China’s Cheap Steel Comes at High Cost for South Africa: Industry Experts

Industry experts say current tariffs aren’t high enough to protect local steel, so low-cost product from China is flooding markets.

The Arcellor Mittal Saldanha Steel plant which is threatened by closure is photographed on Nov. 21, 2019, in Saldanha Bay, about 175km North of Cape Town. Rodger Bosch/ AFP via Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG—One of the world’s biggest steel manufacturers, ArcelorMittal, announced earlier this month that it’ll soon stop operating in South Africa, as the shockwaves felt in other parts of the world from a flood of cheap imports from China now reach Africa.

Steel sector analysts said Africa’s largest economy could lose 100,000 jobs as a result, according to South African investment news site Daily Investor. The potential job reduction would add to an unemployment rate of 32 percent, one of the highest in the world.