Two contractors checking a safety harness before performing maintenance activities during a planned shutdown at the Sasol Solvents plant in Secunda. variable nature of transport services in  South Africa. In an effort to overcome this,  in the year Sasol Solvents signed a  R215 million public-private partnership  agreement to buy state transport utility  Transnet Freight Rail’s 400 dedicated  chemical tankers. We also committed  R100 million to build new special purpose  rail wagons. In this way we will be able  to transfer the transportation of our  product from the road network and on  to the rail system, while simultaneously  ensuring better reliability of delivery  to our customers. to develop fi rst-of-a-kind technology  to manufacture octene by tetramerising  ethylene for use as a comonomer  in the manufacture of linear low-density  polyethylene. Basic engineering started  at Sasol Olefins & Surfactants’ facilities  at Lake Charles, Louisiana in the  United States, where Sasol O&S  technical staff are assisting us. Through  this process, octene imparts particular  properties to the polyethylene for  improved end-use applications,  particularly in packaging.  The expansion of the Sasol-Huntsman  joint venture’s manufacturing capacity  is another important growth project.  Targeting a 75% increase in production  capacity of maleic anhydride at Moers  in Germany, the project is on schedule  and within budget. Maleic anhydride  is used chiefly in the production of glass- fibre-reinforced resins for the construction,  automotive and boat-building industries. manufacture of vehicle tyres and  high-end coatings such as automotive  and decorative paints, will be ramped  up over the next few months.  Another key feature of Sasol’s strategic  agenda is to nurture and grow our existing  asset base. To this end, we recently started  up our second methyl iso-butyl ketone  (MiBK) plant at Sasolburg. This facility,  whose product is mostly used in the  A key pillar of Sasol’s strategy is to  commercialise its technological lead.  In the year, we started basic engineering  Commercialising our  technological lead annual review 2010 • operating reviews •  sasol solvents continued 53