SA used to track prices but has discontinued this service. The relative prices of long steel and flat steel in South Africa are currently the subject of a complaint to the Competition Commission. The industry should work from value-added products backwards through its value and supply chains to identify and eliminate bottlenecks and unrealistic margins. 5.3 Imported carbon steel is subject to a tariff and a safeguard. ITAC and the dtic are currently considering the application to extend the safeguard. ITAC has been requested to monitor the impact of tariffs and the safeguard on prices and imports in the steel industry.. The safeguard duty has in the interim been maintained for one year. 5.4 South Africa had the capacity to manufacture 12 million metric tons of carbon steel per annum. It has been reduced to 10 million tons, of which about 80-85% is effective: about 8.8 million tons. Domestic steel consumption is estimated to be about 3.5 million tons currently. The implied excess is 5 million tons. AMSA’s Saldanha plant is in care and maintenance, but most of the capacity is available. Cisco has 450 000 tons of steelmaking capacity available, but is not in full production. AMSA Newcastle has 1.7 million tons capacity and is only operating around 1 million tons. Highveld used to make about 1 million tons. It went into business rescue and its operations ceased. It has however recovered some production, but not yet at its previous level. 5.5 Estimated mini-mill current capacity (long products). There are some variations in the numbers listed, depending on where they are sourced and when, but a summary is more or less as follows. These figures also represent recent usage, which may be less than total capacity.
Mini-mills Cape Gate
Monthly melt capacity (metric tons)
Upgrades and plans
35 000 40 000 12 000 30 000 12 000 10 000 12 000 20 000 15 000 10 000
35 000 40 000 24 000 30 000 12 000 10 000 12 000 20 000 30 000
Scaw
Agni
Pro Roof
Fortune Steel
Veer Steel
Unica CISCO
SA Steel Mills
SA Metals
New investments announced at the Presidential Investment Conference in November 2020 include
UNICA Iron and Steel Steel sections United Heavy Industries R350 million Specialty steel bars for the domestic and export markets SA Steel Mills R1.5 billion Primary steel products R125 million Further large investments are in progress, close to or at the confirmed planning stage, including three large Direct Reduction Iron plants and rolling mills and further flat steel capacity. 5.6 Flat carbon steel capacity is 4.7 million tons, consumption in 2019 excluding imports was 2.1 million tons, so surplus capacity is about 2.6 million tons. Exports in 2019 of flat carbon steel were 594 000 tons, of which Saldanha produced 400 000 tons. The industry is exporting under a million tons per year in total. 5.7 There are potential investments by at least three South Africa-based producers other than AMSA in the production of flat steel products, but their total tonnage (probably over 1 million tons p.a.) will not change the predominance of AMSA Vanderbijlpark. There are high barriers to entry by new entrants. The re-opening of the Saldanha plant would make a difference. 5.8 Supply is not matched to demand. For instance, South Africa has discontinued or has never made many of the steels required for the auto, mining equipment and yellow metal industries. About 50% of the 750 000 tons per year of steel imported are flat steel products not manufactured in South Africa. Some were
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The South African Steel and Metal Fabrication Master Plan 1.0
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