Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. said Wednesday it will pursue its planned $50-million steel mill on its own after its Hong Kong-based partner backed out from the project amid the pandemic.
FNI president Dante Bravo said the company has the capabilities to develop the project on its own and plans to start constructing the facility next year.
“The project is still going to push through except that we are going to own it 100 percent. We decided to put all the investments by ourselves instead of partnering with other parties,” Bravo said.
“We believe we have the capacity to do that. Only at this point we are hampered by this pandemic because of the movement of the people but all the plans are there,” he said.
FNI reported in 2019 it would team up with Hong Kong-based Huarong Asia Ltd. to venture into steel processing.
FNI would have a 51-percent interest in the joint venture company while Huarong Asia would acquire the remaining 49 percent.
The plan was to build a rebar steel rolling plant in the Philippines, which is estimated to have an annual output of 600,000 tons. Its construction was supposed to start this year with full commercial operations slated in 2022.
To support the operations of the planned steel mill, the nickel miner acquired a 40-percent stake in Freeport Area of Bataan port operator Seasia Nectar Port Services.
FNI, the second-largest nickel producer in the country, said it decided to diversify into steel processing given the fast-growing steel demand in the Philippines amid an infrastructure boom.
The company through unit Platinum Group Metals Corp. operates a mine in Surigao del Norte.
The share price of FNI slipped 2.3 percent Wednesday to P2.13.
