BoI commissions feasibility study on expanding local iron, steel production

THE Board of Investments (BoI) is partnering with various government agencies to study the feasibility of boosting the local production of iron and steel.

In a statement, BoI said that it signed a memorandum of agreement to conduct the study. In particular, it partnered with agencies of the Department of Science and Technology such as the Metals Industry Research and Development Center ( MIRDC) and the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD).

“A genuine local iron and steel industry is a strategic element for the country’s socioeconomic development. It can serve as backbone for many sectors of the economy as it is highly interrelated with many sectors specifically the infrastructure, power, transportation, and the manufacturing industries,” Trade Undersecretary and BoI Managing Ceferino S. Rodolfo said in a statement.

“In fact, President Rodrigo R. Duterte specifically gave directives to look into the viability of local magnetite ores, particularly the black sand, as intermediate iron products for use in the production of iron and steel.”

The Memorandum of Agreement names the MIRDC as the implementing agency for the study with the BoI, through the Manufacturing Resurgence Program-Industry Development Program, providing the funds and PCIEERD with counterpart funds.

The study will identify possible technological solutions in a bid to derive maximum benefit from available iron resources in the country. BoI said it will commission bench scale testing of local magnetite ores using various iron-processing technologies.

Citing data from the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute, BoI noted that the steel consumption was 8.76 million metric tons (MT) in 2015, up 20% from a year earlier.

Imports totaled 4.9 million MT in 2015, up from 3.3 million MT in 2012. Iron and steel imports were the country’s sixth biggest import items, valued at $ 1.7 billion in 2015, sourced mainly from China, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. —