TKC Steel commissions blast furnace in Iligan City

MANILA, Philippines - TKC Steel Corp. is nearing the completion of its major capacity and capability enhancement project with the commissioning work on the first of two blast furnaces in Iligan City.

The blast furnace, owned by subsidiary Treasure Steelworks (TSC), is scheduled for cold testing to ensure all components of the system, including the material handling equipment, will function properly when the facility is energized next week.

Upon confirmation of cold testing results, the facility will be scheduled for hot testing and actual firing soon thereafter.

The full operation of the blast furnace will allow TSC to produce steel from locally available iron ore.

In addition, the support facilities earlier set up by TSC will complement the blast furnace to ensure adequate raw material supply for efficient production of steel products. Among these are the ore beneficiation plant and the power generation plant which is expected to help alleviate the power supply shortage in Mindanao.

TKC is hoping to raise as much as $1 billion to establish the largest integrated steel manufacturing facility in the country. It has tapped Pricewaterhouse Coopers as project management adviser.

Pricewaterhouse shall identify prospective strategic partners and investors and prepare a work program and funds generation activity to undertake backward integration activities, acquisition of offshore/onshore mining interest for iron ore to be used as raw material feedstock for TSC’s blast furnace.

TSC is engaged in the production of steel billets and has the largest installed capacity in the country. In June, TKC and TSC inked a contract to export steel billets to Saudi Arabia.