We are the largest steel producer in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2022, we made 2.46 million tonnes of finished primary steel. This was 20.4% lower than the amount we produced in 2021 and 44.1% lower than our output of 4.4 million tonnes in 2019.
Our 10 270 employees and contractors produce both flat and long steel in hundreds of grades and specifications for further value add by our customers – downstream manufacturers in Southern, West and East Africa (and other markets).
The company has a depth of technical and managerial expertise that has been carefully nurtured since its inception in 1928. ArcelorMittal South Africa is well known for its reputation for reliability and a sharply defined business focus, which has forged the organisation into a modern, highly competitive supplier of steel products to the domestic and global markets.
This has been achieved through on-going alignment with international best practices and a comprehensive understanding of the steel business environment, ensuring the company’s continued global competitiveness and participation in international markets.
We are part of the worldwide ArcelorMittal group, which employs approximately 154 000 people and produces more than 59 million tonnes of crude steel per year.
ArcelorMittal is the leader in all major global markets, including automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging, with leading R&D and technology, as well as sizeable captive supplies of raw materials and outstanding distribution networks.
With an industrial presence in 60 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa, ArcelorMittal has a balanced geographic diversity within all the key steel markets, both in developing and developed countries.
Through this association, ArcelorMittal South Africa has access to world-class research and development, best practice processes, aggressive procurement contracts and international market leverage to ensure the company remains at the cutting edge of the international steel industry.
The company’s ability to generate profits and cash throughout the fluctuations of the steel cycle is testimony to the success of years of intensive business re-engineering and the cultivation of a continuous improvement culture that has embedded ArcelorMittal South Africa’s position among the world’s lowest cash cost producers of steel.
Our steel is manufactured primarily at large, capital-intensive facilities in Vanderbijlpark (flat) and Vereeniging (long) in the Vaal Triangle of Gauteng, in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga (structural) and in Newcastle (long) in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Our second integrated flat steel plant, Saldanha in the Western Cape, has been under care and maintenance since 2020. We employ traditional ironmaking and primary steelmaking methodologies but, in 2022, began actively pursuing new low carbon practices and technologies.
Our coke batteries in Vanderbijlpark and Newcastle produced 1.1 million tonnes of coke in 2022. Coke production is expected to increase to an average of 1.9 million tonnes per annum over the next five years. By-products resulting from our ironmaking and steelmaking processes – primarily slag and tar – are important sources of revenue.