A bleak New Year looms for hundreds of workers at Transalloys, South Africa’s last remaining manganese smelter, after the company issued a Section 189 notice warning of possible large-scale retrenchments that could take effect in the weeks ahead.
Transalloys chief executive Konstantin Sadovnik said that the smelter has no choice in the matter. “We regret placing this level of uncertainty on our employees and their families at this time, but the ongoing lack of clarity around our operating environment leaves us with no responsible alternative, “he said.
The notice places approximately 600 well-paid direct jobs at risk and threatens an estimated 7,000 livelihoods linked to the smelter and the broader eMalahleni (formerly Witbank) economy via its supply chain and various dependencies. “This is an extraordinarily difficult announcement to make as we approach the New Year,” said Sadovnik.
The company cannot sustain operations presently, Sadovnik said. “Energy is our biggest cost driver,” Sadovnik said. “At current NERSA-approved tariff levels, we are competing against international smelters whose electricity costs are roughly half of ours. That gap makes sustained operation impossible.”
Throughout 2025, Transalloys operated intermittently as negative operational margins and sustained cash-flow pressure made continuous production impossible. The plant is currently running only two of its five furnaces. “This is a reflection on how things have deteriorated,” he said.
Sadovnik added that manganese beneficiation faces harsher conditions than the ferrochrome sector, which has dominated public discussion in recent months. Manganese smelting, he said, is significantly more energy-intensive, and Transalloys’ position is further weakened by the fact that it is not an integrated producer and cannot cross-subsidise beneficiation from primary ore production.
According to Sadovnik, current market conditions, including exchange-rate pressures against the US dollar and euro, manganese beneficiation in South Africa has become fundamentally unsustainable. Manganese ferroalloys are bulk commodities sold into highly price-sensitive global markets, where electricity costs are the single most decisive competitiveness factor.
While Transalloys has previously welcomed government’s efforts to develop a sustainable energy pricing framework for energy-intensive smelters, Sadovnik said the absence of certainty has now become the opportunity cost that threatens the business in totality. Based on the information available, he said the proposed blueprint solution for ferrochrome smelters, at preferable pricing levels, would also be the correct solution for Transalloys. “This could preserve what remains of manganese beneficiation in South Africa, with the potential to stabilise and even grow employment,” he said.
However, he also warned that uncertainty around implementation, timing and the current exclusion of manganese smelters in discourse is eroding the company’s ability to protect jobs. “Transalloys is hopeful that the issue will be resolved in the next two months and that implementation will be swift. Without that certainty, the company will have no option but to proceed with restructuring around February,” Sadovnik said.
Despite the challenges, he noted that as a global manganese ferroalloys producer Transalloys will continue to explore every possible avenue to preserve jobs, maintain social programmes and meet its supply obligations. He said that the company remains ready to work urgently with government, Eskom, NERSA and trade unions to find a sustainable solution. “Time is the critical factor now,” he said.