South Africa imposes 6-month export ban on ferrous/non-ferrous scrap metal, new export and import permits (Notices R.2801-R.2804)

Mechanism

Unlike South Africa's other resource-nationalism filings in this register (chrome ore, precious metals), this measure is not aimed at capturing downstream processing margin from a mineral export — it is an infrastructure-protection intervention. Copper cable and scrap-metal theft from Eskom power lines, Transnet rail infrastructure and municipal networks had reached an estimated R47 billion/year in economic damage, and the government's diagnosis was that a legal export market for stolen scrap was the demand driver.

Four linked notices under the International Trade Administration Act:

• R.2801 — the overarching policy directive instructing ITAC to

implement the ban and permit regime.

• R.2802 — the operative six-month export ban on ferrous and

non-ferrous waste and scrap metal (copper, iron/steel scrap), running 30 November 2022 - 30 May 2023, alongside suspension of the Price Preference System that otherwise let scrap exporters pay a discounted domestic price to compete internationally.

• R.2803 — new export permit requirements on semi-finished metal

products (a downstream check to prevent minimally-processed scrap being re-classified to dodge the ban).

• R.2804 — new import permit requirements on furnaces and scrap-melting

machinery, targeting the processing equipment used to launder stolen scrap into exportable semi-finished form domestically.

This was presented as phase one of a three-phase intervention; subsequent extensions of the ban are tracked separately if filed.

Downstream implications

• South African scrap-metal exporters and their trading counterparties

(largely Asian and European secondary-smelters) lost supply access for the ban period; the measure functions as a de facto localisation mandate for domestic recyclers/smelters.

• The import-permit requirement on furnaces and scrap machines is an unusual

supply-side control mechanism — restricting equipment rather than the commodity itself — worth tracking if reused elsewhere in the register.

Open questions

• Whether the ban was extended beyond the initial 30 May 2023 sunset (GTA's

own record references "the export ban" without confirming lapse or renewal) — a separate filing if a later notice extends it.

• Measured impact on domestic infrastructure-theft rates versus the R47bn/yr

baseline the government cited to justify the measure.