NEWS ANALYSIS: Can-do boss William Yang has a chrome plan to topple giant China
The new kid on SA’s chrome block says his plan could trigger a wave of industrialisation in poor parts of South Africa, bringing investment and jobs
The positive, can-do attitude from William Yang, the new kid on SA’s chrome block, is refreshing in a mining sector beset by gloomy news and falling production in the country’s two historical bedrock commodities of gold and platinum. His sweeping vision is hard to grasp at first. It entails SA challenging China’s position as the leading ferrochrome industry and making inroads into stainless steel, challenging China as a low-cost producer. Questions raised with Yang about how it would be possible, how it would be funded, where the electricity would come from, community unrest in a particularly volatile part of the country and the likelihood of his vision succeeding are all addressed in a calm, assured manner of one who has thought through the problems and come up with answers. Yang is the CEO of Sail Group, which is part of Zentosa, a Singapore-based investment company. He claims to have $5bn just waiting to be spent in SA towards achieving the vision of ferrochrome smelters, a power...
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