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The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) will decide in January whether to grant Eskom's request for the Koeberg Unit 1 and Unit 2 licences to be separated to reflect a later commercial operation date for Unit 2 to enable the unit's continued operation beyond July 2024.

Should the NNR board refuse Eskom's request for a decoupling, the regulator has confirmed both Koeberg units will be offline simultaneously as from July 21, given Eskom's announcement that Unit 1 is scheduled to undergo another 200-day outage as from that date for further compulsory maintenance, including an integrated leak test of the containment building.

The current licence limits the operation of both units to July 21, 2024, in line with the 40-year operating life of Unit 1, which began commercial operations on July 21, 1984. However, Eskom has requested a decoupling to reflect an operation limit for Unit 2 in line with its November 9, 1985, commercial operation date.

During 2023, only a single Koeberg unit has been operational at any one time, exacerbating loadshedding during what has already been confirmed as the country's worst-ever year for power disruptions.

Unit 1 was removed from service on December 10, 2022, for what was initially scheduled as a 180-day extended outage to replace the unit's three steam generators.

However, the unit was eventually only synchronised to the grid on November 18, with a two-week ramp-up, delaying the Unit 2 steam-generator replacement outage further, from its initial September start date.

The replacement of the six steam generators is a key requirement for securing a Long-Term Operation (LTO) authorisation from the NNR, which would enable each unit to operate for a further 20 years.

In May 2021, Eskom applied for a variation to Koeberg's NIL-01 licence to be allowed to operate Koeberg beyond July 21, 2024, and also made a request that Unit 1 be authorised to operate to July 21, 2044, and Unit 2 until November 9, 2045.

NNR divisional executive for nuclear power plants Orion Phillips reported during a briefing that a review of Eskom's request for a separation of the licences had been completed.

The recommendation arising from the review would be presented to a board technical committee on December 11 and the NNR board would consider the outcome of those deliberations at its meeting in late January, after which an announcement of the decision would be made.

To accede to the separation request, the NNR would have to confirm whether systems that are common to both units, including seismic bearing and cables in the containment area, where safe to continue operating.

The NNR was, in parallel, progressing with its assessment of Eskom's LTO Safety Case, submitted in June 2022.

LTO DECISION BY JULY

Programme manager for nuclear power plants Peter Bester reported that an initial review had been completed but that requests for additional information had been made to Eskom.

These responses would be considered, together with comments arising from the NNR's public consultation processes, prior to an LTO recommendation being presented to the board for its consideration.

Bester indicated that a recommended record of decision would be presented to the board in March, with a regulatory decision expected in July once the board had completed its deliberations.

The organisation was currently preparing to host public hearings in February, follow an initial public comment period during which 37 representations were received, from which the NNR had extracted 209 comments.

Principal specialist for nuclear power plants Ubert Coetzee confirmed questions were raised about the International Energy Agency's redacted Safety Aspects of Long-Term Operations, or Salto, report, which highlighted several areas of concern regarding Koeberg.

Concern was also raised about the adequacy of the public consultation process to date, as well as with issues relating to radioactive waste, emergency planning, the role of Koeberg in loadshedding and the state of certain ...

Eskom has confirmed that it has delivered a curtailment framework, as well as its proposed Gated Generator Connection Process (GGCP) to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for approval. However, it is not yet clear whether either will be approved ahead of the restart of public procurement for new independent power producer (IPP) capacity.

Minerals Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe reported this week that Bid Window Seven (BW7) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme would be launched "within two weeks", along with an inaugural gas-to-power bidding round and a second battery storage bid window.

The renewables bidding round was initially expected to be launched by mid-year following the partial failure of the previous round, when no wind project advanced to preferred-bidder status after Eskom indicated that all grid connection capacity in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape provinces had been absorbed.

The subsequent renewables round, together with the gas-to-power and second battery bid window, had since been delayed largely because of ongoing uncertainty over what grid capacity was still available and whether Eskom would implement curtailment to unlock capacity in the grid-constrained provinces.

In October, Eskom published its latest Generation Connection Capacity Assessment (GCCA), indicating there to be 19.9 GW of grid-connection capacity available nationally, but with zero capacity remaining in the three Cape provinces and the Hydra Central area, which borders the Cape provinces and the Free State.

