PISI supports government decision to tighten environmental standards in steelmaking

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Iron and Steel Institute (PISI) is supporting the steps taken by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to tighten environmental standards in steelmaking to promote good quality and safety of steel products.

“We fully support the government’s effort to weed out substandard steel products in the market which are unsafe and have been produced using pollutive equipment,” PISI president Roberto Cola said.

Last week, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and Environmental Secretary Roy Cimatu agreed to review environmental standards and production technologies for steelmaking, a move prompted by reports of the use of induction furnace facilities for steelmaking by firms setting up operations in the country.

In 2017, China banned the use of induction furnaces for steelmaking due to its impact to the environment in terms of pollution and the production of substandard steel products.

DTI and DENR are forming a technical working group to make sure their policies and strategies to promote environment-friendly and good quality steelmaking are aligned.

The agencies would also study proposed regulations on the use of secondhand equipment or machineries in the steel industry, as well as having the approval for all environmental compliance certificates (ECC) for critical heavy industries like steelmaking and cement at the national level.

Such moves are expected to pave the way for more comprehensive and faster review of ECC applications.

In addition, the two agencies intend to look at possibly raising penalties for violations on environmental standards or the terms and conditions in the ECC.

Earlier, the Board of Investments (BOI) denied the application for registration of Philippine Sanjia – Steel Corp. for its steel manufacturing project.

In its decision to reject the application, the BOI said it took into consideration DENR’s policy against induction furnaces with defective air pollution control technology and PISI’s inputs.

Apart from China’s ban on induction furnace facilities for steelmaking, PISI told the BOI the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Iron and Steel Council has raised concern over the transfer of obsolete induction furnace facilities from China to Southeast Asian countries.