Engineering News reports that rehabilitation work at Highveld Steel’s heavy structural mill, located at the mothballed steel plant’s site in Mpumalanga, is under way to prepare the facility for recommissioning.  

This follows the conclusion of a supply and marketing deal with ArcelorMittal SA (AMSA) in December.  A small crew of contractors, mostly former Highveld employees, are currently on site to prepare the mill.  Highveld CEO Johan Burger indicated that, in addition to the implementation of duties, the timing of resumption of production was dependent on domestic market conditions, as well as the import cycles of buyers of structural steel.  For this reason, neither Highveld nor AMSA were willing to be drawn on firm timeframes.  Burger also said it was premature to state for certain how many permanent jobs would be created from the reopening of the mill.  He expects, however, that hundreds of employment opportunities should arise and confirmed that former employees would be given preference.

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