JOHANNESBURG - ArcelorMittal has stopped the retrenchment process at its Newcastle and Vereeniging long steel plants.
AMSA and the Industrial Development Corporation have struck a R1.b billion loan agreement that allows the steel producer to keep its doors open.
The planned wind-down of operations would have resulted in around 3,500 job losses and far-reaching consequences for downstream businesses.
AMSA CEO Kobus Verster says the company was just days away from the final shutdown of the blast furnaces.