Production at the Transalloys manganese-ore smelting operation in South Africa is to cease for two months because of reduced current market demand, Afro Minerals Trading AG marketing manager Patrick Huber said on Monday.
Huber said that the reduced current market demand provided an ideal opportunity for Transalloys to close, so that essential maintenance and furnace rebuilds could be carried out, which were not possible while the plant was operational.
Eighty percent of Transalloys' silicomanganese and medium-carbon ferromanganese product is exported, involving the transport by road and rail of some 8,000 t of finished product a month to the ports of Richards Bay and Durban.
Huber said that the market situation would be continually assessed to ensure that stocks were available to satisfy customer requirements and to meet company commitments.
Transalloys, which produced mainly refined silicomanganese and medium-carbon ferromanganese alloys at Witbank, was bought from South Africa's Highveld Steel & Vanadium by the Renova group of Russia, headed by Viktor Vekselberg.
Two months was currently the best estimate of the duration of plant closure, and the essential maintenance referred to would include work on raw-material feeder systems, conveyors and cranes.
Huber said that those Transalloys employees who were not required for the maintenance programme, would be permitted to take leave for the two-month period, utilising accumulated leave. Any shortfall of leave days would be debited against future leave entitlements.
Renova had planned to build an additional smelting factory at Coega, but owing to the current poor market conditions and power-supply uncertainty, the company currently has the project on hold.
Source: Mining Weekly
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