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.