(Bloomberg) – ArcelorMittal S said that it was up to South Africa to keep the crucial steelworks open and questioned the government’s industrial policy.
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The company’s South African unit has negotiated with state officials since January 6, when the firm said it was planning to close three units, two factories on which the automobile depend, equipment mining of the country and the manufacturing industries by steel.
ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd., or Amsa, delayed the one month’s closings and said that she was planning to make a last announcement towards the end of February.
“We are not going to have other losses on this company,” CEO Kobus Verster said at the company’s headquarters in Vanderbijl, south of Johannesburg. “The discussions are active, they are daily. They actively focus on the test to find a solution. »»
The single steel state company bought by the company of the billionaire Lakshmi Mittal in 2003 actually threw the Government to treat complaints ranging from high power and transport costs, until it considers prices Inadequate on imported steel and unfair support for competitors.
“Electricity is too expensive in South Africa, rail prices are too expensive in South Africa, the guarantees are not good enough, the reduction in scrap gave to competitors is unfair,” said Verster. “You must solve structural problems.”
The company may need a rights issue to strengthen its finances, said Vister, which prompted its shares to drop up to 17% to 93 cents South African in Johannesburg, the lowest since December 2023. was negotiated at 1 rand at 3:28 p.m.
The closing announcement has aroused industry calls to intervene.
They argue that factories, which also provide construction steel, are essential to the health of their own operations because imports would be too expensive and less reliable.
Verster said that the Moulins Vereeniging and Newcastle, which indirectly support more than 100,000 jobs, provide between 350,000 tonnes and 400,000 tonnes of steel products which cannot currently be manufactured by any other company in South Africa.
Although it is a fraction of the total production of mills, it consists of the flexible spring steel necessary for automobile components and the hollow variety used to do hand extraction exercises essential to Precious level metal operations in South Africa. It is also essential for the infrastructure campaign of 4.8 Billions of Rands ($ 258 billion) defended by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
