SteelAsia Manufacturing has awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) contract to MCC Huatian Engineering & Technology, a Chinese engineering company, for its steel plant in the Philippines.

SteelAsia's 30bn pesos ($512m) steel facility is set to be located in Candelaria, Quezon.

The Candelaria facility is set to produce heavy structural steel products, which are currently fully imported into the country.

Expected to commence commercial operations by 2027, the project aims to save the Philippines $1.2bn annually.

The heavy sections plant will employ European steel technology to produce more than one million tonnes (mt) of structural steel, including I beams, H beams, angles, sheet piles, and other heavy profiles.

SteelAsia chair and CEO Ben Yao said: “We will create around 7,000 jobs instead of giving jobs to China, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea and Japan, our major suppliers.

"Our carbon footprint will also be 90% lower than the traditional steelmaking process because we use recycled scrap metal and employ electric arc furnace technology.”

Yao aims to establish the country's first integrated steel industry, aspiring to elevate the Philippines to the level of its neighbouring countries.

The new plant is expected to significantly reduce delivery lead times from three to four months for imports to one to two weeks once operational.

Yao added: “This is a game changer initially for the [domestic] construction and infrastructure sector since this means quicker project completion and lower costs.”

MCC Huatian brings experience in steel plant construction, having built over 230 facilities with more than 200mt in total installed capacity, in 14 countries.