In November, however, Eskom indicated that curtailment studies had been undertaken to provide "developers with an alternate option if they are still keen to connect in these constrained areas". It also indicated that a curtailment addendum to the GCCA would be published that could unlock 4 GW of connection capacity in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces.

Speaking from the same platform where Mantashe announced the new IPP bidding timeframe, Eskom Transmission MD Segomoco Scheppers confirmed that the curtailment framework and GGCP were currently before Nersa but did not comment on when the regulator was expected to decide on the documents.

IPP Office head Bernard Magoro indicated that there had been ongoing engagements with Eskom following BW6 to find solutions to the grid-access issues that rose to prominence during the round, as well as to ensure an "orderly approach" to grid allocation, in light of regulatory changes that had made it possible for private-offtaker projects of any size to proceed in the absence of a licence, including when these were grid-connected.

Eskom's GGCP proposes a shift from a one-on-one assessment of the connection requests to a clustered process, whereby aggregated grid adequacy and stability assessments will be made in batches.

The GGCP also envisages "rolling cycles of procurement" that alternate between the public and private offtaker programmes, with grid cost estimate letters to be specific to each programme.

It was not immediately certain whether Nersa intended hosting hearings on either the curtailment framework or the GGCP.

Creamer Media editor Terence Creamer discusses ArcelorMittal South Africa's announcement that it may cut about 3 500 jobs as it plans to wind down its long-products business; the reasons for it taking this step; the impact of the closure on the town of Newcastle, as well as South Africa's industrial capacity and beneficiation ambitions; and whether there is anything government can do to prevent the closure of the business and the job losses.

A R47-billion guarantee facility, effective immediately, has been extended to struggling State-owned freight logistics group Transnet in support of its recovery plan and to meet its immediate debt obligations.

The guarantee was announced following concurrence between Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and follows a high-level meeting between government and business earlier in the week at which business leaders argued for immediate financial support for Transnet to address its port congestion crisis and to arrest the collapse in the rail service.

In a statement, the National Treasury said that Transnet would drawdown an initial amount of R22.8-billion to deal with immediate liquidity matters such as settling maturity debt.

It added that no equity injection had been considered given that the Budget for 2023/24 was "closed" and expressed confidence that the guarantee facility, alongside swift implementation of the Transnet Recovery Plan, would be sufficient to resolve the State-owned company's challenges.

When announcing the Transnet Recovery Plan, Transnet chairperson Andile Sangqu said that the success of the plan would hinge on shareholder support. Media reports indicated that Transnet has requested relief covering R61-billion of its R130-billion debt, as well as a R47-billion equity injection.

Godongwana reacted coolly to the request, saying in a Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement media briefing that further engagements were required before support could be extended, and expressed unhappiness that Transnet had seemingly simply presented the National Treasury with an "invoice".

He also stressed that any support to State-owned companies would need to be governed by strict conditions, pointing to those that had accompanied recent support extended to Eskom and Denel.

In the statement, the National Treasury said a "Guarantee Framework Agreement between the National Treasury, Department of Public Enterprises, and Transnet will include strict guarantee conditions that will be continuously reviewed and amended when deemed necessary".

It added that any further drawdowns would be subject to Transnet meeting those conditions.

"A Guarantee Framework Agreement must be concluded between National Treasury, the Department of Public Enterprises and Transnet within 14 days of the activation of the guarantee to ensure that any fiscal risks are mitigated and that the conditions of the facility are fully agreed to by all parties.

"In addition, National Treasury will continue to work with Transnet to pursue other initiatives to revive its operations and financial viability," the statement reads.

Godongwana also emphasised that government continued to pursue deep-running, broader reforms of the company and the logistics sector as a whole, adding that "without a comprehensive reform of the sector, rather than that of a single entity, we risk being faced with similar challenges in the future".

However, he also expressed confidence that the reforms needed to put Transnet back on track could be achieved if the entity committed to meeting the strict conditionalities attached to the guarantee and if its speedily implemented the reforms informed by the National Logistics Crisis Committee.

Transnet, the National Treasury added, would explore further the divestment of noncore assets, a reduction of its current cost structure, as well as alternative funding models for infrastructure and maintenance requirements.

