The agreement of the sale and planned start-up of operations of the long-dormant former steel plant at Point Lisas, unceremoniously abandoned and left behind by ArcelorMittal, seems almost too good to be true.
Citizens will remember that in the midst of an overcrowded market for steel, the major features of it being low prices, uncompetitive local production and restricted markets internationally, the Indian-owned and Canada-based company shut down its operations and left the dinosaur-like plant behind, mothballed and forlorn.
Seven years later, the announced planned start-up of the plant by the TT Iron Steel Company Ltd., with an intention to produce steel products for the world market by the end of 2024, must be considered good news.
Planned rehabilitation expenditure of US$250 million (TT$1 billion-plus), temporary employment of 1,000 workers with permanent jobs for 500 persons, and the drift towards the intended application of green hydrogen, a synthetic form of energy that can reduce T&T’s contribution to the release of destructive gases into the atmosphere, are all potential plusses.
What must have influenced purchase of the company is the 2.2 per cent forecast of growth in demand for steel in 2023 by the World Steel Association.
But the most long-term benefit possible is the intended contribution steel production can make towards diversification of the economy via downstream fabrication and manufacturing.
If and when all of these plans become material, Trinidad and Tobago is expected to re-enter this industry, which was at the core of establishing the Point Lisas Industrial Estate 45 years ago. An important note in passing is that heavy industrial production, starting with steel, was the impulse that drove the South Chamber of far-sighted entrepreneurs to conceive of the estate. Anticipating the potential of the estate to transform the agriculture-based economy, then historian prime minister Dr Eric Williams, and his team of technocrats headed by Professor Ken Julien, plunged into developing Point Lisas, the intention being to construct a modern economy.
There is no track record of the newly formed TT Iron Steel Company; it is a measure of comfort. though. that founder/president of the company, Gus Hiller, once led Nucor. Additionally, chairman Joel “Monty” Pemberton is a national who has done creative work in the industry. For certain though, is the need for additional information about the company’s shareholders and directors.
It goes almost without saying that many challenges, technological, administrative and human resource acquisition and management, a viable industrial labour agreement, the sourcing of raw materials, the marketing of products, locally and internationally and more are ahead.
Soo too, TT Iron Steel Company will have to establish positive relationships with the people and organisations of towns and villages in Central and South Trinidad, its so-called “fence line” community; moreover, with the rest of Trinidad and Tobago.
These last-mentioned challenges are ones which go beyond the purchase of the company, the restart of operations, production, marketing and sale of products, but are decidedly critical to the successful restart of this historic venture of Trinidad and Tobago into modern economic development.
Frankly, it is not an overstatement to say that the country is getting another shot at modernisation with the additional challenge of making “green” the industry.