76 November 2015 - Business View Caribbean
large scale. The first Prime Minister of the Republic of
Trinidad and Tobago had given a speech calling out to
citizens to embrace manufacturing with the country’s
resources, remarking that ‘Where there is sugar cane
there will be steel.’ Reform is only a stone’s throw from
where my grandfather’s store was and most of these
people were family customers. So, my father decided
to start a manufacturing operation in Reform and give
employment to the community. He had already made
contacts through his trading and buying and selling;
he had good ties with Puerto Rico and good friends
there in the steel market. So, he began his first sig-
nificant manufacturing investment by entering into
a partnership with Caribbean Steel, based in Puerto
Rico. Dansteel and Caribbean Steel would combine to
establish Trinrico Steel and Wire Products Limited. And
that’s why Trinrico ended up in Reform Village.”
According to Ramoutarsingh, Trinrico Steel was soon
manufacturing welded wire mesh, nails, chain link
fencing, and rebar processed from coils. Daniel’s fa-
ther also entered into an exclusive business relation-
ship with Bekaert International, a world market and
technology leader in steel wire transformation and
coatings, processing the company’s galvanized, coat-
ed wires into chain link fabric, galvanized welded wire
mesh, and barbed wire. He formed the Dansteel Group
of Companies that would eventually grow to include a
chain of Hardware Stores, Gulf City Shopping Mall, and
Trinrico Steel and Wire Products Limited.
