BALANGA CITY – A $440 million modern integrated steel mill will be constructed next year in a coastal village of Bagac town, this province.
Bagac Mayor Ramil del Rosario told The STAR that a group of Chinese investors has completed its feasibility studies and economic development scheme for the establishment of a new steel plant which would provide 6,000 jobs for the province’s fast booming resort town of Bataan.
The foreign investors have already pinpointed a viable site, some 200 hectares of hilly lands facing the South China Sea, big enough to erect an integrated steel plant away from the center of the town, Del Rosario said.
The site of the new steel plant falls within the 1,000 hectares declared by the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) as industrial zone for heavy and medium industries.
Del Rosario said the town would earn some P200 million yearly from the realty and business taxes when the integrated steel plant operates in 2008.
These Chinese investors, according to Del Rosario, own five other fully-automated steel plants in Loongyen, Xiamen City in the People’s Republic of China .
The proposed steel plant is expected to produce some 600,000 to 800,000 metric tons of steel which is sufficient to fill the country’s shortage, Del Rosario hinted during his meeting with some 100 local business leaders yesterday.
The municipal government is rushing the construction of road network, communication and power supply facilities on the proposed industrial zone with the coming of more foreign investments, Del Rosario said. – Raffy Viray