Allengoal insists NSC contract valid

Allengoal Steel Fabrication & Trading has not dropped its claim to operate the monthballed plant of the National Steel Corp. (NSC) despite its decision to submit a new proposal last Friday, Oct. 26, to the evaluation committee.

This was disclosed yesterday by Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II who said that Allengoal’s participation in Friday’s solicitation of proposal does not mean that it has dropped its claim. "Not necessarily," he said.

Roxas said he was not surprised that Allengoal decided to participate even though Allengoal has filed a case with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it already has a valid contract with the NSC Liquidator to operate the Iligan plant of NSC.

As far as Roxas is concerned, the SEC had already ruled that Allengoal’s claim is null and void.

Allengoal has submitted a new proposal last Friday along with two other firms, Voest Alpine and Cathay Pacific Corp. (CAPASO).

All the submitted proposals, Roxas said, were given to the SEC and NSC Liquidator who were tasked to put the various proposals into a matrix for analysis by the Evaluation Committee.

The Evaluation Committee would meet on Monday, Oct. 29, to begin the process of analyzing the proposals.

Roxas admitted that it may not be possible to compare the proposals because it might be "comparing apples and oranges."

Hopefully, Roxas said, the analysis of the proposals would be completed by the end of November.

No definite date, though, Roxas said, could be set for the announcement of who would be awarded the contract to operate NSC.