Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Memoirs ni Manoy by EVCabrera - Part 3 of 5

1968: INSTALLATION, CHECK OUT and COMMISSIONING OF COLD MILL

In August, 26 engineers and operators were sent to Japan for training in order to prepare to operate the new Cold Rolling Mills. Mr. Antonio Valera was designated to head the group with Mr. Rectorino S. Bate as his assistant. As far as I can remember the following are the members of the team: Messrs., Jorge Pacaldo, Orly Mendez, Joe Llanes, Remy Buitizon, Tibong Espenido, Rufino Gulocino, Hector Aldea, Moises Lagasca, Emil Buenaventura, Bill Bacareza, Andy Ocampo, Tom Babiera, Julian Tuboro, George Alcuizar, Louie Escudero, Joe LiƱan, Epi Evangelista, and Johnny Ballares.

The group who were left behind in the plant started check out and commissioning activities in the month of October. Mr. PCB headed the Electrical group while Mr. LE Gedalanga headed the Mechanical group. There were 18 consultant engineers that closely and actively implemented the check out and commissioning process and we assisted them as their helpers/trainees.

1969 to 1973:

First quarter of 1969, the Japan-trained engineers and operators successfully operated the whole cold mill complex and was able to produce good quality and quantity of cold rolled coils, and tin sheets.

The Hot Rolling Mills was in the process of construction and installation and it had progressed smoothly. Check out and commissioning had started in the first quarter of 1970, and shortly thereafter normal operation and production were attained. IF Hynson, DN Cantal, and I were the early designated Electrical Systems Engineers. We were assigned to take charge of the whole IISMI complex. The resident manager at this time was AS Valera with RS Bate as Production Superintendent while PC Benitez, Jr. was the superintendent for Maintenance and Services. Unfortunately, the sudden slowdown of steel demand in the first quarter of 1971 forced the IISMI to shutdown. Because of this, majority of the employees were forced to leave and only retained a skeleton crew to maintain the plant on shutdown. Among those that were retained were the systems engineers, motor inspectors, millwrights and some helpers.

Then in the early part of 1973, Mr. Eduardo J. Rodriguez took over the management of the plant as the new President and CEO and selectively rehired the needed personnel to re-operate the IISMI complex.

In April of 1973, I with Eddie Soriano, Frank Lacida and Jovito Luis went to USSR as UNIDO fellows to study the technology of steelmaking at Zaporosthal Integrated Steel Mills, Zaporozhy City. I was assigned to study and concentrate on the automation and mechanization of iron and steelmaking process. Being young and aggressive, this part of my experience made my job very challenging.

In August of 1973, a team to technically evaluate the status of Southern Steel, Inc in Cortes Bohol was headed by PCB with myself, Larry Cortes and Nicolas Sevilla assisting. This Plant had been shutdown for almost 3 years prior to our inspection, and was eventually dismantled by an NSC team of engineers headed by Ricardo Ramas, Larry Cortes and Nicolas Sevilla.

Part 4 - The NSC Years

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