Ramaphosa stresses manufacturing remains critical to economic industrial future [SOUND]

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says the metals and engineering sector has shown extraordinary resilience despite mounting challenges. He was speaking at a presidential business breakfast of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. Ramaphosa points to weak domestic demand, logistics constraints, high electricity costs, infrastructure bottlenecks, rising import competition, fragile global steel demand and excess production capacity, warning delayed investment, squeezed margins and underused factories threaten jobs: