Safety standby contractors, Jerita Mokoena and Nomsa Radebe, check the construction site of the new Sasol Wax plant at Sasolburg for potential hazards. As the markets for our products stabilised,  Sasol Wax increased production in  Germany and the United States.  In Hamburg we completed a project  to purify wax through the installation  of a hydro-treater. This investment is  performing well and has given us the  capacity we need to supply our customers,  particularly those in the personal care and  industrial wax industries. construction board markets, this involves  the introduction of specialised products  and services where our technological  expertise and worldwide infrastructure  add value for the customer.  A highlight of the year was fi nal board  approval for the two-phase construction  of a R8,4 billion plant to double hard wax  production in South Africa. We expect  the first phase to come into operation  in 2012, and the second phase to start  up around 2014.  We continued to expand our product  range, with pleasing endorsement from  the market. One example is Solid  Protect™, a Fischer-Tropsch-derived wax  used to impregnate, under pressure,  commercially forested wood such as pine.  This gives it the durability of tropical,  slow-growing wood and supports the use  of renewable, environmentally friendly  construction material as an alternative to  wood sourced from the world’s rainforests. By making this investment, Sasol Wax  will be able to grow with our customers.  The investment is in line with the group’s  strategy to leverage our advanced  proprietary technology and also  demonstrates our commitment to  investing in South Africa. Our US operation, primarily a commodity  wax business, continued to feel the effects  of the economic slowdown. However, we  are pleased to report encouraging results  from our Sasol Wax Difference initiative.  Focusing on the industrial wax and  59 annual review 2010 • operating reviews •  sasol nitro, sasol wax, sasol infrachem and merisol continued