SteelAsia completes payments for 3 steel mills worth P7.2B

SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp. said it had completed in December 2016 payments for three steel mills in Davao, Batangas and Cebu worth P7.2 billion.

The steel producer and rebar manufacturer said the payments were for the newly built mill in Davao City and two upgraded mills in Batangas and Cebu.

SteelAsia now operates a total of six mills nationwide—including two in Bulacan and one in Misamis Oriental—with a combined production capacity of about 2.3 million tons.

“In the last 10 years, demand for steel products was strong and we responded by building more mills with the best technologies available,” SteelAsia president Ben Yao said in a statement.

“Our output increased tenfold during this period, giving us the resources to pay our obligations on time,” Yao said.

The SteelAsia president also said the company would continue to expand to respond to a stronger economy and the aggressive infrastructure and industrialization program of the government.

Yao said four new mills that would make a wide array of steel products were now in various stages of completion.

Last December, SteelAsia completed payment for a P2.25-billion loan from Standard Chartered London for the mill in Davao City.

Yao said the P4-billion mill was now fully operational, directly employing 400 people. It indirectly created about 2,000 more jobs in small and medium enterprises that support the mill’s operations.

Last November, SteelAsia also paid the last scheduled amortization for the P2.6-billion mothballed steel mill in Calaca, Batangas which it acquired.

The integrated steel making and rolling mill had been under receivership and controlled by a consortium of banks until SteelAsia acquired it in 2008 under an eight-year payment schedule.

The mill in Calaca makes 500,000 tons of products yearly, with a workforce of 800 people. It indirectly created about 4,000 related jobs .

Also last year, SteelAsia paid the final amortization for a seven-year P600-million obligation arising from its acquisition of a mothballed steel mill in Carcar, Cebu.

The Cebu rebar rolling mill was rehabilitated and upgraded to double its capacity to 350,000 tons yearly.