"The latter includes but is not limited to project finance, third-party access, concessions, and joint ventures."

Gordhan highlighted the fact that Transnet remained critical to the South African economy.

"A well-functioning logistics company is particularly important given the geographical distribution of economic activity in the country, our reliance on commodity and other exports, as well as our distance from key export markets."

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe confirmed that an update of the Integrated Resource Plan, which he has previously dubbed 'IRP2023', had served before Cabinet on November 29, but that his Ministerial colleagues had requested more deliberation time before approving the document for public consultation.

Speaking in Pretoria at a briefing held to announce the identities of four battery storage preferred bidders, as well as to sign agreements opening the way for a hybrid solar/battery project, Mantashe also stated the IRP would be considered at a special Cabinet meeting scheduled for the coming week.

Earlier, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, in her role as Cabinet spokesperson, refused to be drawn on whether the IRP was discussed at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

She also refused to be drawn on whether the IRP would be on the agenda of the upcoming special Cabinet meeting, indicating only that Cabinet was not able to address all the issues it had hoped to at its eight-hour meeting on Wednesday.

However, Mantashe confirmed that the plan had indeed been "tabled" on November 29 but that the Ministers requested more time to "apply their minds" to the document.

Previous iterations of the IRP have been drafted primarily by Eskom, but the drafting this time appears to have been driven primary by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, involving Eskom employees seconded to the department.

Mantashe objected to suggestions that the document was delayed, noting that the IRP2010 was updated only nine years after its initial publication, with the current version known as IRP2019.

The document is meant to be a so-called "living" plan, however, with many commentators arguing that it should be updated at least every two years given ongoing changes to the demand and technology cost assumptions that underpin the plan.

Mantashe also revealed that he would attend the special Cabinet meeting after participating in a session at the COP28 climate conference, which is currently under way in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

He indicated that he had been invited directly by the COP28 president, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, to participate in a panel discussion.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is scheduled to lead South Africa's delegation to COP28, and will participate on December 1 and 2, after which Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy will stay on until November 12 to lead the country's participation at the conference.

The South African government has selected preferred bidders for the development of four utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in the Northern Cape, with a combined investment value of R10-billion.

The four BESS installations will have a combine capacity of 360 MW/1 440 MWh, with three using lithium-ion battery technology, and one being a lithium-iron-phosphate solution.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe identified the projects as being Oasis Aggeneis, Oasis Mookodi and Oasis Nieuwehoop, which were bid by EDF Renewables, together with partners and which would be deployed at Eskom-selected substation sites in Aggeneis, Mookodi and Nieuwehoop respectively, and the Scatec-led Mogobe BESS project, to be developed at the Ferrum substation.

He reported that the Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office was also in negotiations for a project at a fifth site, identified previously as being Garona, also in the Northern Cape.

"An additional preferred bidder will be announced as soon as the value for money negotiations have been concluded," he said at a briefing in Pretoria.

The four projects have been awarded following an inaugural BESS public procurement bid window for 513 MW/2 025 MWh, known as the Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (BESIPPPP).

A total of 17 bids were received by the August 2 closing date and the projects were selected following an independent evaluation conducted between August and October.

Mantashe said the projects were anticipated to achieve commercial close by June 2024.

He also confirmed a second BESIPPPP bid window for 1 230 MW would be launched in the coming two weeks, along with the long-delayed Bid Window Seven of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme and an inaugural gas-to-power request for proposals.

"The department is in the process of finalising governance approvals for the release of the requests for the procurement of additional generation capacity," Mantashe added.

HYBRID PROJECT CLOSER TO CONSTRUCTION

The briefing was followed by a signing ceremony for the legal close of the 75 MW Mulilo Total Hydra Storage Project, which was appointed as a preferred bidder under the much-delayed Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) in 2021.

The hybrid solar photovoltaic/BESS project is proposed for construction in De Aar, in the Northern Cape, and will provide dispatchable renewable electricity daily between 05:00 and 21:30.

"The project anticipates reaching commercial close by mid-December 2023, and will start the 24-month construction phase in early 2024.

"The new generation capacity should therefore be online from early 2026," Mantashe announced.

