Steward Jennings, chairperson of industry group the Manufacturing Circle, said that price cuts were needed for distressed industries as well as reductions in the proposed 25% electricity price hikes planned for the next couple of years.
In the past four years, electricity prices for manufacturing had climbed 140%, making it one of the main drivers of rising costs for industry, Jennings said. "We have to attack these militant price increases... we can't afford another two years of 25% increases. We will fall out (of business), we are already falling out," he said.
The Manufacturing Circle represents 56 large companies including SABMiller [JSE:SAB], ArcelorMittal [JSE:ACL], Pretoria Portland Cement [JSE:PPC], Hulamin [JSE:HLM], Mondi [JSE:MND] and Allied Electronics Corporation [JSE:ATN]. Manufacturing accounts for 15.6% of the economy's overall output.
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