Johannesburg - ArcelorMittal South Africa, a unit of the world's biggest steel maker, is one of two shortlisted bidders for Zimbabwe's steel maker Ziscosteel, ArcelorMittal South Africa chief executive said on Wednesday.
The Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, a major foreign-currency earner before independence in 1980, stopped operations last year at the height of an economic crisis, due to a lack of capital to re-equip its plants.
The government holds about 70% in Ziscosteel - once the largest integrated steelworks in the region - and had previously not been keen to sell its stake.
But the country's new coalition government, in power since February, sees the sell-off of state entities as part of necessary economic reforms.
"We are (one) of two short-listed bidders and the government will have to do a final evaluation and we now await a response from the Zimbabwean government," said ArcelorMittal South Africa's Chief Executive Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita.
She said a take over of Ziscosteel would help the company increase its production capacity and 'get closer to landlocked' African markets.
Ziscosteel's two furnaces have capacity to produce between 750,000 and 1 million tonnes of steel.