Manila's new steel plant

Manila's new steel plant

MANILA (AFP): Steel Asia Manufacturing Corp., a joint venture
involving Singapore's National Steel Ltd. and two local partners,
is to build rolling steel mills in the Philippines for 4.3
billion pesos (US$165 million), company officials said yesterday.

National Steel managing director Ang Kong told reporters the
facilities would be constructed in Manila and the nearby
provinces of Batangas and Bulacan.

The joint venture partners are Equitable Bank with 25 percent,
the Yao family with 50 percent and National Steel Ltd. with 25
percent.

Steel Asia president Benjamin Yao said the company was
investing two billion pesos to build the plant in Manila and buy
modern equipment for the facility, which has a programmed output
of 400,000 tons a year.

It will be constructed on the former site of the Smokey
Mountain garbage dump, which the government is transforming into
an industrial site and housing complex.