THE COMPENSATION FUND: A STRUGGLE WITH NO END

STEEL INDUSTRY

AMSA closes its order book for 2020;
yet insists on import duties.
IMPORT DUTIES HAVE TO BE SCRAPPED NOW

On Friday, 11 September 2020, AMSA officially closed their order book for 2020 – two months prior to the standard closing date.

In the run-up of this event, the local market was put on allocation – a term that AMSA does not use, but which implies that a company can only get a portion of the steel it has ordered; the remainder of the order, in terms of this arrangement, is simply rejected.

The ‘flat products’ affected by AMSA’s latest arrangements, are the subject of an application by AMSA – to introduce more duties on nine new tariff codes, which they now officially admitted to not being able to supply.

NEASA has petitioned Minister Ebrahim Patel not to sign off on these duties. In the light of this latest event, it will simply be inconceivable and illogical to introduce these duties, …
… as the shortfall will simply have to be imported.

NEASA hereby, once again, urges both the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) and the Minister that common sense should prevail and that:

• no new duties should be implemented; and
• as undertaken by ITAC, the existing duties should be reviewed as a matter of extreme urgency.

It is immoral of AMSA, at a time that they cannot supply the downstream, to continue twisting Government’s arm for duty protection, and in doing so, deny the downstream the opportunity to find other sources of steel.

Government’s inaction in this regard creates the impression that they do not fathom the gravity of the situation. Government should realise that each day that this situation is allowed to continue, the steel down stream’s viability, already under severe strain, is compromised even further.

Regards

We are all in this together.
Privileged and challenged to be South African.