ArcelorMittal South Africa, whose performance mirrors the state of South Africa’s steel industry, foresees a return to profitability after registering consecutive losses since 2010, buoyed by government’s decision to introduce tariffs.
However, Africa’s biggest steel producer is banking on the government introducing to introduce more tariffs in the next three months as well as antidumping duties in a bid to protect the local industry from cheaper imports from China, which go as low as a third of the local production costs.
In a statement which quoted by Bloomberg, ArcelorMittal: “With the expectation that the safeguard duties will be in place by the end of the third quarter in 2016 or shortly thereafter, the board remains of the view that there is a reasonable prospect of the company returning to profitability in the medium term.”
In the past eighteen months, the local steel industry has shed thousands of jobs as a result of cheap imports from China. ArcelorMittal is the biggest employer with 10, 000 in its employ.
