The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) announced on Friday that it will impose heavy tariffs on Chinese steel after an investigation found evidence of product dumping.
ITAC set the tariff rate on Chinese structural steel to 74.98 percent, which is considerably higher than the 52.81 percent duties imposed after product dumping was discovered in 2024.
In both 2024 and 2026, ITAC found evidence of steel dumping by Thailand as well, and responded by imposing tariffs of 9.12 percent and 20.32 percent, respectively.
The announcement on Friday said the high import taxes have already been approved by South African Trade, Industry, and Competition Minister Parks Tau, for a period of up to five years.
South Africa’s steelmakers and ore processors have not been faring well over the past few years. The industry cited heavy imports of cheap steel from China as one of the major reasons for its travails.
ITAC’s investigation found almost 29,000 metric tons of structural steel pouring into South Africa’s market from 2023 to 2024, about 65 percent of it from China. The agency said the artificially low price of this steel, subsidized by China, made it about 20 percent cheaper than steel from South African producers.
The volume of imported steel skyrocketed, while big local producers like ArcelorMittal South Africa (Amsa) saw their revenues collapse, leading to shuttered plants and lost jobs. Amsa had previously been the near-monopoly supplier of steel to the railroad industries in South Africa and the neighboring countries that make up the South African Customs Union (SACU).
ITAC concluded that the flood of cheap imported steel was part of a deliberate “dumping” strategy to weaken or destroy South African producers, leading to Friday’s tariffs as a protective remedy. The big concern was structural steel, but ITAC also imposed high duties on other metal products from China, Japan, and Taiwan.
“The new tariffs are expected to help domestic producers regain market share, stabilize prices, and invest in maintaining production and employment. Analysts say this intervention will allow local companies to compete fairly while ensuring the long-term durability of steel used in construction projects,” Business Insider Africa reported on Friday.
“The policy also follows broader international scrutiny: the United States has previously criticized South African steel exports under its trade remedies framework, highlighting the challenges of navigating global steel markets,” the report added.
The Chinese government did not immediately respond to ITAC’s decision.
The steel dumping story is politically awkward because China and South Africa are both members of the BRICS economic bloc, conceived as a counter to U.S.-led groups like the G7. Another member is Iran, which joined in 2024 and has conspicuously failed to receive much help from its BRICS partners while Operation Epic Fury has systematically eliminated the regime’s leadership.
South African officials say that in addition to product dumping, their economy is suffering from “illicit trade,” including everything from off-brand cigarettes to fake medicine. The black market is currently growing faster than the formal economy, cutting deeply into the government’s tax revenue.
In January, British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) closed its last remaining factory and announced it would halt domestic production by the end of 2026, due largely to the impact of the illicit cigarette market. Company representatives said that roughly 75 percent of the domestic market is now controlled by illicit manufacturers.
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