(Bloomberg) – ArcelleMittal said it is up to South Africa to keep the decisive steel factories open and interrogated the industrial policy of the government.
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The South African Unit of the company has negotiated with state officials since January 6, when the company said it has been planning to close three units, including manufacturers on which the auto and mines industries in the country depend.
Arceingtal South Africa Ltd. Or amsa, on Thursday to delay the closure for a month and he said he expects to issue a final advertisement at the end of February.
“We will not assume any other losses for this work,” CEO Copos Ferter said at the company’s headquarters in Vanderbiglkopk, south of Johannesburg. “Discussions are active, they are daily. They actively focus on trying to find a solution.”
State Steel for one time billionaire billionaire has been bought by Lakshmi Mittal in 2003, it has actually delivered the glove to the government to address complaints ranging from high energy and transportation costs, to what it considers an insufficient tariff for imported steel and unfair support for competitors.
“Electricity is expensive in South Africa, the railway tariff is expensive in South Africa, and guarantees are not good enough,” Ferter said. “You need to address structural issues.”
Verster said that the company may need a issue of rights to enhance its financial resources, which prompted its shares to a decrease of up to 17 % to 93 cents South Africa in Johannesburg, the lowest level since December 2023. It was circulated in 1 Rand at 3:28 pm
Driving the closure announcement from industries to intervene.
They argue that plants, which also provide construction steel, are the key to the health of their operations because imports will be very expensive and less reliable.
Verster said that VEREENIGING and Newcastle Mills, which indirectly supports more than 100,000 jobs, provides between 350,000 tons and 400,000 tons of steel products that are not currently manufactured by any other companies in South Africa.
Although this is a small part of the total production of mills, it consists of the flexible spring steel needed for the components of cars and the hollow group used to make manual mining exercises necessary for precious metal operations in South Africa. It is also the key to the 4.8 trillion Rand (258 billion dollars) infrastructure campaign that President Cyril Ramavusa defended.
Arceingtal’s discontent is a government policy that gives its competitors – who use the steel scrap instead of the Iron ore consumed by ASA – a 30 % discount on the international price of the main raw materials.
An industrial dilemma
Also, the government’s industrial development company, although it is the largest contributor to Amsa after its mother company, has strengthened a number of its competitors by investing in it.
Now, IDC AMSA has provided an emergency loan of 380 million Rand while holding talks on supporting possible rights and providing more financial support.
“The fact that IDC has a dilemma that is their problem – they have to solve it,” said Verster. “We will not face any other financial risks.”
IDC, which has about 8 % of Amsa, did not respond to the comment request.
Verster added that newspaper reports on a financial rescue plan from the government were inaccurate and Amsa did not receive any “dangerous” offers of its origins.
“We do not need to spend time in cases where there is no financing behind and there is no reliable offer,” he said.
The value of the company, which amounted to annual revenues of about 40 billion Rand, is only 1.2 billion Rand, a decrease from 116 billion Rand in 2008.
Verster has developed a set of investments that the company can follow as soon as hemorrhagic money stops from unbelievable units, one of which has been operated for more than a century.
It includes a 1.5 million tons of electric arc oven per year, and a solar energy factory 200 megawatts to reduce electricity costs and reopen the Theabazimbi Iron-Lore mine in 2027. The company can also start producing the so-called and said that the directly transmitted green iron of steel grinding Her closed hydrogen surplus by 2030.
“Without the phase, the work is in good condition,” said Verster, using the term industry to indicate steel types produced by troublesome mills.
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