{"id":21810,"date":"2025-12-30T12:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T10:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-last-manganese-smelter-on-the-brink-as-high-power-costs-weigh-ceo\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:45","slug":"sas-last-manganese-smelter-on-the-brink-as-high-power-costs-weigh-ceo","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-last-manganese-smelter-on-the-brink-as-high-power-costs-weigh-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s last manganese smelter on the brink as high power costs weigh: CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">More than a dozen smelters have shut down in SA in recent years, citing high electricity costs, leading to thousands of job losses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Transalloys Chief Executive Officer Konstantin Sadovnik told local television station <\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Newzroom Afrika<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> on Tuesday that the business has been loss\u2011making for about three years, mainly due to sharply rising power costs, which make up nearly 40% of total expenses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The company plans to cut <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">about<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> 600 direct jobs, a move that could impact as many as <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">7 000<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> livelihoods in the broader economy of the eMalahleni municipality, in the country&#8217;s Mpumalanga province.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> &#8220;Their jobs are indeed on the line,&#8221; said Sadovnik.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">He said the plant could be mothballed pending a near\u2011term solution or closed permanently, depending on whether manganese smelters <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">are included<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> in a proposed electricity pricing framework <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">being discussed<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> by the government and the ferrochrome industry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">SA is the world&#8217;s largest producer of manganese, which <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">is used<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> in steel-making, but exports most of the mineral in ore form due to limited smelting capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The National Energy Regulator of SA is currently reviewing an interim power tariff adjustment for struggling smelters in the ferrochrome sector, with the government also working on a longer-term mechanism to support competitive pricing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Energy is our biggest cost driver,&#8221; Sadovnik said, adding that Transalloys is competing against smelters abroad whose electricity costs are &#8220;roughly half&#8221; of SA&#8217;s regulated levels.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The company hopes for a resolution within the next two months. Restructuring would proceed around February if no solution <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">is found<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13420,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-21810","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Transalloys, which operates South Africa's (SA) last functioning manganese smelter, may have to close the plant and cut hundreds of jobs if its soaring electricity costs are not brought down, its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said on Tuesday.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Transalloys, which operates South Africa's (SA) last functioning manganese smelter, may have to close the plant and cut hundreds of jobs if its soaring electricity costs are not brought down, its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said on Tuesday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25333,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21810\/revisions\/25333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}