The Recycling Association of South Africa (RASA) has submitted additional evidence to the Competition Commission regarding alleged coordinated and anti-competitive conduct in the ferrous scrap metal market.
In its media release RASA says: “The evidence relates to the extended blocking of export permit applications by dominant buyers, followed by the use of brokers to signal and coordinate significant price movements. This conduct appears to have been designed to suppress prices at the collection gate through the manipulation of market conditions.”
Details of the alleged conduct
“For a period exceeding two months, dominant buyers systematically blocked export permit applications, effectively denying sellers access to the export market. Although there was no physical shortage of scrap, the number of realistic buyers in the domestic market was dramatically reduced. This created conditions of artificial monopsony, giving the dominant domestic purchasers significantly greater power to dictate prices and terms.”
The Recycling Association of South Africa (RASA) has lodged a further complaint with Competition Commission over alleged coordinated market manipulation in the scrap metal sector
“On 18 June 2026, a notice was issued through brokers announcing a substantial price reduction of R800 per ton across all grades, effective 1 July 2026. This would have amounted to a massive once-off 25% drop in domestic ferrous scrap prices and was not aligned with international market benchmarks.”
“At the end of June 2026, the actual price reduction implemented by the dominant buyers was only R250 per ton. Several other buyers did not follow the full extent of the announced reduction. On 9 July 2026, the same dominant buyers increased their buying prices by exactly R200 per ton on the same day. This coordinated price increase was again communicated through brokers and occurred against international market movements, making the behaviour even more suspicious.”
Broader context and impact
“This latest conduct forms part of a longer pattern of alleged abuse of the Price Preference System (PPS). Government’s own socio-economic analysis found a R4.9 billion transfer of wealth in 2023 from formal metal recyclers and approximately 400 000 informal waste pickers to a small number of domestic mini-mills. The recycling sector has lost more formal jobs since 2010 than the mini-mills employ in total, with the policy producing a regressive outcome that harms the poorest participants in the value chain.”
“The combination of export permit blocking, interprovincial transport burdens (where sellers must carry the full cost of delivery, often rendering transactions uneconomical), and coordinated price signalling has severely undermined competition and suppressed prices at the collection gate. Even some buyers have acknowledged that the current structure of the PPS makes many interprovincial transactions commercially unviable.”
“The metal recycling associations have called on the Competition Commission to urgently investigate these practices. They have also requested that the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) and the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) implement their own earlier recommendation to suspend the PPS pending an independent investigation into system manipulation.”
Geoff Borrajeiro, Chairperson of RASA
“Dominant buyers continue to use the regulatory framework of the PPS not for genuine local beneficiation, but to manipulate market conditions to the detriment of the upstream sector and hundreds of thousands of informal waste pickers,” said Geoff Borrajeiro, Chairperson of RASA.
“We have provided detailed evidence to the Competition Commission and call on the authorities to act decisively to restore fair competition and protect vulnerable participants in the value chain.”
The release ends with: “The associations remain committed to constructive engagement with government while continuing to advocate for a transparent, equitable and sustainable scrap metal policy environment.”
