{"id":817721,"date":"2025-03-19T17:18:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T15:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=817721"},"modified":"2025-03-19T17:18:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T15:18:31","slug":"south-african-steel-giant-shutdown-proceeding-amid-r3-billion-bailout-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/817721\/south-african-steel-giant-shutdown-proceeding-amid-r3-billion-bailout-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"South African steel giant shutdown proceeding amid R3 billion bailout talks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) is still proceeding with the closure of its Longs Steel business despite talks of a R3 billion bailout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2025, the company’s management commenced the final wind-down of its Longs Business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subsequently, the government said it would continue engaging with AMSA in this regard. These discussions are ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a cautionary announcement to the market, AMSA said it is engaging with stakeholders, such as the South African government, regarding funding and related matters to defer the wind-down of the Longs Business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it warned that, without an agreement regarding the funding and related matters, the deferral of the winding down of the Longs Business would not be feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Accordingly, the wind-down process has not been stopped and is being managed in a manner that accommodates ongoing funding discussions<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that it has received various approaches regarding the strategic alternatives for the company and the Longs Business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, none of these approaches constitutes a firm intention to make an offer regarding the Companies Act, 2008. The company said it will continue exploring strategic alternatives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports over this weekend<\/a> said that AMSA is seeking a R3.1 billion bailout to stop the closure of the crucial steel mills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funds from the Industrial Development Corp, a company shareholder, would prevent the full idling of its long-steel plants planned for Q2 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would stop the loss of 3,500 direct and indirect jobs. Experts have warned that the closures could lead to over 100,000 job losses due to knock-on effects in the manufacturing sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMSA had initially planned to close its sites in the Vereeniging, Gauteng and Newcastle, KZN facilities at the end of January. However, it was delayed to fulfil its order book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, AMSA hopes that antitrust laws will be relaxed, allowing it to merge with smaller mills. It also wants lower electricity prices from Eskom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition is also reportedly looking at ways to retain the capacity to make long-steel products in the country should AMSA no longer run its plants. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ArcelorMittal South Africa is proceeding with the closure of its Long Steel business despite reported talks over a multi-billion bailout. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":805757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[19235],"class_list":["post-817721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-amsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817721"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817729,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817721\/revisions\/817729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}