But ArcelorMittal SA must subject itself to a due diligence process by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which is providing the R1,9 billion rescue loan and already owns 6,4% of the company.

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will give the R400 million for salaries of the 3 500 workers who would have been terminated had the winding down process continued.

The entire process, said ArcelorMittal SA CEO Kobus Verster, was to buy time to enable both the the company and Government to address the systemic issues destroying the South African steel industry.

Government has also undertaken within the next six months to “expeditiously address” the structural and systemic conditions that ArcelorMittal SA has been demanding it do for years – such as improving rail transport, lowering Eskom electricity cots and changing Government regulations that discount the scrap metal that smaller companies use to make steel.

The latest moves in the steel industry drama will allow the Company’s long steel plants to continue working until August 31 this year, ArcelorMittal SA confirmed in a statement this week.

The company expressed appreciation for Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau’s role in reaching the breakthrough deal.

“The Company is encouraged by emerging signs of demand growth in the south African economy with potential for the steel market due to recent opportunities in sectors such as energy,” the company said in a statement issued on Monday this week.