Star 2024-02-20

SOUTH Africa’s steel industry is in a state of crisis and the metals industry, including the engineering sector, has been losing 40 jobs every day in South Africa since 2008. This was according to the Confederation of Employers of SA chairperson Dr Lawrence McCrystal, who in a statement shared a concern of the Steel and Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) chief operations officer-economist Tafadzwa Chibanguza, that the sector’s employment trends spelt wide-scale social and economic disaster. Networth Investments CEO Harold Vermaak said yesterday that the bulk of the South African carbon steel production industry currently risked extinction by 2030 and in so doing was likely to take “200 000 jobs and a substantial portion of the Transnet and Eskom infrastructure with it”. The Saldanha Steel plant has…

NETWORTH Investments, a ferrous metals development company, is in negotiations with ArcelorMittal South Africa (Amsa) in an ambitious project to purchase and repurpose the closed multibillion-rand Saldanha Steel plant so that it can make higher value stainless steel. Curiously, ArcelorMittal South Africa said in response to Business Report questions that it was “not in discussions with such an entity (Networth Investments), and that “we are also not in discussions with any parties about the future of our Saldanha facility”. Saldanha Steel, once the biggest employer in the West Coast town, closed down in 2020 when it was unable to compete internationally with other producers’ hot rolled carbon steel, and the plant has been in care and maintenance since then. Networth founder and CEO Harold Vermaak told Business Report that they…

This in view of the continued deterioration of South Africa’s fiscal position that has dampened investor sentiment THE BUSINESS sector wants Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana to table a prudent Budget Review tomorrow, amidst continued deterioration of the fiscal position, which has damped investor sentiment. Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) yesterday said that there were four key things that business was looking for in the Budget: a primary surplus, infrastructure investment, bailouts to troubled SOEs, and changes to tax rates. BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso said even though there has been a clear effort to rein in spending, economic growth has consistently disappointed. Mavuso said the revenue side has not been able to deliver enough money to fully restore government finances due to a number of bottlenecks such as the Covid-19…

ANGLO American Platinum (Amplats) is restructuring its operations which could result in the loss of 3 700 jobs and closure of the Mortimer smelter. The group is battling depressed platinum group metals (PGM) prices, load shedding from Eskom which reduced pro- duction by 82 000 ounces in the year to December 2023, and rising costs, its results showed yesterday. Amplats is the latest South African PGM miner to embark on a restructuring exercise as prices of the precious metal remain subdued. Last year, Sibanye-Stillwater and Impala Platinum also said they were reducing costs by offering voluntary retrenchment schemes to some employees. For Amplats, the restructuring has come against a dip in its financial perfor- mance for the year ended December 2023.…

FOLLOWING a system started by Trevor Manuel when he was Minister of Finance, the present Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana, has asked for Budget tips before the Budget speech tomorrow. As a leading tax organisation in SA, we have decided to take the Minister up on his offer. In hospitality, the term “Tips” is derived from the expression “To ensure prompt service”, and Mr Minister, all South Africans want is service delivery. The State should provide its citizens with secure borders, quality education, health-care facilities, electricity, water and infrastructure, including roads, rail systems and working ports. The unfortunate reality is that none of the fundamental service requirements are being adequately met by the State. Where they are limping on, they are costing taxpayers far more than the value they…

PRICEwaterhouseCoopers (PwC) South Africa believes Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will announce in the Budget tomorrow that the National Treasury will go ahead with a planned increase in taxes to raise R15 billion more revenue for the 2024/2025 fiscal year. “South Africa’s fiscal space will be constrained in 2024/2025 due to weak revenues and rising debt-servicing costs,” said PwC South Africa chief economist Lullu Krugel. The Finance Minister has acknow- ledged in recent months that increasing taxes in the current economic environment will be difficult. “By our estimates, to raise an additional R15bn in tax revenues would require increasing the personal income tax rates by 0.5 percentage points across all tax bands, or one percentage point on those earning more than R500 000 a year. “Alternatively, the National Treasury…