When Dinson Iron and Steel Company (Disco) fired up its US$1.5 billion Manhize plant in 2024, Zimbabwe finally broke free from spending half a billion dollars annually on imported steel. By the first quarter of 2026, steel export earnings had rocketed 254% to US$68.22 million, with regional buyers scrambling for Zimbabwean billets, rebars, and wire rods, particularly in South Africa, where the once-dominant steel industry is in freefall, Mining Zimbabwe can report.
By Rudairo Mapuranga
But just as Zimbabwean steel begins to reshape regional trade, a protectionist offensive from Pretoria threatens to slam the door shut. On 15 May 2026, South Africa gazetted sweeping new import duties on steel and downstream metal products, ranging from 10% to 30%. The official justification is to shield South Africa’s struggling industry from “low-cost imports.” The practical effect, however, is a one-sided recalibration of the bilateral trade relationship that has long favoured South Africa and has now become palpably unfair to Zimbabwe.
The Surge That Shook the Region
Zimbabwe’s steel resurgence is anything but ordinary. In 2025 alone, steel export earnings surged 450% to US$92.1 million from 146,314 tonnes, transforming a perennial net importer into a regional powerhouse at the very moment ArcelorMittal South Africa posted a headline loss of 3.355 billion rand (US$207.86 million) and shut down its long-steel plants. Into that vacuum stepped Zimbabwe. Primary steel imports into South Africa reached a record 1.56 million tonnes in 2025, with semi-finished products such as billets and blooms leaping by over 514%.
The quality and reliability of Disco’s output have drawn “quite exciting” feedback from regional buyers, while 98% of its raw materials—coke, limestone, and iron ore—are sourced locally. That is genuine value addition, the kind that industrial policy is supposed to reward. Yet, at the very moment Zimbabwe should be reaping the benefits of its long-overdue industrial awakening, South Africa has erected a new tariff barrier.
The Irony of Protectionism
The May 2026 duties apply to a broad range of products: 10% on flat-rolled and alloy steels, 15% on tubes and pipes, 20% on hand tools, and 30% on select fittings and washers. Rebates are available only for products “not available locally,” subject to permits from the International Trade Administration Commission, whose guidelines remain unpublished. For Zimbabwean exporters who have fought to build reliable supply chains, this creates immediate legal uncertainty.
Pretoria’s action follows a pattern. In March 2026, South Africa imposed duties of 74.98% on Chinese steel and 20.32% on Thai steel after a two-year dumping probe. While those measures explicitly target China and Thailand, the broader tariff review comes at a moment when Zimbabwe has become the most dynamic new steel supplier in the region. The message is unmistakable: South Africa will protect its domestic industry even if that means chilling competition from its closest neighbour.
A Trade Imbalance That Has Lasted Too Long
The steel dispute is only the most visible symptom of a relationship that has long been tilted in South Africa’s favour. In 2025, Zimbabwe exported goods worth approximately US$526 million to South Africa. During the same period, South Africa exported a staggering US$4.3 billion worth of goods to Zimbabwe. That is an eightfold imbalance, with Pretoria enjoying a trade surplus of nearly US$3.8 billion.
The composition of those imports is even more telling. South Africa ships to Zimbabwe not only mining equipment and machinery, which accounted for US$508 million in 2025, but also US$417.8 million in cereals, US$337.6 million in vehicles, and US$221.1 million in plastics. Many of these goods, from foodstuffs to basic manufactured products, could be produced locally if Zimbabwe’s own industries were given a fair chance. Yet under the SADC Free Trade Area framework, Zimbabwe has largely kept its market open to South African goods, while South Africa now deploys the very tariff tools it has long discouraged Zimbabwe from using.
As early as 1992, South Africa raised tariffs on many Zimbabwean goods, causing industry closures and job losses. That pattern has continued. Even when Zimbabwe qualifies for preferential access, the non-tariff barriers, port delays, standards certification, and border red tape remain formidable. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s own mining sector spends roughly US$2.1 billion annually on imported machinery, equipment, and services, the overwhelming majority sourced from South Africa. An Afreximbank report found that 80% of Zimbabwe’s intra-African mining-related imports, totalling US$4.7 billion, come from South Africa.
What Fairness Would Require
South Africa cannot have it both ways. It cannot demand open access for its own exports—machinery, vehicles, plastics, food, chemicals, and consumer goods—while simultaneously closing its market to Zimbabwe’s emerging manufactured goods. If the SADC Free Trade Area means anything, it means reciprocal market opening, not one-way liberalisation masked by protectionist fine print.
Zimbabwe has already begun taking modest corrective steps. In 2025, Zimbabwe reduced imports from South Africa by US$140 million as local industry rebounded. The Local Content Strategy, approved in 2019, aims to raise local content levels from 25% to 80% and boost manufacturing capacity utilisation from 45% to 75%. But these measures remain inadequate against a partner that deploys anti-dumping duties, safeguard tariffs, and rebate permits with surgical precision.
If South Africa is serious about regional integration, it must offer Zimbabwe reciprocal treatment: genuine duty-free access for Zimbabwean manufactured goods, transparent rebate procedures, and an end to the non-tariff barriers that have long choked Zimbabwean exports. Until that happens, Zimbabwe would be well within its rights to re-examine its own import regime, particularly for goods that compete directly with domestic industry.
Zimbabwe’s steel resurgence is a hard-won achievement. The Manhize plant now employs over 2,000 workers directly, a figure projected to reach 25,000 at full capacity, and is expected to contribute US$5 billion annually to the national economy. That transformation should be celebrated, not obstructed by a neighbour that benefits enormously from an open Zimbabwean market while raising walls against Zimbabwean goods.
Pretoria’s new steel duties are, in effect, a “ban without saying it.” They are a reminder that trade relationships are not fair by default—they are fair when both sides have the courage to enforce reciprocity. Zimbabwe has made its move. It is time for South Africa to match it.
