15 August 2019

Taiwan: Taiwan Cement Corp has reported that its net income for the first half of 2019 increased by 11.7% to US$356m. However, its cement sales were lower year-on-year compared to the first half of 2018. The income was improved by contributions from its coal-fired power plant in Hualien County.

The company said that it remains positive with regards to the second half of 2019, as the rainy season is over, which is expected to boost cement demand and prices.

Separately, Asia Cement reported that net income soared by 46.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2019, predominantly thanks to record-high profits generated by its Chinese operations.

Philippines: Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez has welcomed a Tariff Commission (TC) report that has increased the safeguard duty on imported cement, but noted that his department was still reviewing the evaluations made.

Speaking on 14 August 2019, Lopez said, "We just got the full report on cement from the TC and will study the evaluations made. We welcome the finding that there was injury to the industry and that the safeguard duty should be US$5.65/t or US$0.23/bag (40kg)." The TC report said the US$0.23/bag safeguard duty was the difference between the weighted average landed cost of imported cement and the average domestic ex-plant selling price of the local cement industry for 2018.

Lopez earlier claimed that imports of cement increased from only 3558t in 2013 to more than 3Mt in 2017. The share of imports increased from only 0.02% to 15% during the same period.