Relatively young for a municipality at 46 years, its entry into the global economy could be said to have started on Jan. 2, 1975 when the Philippine Sinter Corp. (PSC) was established at a 155-hectare area within the Phividec Industrial Estate-Misamis Oriental (PIE-MO), then the country’s largest industrial estate encompassing the adjoining towns of Villanueva and Tagoloan.
Although officially registered as a Filipino corporation, PSC was — and still is — controlled by Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) of Japan, and became the single biggest Japanese investment in Mindanao. Quite a number of Japanese employees of the plant eventually settled down in nearby Cagayan de Oro City.
PIE-MO was the catalyst which linked this small town with the world, sending many of the products produced here and in adjacent Tagoloan to markets round the globe such as Australia, United States, Europe, Africa, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China and bringing in raw materials like the iron ore sintered by PSC in its plant, from as far as South America.
This "global" exposure of PIE-MO resident firms is perhaps best exemplified by the $305-million coal-fired power plant now nearing completion at a 55.42-hectare lot in Barangay Balacanas, 18 kilometers from Cagayan de Oro.
Started by the State Power Development Corp. (SPDC) in December 1995 as a subsidiary of the State Investment Trust Inc. (SITI), its project proponents were originally led by the Harbin Corp. of China.
In 2003, the German power company STEAG Aktiengesselschaft (STEAG AG) acquired 89 percent of the company, with SITI owning the remaining 11 percent. SPDC was renamed the STEAG State Power Inc. (SPI).
Interestingly, in an apparent bow to the globalization of business and the comparative advantages provided by outsourcing, SPI contracted Japanese firms Kawasaki Plant Corp. (KPC) Inc. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) Ltd. as its construction and supply contractors, respectively.
STEAG AG and its regional headquarters provided technical support through an agreement with SPI.
The plant’s impressive pedigree is reflected in the line-up of companies and countries, which have contributed to providing equipment, supplies and services to the coal-fired power plant.
Babcock-Hitachi Phils. Inc. (Philippines) was tapped for boiler fabrication, while Japanese firms Toshiba, Hitachi, Fuji, and Mitsui and other companies from Germany, US, the Netherlands, South Korea, United Kingdom and Canada for the steam turbine generators and auxiliaries.
Alstom Power (France) and Lurgi AG (Germany) and Japan were contracted for the flue gas desulphurization system, a key link in the plant’s anti-pollution infrastructure.
Companies from South Korea, Germany and Finland took care of the coal-handling system; and Indian firms Ion Exchange (India) Ltd. and Thermax Ltd. of Japan, Daewoo of South Korea and US Filter for the water treatment plant; TIECO Electric and Machinery Co. (Taiwan), Fuji Electric and Toshiba (Japan) for the high-voltage motors.
Meanwhile, ABB/Bailey (Singapore), Yokogawa (Japan) and Siemens (Germany) were tapped for the distributed control systems; and Kawasaki Steel Co, Toyo Construction (Japan), EEI Corp., Roblett International Construction, Leighton Contractors (Philippines) and Jurong Engineering (Singapore) for civil works.
The Japanese construction and supply contractors are headed by Y. Onishi, who is backed up by a team of 30 Japanese and 10 German engineers; technical personnel under Karl Heinz Schlechter, site construction manager; and 10 German members of the commissioning team headed by Oliver Brock.
Most of the 3,000 workers, who have worked or are still working at the site, are locals.
Some 170 Filipino engineers, technical personnel and support staff headed by power plant manager Peter Just, a German national, will operate and maintain the power plant.
With a lineage running back to industrial Europe, dynamic Japan, powerhouse US, emerging India, and the "little dragons" of Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore), Filipino expertise and ingenuity would surely be a match to the exacting standards of German skills and engineering that would bring clean, safe and reliable electricity to the homes and factories of Mindanao in the years to come.