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BL Premium reports that trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel said on Wednesday that government was in talks with the car manufacturing industry to probe ways in which it could be protected from load-shedding.
At a media briefing ahead of his budget vote speech, Patel noted the importance of the car industry, which contributed about 4.5% of GDP on a gross basis as well as exports from the country. He would not disclose the possible ways in which the industry could be spared from the load-shedding crisis. Patel said the impact of load-shedding on a very important industry was “significant” and had been discussed within government. “We have now elevated the challenges that the sector faces to a joint discussion between a number of portfolios in government and have been engaging with the industry,” Patel indicated, adding that electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa had met a number of players in the sector and he had met a number of CEOs. Teams are working on the issue. Patel said: “We are finalising an approach to that. What an auto plant needs is certainty of its energy supply and what it needs is full utilisation of its plant. When you work at three-quarter level or two-thirds level you lose the economies of scale and the pricing advantage that it brings. That of course makes SA vehicles less competitive.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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