According to latest statement, ASTEEL Group, the biggest integrated colour line in East Malaysia, continues its focus on innovation to provide affordable and high-quality products around the region. In line with its vision of becoming the leading building materials solution provider in Borneo, the home-grown Sarawak company has increased its efforts to forge a sustainable future towards providing products that are safe, strong, and sustainable.
ASTEEL works closely with its suppliers and partners to produce holistic products with
uncompromising quality that meets the demands of its clients – optimising the supply chain to lower the cost of ownership/ reducing costs through supply chain network optimisation.
ASTEEL’s Group Managing Director Dato’ Sri Victor Hii Lu Thian, says “our strong partnership with our raw material supplier coupled with our commitment in continuous improvement enables us to remain resilient and competitive in the current market environment.”
“With this in mind, we look into investing in our innovation and technology as well as up-skilling our human capital as they are our biggest assets that make our 5-year masterplan possible.” ASTEEL’s Commercial Director Mr. Fong Fui Yee says, “We have enhanced our technical team’s capabilities in project rendering to better inform our clients, and value-engineering to optimise project delivery and most importantly, help our customers retain value.”
As part of its efforts to expand its business operations, ASTEEL has set up various branches
across major coastal cities to enhance their distribution and company’s logistics cost. The
geographical advantage is also a critical success factor, “Borneo Island is on a unique terrain, the world oldest tropical rainforest is a geographical advantage for us,” says Dato’ Sri Victor.
Last year, ASTEEL secured its first roll on-site job beyond the borders of Malaysia through its partner, Sarnatec Sdn Bhd, with the world’s largest Ikea store, which opens in Y2021 at Pasay City in Metro Manila. The project kick-starts end of this month and ASTEEL is set to complete the installation process by end of Q1 2021.
ASTEEL Group is proud to supply the iconic Blue Claddings for the 65,000 square metres
store. Mr. Fong explained that the IKEA Blue BV-DEK cladding will cover 12,600m2 of the
store and a substantial portion will be painted with IKEA’s corporate colour, yellow. Mr. Fong says, “The IKEA Blue coated steel is from our premium high durable envioSHIELD series, providing a plethora of benefits when applied to architectural surfaces. With envioSHIELD, buildings enjoy longevity, durability, colour and gloss retention, and weatherability in the face of UV radiation, water, salt, and any other elemental factors that could result in coating degradation.
“The IKEA Blue BV-DEK is engineered to achieve optimal performance with its durability to
withstand wind loads and harsh battering by sea spray and rain. By rolling on-site, we are able to provide a continuous sheet without end lapping. In addition, our BV-DEK roll-former is installed inside a seaworthy 40’GP container to ease the mobilisation of our machine to any country to perform the task. BV-DEK is suitable for cladding and also ideal for roofing and underliner projects,” says Mr. Fong.
ASTEEL Group has played a pivotal role in the building materials industry in Malaysia for more than 24 years. In 2013, Dato’ Sri Victor Hii did a restructuring exercise on ASTEEL Group, including a conceptualisation of the Group’s 5 Year Master Plan. The restructuring has seen the setting up of branches in major towns and cities in Sarawak such as Bintulu, Miri, Mukah and Sibu; and in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau in Sabah and Klang, Selangor.
ASTEEL Group is also currently gearing up for the setting up of a few more branches in Borneo in order to be closer to their customers and to serve them better. Apart from branches, ASTEEL Group has also rolled out the Envio Concept Stores, their retail outlets specialising in building materials. ASTEEL Group is set to open up more Envio Concept
Stores in Borneo and also Peninsular Malaysia in 2021.
A very important milestone for ASTEEL Group after the restructuring is the Group’s penetration into the overseas market, with the most recent one in Manila, Philippines. Although a significant achievement, the Group is not resting on its laurels, as it is also set to launch in Kalimantan, Indonesia following the plan by the Indonesian Government to shift their nation’s capital there.
Established in the year 1996, the home-grown Sarawak company is a wholly owned subsidiary of YKGI HOLDINGS BERHAD, a public listed company on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia, with presence in Sarawak, Sabah, and overseas. The Group also has a foreign investment stake-holding of 22% by its international counterparts, Marubeni Itochu Steel Inc and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation.
