Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Working with partners at PowerShift Africa in Zimbabwe and Namibia\u2019s Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), they have initially been focusing on Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their idea has not come out of nowhere. In January 2026, SADC members agreed<\/a> in Lusaka, Zambia, to advance a regional Just Energy Transition Framework. Among the key action areas to emerge from those discussions is cooperation on green industrialisation, and a regional \u201cjust steel transition\u201d partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>South Africa could use its plentiful sunshine and wind to produce some of the world\u2019s cheapest \u201cgreen iron\u201d, which is processed using renewable energy and green hydrogen, finds<\/a> recent research. Neighbouring Namibia, meanwhile, is already making strides in producing this potentially key input for low-carbon steelmaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve put forward this idea of a green corridor of cooperation, looking beyond just transport corridors,\u201d said Govindsamy. The aim is to work out how country\u2019s differing natural resource endowments can be leveraged, and the implications for the region\u2019s steel decarbonisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While competition in these sectors exists, Govindsamy said, the organisations are focusing on finding opportunities for collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three countries\u2019 iron and steel sectors are at different junctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Africa has felt the effects of decades of deindustrialisation<\/a>, with closures of key steelworks resulting in huge job losses, while its first green steelmaking ventures have faltered. Namibia, meanwhile, has moved ahead<\/a> with Africa\u2019s first \u201czero-emissions\u201d iron plant, powered by green hydrogen. Zimbabwe is seeing a steelmaking resurgence<\/a> on the back of USD 5 billion of investment from two Chinese multinationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The experts Dialogue Earth spoke with suggest the three countries have much to offer each other towards green steel production: South Africa has spare industrial capacity, export infrastructure including key ports at Saldanha Bay and Richards Bay, and abundant iron ore mining waste, which can be used to make green iron. Namibia has cheap renewable energy and green hydrogen for green iron production, plus ports of its own at Walvis Bay and L\u00fcderitz. Zimbabwe has abundant chromium ores, for stainless steel production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Oshivela iron plant sits in the desert around 100 km from Namibia\u2019s central coast. This year its operator, HyIron, begun<\/a> a pilot project to use green hydrogen, produced on-site using solar power, to turn iron ore into direct reduced iron (DRI), which can be fed into electric arc furnaces to produce steel. Around the world, nearly all of this input is currently produced using fossil fuels. By using renewable resources instead, HyIron is aiming to be one of the first industrial-scale producers of this \u201cgreen iron\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These kind of projects are making iron-rich regions like Southern Africa into possible drivers<\/a> of global steel decarbonisation, according to a 2025 paper<\/a> by energy researcher Hilton Trollip. \u201cSweetspot\u201d countries like those in the region, which have both abundant raw materials and clean energy potential, can export green iron to European and Asian steel producers. \u201cIn many cases [such imports] are substantially lower cost than local production at major steel-making locations in industrialised countries,\u201d his paper explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dietrich Remmert, a research associate at the IPPR, said initially HyIron will produce 15,000 tonnes of DRI per year, which they aim to eventually increase to over 1 million tonnes. Built with German energy and engineering partners, and financing support<\/a> <\/a>under the EU\u2019s Global Gateway, the facility found<\/a> its first buyer in a 2024 agreement with German steelmaker Benteler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Green iron projects globally have so far struggled<\/a> to take off, given the challenges of securing firm demand, buyer commitments and export agreements. But there remains hope that, if secured, the green iron trade could enable local industrial development in Global South countries, as well as export value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOnce export-oriented green iron facilities are operating, they could become the foundation for a domestic decarbonised steel sector that leapfrogs the conventional carbon-intensive route,\u201d Trollip\u2019s paper states. \u201cThe export partnership provides the anchor investment; the anchor investment provides the foundation; the foundation enables a development trajectory otherwise foreclosed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Kudakwashe Manjonjo, a just transition adviser for PowerShift Africa in Zimbabwe, scaling HyIron presents an opportunity for steelmaking in the region itself: \u201cThe question would then be, how do we increase the production of HyIron to a point where it\u2019s actually the main feedstock for the bigger steel plants within the region?\u201d Namibia does not produce steel itself, relying instead on imports from China and, primarily, South Africa. Coal-based blast furnaces have historically accounted for more than half<\/a> of South Africa\u2019s annual steel output, though a shift towards lower-carbon, scrap-based production is happening as major steelworks shutter. Zimbabwe\u2019s steel revival, meanwhile, remains reliant on coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, Chinese metals giant Tsingshan announced<\/a> that it would invest USD 800 million in Zimbabwe\u2019s Manhize steelworks. While this will boost the country\u2019s previously ailing<\/a> steel industry, Manjonjo isn\u2019t convinced it\u2019s as good as it looks. \u201cWe think we\u2019re \u2018competitive\u2019 because we\u2019re using coal. But we\u2019re ignoring the externality costs,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, I live in a coal town. We breathe in sulphuric acid all the time, but that\u2019s not put on the balance sheets. The economic and environmental costs are not taken into account.