Steelers hit perks for NSC

A coalition of downstream steel industry groups has sought the Securities and Exchange Commission’s help in thwarting the plan of the Department of Trade and Industry to re-open National Steel Corp. (NSC) with "start-up incentives" in the form of tariff protection to its prospective operators.

In a letter to SEC Chairman Lilia Bautista, the Downstream Steel Industry (DIS) group said the DTI’s proposed incentive package "is seriously misguided and will harm the entire economy since its impact and unwanted harmful effects will be far-reaching both within and beyond the confines of the steel industry."

"The DTI proposal sets a very bad precedent, and it will inflict further and irreparable damage to the country’s already troubled banking and financial sectors," the groups said.

With government’s resolve to re-open NSC, Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II has committed to grant incentives to prospective investors/operators in the form of tariff protection for NSC. These tariffs shall apply to all NSC products such as hot rolled coils (HRC), cold rolled coils (CRC), steel billets, and tinplates – the raw materials used by the downstream steel players.

The DSI manufacturers consist of 782 companies with an estimated direct employment of 62,000 employees and total investments of around P62.25 billion. The downstream steel sector includes a wide range of industries and products such as wire manufacturing, steel rolling mills, nail making, galvanizing, welding products, pipes and tubes, screw bolts and nuts, tin can, and metalworking.

The group said that while they are supportive of the government’s various attempts to revive NSC, they pointed out that any thrust to develop the upstream steel activity "must never be at the expense of the downstream industries."