EvgenyMiroshnichenko
Sasol (NYSE:SSL) -8.5% in early trading Thursday after warning challenges at its Secunda operations will weigh on coal and fuel production and sales volume, although higher crude oil prices are seen boosting half-year profit by more than 20%.
Sasol (SSL) said Secunda’s challenges related to coal quality, productivity slowed by safety stoppages, and flooding caused by unexpected rainfall, which have hurt production and sales volume performance in the current quarter.
As a result, Sasol (SSL) cut guidance for Secunda coal production for the full year to June 2023 to 6.6M-6.9M metric tons from its previous outlook of 7M-7.2M tons, with liquid fuels sales volumes now seen at 52M-55M barrels, down from initial guidance of 53M-56M barrels.
The company also expects chemical sales in Africa will be impacted by lower production at Secunda.
Sasol (SSL) recently declared force majeure on local ammonia supply due to a shortage of rail cars; a force majeure on the local supply and export of certain chemical products because of a wage strike at logistics company Transnet was declared in October.