JOHANNESBURG - It's going to be a bleak start to the new year for workers in the smelting industry.
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Transalloys, the last remaining manganese smelter in South Africa, has issued a warning of potential large-scale retrenchments, as electricity prices continue to squeeze operations.
Transalloys chief executive, Konstantin Sadovnik explained the need for the restructuring.
While ferrochrome steals the spotlight, South Africa’s last manganese smelter is feeling the burn.
Soaring power tariffs and tight margins have the smelter on the ropes, with hundreds of jobs and thousands of linked livelihoods hanging by a thread.
According to Sadovnik, the sector may be smaller than ferrochrome, but the impact is just as significant.
Sadovnik said, "Why manganese is receiving a lot less attention than chrome is simply because ferrochrome smelter, smelting sector in South Africa is much larger."
"Ferrochrome smelting sector has about 50 furnaces, whereas transalloys, being the last operating smelter, has only five furnaces."
"Otherwise, you know, smelter is a smelter. They are very similar in terms of employment and socioeconomic effects."
"It basically can be scaled up and down on a number of furnaces. So in principle, we understand why Faircom's smelting sector is receiving a lot more attention. "