SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp., the Philippines’ leading steel company and the largest manufacturer of steel bars (rebar) in Southeast Asia, has closed deals with two of Russia’s leading companies for a steady supply of billets and technology and skills transfer.
SteelAsia and Evrazhave signed a $250-million, long-term annual supply of 50,000 tons of semi-finished steel, also known as billets, for SteelAsia’s rolling mills in Davao City and Meycauayan, Bulacan.
Billets are the input material for many long steel products, including rebars.
SteelAsia has also worked out a cooperation arrangement with Kurganstalmost JSC for the provision of engineering services as well as training and technology transfer to SteelAsia. Kurganstalmost is Russia’s leading producer of steel structures.
“We have found that Russian companies are very reliable business partners,” said company Chairman and CEO Benjamin Yao.
He said the long term billet supply contract assured the company of a stable source of raw material, insulating the country from rebar shortage, while the technology and skills transfer were in preparation for SteelAsia’s diversification into steel structures.
“Our expansion plans are all geared towards supporting the country’s focus on massive infrastructure build up,” Yao said.
SteelAsia since 1998 has bought about 3.24 million tons of billets worth $1.23 billion from Russia.
The company in the first quarter of 2017 purchased 240,000 tons of billets worth $93 million.
SteelAsia also transacts with several Russian steel companies, including NLMK and Evraz—Russia’s two largest steel makers, EMK/Ural Steel/Metalloinvest, JSC Amurmetal, Amurstaal, KMK and Mechel.
Evraz has operations in Russia, Ukraine, United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan and South Africa. Its crude steel output last year topped 13.5 million tons.
Kurganstalmost, part of the Russian industrial and infrastructure giant Mostostroyindustria of Transstroy Corp., has a cutting-edge technology and engineering service, an experience in steel structure production, a training center, and Russian Exim financing at competitive rates and terms.
SteelAsia has an annual capacity of 2.3 million metric tons, with six plants strategically located across the country. It is expanding its rebar capacity to 4 million metric tons in the next five to seven years.