Several South Africa's mining and steel companies had to cut their production and even shut down operations for five days last month as the government declared a national energy emergency in the face of power failure that has caused losses to the country's mining and steel industry.
At the time of the crisis outbreak, a company such as BHP Billiton had to shut down its manganese mines in South Africa while the world's second-largest ferrochrome (one of the essential materials in stainless steel production) producer Samancor Chrome was on the edge of shutting down its operations in the country. Furthermore, South Africa's steel producers were also forced to shut down or function at severely reduced levels.
Meanwhile, the country's largest steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa has stated that it is unable to meet all of its customers' needs due to the serious impact which the power supply shortage had on its operations.
Although the height of the crisis has passed, South Africa continues to experience a considerable power shortage, which not only affects domestic producers who have to operate at lower than optimal production levels, but has also impacted on neighboring states such as Botswana and Namibia, which heavily rely on energy imports from South Africa.
Moreover the consequences of the power shortage in South Africa have also echoed in the European and the US steel markets. For a couple of weeks now, the prices for ferrovanadium, one of the major components in steel production, have been surging in the markets in question on the back of the South African power crisis, since the country is one of the largest producers and exporters of this ferroalloy.