DTI accepts lease proposals for NSC

Parties interested in operating the National Steel Corp. (NSC) will be given another chance to submit their formal proposal.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is now accepting sealed proposals for the operation of the NSC Iligan steel plant.

Proposals will be accepted by the office of the DTI secretary until 2 p.m. of Oct. 23 this year.

According to the announcement made by NSC liquidator Danilo L. Concepcion, all those who were intending to submit lease proposals last Sept. 21 are requested to submit their proposal before the new deadline on Oct. 23 this year.

During the last call made by the DTI, only one group submitted a proposal although there were actually two groups which appeared during the auction.

Only the Austrian Voest Alpine group submitted its formal proposal.

The other group, Capasco, did not submit its proposal because of uncertainty over the auction and what would be done with NSC.

There has been a continuing dispute over the ownership of NSC and even the right to award the operation of the mothballed steel plant is under question.

NSC’s ownership has become complicated with the assumption of some shares of the steel firm by creditor banks, both local and foreign.

NSC was originally owned by the Philippine government which subsequently privatized it to the group of former Finance Secretary Edgardo B. Espiritu.

The Espiritu group eventually unloaded their shares in NSC to the Malaysian Wintek Group which also sold their shares to the Hottick Group.

The Hottick Group which became part of the Renong Berhad Group ran into financial trouble back in Malaysia and its Malaysian creditor banks assumed shares in NSC.

Locally, NSC had incurred substantial debt from a consortium of banks who have since assumed some of the NSC shares to offset some of the unpaid debt.

The Malaysian owners of NSC and the local creditor banks had been at odds over who would be allowed to operate the steel plant.

The DTI, however, has been trying to mediate the dispute to be able to get the steel plant back in operation.