The Years of Living Dangerously?

National Steel Corporation undergone its first retrenchment in 1995 but successfully hurdled the ISO 9002:1994 certification the same year for all divisions, except Hot Strip Mill. These two latter event occurred prior to NSC’s privatization.

NSC was privatized on 12 October 1994 after the National Development Corporation [NDC] selected Wing Tiek’s proposal to acquire 55% NSC’s primary shares for PhP12.375 billion, and the former signed memorandum of understanding on 12 October 1994 in the presence of Pres. Fidel V. Ramos and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir (NSC News, October 1994). Wing Tiek Consortium became 75% owner of NSC with its tender of payment on the final PhP3.93 Billion on the National Development Company’s [NDC] secondary shares in September 1995. (NSC News, Rojo, 1995)

Wing Tiek’s plans were grand, even delved into talks of putting up an Integrated Steel Mill [ISM]. On the December 1996, NSC’s ownership changed hands from Wing Tiek to Hottick the latter took over Wing Tiek’s 69.2% NSC stake and assumed NDC’s 12.5% thus bringing Hottick’s total NSC share to 81.7% by February 1997 (see Appendix E: Transactions for NSC’s Stake (1995-1998)).

Months prior to November 1999, cost-reduction were practiced, such as a five-day work-week, the use of paid vacation leaves, compensatory leaves, among other things. On 07 November 1999, NSC declared a ‘cessation of operations’ and retrenched all of its employees effective June 2000.

---

GSII acquired NSC’s liquidated assets for PhP 13.5 billion. GSPI became a corporate entity on 04 February 2004. On 12 March 2008, GSPI received the TPM Excellence Award—1st Category from the Japan Institute of Planned Maintenance (JIPM) after successfully hurdling its quest for certification with Yoshitaka Murase, JIPM Senior Counselor (GSPI Flash TPM, February 2008).

In July 2007, GSPI presented to a bank-consortium that it had started operating Hot Strip Mill No. 2 on 02 March 2006, with an initial production of 32,078 metric tons.

It hurdled the ISO 9001:2000 certification assessment on 22 October 2008. Declared compensatory Vacation Leave for all overtimes rendered starting 27 October then resorted to a five-day work week on 03 November 2008.

Then on 04 December 2008, GSPI’s personnel went on a forced leave.

---

To put it in a comparative perspective, here’s a timeline of the privatized NSC vis-a-vis GSPI:

NSC and GSPI: A Comparison of Events

---

Notes:

Balali, Macky P. (ed.) (1994), Wing Tiek Wins. NSC News, XIX: 10, Makati: Corporate Communications, NSC, 31 October 1994. p. 11. back to text

Rojo, John A. (1995). Global Seal of Excellence: The Right Direction. NSC News. Volume XX: 9, September 1995, p. 8.back to text

Molina, Gay (ed.) (2008), “GSPI Gets JIPM Confirmation for TPM Excellence Award—1st Category.” Flash TPM. Issue 18. Iligan City: GSPI, Ferbuary 2008. back to text