Power cuts hit British American Tobacco S.African output

HEIDELBERG, South Africa, May 7 (Reuters) - British American Tobacco (BAT), the world's No.2 cigarette maker, is losing as much as 10 percent of its South African output due to power cuts, head of domestic operations Arturo Rodriguez said on Thursday.

South Africa is in the middle of its worst electricity crisis since 2008 and its citizens and businesses are subjected to frequent controlled blackouts, which state utility Eskom implements to prevent the grid from collapsing. (Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng)