Sabma pushes for local battery manufacturing

The industry takes decisive step onto the policy stage

- By Staff Writer

South Africa’s emerging battery-manufacturing industry has taken a decisive step onto the policy stage.

Six domestic manufacturers have formed the South African Battery Manufacturers Association (Sabma), calling on the government to introduce local-content designation for industrial and utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS).

Together, they suggest that if South Africa wants to build a competitive green-technology sector, it must protect and promote local capacity before imports displace it.

The founding members, BalanCell, BlueNova Energy, Creslow Energy Solutions, Freedom Won, Maxwell + Spark and Solar MD, represent some of the country’s largest lithium-battery and inverter producers.

Together they argue that South Africa already has the skills, industrial base and innovation ecosystem to support large-scale manufacturing of energy-storage systems, but faces market-distorting pressures from subsidised or underpriced imports dominating the public procurement pipeline.

“Local manufacturers can meet industrial and utility-scale requirements, but we are being overlooked,” says chairperson and initiator of Sabma, Dr Louis Serfontein.

“We are calling for tariff reform and local-content designation to safeguard a strategic sector before the window closes.”