This article has been supplied.South Africa’s manufacturing sector is operating in an increasingly fragmented and unpredictable global environment. Escalating geopolitical tensions, shifting trade alliances, sanctions regimes and regional instability are no longer background risks - they are actively reshaping supply chains, input costs and market access.
Against this backdrop, the latest insights from Aon’s Global Risk Management Survey highlight a critical reality: for industrial and manufacturing organisations, risk is no longer episodic - it is systemic, interconnected and persistent.
“In the current environment, South African manufacturers cannot rely on traditional risk mitigation alone. They need to actively convert volatility into a source of strategic resilience,” says Julie Smith, Corporate Industry Leader at Aon South Africa.
“While economic slowdown remains the top-ranked risk globally, it is increasingly driven and amplified by geopolitical disruption. Trade tensions, protectionist policies and currency volatility are feeding directly into the cost structures and operational stability of manufacturers,” adds Smith.
Aon’s Global Risk Management Survey identifies a cluster of interlinked risks shaping the sector:
