PASAR marks 30 years in Phl

ISABEL, Leyte, Philippines – The Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. (PASAR) is marking its 30 years this month.

David S. Halley, PASAR president and CEO, said that at 30, PASAR is a “long and successful business by any measure” and that it “has truly impressed with its excellence”. He also lauded the employees for working hard for the plant to be “better all the while” and adopting “safety as a way of life”.

In a press conference, Halley said that things are looking up for the company. Recently, PASAR’s owner Glencore merged with Xstrata. The company now operates under “Glencore-Xtrata” and with the merger, expansion of the plant’s production capacity is in motion.

Currently, Halley said, they are producing 720,000 metric tons of copper cathodes. With the plant expansion, preliminaries of which are already being done and construction to start middle of 2014, they aim to increase their production to 1.3 million tons per year.

He added that they would also hire almost 1,000 technical personnel in the next five years, to take over the posts of regular employees who would be retiring within the period. He said that their employee profile shows that 80 percent are already 55 and above.

With the increased production, he added, there would also be a spike in contractual jobs. During the construction period, he noted, an expected 2,000 to 3,000 people would be hired.

As for its plans to put up its own power plant, Halley said “we are still discussing it and how it would work” but added that management recognizes power is a “key operating cost” and that the cost of electricity in the country is quite high.

There is “nothing definite” as yet but “it makes sense” to invest in power production but added, “we are not looking at 2013. By this year, we will know what to do and what it would look like” and the likelihood they would venture into it would be sometime in 2017 or 2018.

Halley also lauded the Aquino government for achieving economic stability and described the Philippines as one of the “hottest places” for investment. Nonetheless, he said, the cost of power remains a “key cost” for investors and the peso’s strengthening could affect the country’s competitiveness.