our recent debt about 9% of the total for both financial year. Those financial year approximately ZAR3 billion relating to Canada and then fairly driven by investment decisions Uzbekistan GTL and Canada GTL and USA GTL, and cracker projects included in the balance. I think partly important it is the wax expansion project that was also included in the capital spent here. Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: You’re going to pay?

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

You could ask him. Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: Thank you, ma’am. This is to follow-up on that gas asset acquisition. Can you maybe give a bit more color on that?

David Constable

Management

We’re certainly evaluating natural gas acquisitions, chemical acquisitions. We’re certainly looking into all opportunities out there. Certainly with North America in the situation it sits in, it certainly is an interesting region for us to look at. So we are on that track, but that’s the bit all I can tell you right now. Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: Okay. A couple of questions, if you don’t mind. Firstly, I’m just trying to explore the linkages here. If you were to cancel your Canadian GTL either before or after the fees, what do you do with your upstream methods? Maybe you could just share of your strategy – strategic thinking about that.

David Constable

Management

Yes. Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: I’ll ask some other questions depending on your answer.

David Constable

Management

And may I jump in here, but let me start with the fact that Canada is a 48,000-barrel a day GTL that we’re looking at and Lake Charles is a 96,000-barrel a day. So the cover on that with the current assets we have is about 60% – 66% (ph). So a good coverage on feedstock for – into those facilities. If Canada doesn’t go ahead, then we’re even more covered down in the U.S. and you could possibly look at that increase in the capacity down there. But that’s where we are right now. It’s a little too early to – if you want to look at it here at the end of the year holistically with all the projects we’ve got on our plays and we can make a decision to go forward on each of those. Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: So, what sort of pricing do you apply to related to GTL field project, you haven’t exactly stitched up the upstream sources of your gas?

David Constable

Management

Lean, you want to take that?

Giullean Strauss

Management

We do all our economics on market related prices. So we don’t do cross subsidization between plants. Obviously, once we’ve done the investment and we have to integrate the plant. But we do our feasibility work on market regulated by prices for gas (inaudible) both Canada and Louisiana GTL projects. Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: Okay, maybe you could share us a little bit as well with your power projects, the two power projects one obviously on Sasolburg and the other in Mozambique. The one down on Sasolburg, are you intending nearly to displace your current production from coal, electricity generation from coal, you have a contract with . Eskom and the same questions apply to a certain extent to the Mozambique projects.

David Constable

Management

On Sasolburg, go ahead, Lean, if you want to take that.

Giullean Strauss

Management

On Sasolburg, we can adjust reduced purchases from . Eskom so we do it on the alternative of buying in electricity base, economical part like the purchases from . Eskom and in the case of Mozambique, we plan to tell the electricity in Mozambique, so it’s – and then we will have purchase agreement from Mozambique. Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: Okay, so what are you going to do with the power station in Sasolburg?

David Constable

Management

The existing coal plant (inaudible)

Giullean Strauss

Management

In the meantime, we plan to still took on operated for the longest if feasible. Nishal Ramloutan – UBS: Right. Okay. Thank you very much.

David Constable

Management

Right. Thank you. I’ll now hand over to the conference coordinator, we’ve got two participants wanting to ask questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from Caroline Learmonth from Absa Capital. Please go ahead with your question. Caroline Learmonth – Absa Capital: Thank you. It’s Caroline, Absa Capital, couple of questions, but I think some have already been addressed. On fixed cost increase, so we see you have your aspirations to keep cost inflation at or below PPI. And – but including elements of cost increases which are an integral part of your business, so your study costs, your position to the exchange rates. What would cost inflation look like for this year for Sasol and for Synfuels in particular? And then second question, on your Canada GTL, you’ve mentioned the piece that you’ve finished and you’re looking at whether to proceed. Can you give us some indication of why you haven’t yet made that decision? And then finally, just on the Synfuels’ production, so your reserve run rate of 7.6 million tons in the second half, but obviously looking at more conservative guidance for the full year next year. Is there a reason why that 7.6 isn’t sustainable? Thank you.

David Constable

Management

Thanks, Caroline. Christine has talked about cost increases in the...

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Yes.

David Constable

Management

In our aspirations below PPI and how that shapes out.

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Yes, I just need to say that clearly we spoke to a challenging cost environment and if one actually looked at what the budgeted exchange rates look like and clearly, also taking study costs into account, we are going to be challenged to meet PPI but we keep that as a target and we certainly as the group fixated as commitment, we’re doing very serious cost control and is improvising our business units on that as well.

David Constable

Management

I think Caroline also asked the... Caroline Learmonth – Absa Capital: Synfuels.

David Constable

Management

Just a bit about Synfuels.

Kandimathie Ramon

Management

Yes, and I’d like to include Synfuels in that comment.

David Constable

Management

Okay. So Leon, on Canada GTL, certainly the feasibility – they looked encouraging by perspective, but we’re going to take a little longer into the end of the year as well. Can you give some color on that?