It is the sixth of an initial 11 RMIPPPP projects to reach commercial close, with the first two of Scatec's three projects under the programme - Kenhardt 1 and 2 - already in operation and with Kenhardt 3 expected to enter commercial operation in early December. The three projects will provide 150 MW of dispatchable electricity using a combination of renewables and BESS.

The EDF Renewables-led Umoyilanga hybrid project, meanwhile, reached financial close on November 28, and has entered construction, while the Oya hybrid project, being developed by ENGIE and G7 Renewables Energies, is said to be advancing toward financial close.

IPP Office head Bernard Magoro reiterated that a firm end of December deadline had been set for the commercial close of all RMIPPPP projects, which have been locking up scarce grid-connection capacity for over two years.

Besides several hybrid projects that were named as preferred bidders following the launch of the RMIPPPP, the lion's share of the capacity under the controversial tender was allocated across three floating gas-to-power projects bid by Karpowership.

These projects have faced legal and environmental opposition, but environmental impact assessment (EIA) approvals were recently provided t...

ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) has indicated that it will enter discussions with buyers of its noncommodity long-steel products in an effort to limit the disruption that is set to arise because of the closure of its longs operations in Newcastle, Vereeniging and Emalahleni.

Although demand for value-added products was insufficient to sustain an integrated mill such as Newcastle, where commodity products, such as rebar, make up a large portion of the one-million tons produced yearly, CEO Kobus Verster acknowledged that certain customers would face difficulties finding immediate substitute material.

This was confirmed by the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa), which noted that downstream industries were heavily reliant on the long-products that come from the three plans and that a switch-over to new suppliers would "not happen overnight".

"Even where these products can be imported this will result in the exporting of jobs that are desperately needed in South Africa. Moreover, the logistics challenges facing the country raise serious questions whether port and rail infrastructure can get product to the end manufactures," Seifsa said.

AMSA currently produces specific cross-ribbed flat bar, hollow-drill material, half-pipe sections, along with special profiles such as fish and tie plates, plough bars and mine-support bars, as well as a complete seamless-tube range and heavy-section material used in the rail industry.

In a briefing held following the group's shock announcement that it would be winding down its long-products business - a move that has placed at risk 3 500 of the 9 942 fulltime and contract jobs at the company - Verster said talks would now be held with affected customers.

Downstream producers of bright bars, springs, fasteners, agri-appliances, as well as some automotive and mining components potentially faced significant challenges in securing substitute material, particularly in the short term with South African ports being heavily congested.

The discussions would focus primarily on gaining an understanding of the six-month demand profiles of affected businesses and assessing whether AMSA could adjust its wind-down processes to accommodate those firms.

However, Verster again indicated that the decision to close the longs business had been based on embedded structural factors that had made the business a serial lossmaker and a drain on the bigger groups ongoing sustainability.

While costly and unreliable electricity and rail services were major aggravating factors, AMSA highlighted a chronic supply/demand imbalance, partly underpinned by a government policy geared towards increasing competition from producers using scrap as an input.

The imbalance was initially expected to be addressed on the back of a long-promised increase in infrastructure investment, which never materialised. Local long-products production capacity is currently estimated by AMSA at about four-million tons, but demand was currently below two-million tons.

"Our longs business has only made a profit twice over the past seven years," Verster pointed out.

SEIFSA CALLS FOR GOVT INTERVENTION

Seifsa also attributed some of the blame for the planned closures on policy, stating that the "preferential pricing system for scrap, a 20% export duty and more recently a ban on scrap exports have all played a major role in contributing to the current state of affairs".

"Seifsa has repeatedly warned that the decisions relating to the scrap metal policy and its industrial policy consequences will yield casualties.

"What we are seeing unfolding at ArcelorMittal feeds directly into these warnings," the organisation said.

If called for the related scrap and industrial policy issues to be urgently escalated to the Economic Cluster of Ministries, arguing that the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition "seemingly does not have the capacity, nor the grasp of the broader implications of these developments".

"The matter is n...

Business Unity South Africa (Busa) president Adrian Gore has warned that the pace of delivery across the joint initiatives being taken with government on electricity, logistics and crime is "plateauing" and has called for a greater sense of "urgency and determination" to re-establish momentum.

In a joint statement released following the latest high-level meeting between business and government convened by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, Gore attributed the recent lack of progress to "delays in regulatory and other approvals, as well as a slippage on the implementation of strategic plans, and the alignment of these to workable funding solutions".

