August 15, 2025: South Africa’s Metair Investments has announced mixed results for its battery production companies Rombat and First National Battery for the first half of this year ending in June.

First Battery in South Africa posted a slight fall in sales to around 770,000 batteries over the period, compared to 786,000 in the same period last year, Metair said on August 7.

However, sales at Rombat in Romania improved by around 6% to nearly 1.5 million compared to the year-ago period.

Metair said Rombat’s performance was underpinned by an improvement in local automotive aftermarket and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) sales.

Meanwhile, the group said the sale last December of its Mutlu Akü Turkish lead acid operation had significantly derisked the balance sheet.

Following that sale, and the acquisition of South African car parts firm AutoZone, Metair restructured its operations into two core units — the OEM direct component manufacturing segment and the aftermarket parts and retail segment, which includes battery manufacturing.

Batteries International reported last June that Metair had appointed Alastair Walker as chief financial officer and an executive director with effect from July.