Giullean Strauss

Management

Yes. Caroline, as David has indicated, we’ll also be completing both the GTL and practice studies in Louisiana by the end of this year. And then we’ll have to look at our portfolio. I mean, we’re in a perfect position that we have quite a few projects here in the pipeline. And I will have to prioritize and to see how can we execute it. We will have manpower challenges, so we will look at the portfolio and on that basis, decide which projects goes first and how do we stake at them behind each other.

David Constable

Management

Thanks, Giullean. Of course, that 7 – Caroline, that 7.6 million ton run rate in the second half, of course, excluded any shutdown. And of course, we’re in a middle of a large space shutdown right now which will obviously affect our volumes in FY 2013. Bernard, any other comments on growth program construction that could have impact?

Bernard Klingenberg

Management

Thank you, David. The other impact is that we’re implementing the . GHI kiosk this year which will have an impact as well on volumes.

David Constable

Management

Yes, thanks. Caroline Learmonth – Absa Capital: Thank you.

Raj Naidu

Management

One more question on the line.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Next question comes from Campbell Perry from Investec Securities. Please go ahead with your question. Campbell Perry – Investec Securities: Yes, hi, good morning – good afternoon, everyone. So just starting with chemicals, Andre. Maybe just give us an indication what you wanted looking like so far because I’m just wondering what kind of – if it really is as soft as you say it is. And secondly in the South African polymers business, are you into discount prices, David, or – at the moment? And then in Synfuels, if all things being all equal, should you be earning better yields from gas input or coal input? And then very lastly at ORYX, versus the end of last year when we toured the facility, has there been any improvement in the premiums earned for diesel and NAFTA and – or has there been any adjustment in feedstock price? I’m just trying to get a handle on how economics might have changed at that project?

David Constable

Management

Okay, we’ll start with chemicals in Q1. Any comments, Andre, on that?

Andre de Ruyter

Management

Look Campbell, I think the position is still that until the Eurozone crisis is resolved and until consumer confidence is restored, we see that conditions will remain on the softer side. It depends however on the commodity that you manufacture. What we see is the more differentiated you are, the more immune you are to global demand fluctuating up and down. And that’s one of the reasons why we own (inaudible) business has been able to sustain operating margins through the cycle. The more commoditized chemicals businesses however have been exposed quite badly as you will have seen from the results. Campbell Perry – Investec Securities: Yes.

Andre de Ruyter

Management

You will also have seen in the press that the Chinese manufacturing sector is contracting. This is a major consumer commodity chemicals that we manufacture. So for the time being, we’re in the middle of a storm and we’re riding it out and managing what we can manage. In terms of discounting of polymers, what we are seeing in the polymer market is the entry of importers of polymers into the South African market. With these competitors, head on, we compete with them. We compete with them not only on price. We also offer a very significant substantial into our customers’ desirable technical support service, which our competitors do not. And therefore, we’re in fact able to charge a premium whilst still placing our volumes in the market. So no discounting to move volumes to the exploration. All right.

David Constable

Management

Thanks. So just that, if you look at some of our peers or global chemical players in the marketplace and you look at their first half, operating income results, you see there, operating income down anywhere from 30% to 38%. So it was a tough first half and as you saw with our numbers, down 25%, so. Next question is on Synfuels. So Campbell, on yields from gas input or coal inputs, Bernard?

Bernard Klingenberg

Management

Campbell, it’s Bernard. If I understand the question correctly, we did a lot of work to setting up the modulation and the ongoing basis to understand, where we get the most value. And in fact, until now and we foresee going forward, the value we extract from coal is in place and it’s always going to be attractive. And we augment that with gas supplies to the facility. And we saw that last year with one or two of the instability, we were able to bring in more gas and such (inaudible) either or it’s on top of one end cut back. And so we don’t cut back on coal but we’ve seen the gasification part of the value chain running very well with the new gasifier that we have. And so we’ll continue to extract the next values that came out of the coal value chain and we’ll augment that with gas.

David Constable

Management

Thanks, Bernard.

Campbell Parry

Analyst

Thanks, Bernard.

David Constable

Management

The last, next – Campbell, the last question was on ORPS and on naptha. Lean, I think I’ll – I’d like you to answer that for me.

Giullean Strauss

Management

Yes. Campbell, you – I think I appreciate that you’re asking from a commercial point of view information. Just on premiums, the constantly – you’ve visited the plant, no change there. And the feedstock of course is driven by commercial contract, which we don’t disclose. But they are escalations, and to which I think you can pick up from the end result.

Campbell Parry

Analyst

Yes. All right, thanks, Lean.

Giullean Strauss

Management

Okay, Campbell. Thanks.

Raj Naidu

Management

Now thanks very much for all your questions. I think we have all the time that we have available. But we invite you for any refreshments, David and Christine and the management team, where you’ll have an opportunity to ask them further questions. So thanks very much.

David Constable

Management

Thanks, everyone. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude the Sasol Year-end Financial Results Conference Call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.