"We've agreed with the President that delays will be given urgent attention, and we will all ensure that momentum is maintained, key decisions are made, and policies implemented in line with agreed timelines.

"We need to act with a greater sense of urgency and determination to confront these challenges, given their severe impact on the economy as a whole," Gore said, while emphasising that significant strides had been made in implementing reforms that could set the economy on a higher growth trajectory.

Busa CEO Cas Coovadia told Engineering News that Gore was referring specifically to the relatively slow progress being made on the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill and the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill. This, in contrast to the fact that a "deeply flawed" National Health Insurance Bill was poised to be approved by the National Council of Provinces without direct input from five provinces.

Coovadia said business also felt that it was urgent for Cabinet to approve the Freight Logistics Roadmap and for government to take the steps needed to open the way for the launch of the next renewables bidding round, which was initially scheduled for mid-2023.

Likewise, it wanted the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to provide various regulatory approvals to facilitate the introduction of new electricity capacity, including approval for wheeling and grid access.

Besides renewed high levels of loadshedding, the meeting also took place against the backdrop of an intensifying logistics crisis.

For this reason, business indicated to government that funding and/or debt relief needed to be prioritised for Transnet, without which there was little chance that the State-owned utility would be able to take the immediate actions required to ease port congestion, ramp up rail performance and create the systems needed for private sector participation on the port and rail networks.

DEEP CONCERN OVER NTSHAVENI'S COMMENTS

Coovadia also confirmed that business had entered the meeting with an intention to register a strong objection to recent comments by Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, in her role as Cabinet spokesperson, alleging that the private sector was seeking to engineer the collapse of the State.

While her remarks were in response to a rand manipulation-related settlement, her statement was taken as a broad-based criticism of business. A stance that she has since defended further in an opinion article.

Gore had, in his opening input, expressed deep concern about Ntshavheni's statements, arguing that they sent a "wrong signal" in a context where business was making strenuous efforts to assist government in resolving the crises in the areas of electricity, logistics and crime.

However, the matter was not pursued further, largely because Ramaphosa used his opening remarks to acknowledge businesses unhappiness with her statements, which he said did not reflect government's position.

The President also insisted, Coovadia related, that government remained fully committed to its partnership with business.

In the joint statement released after the meeting, Ramaphosa stated that he saw the partnership "as evidence of the business community's commitment to building our country and overcoming the challenges that we face".

The next meeting between government and business will be held i...

ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) CEO Kobus Verster believes there is no immediate prospect of addressing the structural issues undermining the financial viability of the group's long-products business and tells Engineering News that the operations will begin ramping down during January, when they are scheduled to stop receiving steelmaking materials, such as iron-ore.

Verster provided this bleak assessment in an interview following the JSE-listed company's announcement that it would be initiating consultations with unions and customers on the closure of its operations in Newcastle and Vereeniging, as well as ArcelorMittal Rail and Structural, which relies on intermediate products currently produced at Newcastle.

Although the closure of certain parts of the long-products business has been mooted previously, including in 2019 and 2021, the announcement of the proposed wind down still came as a shock, even though the group swung from a R3-billion profit in the first half of 2022 to a R448-million loss during the same period this year.

The loss was attributed largely to electricity load curtailment, implemented at energy-intensive firms at high stages of loadshedding, which had again been escalated to between Stage 4 and 6 when ArcelorMittal South Africa made its wind-down announcement.

It also came amid increased strain between business and government, more generally. Automotive group Volkswagen issued a warning about the company's South African operations, citing loadshedding and logistics problems as key concerns, while platinum producers have indicated that job cuts are inevitable.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who was widely condemned for suggesting that the private sector was engineering the collapse of the government when commenting on a rand manipulation-related settlement, appeared to double down in an opinion piece penned for the Business Day.

Verster spoke to Engineering News after having held in-person meetings with employees at the Newcastle mill, in KwaZulu-Natal, who make up about 2 600 of the 3 500 direct employees and contractors likely to be affected by the closures.

He reported that contact had also been made with the leadership of the company's two recognised unions, being the National Union of Metalworkers and Solidarity, and indicated that formal negotiations were likely to start either later this week or early next week, with Section 189 retrenchment notices expected within days.

