South Africa Set to Grant Chrome Plants Cheap Power, Union Says

South Africa’s cabinet has backed the provision of cheaper power for the country’s ailing ferrochrome smelting industry, the leader of the nation’s biggest labor union said.

The decision may ease the pressure on the energy-intensive industry that’s been contracting for more than a decade as a result of constrained electricity supplies and a 600% increase since 2006 in the price of power for households.

“We have made a compelling case to government to give this sector a competitive electricity tariff,” said Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. “We are reliably informed ...