Back in 1953, Henares (2006) chronicled that the country envisioned “a fully integrated steel complex, 100 percent government-owned, a monopoly functioning as prime mover of the country’s industrialization, servicing and inducing an entire series of down-stream steel-based industries, ranging from construction, to automotive and appliances, to food canning industries.” Henares pointed out that the Philippines was 20 years ahead of South Korea and Taiwan which entered the steel industry only in the early 1970s, followed much later in the 1980s by Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Table 3: Mill Rated Capacities in the Philippines, 1994-2000. Source: CRU Analysis, April 2005
Source: CRU Analysis, April 2005
Through the years, NSC strongly believed that downstream expansion would risk jeopardizing relationship with its most important customers, the galvanizers. Table 3, based on CRU Analysis, April 2005 lists the Philippine steel companies with their respective mill rated capacities—hot rolling (HR), cold rolling (CR) and galvanizing (Gal). CRU Analysis (CRU, 2005) notes that from 1994 to 2005, no new mill capacities were added in the Philippines. Thus, when NSC resumed operations in 2004 as Global Steel Philippines (SPV-AMC), Inc. (GSPI), the latter inherited the biggest hot rolling and cold rolling mill capacity in the Philippines. Only Mindanao Steel and Philippine Steel Coating (Philsteel) have cold-rolling facilities for their respective galvanizing lines.
Even today, only the former NSC plant boasts of a hot rolling capacity since 19 May 1993, aside from hosting the biggest cold rolling capacity (Lyday, 1995). Still without an Integrated Steel Mill, the Philippines is therefore constrained to import slabs from foreign suppliers for feed the country’s only hot rolling mill (NSC Annual Report, 1989). NSC facilities do not have any downstream capacity, particularly in galvanizing, except for its tinning lines—the only one in the country—which supplied many tin can manufacturers.
Notes:
Henares, Hilarion M. Jr. (2006), “National Steal Corporation,” Give and Take. Book 9. Manila: Philippine Folio, 2006. back to text
Composite Resources Unit (CRU) (2005), International Steel Sheet Quarterly Industry and Market Outlook. London: CRU, April 2005. back to text
Lyday, Travis Q. (1995), “The Mineral Industry of Philippines.” Research Paper. New York: US Geological Survey, April 1995. p. 687. back to text
National Steel Corporation, Annual Report. Iligan City: NSC, various years (1980-1992). Cited as NSC and Annual Report Year. back to text
