Head to Head

Oliver Hill is one of the best known entrepreneurs in South Africa. He was responsible for creating the fertiliser industry in the then Rhodesia by building not only the largest plant of its kind in the Southern hemisphere, but also the first large terminal for receiving liquid gas in Africa. Following on this he conceived the idea of building chemical plants on floating platforms so as to cut the time and costs of building in the remote areas of the world. To exploit this idea he contracted to build the world's first floating chemical plant for Indonesia at a cost of U$250 million. Based on the concept of building plants on floating platforms so as to build them in civilised circumstances, he proposed a floating GTL plant for Alaska North Slope. BP however rejected the idea as temperatures in Alaska were -40 degrees. The studies were given to Sasol who had given the technology to him, and who then used them to build the first GTL plant in Mossel Bay. He then used the cryogenic terminal in Maputo to start a fertiliser factory in Swaziland and introduced the first high analysis fertilisers to South Africa at double the concentration of the existing products. In order to better utilise the Swazi plant he started an explosives business which was a South African monopoly at the time. To break into the market he made an agreement with Du Pont in America and introduced the new concept of water gel explosives which were making dynamite obsolete in America. After a protracted struggle the South African monopoly agreed to take a licence from him and Dynamite has disappeared from the Southern African market. He also became involved in building a plant for Du Pont's system of roof bolting for the mining industry using polyester cartridges (now the industry standard). He also invented a cheap detonating relay system which was used by Du Pont in America. Head to Head is the story of the enormous struggle to break into the markets against the most powerful cartels in Southern Africa. These cartels were little interested in new technologies and fought tooth and nail against the ideas introduced by Oliver Hill. In order to finance these enterprises a host of innovative financing tools were introduced, as well as aggressive marketing tools. At the end of it all the chemical industry has been transformed.