{"id":869363,"date":"2026-08-07T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=869363"},"modified":"2026-08-07T13:28:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T11:28:42","slug":"thousands-of-jobs-at-risk-as-manufacturers-in-south-africa-come-under-siege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/869363\/thousands-of-jobs-at-risk-as-manufacturers-in-south-africa-come-under-siege\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of jobs at risk as manufacturers in South Africa come under siege"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paper manufacturer Sappi has voiced concerns about rival imports into South Africa, saying they threaten manufacturing jobs in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sappi is a global company with significant operations in South Africa, including the Ngodwana mill in Mpumalanga and three other plants in KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is a major paper supplier in South Africa, selling over 730 tonnes of paper products in the three months ended June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these impressive sales, the company reported an overall operating loss of approximately R2.77 billion for the period, excluding special items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operating losses come despite its revenue for the three months reaching nearly R5.6 billion, slightly lower than the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sappi said the lower profitability in South Africa is due to several factors, including lower sales volumes and exchange rate movements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that selling prices for its products had decreased 5% year-on-year, due to increased competition in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competition has come from foreign imports entering the country, which has forced Sappi to lower its prices to remain competitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Profitability continued to be impacted by intense competition from low-priced imports, which placed significant pressure on selling prices,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trading Economics estimated that South Africa imported approximately R1 billion in paper products in 2025, with the figure holding steady since 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sappi CEO Steve Binnie commented on the performance of his company’s operations in South Africa, saying that it is a strong market for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africa remains a strong business with competitive assets and healthy demand in several of our markets,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“However, increasing levels of imported products continue to create challenges for local manufacturers and deserve greater policy attention.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies want tariffs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Binnie’s comments likely refer to tariffs on foreign paper imports, to stop them from undercutting South Africa’s existing markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tariffs are commonly used by countries to safeguard their own industries by preventing lower-cost producers from entering and dominating specific sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa launched an investigation into the importation of A3 and A4 paper in June 2026, with support from both Mondi and Sappi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This investigation aimed to identify solutions to the challenges identified by the two companies, including possible tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mondi and Sappi, two of South Africa’s largest paper producers, urged South Africa to investigate foreign imports for several reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The companies said that increased imports would damage domestic operations, threatening the industry and its many employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broader forestry and forestry products industry employs over 150,000 people in South Africa, supporting the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper and pulp industry alone accounts for around 35,000 of these workers, thousands of which are at risk because of the import threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The domestic manufacturers alleged that the sharp increase in imports could be due to a lack of global demand for paper products, as digitisation takes over many parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would leave foreign companies with an oversupply of paper products, which would then be diverted to surplus output markets such as South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also alleged that South Africa’s commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were limiting the country’s ability to respond to market threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These commitments include South Africa not imposing tariffs higher than 20% on printing and writing paper imports and eliminating quantitative import restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the investigation began, South Africa’s paper manufacturing industry pointed to declines in sales, output, market share, and other key metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This investigation is currently ongoing, with companies such as Sappi waiting to see if tariffs will be imposed in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sappi has been under pressure in South Africa, as global imports eat into its market share.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":861784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2085712827214369165","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2169437227210010","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18138424240593512","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[5053,13634,26104,17026],"class_list":["post-869363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-mondi","tag-sappi","tag-steve-binnie","tag-world-trade-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869363","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869363"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869394,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869363\/revisions\/869394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}