Displaying items by tag: Philippines

Philippines: The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) has elected Nabil Francis as its new president. Francis is currently the head of Republic Cement and has been in post since mid-2017. He has worked for a variety of cement producers since 1998 including Ciments Calcia in Europe, Italcementi in Sri Lanka, India and Bulgaria, and HeidelbergCement in Morocco. The ECCP is a bilateral foreign chamber that promotes European interests in the Philippines and vice versa.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines plans to invest nearly US$300m towards increasing its production capacity by 30% to 13Mt/yr by 2020. It will upgrade its plants at Bulacan and Misamis Oriental with the installation of new kilns, mills and waste heat recovery systems. The upgrades are intended to support the country’s economic development and strong construction sector.

“Our capacity expansion ensures that we can provide a steady supply of quality building materials to support the government’s infrastructure program and the resulting construction activity from the economy’s sustained rise,” said John Stull, Holcim Philippines president and chief executive officer (CEO).

The projects are part of a series of capacity and productivity investments that Holcim Philippines started in 2012 with the rehabilitation of its grinding plant in Mabini, Batangas. This was followed by debottlenecking of plants in 2015 and expansion projects in La Union and Davao that are set to be completed in 2019.

Philippines: Solid Cement is using a US$75m loan from Cemex Asia to partly pay for a new production line at its plant in Antipolo, Rizal. The subsidiary of Cemex Holdings Philippines has made an initial withdrawal of around US$41m, according to the Manila Standard newspaper. The upgrade has a total cost of US$235m and it is scheduled completion in 2020. The new line will be supplied and built by China’s CBMI Construction.

Philippines: Cemex Philippines’ subsidiary APO Cement plans to close its Davao cement terminal and indefinitely suspend one of its kilns at its Barangay plant in Cebu. It said in a statement that it had taken this action due to uncertainty caused by the disruption to its raw material supply, according to GMA News. It follows the on-going suspension of APO Land and Quarry following a landslide in September 2018. APO Land & Quarry supplies raw materials to APO Cement.

Ireland: CRH’s sales rose by 3% year-on-year to Euro19.9bn in the first nine months of 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 2% on a like-for-like basis to Euro2.5bn. The building materials producer said that its earnings had been supported by growth in the Americas despite poor weather. It added that ‘momentum’ remained positive in Europe and demand had improved in Asia. However, its EBITDA dropped by 44% in Asia.

By region the group reported falling cement sales volumes in the UK and Ukraine. Sales volumes rose in most other European territories, with particular growth in Hungary, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Switzerland. In the US it said that its newly acquired Ash Grove Cement assets and ones in Florida had performed in line with expectations. However, sales in Canada fell due to poor weather. Sales in the Philippines rose by 3% due to rising cement sales volumes and prices following growing demand. However, here earnings were hit by higher fuel and power costs.

Philippines: Cemex Philippines is facing legal action in relation to the quarry operations of its subsidiary in Naga following a landslide that killed nearly 80 people in September 2018. It said that it had received a summons order for the class suit along with its subsidiary APO Cement, according to the BusinessWorld newspaper. The defendants also include APO Land & Quarry, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau Regional Office VII, the City Government of Naga and the Province of Cebu. The lawsuit is attempting to seek damages of up to US$80m on environmental grounds on relation to the quarry.

Philippines: Apo Cement is preparing to temporarily lay-off up to 30% of its employees and 40% of its contractors. It has filed a formal notice detailing its intentions with the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas, according to the Philippines News Agency. It says it has been forced into reducing its workforce in response to the on-going suspension of Apo Land and Quarry following landslides in September 2018. APO Land & Quarry supplies raw materials to CHP’s subsidiary Apo Cement, and it is indirectly 40% owned by Mexico’s Cemex.

Philippines: Eagle Cement’s sales grew by 9% year-on-year to US$229m for the first nine months of 2018. It attributed the growth to rising cement demand in the country due to government infrastructure project, according to the Philippine Star. Its income grew by 6% to US$65.8m. The company is planning to upgrade the grinding capacity of its plant in Bulacan in 2019.

Vietnam: China has become the largest importer of clinker and cement from Vietnam in the first nine months of 2018. It imported 6.56Mt with a value of US$235m, according to the Việt Nam News newspaper. The Philippines, Bangladesh and Taiwan were the next largest importers with 4.75Mt, 5.64Mt and 1.23Mt respectively.

Philippines: The Philippine Constructors Association (PCA) has rejected any move to impose tariffs on cement imports, as this will only increase construction costs. The PCA said that imposition of safeguard measures would ‘adversely’ affect customers, according to the Philippines News Agency. In a position paper it has argued that cement imports counteract alleged price rises from cartel-like behaviour. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) started an investigation into cement imports in September 2018 amid reports of declining revenue from local producers.