Prime
Minister Patrick Manning said in Parliament yesterday
that the long-announced Essar Steel plant will begin
construction in January 2007.
He
said the plant was a crucial part of the Government’s
plan to make this country an industrialised nation.
Speaking
on a bill to establish a Heritage and Stabilisation
Fund, the PM said the Mittal steel mill, which was
originally built by the State as the Iron and Steel
Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Iscott), produced
billets and rounds and that Essar would allow the
production of flats.
He
said the production of flats allows manufacturers
to make car parts and that the Government was in
discussions to ensure that there was an adequate
supply of steel available to the local market for
the creation of a foundry industry in T&T.
He
said a foundry industry would also be supported
by an aluminium industry.
Manning
said the initial proposals were for the production
of rounds and billets from aluminium but the Government
wanted to go downstream into the manufacture of
aircraft and car parts which would require the production
of aluminium rounds.
He
said the Government was also encouraging the production
of propylene and polypropylene, as well as ethylene,
so that a plastics industry could be built.
Manning
said these projects would be finished by 2011 at
which time this country was expected to have all
the building blocks in place for a modern industrialised
country.
The
Trinidad Guardian
25th November, 2006
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©2006 The Trinidad Guardian. All Rights Reserved.
