China unfazed by South Africa mine-close call
The call was made by the South African political party, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), on March 16 local time in response to a declaration from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa the day before regarding the spread of COVID-19. In a statement, the EFF claimed that mine workers use overloaded buses to and from their workplaces which exposes them to the risk of being infected by the COVID-19.
“Given the scale and speed at which this virus is spreading, it is in the best interests of our people to have all mining operations closed immediately,” the statement said.
The mines the EFF wants closed include those operated Kumba Iron Ore, Kudumane Manganese Resources, United Manganese of Kalahari, Tshipi é Ntle Manganese, South32, plus Assmang’s Khumani iron ore and Black Rock manganese mines, according to the notice seen by Mysteel.
South Africa is major manganese ore exporter to China, shipping about 13.4 million tonnes in 2019, accounting for 39.3% of China’s total imports of manganese ore. Australia, Brazil, and Malaysia follow, that each accounting for 15.21%, 8.66% and 4% respectively, Mysteel Global noted.
“We have heard the news, but we thought the suspension would not take effect on Friday because the EFF are not the governing party in South Africa,” observed a Tianjin-based manganese ore trader in North China who mainly imports South African ore. “Also, the business of mining is among the country’s core sources of income so the government would not close mines randomly,” he told Mysteel Global, adding that his ores are being shipped from South Africa as normal at present.
An official with one of the manganese ore miners in John Taolo Gaetsewe District said Wednesday that operations at the mine and all related transportation were as normal, and that mine management had not yet received any formal closure notice from the national government.
However, the government in Pretoria does not seem to have the virus under control at present, the Tianjin trader noted. As of March 18, of the 179,112 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, South Africa had 62 cases including 11 new ones, according to the latest situation report from World Health Organization (WHO).
On March 15 local time, South Africa had announced a raft of “unprecedented” measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, including closing 35 ports of entry, according to a news report released on the official website of South African Government News Agency. Among the ports affected is Saldanha Bay, the largest port in South Africa for shipping iron ore, as Mysteel reported.
However, according to Mysteel’s latest survey on the situation in South Africa, as of March 16 the issue was not having any effect on exports of the commodity, with iron ore shipping being normal, as reported.
This was verified by an official with a Shanxi-based steelmaker in Northwest China who said ore operation and delivery logistics in South Africa were unaffected by news of the EFF demand. His mill usually uses South African ore.
But a Beijing-based iron ore futures analyst warned that if work at the mines is halted, this would affect China’s imported iron ore supplies. “The export volume of iron ore from South Africa has reached around 4 million tonnes/month, which is a relatively big number,” he said.
Written by Zhiyao Li, lizy@mysteel.com
Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
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