MANILA, Philippines — The steel roofing industry has proposed for the establishment of mandatory product standards for roofing materials in order to provide support to the booming housing sector in terms of quality and affordable roofing materials.

Salvio D. Perez, newly-elected president of the newly-formed Philippine Association of Steelformers Inc. (PASI), said these are the objectives in the formation of the steelformers’ association.

PASI’s primary advocacy is to be a reliable and dependable supplier of roofing and other construction materials that will cater to the demand and needs of residential, commercial, industrial and institutional projects among others.

It is also PASI’s major objective to support the housing industry, which is one of the pillars of the economic growth of the country.

“We have to police our own ranks by coming up with mandatory standards for both local products and imports,” said Salvio, who is also president and CEO of Jacinto Colorsteel Inc., one of the country’s steel roofing material manufacturers.

He said the housing backlog in the country has reached 3.7 million units and PASI would like to be able to supply that huge demand.

“We want to support the housing sector because it has huge economic multiplier effect of 16.6 times,” he pointed out. This means that for every P10 billion spend in the housing sector, this would translate to P166.6 billion worth of contribution in terms of economic activities.

“So our organization has to support the housing sector because it is one of the anchors of our domestic economy,” he said.

In addition, trade liberalization has brought in importation of roofing materials.

Pre-painted roofing materials and GI sheets have zero tariff already.

This has led to local steel formers now operating at less than 50 percent of capacity.

According to Perez, there are now over 23 rollformers nationwide. The rollformer sector is part of the flat products segment of the Philippines Iron and Steel Industry.

To police its own ranks, PASI has been incorporated and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Aside from Perez, PASI incorporators include Juan T. Ng of DN Group of Companies, David U. Ong of Dwightsteel Building Systems, Inc., Eric Gonzales of Diamond Roofing, Ariel M. Dizon of Colorsteel, Reynard Chua of City Shutters, Inc. and John Anthony M. Ng of SOP Steel Sales Center, Inc.

Other PASI officers are Juan T. Ng, Chairman, Eric Gonzales, Vice-President and David U. Ong, Treasurer.

Perez has been a prominent figure in the roofing industry having been president of the Filipino Galvanizers’ Institute for more than 10 years and a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute. (BCM)