AMSA shuts furnace over rail troubles and grapples with pricing impacts of Russia-Ukraine conflict

The curveballs come just a month after the group, South Africa's primary steelmaker, posted its highest earnings in nearly 15 years, rebounding from the brink of collapse as steel markets improved and structural reforms began to bear fruit.

In a letter sent to customers earlier this month, which Fin24 has seen, AMSA said it had been experiencing a "progressive deterioration in the availability of trains" which has affected the levels of raw materials stock and has forced the steelmaker to halt production at one of its blast furnaces in Vanderbijlpark.

AMSA requires vast quantities of iron ore, coking coal and other raw materials as key inputs in the steelmaking process.

Traditionally, this has all been delivered by rail, which AMSA's facilities are designed around. But increasingly, in the face of severe operation and security issues experienced by Transnet Freight Rail, these materials have been delivered by truck at great additional expense.