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Safeguard protection is granted whenever an industry is suffering from serious financial injury, caused by an increase in imports, which was because of unforeseen developments stemming out of the 1994 GATT negotiations, to which South Africa was a signatory.

The International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) has announced through a notice in the Government Gazette Notice 1087 0f 2022 on 15 June 2022 a new round of sunset review. A sunset review application is brought shortly before the expiry of the five-year existing dumping duties to determine how the local market will be effected when the duties expire.

South Africa is now consuming about 5 million tonnes of finished steel products a year. Up until 2005, South Africa exported about half of its primary steel production, but since then exports have steadily declined to 17% of total sales in 2021. There is now little room to cater for local steel demand spikes relative to production capacity. This puts more emphasis on steel demand planning.

The steel industry remains a major contributor to the South African economy and its value add to the country’s GDP is more than 5%. In 2020 South Africa ranked 35th in the world as a crude steel producer and is currently the third largest producer in Africa. Total South African crude steel production capacity is about 8.5 million tonnes per year, but the effective rate is closer to 6.5 million tonnes.