In a statement, Solidarity questioned the timing of what it described as a "drastic" move by the company and lamented the fact that 3 500 employees and their families faced an uncertain Christmas season.

It also argued that some of the reasons given for the proposed wind down, including loadshedding by Eskom and Transnet's high costs and unreliability were "nothing new" and suggested that consultations should have been initiated ahead of any announcement.

However, Verster argued that, while high electricity and logistics costs and the unreliability of both utilities were aggravating factors, the competitiveness of the long-products business had been eroded by weak demand and a structural over-supply.

It had been further amplified by what he described as an artificial competitive advantage provided to electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) because of government's prevailing scrap policy.

The company highlighted the preferential pricing system for scrap in its official statement on the wind down, arguing the policy, together with a 20% export duty and the recent scrap export ban, had made it impossible for an integrated iron-ore-based producer such as Newcastle to be price competitive.

While AMSA manufactured some value-added long products, the bulk of its 900 000 t/y longs production was low-margin material that was currently uncompetitive in a market where demand stood at about 1.8-million tons against Verster's estimate of there being yearly production capacity of four-million tons.

The flat-products busines...

Steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) has indicated that it may close its long-products business, which could result in the loss of 3 500 direct and contractor jobs at its Newcastle and Vereeniging operations.

In a statement, the JSE-listed company said the potential wind down had been precipitated by structural issues outside of its control, including:

A 20% fall in demand over the last seven years to four-million tonnes, on the back of persistently low economic growth, limited infrastructure spend and project delays;

Rising transport and logistics costs, compounded by rail-service disruptions, as well as escalating energy prices; and

The prevailing scrap advantage over iron-ore, precipitated by the preferential pricing system for scrap, a 20% export duty, and the recently imposed ban on scrap exports, which had given electric arc furnaces an "artificial" competitive advantage over integrated mills beneficiating iron-ore.

CEO Kobus Verster said the board and management decision to consider a wind down of the long-products business was reached after "all possible options" were exhausted, had not been "taken lightly" and was being pursued in an effort to place the rest of the business on a "sustainable financial footing".

The company also acknowledged the potential negative impact on the regional and local economies in which the mills were located, in particular the Newcastle Works, which was a major source of economic activity and jobs in the KwaZulu-Natal town.

The company said the wind-down would exclude the coke batteries at Newcastle, which would remain operative, producing metallurgical coke for use at the Vanderbijlpark Works, and for sale of commercial market coke to the ferro-alloy industry.

A consultation process in accordance with Section 189(3) of the Labour Relations Act will be initiated with unions and "every effort will be made to manage down the number of jobs affected".

"The conclusion and number of affected posts will be finalised within a detailed wind down implementation plan that is being developed," the company said.

UNCERTAIN CHRISTMAS

Trade union Solidarity responded with shock to the announcement that three long-steel plants could be closed, noting that Arcelor Rail and Structures was also potentially affected by the wind down.

It said that 3 500 employees and their families were now facing an uncertain Christmas season.

The union also questioned the timing of the "drastic" move, noting that loadshedding and Transnet's high costs and unreliability were "nothing new".

Solidarity argued, therefore, that a consultation process with parties affected by the decision, including trade unions, should have preceded the announcement, noting that it was still awaiting the formal restructuring notices.

"After receipt of the section 189 (A) notice, Solidarity will start to meet with members and will support them during all the processes that may follow."

ArcelorMittal South Africa said it also intended engaging with its customers and suppliers "to minimise the disruptions to their business, as far as reasonably possible".

"The company continues to engage directly with government," the company added.

AMSA slumped to a R448-million loss in the interim period to June 30, a dramatic deterioration from the comparable period of 2022 when it reported a R3-billion profit.

The poor performance was attributed to intense loadshedding during the period, which not only disrupted the group's operations, because of 41 Eskom instructions during the period for a curtailment of its electricity demand, but also downstream demand, as fabricators pulled back on production shifts.

The group has also been vocal about the negative impact of the collapse of the Transnet Freight Rail service, which has been particularly acutely felt at the Newcastle Works, which is located far away from its sources of raw materials.

Solidarity said the ArcelorMittal South Africa announcement was a signal that government's mismanagement of Stat...