Steel Asia upbeat on Mindanao’s construction boom
DAVAO CITY — Steel Asia Manufacturing Corp. is upbeat that Mindanao’s construction boom will sustain its momentum given the continued influx of orders from their mills.
“Mindanao and Davao will continue to have a construction boom, we are confident about that,” Steel Asia resident manager Adrian Yao said in an interview with BusinessWorld on the sidelines of a company event with the city government.
National Economic and Development Authority Davao Region Director Ma. Lourdes D. Lim earlier attributed Davao Region’s growth last year to investments in the property sector, with private building construction up by 74% in 2016 with a value of P12.5 Billion.
Mr. Yao said they are enjoying brisk business as shown by the orders they have been getting from all over the Davao Region.
He said the company — which has two mills in Mindanao: Misamis Oriental and Davao City — is producing 35,000 to 40,000 metric tons of reinforcement steel bars monthly, with 70% of the raw steel imported from China.
Steel Asia, the largest steel manufacturing company in the country, inaugurated its P3-billion Davao plant in 2014.
Mr. Yao said the establishment of the Davao mill has been advantageous to the local construction industry with the reduced cost on shipping and logistics. Based on SteelAsia’s Web site, the opening of the Davao mill has reduced the price of rebar steel by more than P1,500 per ton.
Earlier, SteelAsia said that it has finished paying for the mills in Davao, Batangas, and Cebu.
In December, the company paid a P2.25-billion long-term project loan from Standard Chartered London for the mill in Davao City. In November, it paid the last scheduled amortization for its P2.6billion acquisition of a mothballed steel mill in Calaca, Batangas.
Also in 2016, SteelAsia paid the final amortization on a sevenyear P600-million acquisition of a mothballed steel mill in Carcar, Cebu.