SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp. is eyeing to set up a P5-billion steel mill in Calabarzon to meet the country’s growing demand for steel.
SteelAsia Chief Operating Officer Raphael Hidalgo told reporters that the company aims to have nine mills by 2018. The firm currently operates six mills and the allocation for the additional three mills will be around P19 billion. This is excluding the proposed steel plant in Calabarzon, whose cost is estimated at P3 to 5 billion.
Hidalgo said the proposal for the Calabarzon plant, with a capacity of 500,000 metric tons (MT), is being studied and is in the conceptualization stage.
By 2018 the executive estimates the firm’s capacity at 4.1 million MT, and SteelAsia’s market share at 50 percent to 60 percent.
Hidalgo said the capacity augmentation is needed to increase the local industry’s capability in supplying reinforcing steel bars. The rising demand for the steel product comes on the heels of the booming public and private constructions and is seen to be sustained in the next decade.
According to Hidalgo’s presentation during the Board of Investments’ Investment Priority Plan road show, the local industry has not been able to meet local demand for reinforcing bars (rebars) since 2014.
This has led to a spike in imports from China. Hidalgo sees total demand for steel to be at 7 million MT by 2015, with rebars taking up 4 million of the demand.
SteelAsia Corp sees over 20-percent growth for 2015.