Wednesday 18th March 2015 will be remembered as a significant date in the annals of steelpan history.
It was on that date that Pan Trinbago Inc. received its very first shipment of steel for the local manufacture of steelpans.
Without much fanfare, the shipment of a “special type of steel” from Chicago Steel was off-loaded at the Paradigm Steelpan Facility in Macoya, Trinidad.
Executive members of Pan Trinbago Inc, the Pan Factory staff and the Tuners’ Guild were on hand to witness the delivery of the shipment made possible through Lorraine Eligon & Econocaribe.
With this new shipment of steel, Pan Trinbago would now be making its own drums from scratch.
As he assisted in off-loading the container, Keith Diaz, President, quipped: I can’t wait to get my hands dirty”
From the News Desk of Pan Trinbago --
Photos: courtesy Keron Lennon
Comments
Ah hear DOCTOR DOLLY squeeze KEITH DIAZ so hard that he did not have any RENT MONEY so he loss this FABULOUS FACTORY. Now I doh know for sure if this is FAKE NEWS or FACT -- so some LOCAL better come and VERIFY!!!
Mr.Campbell, Van Leer imported the raw material steel from Japan, United Kingdom and wherever they got a supplier at a suitable price and did the rolling/assembling of the drums here in La Brea. I dealt personally with Mr. Powell the manager and an employee who once worked at the same company as myself. Tuners were able to tell the difference when the drums of a particular batch were not sounding as before and at a meeting they revealed that the batch was a mixture of recycled steel which was cheaper and they would then order from another source for pan but it would cost more.They did and the price of the drums went up.
A steel mill here would hardly produce steel for pans because in that type of bulk business you have to purchase a certain quantity on a regular business for it to be profitable for them to produce. It will cost less for Pan Trinbago to import when needed.
Good question, why import?. Years ago Van Leer made the best drums, so what's stopping the manufacture of our own?.
Well done Pan Trinbago you are leading by example.