LETTER: Removing steel tariffs would let small firms thrive
I cannot help daydreaming about what my company could achieve if imported hot rolled coil became duty free
The arguments in Ludovico Sanges’s article were both clear and sensible, which is probably why our steel master plan experts still haven’t listened to them (“End import duties on hot rolled coil to be beneficiated for local market”, September 15).
As a smaller but still surviving fish in SA’s steel beneficiation pond I couldn’t help daydreaming about what my company could achieve if imported hot rolled coil became duty free. Not only would we double our local purchases of speciality steel products but our own production would double too. Export markets would become a serious possibility, and not just in Africa.
If the government’s objective with localisation in the steel industry is to create jobs and not just to protect ArcelorMittal SA, the protective tariffs must be removed. Smaller players could compete with imports and, as European industry slowly strangles itself with climate change regulations, compete internationally.
On top of this, if the Saldanha facility reopened and reliably supplied high-quality product at competitive pricing, companies like mine might think they had died and gone to heaven.
James Cunningham
Camps Bay
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Send your letter by email to letters@businesslive.co.za. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.