Bloomberg
20 May 2026
By Ana Monteiro and Ntando Thukwana
South African trade authorities proposed wide-ranging increases in tariffs on steel imports in an attempt to provide safeguards as an “unprecedented emergency” batters the nation’s industry.
A flood of low-priced products from markets such as China and India and ongoing problems of circumvention of import duties and customs fraud, together with geopolitical tensions, are causing “significant strain to an already struggling domestic steel manufacturing industry,” the International Trade Administration Commission said in a report released Monday. That merited increasing customs duties to the World Trade Organization’s so-called bound rates, it said.
The panel proposed a 10% duty on almost 20 flat-rolled and bar products that currently aren’t subjected to tariffs “to address import surges, price undercutting and duty circumvention affecting the domestic steel industry.” It also suggested raising duties on more than 40 classes of tubes, pipes, fencing and bolts to 15% from 10%, and plans a 20% tariff on various classes of tools and knives.
It wants to create rebate provisions for several classes of flat-rolled products “to ensure that downstream manufacturers have access to inputs not produced domestically,” and introduce import controls for more than 20 products, ranging from corrugated roof sheeting to tanks and reservoirs.
ITAC also proposed the introduction of a surveillance system to curb the circumvention of import duties, customs fraud, misdeclaration and under-invoicing.
The actions will require improved economic conditions to support a steel-sector revival, ITAC Chief Commissioner Ayabonga Cawe said.
“A tariff alone is a blunt instrument,” Cawe told Bloomberg in an interview on Wednesday. “You need a symphony of policy measures that get you the right outcome or the right harmony at the end, and in our case it’s about defending very crucial and strategic capabilities.”
South Africa also needs to guard against the risk of steel imports being rerouted to it as places like the US and Europe raise protectionist measures, he said.
“Other countries are putting up their own protective walls and the implication of that — if there are excess inventories in a context of overcapacity — is that some of that steel is going to go to some of the very small and open-market economies like South Africa.”
South Africa’s annual steel production collapsed to about 4.5 million tons last year from 9.7 million tons in 2006, with domestic producers struggling to compete with cheaper Chinese imports, while contending with surging power and logistics costs, as well as a stagnant economy.
ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd. last year shut a steel-making facility, citing competition from so-called mini-mills that use scrap metal as their feedstock rather than iron ore. The company, which still runs Africa’s biggest steelmaking plant south of Johannesburg, has demanded the government end a 20% tax on the export of scrap, which it says reduces the cost of the material for its rivals.
ITAC has referred its findings to Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau for consideration.