Steelasia targeting to open Batangas factory in 2023

Fter Covid-19 derailed its construction, Steelasia Manufacturing Corp. said it is targeting to open for operations the country’s first steel beams manufacturing plant in Lemery, Batangas in 2023.

The country’s largest steelmaker, in a statement over the weekend, said constructing the plant’s steelmaking and steel section rolling production lines were suspended in the past year due to lockdown measures amid the pandemic.

The company, to recall, broke ground in 2019.

It is set to have a capacity of 1.1 million tons per year. The plant will produce infrastructure and heavy construction products, such as H/I beam, sheet piles, heavy angles and channels.

Steelasia’s facility is seen generating at least 1,500 direct jobs and thousands more from ancillary industries and businesses.

Germany-based sections equipment manufacturer SMS Group and France-based reheating furnace firm Fives crafted the design of the plant and supplied the needed equipment.

“The Lemery Works steel plant is of national significance as it will reduce our reliance on imports for important steel products needed for the government’s ambitious infrastructure program,” Steelasia President Benjamin Yao said.

He noted that the new plant will be recycling steel scrap, which is sourced locally, to generate job opportunities in the country. This, as opposed to exporting steel scrap, which is the current practice.

“When you export and process our resources abroad, it is creating jobs in another country.”

Steelasia currently has plants in Davao, Cebu, Misamis Oriental,

Batangas and Bulacan. It is also putting up facilities in Compostela Cebu, Tarlac and Quezon Province.

In October last year, the steel manufacturer’s subsidiary, Compostela Steel Inc., secured a P5.7billion long-term loan agreement with the Development Bank of the Philippines.

The loan proceeds are earmarked to partially finance Compostela Works Rolling Mill with its parent firm. The rest is being invested in the steel company’s capitalization.

The project is expected to generate up to 3,000 direct and indirect job opportunities.

The Cebu facility, the state-run bank said, could expand the firm’s capability to manufacture wire-rods, which is a steel product that can support downstream small-scale companies in the manufacturing, energy and construction sectors.