SAPREF is putting more of its property under the hammer as an auction of its vehicles will be held in Prospecton on April 4. The company is disposing of its items damaged by floods in 2022.

Also read: Sapref auctions fuel-testing machinery

This week, cars, trucks, trailers, tanks, pumps and carts are among the items that were auctioned. Between March 20 and 28, Sapref held an online auction to dispose of some of its damaged fuel-testing machinery.

The items could be viewed online, and the vehicle that attracted the highest bids was a 2017 fire engine that was a non-runner.

The April 2022 floods came just after the company’s joint owners, Shell and BP, announced that the facility would cease producing fuel. The plan was to use the site as a storage facility for imported fuel. BP and Shell said that modernising the refinery would not be profitable, hence the decision to close it. At its peak, Sapref was South Africa’s biggest petrol manufacturer, producing 2.7 billion litres annually.

The KwaZulu-Natal government had expressed interest in buying the facility to bolster the province’s economy and save jobs, but the floods scuppered those plans. Sapref has since offered most of its staff severance packages.

Questions to the company had not been answered at the time of going to press.

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