Johannesburg and New York listed petrochemicals giant, Sasol, late on Thursday said its unit, Sasol Chemicals Industries (SCI), would appeal the decision by South Africa’s Competition Tribunal to fine it $50 million for charging higher polymer and polypropylene prices.

Sasol said its unit would be lodging an appeal with the South African Competition Appeal Court (CAC) and the appeal will be filed today.

A couple of weeks ago, South Africa’s Competition Tribunal disclosed that it had imposed a penalty of R205.2 million ($19,1 million) in the case of purified propylene and R328.8 million ($30,6 million) in the case of polypropylene.

The Tribunal also said it had recommended solutions to the SCI that are aimed at helping SCI on its pricing strategies for the two products.

It said this will go a long into helping the firm drop the price that local competitors would have to pay for the two products.   The Tribunal said SCI’s transgressions happened during a period of four years, stretching from January 2004 to December 2007.

It found that the prices SCI charged during the period had a negative impact on South Africa’s other plastic converters and SCI’s competitors.