The country’s largest steel manufacturer says the facility is eyed to reduce the cost of construction in Mindanao.
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| Photo courtesy of steelasia.com |
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| Photo courtesy of steelsia.com |
DAVAO CITY, Davao
– Steel Asia Manufacturing Corporation, the country’s largest steel manufacturer, has completed its P3-billion ($67.33 million) steel plant in Davao City.
The plant's completion is in time for government initiatives to develop Mindanao infrastructure and generate business activity.
The plant is the largest and touted as the most modern steel plant in the country.
It has the capacity to produce 500,000 metric tons of rebars annually, bringing SteelAsia's total production capacity to 2 million metric tons from its 6 plants.
Such capacity is more than half of the country's demand of 3.3 million metric tons this year.
Because of the Davao steel mill, it is expected that construction cost in Mindanao would be reduced as rebars are no longer needed to be shipped from Manila.
The new plant is also expected to create 2,000 jobs directly and indirectly.
Manila stands to benefit as well from the completion of the Davao steel mill through dispersing economic activity across the archipelago and decongesting the Manila ports, SteelAsia president Benjamin Yao said during the plant's inauguration on Thursday, December 4.
"Around 75% of SteelAsia’s operation is no longer in Manila, but dispersed regionally. We are proud that we are part of the solution in the decongestion of Manila," Yao said.
SteelAsia has 3 plants in Luzon, one in the Visayas, and two in Mindanao, including the new Davao plant.
The SteelAsia Davao plant also sets a benchmark for the steel industry in modern environmental protection.
Although it has huge water consumption, the Davao steel mill harvests 100% of its water through a rainwater collection system, fully recycling the water with zero-effluent from operations.
The company’s closed lubrication system also ensures no seepage of used oil into the environment. Its technologies are also power and fuel efficient.
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| Photo courtesy of SteelAsia.com |
source: Rappler
