In parallel to “expedited” negotiations with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) over its future corporate structuring, ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) is considering partnership and sale opportunities relating to noncore assets and assets currently in care and maintenance.

CEO Kobus Verster says the group’s valuation of assets under care and maintenance is “easily north of R5-billion”, and that it intends to begin monetising those assets to reduce its unsustainable net debt of R6.8-billion.

Reducing the debt further would also require a restructuring component, potentially arising from the talks under way between AMSA, the IDC and the ArcelorMittal Group and which are said to be progressing well.

Verster says the largest opportunities to monetise assets currently in care and maintenance reside at the Saldanha Steel Works, on the West Coast. But there is also potential to repurpose parts of the Newcastle Works, in KwaZulu-Natal, where operations ceased in November last year.

Given forecasts of a likely shortage in metallic feedstocks in the coming two to three years, Verster says a facility such as Saldanha, which can produce direct reduced iron or pool iron for use as an input by other mills, is likely to become an attractive asset.

“Saldanha can produce both inputs with a very limited investment. We haven't aggressively pursued that, as it required investment, and we have discussed our [weak] balance sheet.

“So to the extent that our dynamics change, or we get the appropriate partner, that can be a very attractive potential opportunity.”

There is also potential to release value from the material-handling area outside Saldanha, which could be used to improve back-of-port operations and increase loading and exports of raw materials.

“We've got a substantial amount of property, either for renewables, gas or whatever. So those are the prospects that we are looking at.”

In Newcastle, meanwhile, there may be potential to enter into partnerships to repurpose the upstream aspects of the operation to produce a different product, and to reconfigure the rolling facilities and mills.

Likewise, it is considering partnership options for its electric arc furnace at Vereeniging, in Gauteng.

“[But even] if you scrap a place like Vereeniging, the income you can generate just from the copper is mind-boggling,” he says, while stressing that the primary goal is to find a way to restart the operations with partners.

Meanwhile, AMSA has also confirmed that it will continue to produce some high-value long-steel products in both Gauteng and Mpumalanga, despite placing most of the longs business into care and maintenance last year.

ArcelorMittal Rail and Structures, which is based at the old Highveld Steel facility in Mpumalanga, will continue to operate using slabs from Vanderbijlpark.

Production is also set to resume at the Vereeniging Bar Mill in the coming quarter for the manufacture of specialty steel bars, mainly for automotive applications, and hollow drill steels for the mining sector.

AMSA will need to import billets for use in Vereeniging Bar Mill as the input material needs to be certified for use in automotive products, and such material is not currently available locally.

Verster is also cautiously optimistic that government will announce trade and industrial policy measures in the coming months to further protect domestic steel industry, which he says has endured an “exceptionally difficult year”.

“Government’s undertakings to support the steel industry encompass localisation, fair steel trade tariffs, and tightening controls on illegal trade activities and tariff violations,” he says, arguing that these interventions could improve trading conditions for AMSA in the second half of 2026.