Jobs And Exports Expected To Rise As The 25 Billion Project Of Steel Asia Manufacturing Commenced

Steel Asia Manufacturing Corporation has started their new project of building two wire rod mills, that can produce a million metric tons of rod wires per year. The project has a budget of 25 billion and may be the catalyst in the resurgence of the industry of wire manufacturing in the country.

WIRE ROD INDUSTRY

Wire rods are raw materials used in various products including machine parts, cable, welding wire and rods, mesh, nuts and bolts, and so much more. If the manufacture of the rod wires will be localized, then the small and medium enterprises that produce the downstream products would thrive and will benefit from this new development.

“At present, the Philippines has zero capacity for wire rods. That means we are importing all our wire rod requirements which have reached 800,000 tons a year and climbing. When operational, this import substitution will save the country around $600 million a year in foreign currency,” said SteelAsia chairman and chief executive Benjamin Yao.

RODS OF OUR OWN

Because of the absence of locally produced wire rods, as well as the high cost of the imported wires, it is very difficult for SMEs’ to compete with the other versions produced abroad.

“Hence, the Philippines has been importing its nuts and bolts, wires, nails, welding rods, springs and even paper clips, staple wire, and many other wire rod-based products while all these can actually be locally produced if only the Philippines had wire rod manufacturing,” Yao explained.

Steelasia will be producing two wire mills that can produce 500 metric tons each. The first one will be built in the Visayas to serve the Visayas and Mindanao regions, while another is scheduled to be built in Luzon to satisfy the requirements of Luzon and Manila.