ArcelorMittal South Africa plans large-scale restructuring in line with weakness in global steel demand. The pandemic has hurt steel demand and ArcelorMittal SA is seeking to cut costs as a majority of its capacity remains unused.
Arcelor SA is the biggest steel producer in Africa with an annual capacity of producing 7mn mt of liquid steel. The company produced 4.4mn mt of liquid steel in the fiscal ended December 2019. Taking stock of the pandemic situations, the company anticipates crude steel production to be slow and would gradually return to planned levels for 2020.
The company in January had planned to layoff around 1,000 employees as part of its cost-saving initiatives but these actions are inadequate post the pandemic, said the company as reported by local media. The multiple lockdown regulations in SA have caused ‘material negative impact’ on business activities.
Arcelor SA on Thursday stated that a huge chunk of its available production capacity is likely to remain unused for a longer time period. In May the company had said that it would return to full production only if demand picks up.