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Metal coils are seen at a steel plant
The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SIEFSA) says production in this sector fell by 1.4% last year, reversing the small growth it had in 2023.
It says with the US tariff hikes, the sector could suffer another loss.
Marketing and communications executive at the Federation, Nuraan Alli says several of their members that import directly to the United States, suffered losses when the new tariffs came into effect.
“The US tariffs does affect companies in the metal engineering sector. It’s not only for the big exporters, it affects everybody because downstream everybody that supplies into the chain to export a certain product gets affected. And we’ve already seen those losses of certain companies retrenching. So, one they retrench two they cut down on non-essential things and that eventually affects production.”
WATCH | The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa says the 30% U.S. import tariff is putting further strain on SA’s struggling steel industry. The federation raised its concerns at the Rand Mutual Assurance Prevention Conference in Durban. SABC News… pic.twitter.com/W0G54zg0Je
— SABC News (@SABCNews) September 4, 2025
