wiUSA December 2013

Steel Asia set for expansion

Subsea proposal

Steel Asia Manufacturing Corp is investing $270 million in three new plants, expected to double capacity to 3.2 million metric tons by 2016. Steel Asia currently operates three plants in Bulacan, Batangas and Cebu with a combined capacity of between 1.2 million and 1.3 million tons per year. Ronald Magsajo, assistant general manager for industry affairs for Steel Asia, said the bigger capacity will enable the company to meet the expected increase in demand for rebars. He said the first new plant will be in Davao, and is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2014. The plant will produce half a million metric tons of rebars a year. The other two plants will have a capacity of 800,000 tons each per year. Long products produced locally include pipes and tubes, billets, blooms, rebars, wire rod, sections, rails, sheet piles and drawn wire as well as some nails and wires from imported wire rods. The company operates the Philippines’ only modern meltshop. It has a 500,000 metric ton per annum capacity and a three-strand continuous casting machine.

American Samoa is in discussions with Samoa, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, for a new undersea fiber optic cable to be laid between Fiji and Samoa. The proposed cable would connect with the Transpacific Southern Cross cable, which links Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the US mainland. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank will commit $35 million to the scheme but are seeking other investment partners. KHJ News reports that financial institutions view American Samoa as a potential investor, based on its 33 percent ownership in the American Samoa Hawaii cable, linking Samoa, American Samoa and Hawaii. The American Samoa Hawaii cable’s remaining life expectancy is about eight years, and the newcable has aprojected life expectancy of 25 years.

wiredInUSA - December 2013

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