While tariffs have helped ward off a collapse of South Africa's steel industry, ArcelorMittal, the country's biggest producer, says downstream manufacturers are still in trouble. The problem for these manufacturers was that the prices of imported final products were lower than what the products cost to make locally, said Wim de Klerk, CEO of the steel maker, which is controlled by Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal. Manufacturers of automotive, heavy-machinery and construction products get their steel from ArcelorMittal South Africa, which has about 70% of the South African market. Macsteel Services Centre SA CEO Hannes van der Walt said the fact that the safeguard duties protected only the primary steel industry and not products manufactured by the downstream industry would have a spiralling effect, and less steel would be consumed locally. This had caused "a lot of companies to rethink whether they stay in South Africa or put up plants in other countries", he said. With low product...
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