Posted on 07 Sep 2015
The government is reviewing proposals to abolish the three percent import tariffs on steel billets or semi-finished steels in view of a dwindling supply due to increased local demand.
Philippine Tariff Commission chair Edgardo Abon has confirmed the renewed push by industry players to eliminate tariffs on imported steel billets, which are crucial to the growth of the country's infrastructure and construction sectors.
"We have a very dynamic infrastructure and construction industry right now," Abon told reporters on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) third senior officials meeting in here. The petition seeks to bring down tariff to zero from the current 3 percent.
Billets are the raw material for reinforcing steel bars (rebar) manufacturing, which are primarily used for heavy-duty construction applications, particularly to provide added stability for large concrete structures.
"Because of the different infrastructure projects that the government is undertaking, we are now lacking billets and the backbone of the construction industry is steel," said Abon. "(The) steel industry needs more billets so the petition is to bring down the tariff, which we're now reviewing."
The parties that initiated the petitions were construction, billet importers, and some players in the local steel industry.
Abon said there are some steel industry players in the country that manufacture steel billets but they do not produce it in bulk as they only use it for personal consumption.
Steel billets importation brings revenues of around P330 million in the country yearly.
It was reported last year that Steel Asia Manufacturing Corp., the country's largest manufacturer of rebars, has asked the Tariff Commission to bring down the MFN (most favored nation) tariff on imported billets to zero from the current three percent to level the playing field with other ASEAN rebar manufacturers.
MFN refers to tariffs imposed to imports from non-ASEAN countries.
In an earlier position paper submitted to the Tariff Commission, Steel Asia vice-president Rafael Hidalgo said that lowering the MFN rate on imported billets to zero percent will increase the competitiveness of the entire rebar steel manufacturing industry against imported finished steel products from other ASEAN countries.
