Government urged to ban exportation of scrap steel

Steel producers, metal casters and scrap steel dealers are urging the government to ban or at least regulate the exportation of scrap steel to save the P10-billion industry.

The appeal is contained in a joint position paper five groups of industry stakeholders submitted yesterday to the House trade and industry committee chaired by Rep. Harry Angping (NPC, Manila).

The committee opened an inquiry into the exportation of scrap steel.

The position paper was presented by the Philippine Steelmakers Association, Philippine Metalcasting Association, Bagong Alyansa ng mga Nangangalakal Sa Bakal, Linis Ganda Foundation, and the Metro Manila Federation of Environment Multi-Purpose Cooperatives.

The last three organizations are composed of scrap metal collectors and dealers.

The five groups said the government should ban scrap steel exports "to avert the collapse of the vital steel and metal casting industries, which is comprised of over 250 companies, with over P10 billion in capital investments, providing direct and indirect employment to over 500,000 Filipinos."

They said these industries also pay hundreds of millions in taxes to the government, provide economic linkages with other industries and save precious foreign exchange for the country.

They informed the Angping committee that neighboring countries, including Taiwan, Korea and Malaysia, have started getting a big part of their scrap steel supplies from the Philippines because the United States, Russia, Japan and other raw material sources have imposed prohibitive tariffs to protect their own industries.

In fact, foreign steel producers have financed big traders here to corner domestic scrap metal supplies, they said.

Since 80 percent of their raw material is recycled steel and steel products, local industries are bound to collapse if scrap exports are not banned or regulated, they stressed.

In seeking government intervention, the five groups invoked a recent decision taken by the Department of Trade and Industry to ban the exportation of raw hide to protect the leathergoods industry.

"The government can similarly implement a moratorium or a ban on scrap steel exports to save the more vital steel and metal casting industries," they said.

They pointed out that such a move would be consistent with World Trade Organization rules which allow member-countries to adopt measures to protect their industries.