CAPE TOWN: ArcelorMittal South Africa said it may return to profit for the first time since 2010 provided the government introduces more tariffs in the next three months that will protect the continent’s biggest steel producer from cheaper imports. “With the expectation that the safeguard duties will be in place by the end of the third quarter in 2016 or shortly thereafter, the board remains of the view that there is a reasonable prospect of the company returning to profitability in the medium term,” the Vanderbijlpark, South Africa-based steelmaker known as AMSA said in a statement on Friday.
AMSA, which employed almost 10 000 people in the country at the end of 2015, is struggling to restore profit because of a surge in Chinese imports at prices as much as a quarter below local production costs. The company is calling on the government to buy local steel, and increase both tariffs and anti-dumping duties to make its business more viable. The appeal comes as the company’s loss widened in the six months through June to within a range of R0.42 to R0.46 ($0.03) a share, compared with R0.28 a year earlier, it said. This is an improvement on the loss of R21.25 a share reported for the six months ended December 31, because the continent’s biggest producer was able to cut costs and raise prices.
