The NWU Business School cordially invite you to the Pitso 2025.7 Webinar.
Title: The closure of ArcelorMittal's long steel business and the implications for manufacturing in South Africa.
The quest for beneficiation and the case for ArcelorMittal South Africa’s long-steel plants at Newcastle and Vereeniging symbolises the accelerating pace of deindustrialisation in South Africa. Once central to economic modernisation, steel manufacturing is buckling under rising electricity tariffs, collapsing logistics, and cheap imports, especially from China. The loss of 3,500 direct jobs, and many more in supply chains, reflects a broader hollowing-out of industrial capacity that undermines employment, export competitiveness, and regional development. Deindustrialisation has shifted South Africa’s growth trajectory towards consumption and services, eroding its ability to sustain inclusive growth, reduce inequality, and finance infrastructure on which re-industrialisation would depend.
Speakers:
- Prof Jan Havenga
- Jaco Verwey
- John Megannon
For more information, kindly contact Ms Marli Moolman.