Steel exports from the Dominican Republic reached half a billion dollars last year and generate some 5,000 direct and indirect jobs, according to El Nuevo Diario. Steel is exported to Puerto Rico, Haiti, the United States, and Central and South America, according to Omar Castellanos, the executive director of the Dominican Steel Association. Castellanos stated that the DR steel industry has generated more than a billion pesos in taxes for the state and created social projects throughout the country. Steel exported from the DR is produced from scrap metal.