SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp. said Monday it signed a landmark agreement with Danieli Co. Ltd., a global leader in metals technologies, to establish the Philippines’ first heavy steel sections mill in Candelaria, Quezon.
Under the agreement, Danieli will supply all core equipment and technology for the P30-billion project.
“Steel is the base development of any country. This is laying the foundation of future development in the Philippines, and this is what we are seeing everywhere in the world,” said Danieli chief executive Giacomo Mareschi Danieli.
The mill will be the country’s first facility to locally produce heavy beams, angles, channels, sheet piles and narrow plates—all currently imported mostly from China and Vietnam.
The Candelaria facility will incorporate Danieli’s green steel technologies and is expected to be one of the lowest carbon-emitting steel plants globally, avoiding 2 million tons of CO2 emissions annually, which aligns with international decarbonization efforts.
Together with SteelAsia’s section mill under construction in Batangas, the Candelaria mill is projected to generate 7,000 jobs within the plant and across its supporting industries.
Special Assistant to the President Secretary Frederick Go said around $1.2 billion worth of imports annually would be replaced through SteelAsia’s two section mills.
“It will really help our country’s self-sufficiency and reduce importation dependence from international suppliers,” he said.
SteelAsia is the country’s flagship steel manufacturer, operating mills across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The Candelaria mill will be its sixth facility, forming part of the company’s plans to expand local steel manufacturing and build a robust Philippine steel industry.