SteelAsia’s will put up five steel plants at a cost of P82 billion in the next four years to replace imports, generate new businesses, create local jobs, and stoke economic growth throughout the country.
The five upcoming plants are those in: Lemery, Batangas, at a cost of P18 billion; Candelaria, Quezon, P30 billion; Davao City, P8 billion. They are expected to be completed by 2026. The two plants in Concepcion, Tarlac, are projected to cost P26 billion and will be completed in 2027.
SteelAsia chairman and CEO Benjamin Yao said the new plants will produce new steel products that are all imported at the moment. In 2022, the country spent more than $3 billion to import such products like wire rods, billets, sections and sheet piles.
The steel produced by these new plants will have applications in infrastructure and construction, and in various downstream steel-intensive manufacturing industries, he said.
“We are building the mother industry for manufacturing. We are way behind our neighbors but we will catch up. And as we do so, our mills and steel products will create new manufacturing industries that will result in more jobs and higher skilled workers, and economic growth, among others”, Yao said.
Yao disclosed these projects when President Marcos inaugurated SteelAsia’s cutting-edge P10-billion plant in Compostela, Cebu earlier this month.
The President stressed the need to revitalize the local steel industry and pledged government support for the company’s expansion plans, saying: “over 70 percent of all infrastructure, housing, power, industrial, and other business developments in the country use SteelAsia rebar.”
He also lauded the company for replacing imports, one of the goals of the Tatak Pinoy Law which he signed recently.
SteelAsia has existing plants in Batangas, Bulacan, Davao, and Cebu, a deliberate geographic strategy of Yao to cut transport costs and sell to customers at the same price across the country
