DMCI builds new steel plant

THE CONSTRUCTION arm of Consunji-led engineering conglomerate DMCI Holdings has invested P900 million in a new state-of-the-art steel fabrication plant in Calaca, Batangas – the first new steel plant built in the country in nearly four decades.

The high-capacity steel fabrication plant near the group’s power plant in Calaca can produce 2,000 to 3,000 tons of fabricated steel per month. The steel plant has the capacity to fabricate heavy steel sections for power plants, infrastructure and steel vertical structures.  

The steel plant was built to complement the construction group’s operations. For now, it supplies the requirements of the DMCI group but plans are underway to secure sales contracts with other industrial and construction companies, DM Consunji Inc. said in a press statement.

“The idea to set up a steel fabrication facility came about in April 2013. We did market and business case studies for a couple of months before breaking ground in November 2014,” said DMCI president Jorge Consunji.

“Right now, we are completing the ancillary building structures while our fabrication operations are on-going,” he added.

Since it began operations, the facility has generated employment for over 240 people, most of whom are from the province of Batangas.

The facility uses machine tool technology from Peddinghaus Corp. and Voortman Steel Machinery. Both are globally acknowledged suppliers of innovative machine tool technology for structural steel and plate fabrication, the construction company said.

The Consunji group sources raw materials from the steel plant from South Korea, Japan and China.

The last known high-capacity steel fabrication plant in the Philippines was established in the 1980s.