Cape Town - The impact of the closure of the Saldanha steel manufacturing plant in 2020 continues to cause hardship in the West Coast town despite promises of a revival.
Hundreds of people lost their jobs, both at the plant and at downstream businesses, in Saldanha and neighbouring towns, and many see no way forward.
People are leaving the towns in droves in search of jobs in Johannesburg and elsewhere.
Matters are not being helped by conditions surrounding plans by ArcelorMittal South Africa (Amsa) to revive its Saldanha steel manufacturing plant, a project that it says has the potential to create around 400 direct jobs.
Amsa said through a spokesperson that the restart of Saldanha Steel using scrap and other metallic inputs would depend on its completing feasibility studies in the next six to 12 months to inform an investment decision.
Amsa said that this scheme was strongly reliant on the existence of a competitive and enabling rail service, a reliable energy source and an incentivised electricity tariff.
The spokesperson added: “The company is not making much progress on the short-term restart option and the longer term options are dependent on multiple parties and major investments.”
As to whether they are reaching out to former employees to see if they are able to return to work, Amsa said it would be an advantage to bring on board former employees with existing competencies where appropriate and this would be an objective.
One such former employee, Carl Woods, feels that it may be too late for him.
Woods worked for Saldanha Steel for nine years and six months before leaving in 2010 to work as a quality assurance manager for downstream steel business Anderson & Kerr, whose biggest income came from Saldanha Steel.
He was retrenched by Anderson & Kerr in February 2020 as part of the knock-on effects of Amsa’s closing. “Since then, I have lost my house, my vehicle and I have battled to secure any job in line with my qualifications within the West Coast,” he said.
“I am a 57-year-old husband and father of a 10-year-old schoolboy and I have had no steady income since February 2020.”
Lecinda Thomas is another former employee of AMSA who was retrenched when the Saldanha unit closed down in February 2020.
Thomas still lives in the community and was fortunate enough to be hired by steel re-roller Duferco Steel Processing (DSP) in September that year. However she feels the pain of former colleagues who are still not working.
Asked about her reaction to the news that there are plans to reopen the AMSA Saldanha unit Thomas said it created hope, but if nothing came of the plans, that hope would be crushed.
“There are still people that worked for Saldanha Steel who would go back. Many of them are still not permanently employed.
“For certain employees who had specialist skills there was no other place in South Africa they could work. Unless they went overseas which was not an option for many who had families.”
At the same time, downstream players in the steel industry such as Duferco Steel Processing (DSP) want the government to stop protecting AMSA through tariffs.
DSP Managing Director Ludovico Sanges said they were concerned about the 41% anti-dumping duty on galvanised steel from the government which only primary steel producer AMSA has benefited from, to the detriment of those like themselves in the downstream steel industry.
Sanges, together with executives from two other downstream engineering firms Unitrade Saldanha and Anderson and Kerr Engineering said they face a dire situation because import duties on certain steel products which the government has levied in an effort to protect AMSA, are effectively killing their businesses.
National Employers' Association of South Africa (NEASA) Gerhard Papenfus urged the DTIC’s International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) to deal with the matter speedily and decisively, as delays were already having severe negative consequences on manufacturers.
