Manufacturers to appeal tariff hikes

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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