ILIGAN City (2 Dec 2017) - The Iligan City government and a liquidator acting on behalf of creditors of what was formerly the National Steel Corp. (NSC) are fighting for possession of the company after the former insisted that it acquired the firm's assets after it failed to pay more than PhP 4-billion in real property taxes, which the latter disputes. According to Iligan City Administrator Dexter Sumaoy, liquidator Danilo L. Concepcion's move to take back NSC was based on the October 7, 2011, decision of Branch 57 of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) in a civil case that favored the company. In that case, Concepcion argued that the NSC paid its taxes on real properties - which included land, building, equipment and support facilities - from the fourth quarter of 1999 to October 15, 2004. Iligan Mayor Celso Regencia filed an appeal to overturn the Makati RTC's decision with the Court of Appeals (CA), and later with the Supreme Court (SC), which dismissed it on June 21, 2016. The accumulated taxes on the NSC properties reached P4.698 billion by October 2016. These consisted of the basic tax (38.99 percent), special education fund (44.44 percent) and share of the villages (15.44 percent). The Iligan city council held an auction of the NSC's assets on October 19 that year in compliance with the Local Government Code. City Treasurer Louela Maybituin bought all the assets on the city government's behalf after no one bid for them and declared them forfeited in accordance with Section 263 of the Local Government Code. The accumulated taxes on the properties reached about P5.843 billion in 2017. Maybituin declared the assets free from any hindrance or third-party claim after the NSC failed to redeem them and no injunctive order was issued. The city government acquired the properties on October 19 this year with the approval of the mayor and the city council. The NSC was first established as state-owned National Shipyards and Steel Corp. (NASSCO) in 1951. Jacinto and Sons took over NASSCO in 1962 and renamed it as Iligan Integrated Steel Mills (IISM). In 1974, the National Development Corp. (NDC) reorganized the IISM as NSC, which was later sold to Wing Tiek/Westmont in 1994. Renong/Hottick Investments Ltd. took control of the company from 1996 to 1999, when the creditors assigned a liquidator to it. NSC became known as Global Steel Philippines from December 2004 to August 2005. [Ted Khan Juanite, The Manila Times]
MANILA (18 Oct 2017) - Steel Asia Manufacturing Corp. is set to invest some USD1.0-billion for three new mini steel mills in the country, its Vice President Roberto Cola said Tuesday. Cola told reporters that the new facilities would produce billets, bloom, beam blanks, slabs, rebars, wire rod, sections, and plates. The three mini-mills will have a total capacity of two million metric tons annually. Cola mentioned that Steel Asia is partnering with two investors - from Italy and Japan - for the plates and sections plants, while the facility producing rebars would be its own venture. He said Steel Asia is now finalizing the memoranda of agreement with two partner investors. The company is eyeing Batangas and Subic for the location of its mini-steel mills. This is after Steel Asia has abandoned its plan to acquire the National Steel Corp. (NSC) in Iligan City, as the company and the local government failed to reach to an agreement. Cola said that the company was asked to pay NSC's liabilities on taxes and power, and the local government would also like to be a part-owner of the facility. According to Cola, Steel Asia's offer was to lease the land, pay for the infrastructure, and shoulder "reasonable taxes," but the company would no longer pay for the old mill since the company initially plans to put up a new facility. [Kris Crismundo, Philippine News Agency]
METRO Manila (17 Oct 2017) - STEEL Asia manufacturing Corporation will no longer be acquiring National Steel Corp. (NSC) due to bureaucratic issues in the negotiation of the shuttered steel-making facility, opting instead to build their own facilities.
Roberto M. Cola
In an interview with reporters, Steel Asia Vice President Roberto M. Cola affirmed it is letting go of previous plans to buy National Development Corp.'s (NDC) National Steel for its infrastructure. "We won't be pursuing NSC anymore," Cola said. "We wanted that for the infrastructure already there because it was going to be easier to build a new steel mill there, what with the port and the industrial provisions." The company executive cited a breakdown in negotiations especially with the local government officials in Iligan, who wanted to become part owners of the company after it is acquired by Steel Asia. According to Cola, Steel Asia offered acquisition terms that included payment of the National Steel's real-property back taxes amounting to some Php 4-billion, a settlement with the National Power Corp. for payment on past power consumption and rent payment for the land (based on a compromise on valuation). Talks on the purchase of NSC included a number of parties, including banks, NDC under the Department of Trade and Industry, Global Steel and other NSC claimants. NSC has had a checkered history, going through several privatization efforts through almost six decades since its creation in the 1950s.
With the discussion seen to be too difficult for an industry supplying the main construction material for the country's infrastructure drive, we decided to look elsewhere to build a $1-billion steel-making facility, according to Cola. "We're looking at another site, possibly Batangas or Subic," he added. Cola said that facility will include a scrap-based electric-arc furnace with a capacity of 0.5 million metric tons to produce beam blacks, slabs, and billets. A rolling mill will also be installed to produce sections, rebars, and plates. He added that Steel Asia is in talks with Italian and Japanese investors for joint ventures in the mini-mills for the production of sections and plates. Steel Asia will produce the rebars themselves. The firm will be conducting an ocular visit next week on possible sites, as well as finalizing a memorandum of understanding with a yet-unnamed foreign investor. [Catherine Pillas, Business Mirror]
ILIGAN City (15 Dec 2016) - Four-hundred hectares of land and properties of the foreclosed National Steel Corporation (NSC) have been auctioned by the local government due to tax delinquency. "NSC's unpaid tax amounts to over PhP4 billion," Iligan City acting Mayor Jemar Vera Cruz said. However, there was no bidder during the auction, which prompted the city treasurer to forfeit the properties in favor of the city government.
Two days before the auction, NSC liquidator Atty. Danilo Concepcion protested the sale of NSC properties, citing a Makati Court decision clearing NSC of real property tax liabilities after NSC's secured creditors and shareholders sold their interests in plant assets to Global Steelworks International Inc. and Global Ispat Holdings, Inc. in 2004. NSC was once the largest steel mill in Asia but has been closed for more than two decades after it declared bankruptcy. [Roxanne Arevalo, ABS-CBN News]
