JOHANNESBURG, 24 FEBRUARY 2016 - The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) welcomes the Government’s announced efforts to drastically reduce its expenditure, but remains concerned about the lack of concrete plans to address slow econ mic growth.

JOHANNESBURG, 4 FEBRUARY 2016 - A decision by the National Electricity Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to approve ESKOM’s application for further tariff increases would be a critical setback for the metals and engineering sector’s competitiveness, contribute to more job losses and postpone the sector’s recovery even further, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) said today.

JOHANNESBURG, 8 FEBRUARY 2016 – The metals and engineering sector, which has been seriously under-performing in recent years, will come under microscopic scrutiny when stakeholders from business, labour and Government meet at the second Southern African Metals and Engineering Sector in May.

JOHANNESBURG, 11 NOVEMBER 2015 – The September production data for the metals and engineering (M&E) sector released by Statistics South Africa indicate that the contraction in the sector continues to worsen, despite some recent positive signs, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) said today.

The recorded year-to-date (9 months) decline was 1,5% and 2% for the previous 12 months to September. Production in September 2015 was 3,3% lower than in the same month in 2014.

SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY ON THE VERGE OF A RECESSION JOHANNESBURG, 9 NOVEMBER 2015 – Manufacturing capacity utilisation, an important indicator of potential economic growth, has on average been below the 85% optimum since the first quarter of 2008 (average – 4%).