The committee urged government to strengthen localisation policies, enforce local procurement requirements in public infrastructure projects and tighten import controls to curb illicit and underpriced steel imports.
South Africa's steel industry requires urgent and coordinated government intervention to prevent further job losses and industrial decline, Parliament's portfolio committee on trade, industry and competition said on Wednesday.
This comes as policymakers and industry stakeholders warned that the sector is facing one of its most severe crises in decades.
The committee called on government to develop a comprehensive rescue strategy for the steel value chain following a follow-up engagement with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), industry bodies and labour representatives.
Committee chairperson Mzwandile Masina said the industry remained critical to South Africa's industrialisation ambitions and could not be allowed to collapse.
