Goodyear Shuts It's Plant For Good In South Africa
After 78 years Goodyear called it a day manufacturing car tyres in South Africa and this is all on the SA government not protecting local manufacturing jobs. The cheap imports from China are decimating local production and all it would take is an additional 20 percent duty to keep the local items competitive.
60% of all tyres being sold in South Africa originate from China which is a scary thought considering at one stage 25% of all Chinese tyres failed the bureau of safety standards.
3 years ago instead of clamping down on imports the government decided to tax all car tyres by introducing an extra tax that would be used to boost the revenue. The 900 or so jobs that have now been lost plus the business tax revenue and all the supporting service providers of this business have all been lost.
The metal workers union known as NUMSA has failed their members and yet are claiming a win by negotiating a doubling severance package for their workers. What was kind of a cheek was the local government has asked Goodyear to donate the plant to them and are hoping to convince the government to now place tariffs on the cheaper imports making this business viable again. This sounds like theft to me and if this was their goal all along then they deserve nothing. Thankfully Goodyear refused the offer and I am hoping they take all the manufacturing equipment with them.
“To this effect, with the support of national government — the Department of Trade Industry and Competition in particular), the Industrial Development Corporation has made an expression of interest to Goodyear to take over the plant infrastructure,” he explained.
Jim called on government to take “decisive measures” to protect the manufacturing sector, including tariffs, a ban on tyre imports, tighter tax regulations on multinational companies and a coherent state-led industrial strategy.
They are interested is an understatement lol and this is just too obvious now wanting to prevent the imports from entering the market and having a free tyre manufacturing plant. This is theft and manipulation and Goodyear must either take their equipment or destroy it.
You always wonder in Africa what is the reason for their thinking and this seems like more of a plan to enrich themselves forcing the big companies to shut down. Once they have been closed down then the plan looks like they want to take over the business for themselves with no investment costs. Who knows maybe they have a Chinese company hanging around ready to step in and the government officials become major share holders. They are crooked and you have to look for the obvious as this is done intentionally on purpose. The same maybe happening with the steel plant in Newcastle that shuts this month as a Chinese company would jump at this opportunity.
It is interesting to see Goodyears financial figures for their global company which is up by nearly 300% for the second quarter of last year. SA Goodyear falls under Europe and Middle East which showed a loss of $25 million which was an improvement on the same time last year which lost $79 million. In total Goodyear for this region was operating at a 1.1% operational loss. The money is there if the industry is protected against cheaper competition.
Surely this cannot all be being done on purpose because it certainly looks like this is the agenda at play here. We know the officials are all corrupt and many of them are on the Chinese payroll. Reducing the competition and opening a route to market for the Chinese would be a very lucrative deal for those involved and I would not put this past them to sabotage the economy for personal gain.
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Funny thing is that even if they take over, I doubt they can manage and scale as effectively as Goodyear.... Zimbabwe is a prime example
@cryptoandcoffee News like this hits hard because it is not just about a company closing a plant but about hundreds of families suddenly left uncertain. For so many in the Eastern Cape, that factory was more than a job, it was stability. The closure highlights how fragile industrial jobs have become and how decisions made on profitability ripple through entire communities. You can feel the frustration that once again ordinary workers carry the heaviest burden while the bigger picture shifts around them.