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manjonjo told Dialogue Earth that the region\u2019s competitive advantage is energy \u2013 historically in its access to coal, and now, in its solar and wind potential. The challenge, he said, is to move to generating energy with those renewable resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt what point do we acknowledge that renewable energy is going to be way cheaper?\u201d Manjonjo asked. If markets move towards cleaner steel, he suggested, focussing on coal-based steel would risk being outcompeted. \u201cIf we are not careful within the region, in terms of how we actually design our own industry, we\u2019re going to have deindustrialisation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PowerShift Africa adviser said a lot of work needs to be done to understand the challenges of keeping Zimbabwe\u2019s steel production consistent over the next decade, including issues of jobs, demand and markets. Moves that could enable a \u201ctipping point\u201d towards lower-carbon steelmaking must also be considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manjonjo said the focus could start \u201con particular areas of the value chain which are the most destructive\u201d. He said blast furnaces could reduce emissions by incorporating a higher share of scrap metal, as is already common practice globally, or through hydrogen injection, which is currently being trialled<\/a>. A more fundamental shift would be replacing blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the region could be among the most competitive in the green transition if \u201cwe harness our renewable energy … to magnify that competitive advantage within the industries that we want to focus on. Steel just happens to be one of those where we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, coal and hydropower each cover roughly half of Zimbabwe\u2019s electricity generation, while coal accounts for over 80% of South Africa\u2019s. Namibia\u2019s own generation is almost entirely hydropower and rapidly growing solar<\/a>, though it imports about 60%<\/a> of its electricity needs from neighbours. All three are part of the existing 12-country Southern African Power Pool, an integrated grid and electricity market which Southern Transitions views as an advantage for future green collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n On building up renewable capacity, Manjonjo acknowledged some difficulties of working with neighbours but also its necessity: \u201cWe basically need to ask ourselves, where does it [the sun] shine the most? And it shines the most, unfortunately, right along our borders.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think the South African industry has a choice other than to decarbonise,\u201d said Charles Dednam, the secretary general of the South African Iron and Steel Institute (SAISI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said total steel consumption has been stagnant for a decade at about 4.5 million tonnes, of which 37% is imported. \u201cClose to 90% is coming from the east at very reduced prices, and I can tell you the industry is suffering severely, and that\u2019s hampering the total roadmap towards decarbonisation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But a need to decarbonise is only equalled by the difficulty of doing so. Dednam says the country\u2019s poor economic performance is hampering efforts to cut emissions. Financial and market pressures have already hit its biggest steelmaker in recent years: in 2025, ArcelorMittal South Africa closed<\/a> its Newcastle and Vereeniging steelworks, having also shuttered<\/a> its Saldanha Bay plant in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dednam says South Africa has built facilities for annual economic growth of about 5% but the rate has actually hovered around 1% for the last decade. He says active steelmaking facilities are being used at 64% of their capacity. \u201cIf I measure it against the installed capacity [including dormant steelworks], our utilisation rate drops to 34%. No business can operate at those levels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SAISI secretary said this underscored how the country must target the \u201cvalue-add side of steelmaking\u201d and try to move away from the increasing dominance of commodity exports in its economy. \u201cThe mills are actually realising that decarbonisation is the route to take in order to go into the value-add link, for automotive applications specifically, and also for your green housing projects, which are gaining momentum,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Projects targeting lower-carbon steel in the country have, however, struggled to get off the ground<\/a>. Most notable among those is the plan to revive the Saldanha Bay steelworks as a green steel facility, which was later cancelled<\/a>. But elsewhere, green hydrogen projects such as the USD 5.8 billion plant in Nelson Mandela Bay are reportedly progressing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Umeesha Naidoo is acting head of industry planning and project development at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), South Africa\u2019s state-owned development bank. She identified \u201cstrong incentives\u201d for South Africa to collaborate regionally. South Africa, meanwhile, could \u201cstrengthen supply linkages for iron ore, scrap, ferroalloys, limestone, manganese, chrome and other metallurgical inputs across the region.\u201d![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260923_South-Africa_Namibia_Zimbabwe_mines_EN.jpg\")
<\/div>Namibia ahead of the pack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The sun don\u2019t know no borders: A Zimbabwean\u2019s perspective<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
South African steel needs a life raft<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"wagons](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Saldanha-terminal-ore-transport_Alamy_E8WCDB.jpg\")
<\/div>A need to decarbonise is only equalled by the difficulty of doing so<\/blockquote><\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Reorient integration towards just collaboration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Doing so could \u201ccombine Namibia\u2019s renewable potential with South Africa\u2019s metallurgical, steel and fabrication base.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cExisting rail, port, power, industrial zones and steel assets could be repurposed or upgraded,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n