MBOMBELA – Load-shedding has forced local manganese giant, Manganese Metal Company (MMC) to retrench several of its employees.
The company, situated in the city’s industrial area, depends heavily on a stable flow of electricity to produce its trademark 99,9 per cent selenium-free electrolytic manganese metal (EMM). MMC is the only non-China company to produce the metal in the world and prides itself in its high-quality product.
Because the company mainly exports its product, it has to maintain a high level of quality, making it more expensive to produce than any company in China. The EMM produced in China is of lower quality, but cheaper.
“MMC competes in the international arena where the competition is severe and there are many alternative products available,” said the company’s spokesman Ms Shirley Mnisi. “The overall competition of MMC is highly threatening, particularly in the context of extremely high electricity price increases and continuous load-shedding imposed on MMC by Eskom.”
The constant power interruption has caused the quality of our product to decline severely, causing the market to move to the cheaper Chinese EMM. “Many of the positions at MMC have therefore become redundant,” said Mnisi.
Adding to the decrease in product quality is the depressed sales prices for electrolytic manganese (ElMn). “The demand for the product has declined over the past three years. Also, the management and rehabilitation of our current and previous waste-dumping sites on the outskirts of the city is an expensive operation.”
Mnisi added, given these factors, the business “faces operational challenges, necessitating a different action plan to ensure viability for the foreseeable future”.
These problems will be discussed with employees, under the authority of the CCMA, this Friday.
