COMPANY COMMENT: Why ArcelorMittal SA keeps going despite setbacks
ArcelorMittal SA has lost so many billions of rand in recent years that it is surprising the parent ArcelorMittal group in Luxembourg — run by Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal — still wants anything to do with it. But the subsidiary is strategic to African steel making, so the group has manfully put up with years of huge losses. It is so strategic that ArcelorMittal SA has revitalised production of the heavy sections mill at defunct Russian-backed Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium — once SA’s second-largest steel producer, which long ago slipped into bankrupt obscurity. This is deeply ironic, considering the pressure that the government has put on ArcelorMittal SA over the years, including through "empowerment" interests related to President Jacob Zuma and the Guptas, whose activities still reek of outstanding fraud charges. Unions have also done their best to sink the industry. Violent strikes across the mining (raw materials) and metals sectors in recent years have damaged these...
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