SCRAP METAL: 2013 POLICY DIRECTIVE TO BE EXTENDED (RECENT TEMPORARY SUSPENSION NOTWITHSTANDING)?

Please note: On 31 July 2023, the Department of Trade, Industry & Competition gazetted a notice announcing that the 2013 preferential pricing policy directive has been extended for four years. A separate notice extended for the same period a related policy directive requiring scrap metal to be made available to local steel mills before being exported. The extension will only come into effect in December 2023, once the prevailing temporary suspension has been lifted. 

The Department of Trade, Industry & Competition is considering extending by a further two-to-five years a 2013 policy directive on scrap metal exports recently temporarily suspended. Presumably, the extension now being proposed will begin once the suspension has been lifted.

According to a Government Gazette notice calling for input by 10 July 2023 on the latest development in this complex matter, the extension now envisaged was informed by recommendations from working groups established by stakeholders in the steel and metal fabrication masterplan.

Since being issued, the 2013 policy directive has been reviewed and extended several times – requiring scrap to be offered to local manufacturers at discounted prices before being exported. It purpose is to support local mills and facilitate beneficiation.

However, in the face of spiralling metal theft and concomitant damage to essential infrastructure, in November 2022 the directive was suspended for six months and has since been suspended again until mid-December 2023.

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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