The government has committed to continue exploring all possible avenues to avert job losses in the steel industry and support affected workers on the back of ArcelorMittal South Africa’s (Amsa) decision to wind down its long steel business.

This comes after the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) staged a picket outside the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) on Friday to voice their demands. The picket was also joined by workers from SA Steel Mills who are demanding that the business rescue process must be wrapped up quickly so that workers can get the money due to them.

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) on Saturday said the government was doing all it can to ensure the resilience of South Africa’s steel sector.

The dtic said Minister Parks Tau was awaiting the memorandum to be presented by the board regarding these demands. Tau will then consider the issues raised and respond appropriately once he has received it.

“The dtic remains committed to engaging all stakeholders, including msa, organised labour, and industry partners, to find sustainable solutions. We continue to explore all possible avenues to avert job losses, support affected workers, and ensure the resilience of South Africa’s steel sector,” it said

“We urge all parties to engage constructively as we work towards interventions that protect industrial capacity while securing long-term economic stability. The government remains steadfast in its commitment to preserving local industries and safeguarding employment opportunities.”

Amsa has postponed the wind-down of its longs business by a month to allow talks with the government on possible ways to prevent the closure to progress, as well as to ensure ongoing supply to downstream customers that have no immediate alternatives.

The delay was facilitated by a R380 million loan from the IDC, Amsa’s shareholder, which has also extended the deadline for the repayment of an older R950m loan from June 2025 to September 2026.

In January, Amsa announced the closure of its long-steel factories in Newcastle and Vereeniging, threatening the loss of 3 500 direct jobs and an additional 25 000 jobs in the steel value chain. According to analysts, the impact of job losses would be devastating, with as much as 100 000 jobs being lost along the value chain.

Numsa on Friday called for the government to move swiftly and engage all critical issues that Amsa has raised that have led to it throwing in the towel and closing down the Long Steel business.

The union said Amsa had become completely uncompetitive and economically unviable as it was of the view that it was completely unsustainable to produce and trade in long steel products.

“It is our view that as a country we cannot afford to lose such capacity, especially against the backdrop that as a country we have been de-industrialising and it is a known fact that once you lose such capacity as a country, it never comes back,” said Numsa in a statement.

“It will be a setback to the rest of the South African economy which must be industrialised and transformed from the minerals-energy-finance complex which makes up the South African economy that the democratic government inherited from the past. If this crisis is not resolved, it will destroy jobs in both the upstream and downstream activities, in the engineering sector, in the motor components sector, and destroy backward and forward linkages across various sectors of the economy.”

BUSINESS REPORT