South Africa’s government must “re-nationalise” ArcelorMittal South Africa to avert job losses and rebuild the country’s beleaguered manufacturing industry, according to a leader of a body that represents more than a dozen labour groups.

The company has begun closing steel operations that employ about 3 500 people and support as many as 100 000 indirect jobs after nearly two years of negotiations with the government failed to address its complaints, including high-input costs and competition from cheap imports.

ArcelorMittal’s assets include what was once Iscor, the State-run steelmaker built during apartheid to shield the country against sanctions and privatised in 1989.

The shuttering of the plant is bad news for a country where a third of the workforce is unemployed and which needs to find alternate markets for its companies hit by 30% tariffs on exports to the US. Ford Motor Co. and Glencore Plc have also announced plans to cut jobs. It follows retrenchments by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Mercedes-Benz Group AG.

“Job losses in South Africa are simply deepening at the most alarming rate,” South African Federation of Trade Unions general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, said in an interview on SAfm radio Monday.

Trade tariffs of 30% imposed on Africa’s most industrialised economy by the US also threaten 100 000 jobs and could prove catastrophic, he said, citing central bank estimates.

Saftu is seeking talks with South Africa’s ministers of trade, industry and competition, and employment and labour to address the “bleeding” of jobs, he said.

“There’s been no real engagement between the key players to try and find real solutions, long-term solutions, to the crisis.”