ArcelorMittal South Africa (Amsa) has decided to halt the closure of its long steel product operations at plants in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, and Vereeniging, Gauteng, saving thousands of jobs .
The company said green shoots within the manufacturing sector led to the decision to not close the plants. It is believed that the absence of load shedding will also contribute to the improvement of the sector.
Growth and stabilityThe increase in power generation in recent months, coupled with the renewable energy projects scheduled to come on stream over the next two years, suggests that the drag on economic growth caused by the electricity shortage should gradually diminish, facilitating structurally higher production levels.
Amsas main focus is on the upgrade and expansion of the national logistics infrastructure and the electrical supply grid (including new renewable energy capacity) as they have shown positive growth. Renewable energy in the country brings opportunities for investors. The Freight Logistics Roadmap has been developed to stabilise the operational performance of freight rail, currently a severe constraint, most notably for commodity exports.
Transnet plans to invest R160 billion to address national infrastructure requirements. Transnet also aims to deepen and lengthen two berths at its Durban Container Terminal Pier 2. The Draft Rail Private Sector Participation Framework targets to provide an interim approach to enable private sector participation, including third-party access to the freight rail network.
