SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp. said over the weekend it expects the country’s first steel beam manufacturing plant in Lemery, Batangas to start operations by 2023.
The new plant is expected to support the construction and infrastructure projects in the country by providing more locally-made structural steel products. SteelAsia currently produces reinforcing bars which are mainly used for house and building construction.
It broke ground in 2019, but the construction of the two production lines –steelmaking and steel section rolling”•was suspended last year because of the lockdown.
“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,” said SteelAsia president Benjamin Yao.
The facility will create at least 1,500 direct jobs and thousands more from ancillary industries and businesses. Once completed, it will have a capacity of 1.1 million tons per year.
SteelAsia will manufacture steel products used in infrastructure and heavy construction including H/I beams, sheet piles, heavy angles and channels that are currently being imported.
SteelAsia it teamed up with companies from Germany and France for the design of the plant.
SMS of Germany, the world’s leading manufacturer of sections equipmend and Fives, one of the pioneers in reheating furnaces, formerly Stein Huertey of France, provided the design and supplied the equipment for the manufacturing plant.
The Lemery plant is also expected to put Batangas on the map as one of the country’s top steel hubs, according to SteelAsia,
The plant will recycle steel scrap which are currently exported.
“When you export and process our resources abroad, it is creating jobs in another country. With this new plant, we will recycle our steel scrap here and generate local jobs,” Yao said.
He said SteelAsia was committed to create regional industrial hubs and make steel products easily accessible and more affordable to all parts of the country.
SteelAsia has plants that produce rebars in Davao, Cebu, Misamis Oriental, Batangas and Bulacan.
It is also putting up plants in Compostela, Cebu; Tarlac and Quezon province.
State-run Development Bank of the Philippines said last year it signed a P5.7-billion long-term loan agreement with Compostela Steel Inc., a subsdiary of SteelAsia, for the construction of its biggest steel-making facility
in Compostela, Cebu.
Under the agreement, the loan proceeds will be used to partially finance the Compostela Works Rolling Mill, with parent company, SteelAsia, investing the balance of the required total capital amounting to P8.3 billion.
The mill is the seventh of SteelAsia in the country, in addition to its other facilities in Batangas, Carcar, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Bulacan.
The Philippines has zero wire-rod manufacturing capability and relies solely on imports from Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and China.
