SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp. plans to start the operations of the country’s first industrial-scale melt shop in 2024 using the latest green technology from Tenova, a top executive said over the weekend.
SteelAsia president Benjamin Yao said the 600,000-ton plant in Lemery in Batangas would use local scrap metal to produce high-grade billets, the raw materials for building and port construction, shipbuilding and other large other projects.
Yao said the melt shop would formalize and organize the collection, consolidation and recycling of scrap metal throughout the country, creating a business sub-sector with opportunities for individuals and small businesses like junk shops.
“This is part of the vision of SteelAsia to put in place an integrated steel industry, the backbone of a country’s industrial base. SteelAsia, the largest steel producer in the country, already has six operating plants and has lined up several more in a multi-billion-dollar plan to keep the country abreast of its neighbors,” he said.
The company said that aside from generating business opportunities and thousands of jobs, it will also save the country precious dollars used to import billets.
Yao said to minimize the carbon footprint of the project, SteelAsia would use the latest green technology of Tenova—a global leader in steel and mining technology.
Tenova’s consteel evolution technology saves energy, decarbonizes steel production and reduces environmental impacts through efficient energy recovery and pollution control innovations.
SteelAsia previously announced it completed the investment of P100 billion for its expansion program with projects in various degrees of construction.
The investment will cover more upstream facilities with the establishment of new integrated steelmaking plants using recycling technologies and expansion of midstream and downstream products to include H beams, sheet piles, wire rods, steel plates and reinforcing steel mesh.
The projects will help quadruple SteelAsia’s capacity by 2023 with the establishment of about 30 new mills in its plants and five new sites dispersed across the country. Othel V. Campos
“That will help us reach 70-percent self-sufficiency in steel by 2023 which is way ahead of the 2030 target indicated in the Iron and Steel Industry Roadmap study presented by the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute,” said SteelAsia vice president and head of business development Rafael Hidalgo.