{"id":23065,"date":"2026-01-29T12:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-energy-regulator-approves-power-cost-relief-for-ferrochrome-makers\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:56","slug":"sa-energy-regulator-approves-power-cost-relief-for-ferrochrome-makers","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-energy-regulator-approves-power-cost-relief-for-ferrochrome-makers\/","title":{"rendered":"SA energy regulator approves power cost relief for ferrochrome makers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than a dozen smelters have shut down in SA in recent years, leading to thousands of job losses, largely due to high electricity costs, which have surged by more than 900% since 2008. State power utility Eskom in December sought NERSA&#8217;s approval for a tariff reduction for Samancor Chrome as well as a joint venture between Glencore and Merafe Resources in a bid to avert smelter closures and save jobs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Samancor Chrome and the Glencore-Merafe joint venture started processes late last year to shut down their smelters and lay off workers, citing viability problems mainly related to high electricity costs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The approval is subject to the government funding the difference between the current tariff of $0.0864 per kilowatt hour and the $0.056 per kilowatt hour, the two ferrochrome firms will pay for 12 months starting in January 2026, NERSA official Willibrod Majola said during a virtual briefing. The cost of the shortfall should not be borne by standard tariff customers, Majola added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SA, the world&#8217;s biggest chrome ore producer, has lost its position as the world&#8217;s top processor of chrome into ferrochrome to China mainly due to high electricity costs. Energy-intensive smelters combine chromium and iron to produce ferrochrome, which is mainly used in steel production.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23066,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-23065","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (SA) (NERSA) on Thursday approved an application by Eskom to reduce electricity tariffs by 35% for two distressed ferrochrome operations battling high power costs.","published_date":null,"news_description":"The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (SA) (NERSA) on Thursday approved an application by Eskom to reduce electricity tariffs by 35% for two distressed ferrochrome operations battling high power costs.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23065","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\/23065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26155,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23065\/revisions\/26155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}