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FERROGLOBE will mothball its South African smelting furnaces despite receiving a workable electricity offer from Eskom, saying weak local steel demand makes a restart too risky.
Nellis Bester, the London-based group’s South Africa leader, told News24 that uncertain demand for steel and stainless steel would put the company at “grave risk” under a take-or-pay power agreement, which would oblige it to pay for a set level of electricity even if it could not use it.
Ferroglobe said its ferrosilicon and silicon metal furnaces, idle since the end of March, would be temporarily taken out of commission. The move affects employees, contractors and service providers, and the company has concluded Section 189A retrenchment proceedings. It will maintain the assets, keep assessing market and energy conditions, and is considering retaining electrode paste production and product research.
Its century-old eMalahleni smelter in Mpumalanga, where 350 direct jobs were previously at risk, halted production after April’s tariff increase. Electricity made up more than half of production costs, and the South African business had been loss-making for three years. Its Polokwane smelter returned to care and maintenance in 2024 after a brief restart.
Trade union Solidarity said the job losses were preventable and urged government to offer competitive electricity tariffs to smelters and steelmakers, and to impose import tariffs on Chinese steel and stainless steel products.