The chemical industry in South Africa came into being
in 1896, about 100 years after the first lead chamber and Leblanc
plants were built in Great Britain. The discovery of diamonds near
Kimberley in 1868, gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886, and coalfields
around Witbank and Vryheid, led to a burgeoning mining industry and
a rapidly growing demand for explosives. For the first 40 years of
its existence, the South African chemical industry could well have
been called the "explosives trade".
In this article, the development of the chemical industry
is discussed around three major companies, African Explosives and
Chemical Industries (AECI), South African Coal, Oil, and Gas Corporation
Ltd., (SASOL), and Sentrachem.
AECI's Predecessors
Alfred Nobel's discovery of dynamite had made the transportation
of nitroglycerine a reality, and increasingly large quantities of
the explosive were imported into South Africa in the early 1890s.
To ensure a regular supply and to improve blasting efficiency, required
for mining the hard quartzitic gold-bearing rock of the Witwatersrand,
the Nobel Dynamite Trust decided to produce the required explosives
locally.
On 22 October 1896, President Paul Kruger traveled from
Pretoria to the farm Modderfontein, east of Johannesburg, to open
De Zuid Africaansche Fabrieken voor Ontplofbare Stoffen. With a name
like this, it is not surprising that the factory was called simply
"The Dynamite Company". After the Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902, management
of the company passed into the hands of the British South Africa Explosives
Company, with the Nobel Dynamite Trust retaining a controlling interest.
For some years, Cecil John Rhodes, founder of De Beers
Consolidated Mines, was concerned about the monopoly on explosives
manufacture held by the Dynamite Company. In 1903, one year after
his death, the Cape Explosives Works, at Somerset West near Cape Town,
started producing dynamite, principally for the De Beers diamond mines
around Kimberley. By 1907, this company's annual production of 340
000 cases (each of 50 lb) had exceeded that of Modderfontein (230
000 cases).
In the United Kingdom, Kynoch and Company, Nobel's chief
competitor, had its eye on the rapidly growing explosives market in
South Africa. Arthur Chamberlain, who had taken over from the founder,
George Kynoch, started negotiations with the Natal government in 1907.
In an amazingly short period of time, Kynoch established a third dynamite
factory at Umbogintwini, south of Durban, in 1909.
By 1911, the explosives industry was by far the largest
manufacturing industry in the country, with an investment of over
�2 million and more than 3000 employees. But three companies-all importing
the same raw materials, all making the same product, and all using
the same process-were finding it difficult to make a profit. Their
problems were compounded by the rising price of glycerine; only exports
during World War I saved the three companies from bankruptcy.
After the war, both Somerset West and Umbogintwini diversified
into fertilizer manufacture using locally manufactured sulfuric acid
and phosphatic rock, most of which was imported from Morocco. The
benefits of this development were short-lived; overproduction of superphosphate
in Holland led to dumping in South Africa. The postwar slump only
added to the woes of the industry. Rationalization was the only answer.
African
Explosives and Industries
In 1923, Sir Harry McGowan, chairman of Nobel Industries, arranged
a merger of their Modderfontein company with that of Kynoch's at Umbogintwini.
Getting De Beers to come on board required more protracted negotiations,
but success was finally achieved in December 1923 when a new company,
African Explosives and Industries, was registered. Mr. Ross Frames
of De Beers was appointed chairman and Sir Harry McGowan, deputy chairman.
A young Ernest Oppenheimer, chairman of Anglo American Corporation,
joined the board to represent the mining industry and retained a close
association with the company for the rest of his life.
Two successful mergers in South Africa apparently whetted
McGowan's appetite for more in the UK. By 1926, he had formed Imperial
Chemical Industries (ICI) from the merger of Nobel Industries; the
British Dyestuffs Company; the United Alkali Company; and Brunner,
Mond Limited. ICI acquired Nobel Industries' 50% holding in African
Explosives and Industries, establishing a partnership that lasted
until 1998. This partnership resulted in a steady flow of technical
expertise, information, and personnel that was to be of incalculable
benefit in the development of the local chemical industry.
The great depression of the early 1930s adversely affected
the chemical industry, but the board of African Explosives and Industries
was looking adventurously to the future. A technical mission from
ICI was sent to investigate erecting a synthetic ammonia plant at
Modderfontein. In 1932, less than two years later and at a cost of
�300�000, the ammonia plant went into full production-5000 tons per
annum! With an associated oxidation plant, it was possible to produce
nitric acid, and research started into the substitution of ammonium
nitrate for nitroglycerine, ultimately with considerable cost savings
to the mines.
The boom in gold mining meant that expansion of the
ammonia plant was inevitable. By 1936, annual capacity had been increased
to 25,000 tons. In 1938, Modderfontein and Somerset West together
produced 2,348,987 cases of explosives, bringing the total production
since 1896 to over 30,000,000 cases.
MORE