Displaying items by tag: Philippines

Philippines: The board of directors of Eagle Cement has acknowledged the acquisition of 89% of the producer's issued shares by San Miguel Equity Investments (SMEI). SMEI has conducted a mandatory tender offer for the remainder of Eagle Cement's shares. The board adopted three resolutions, namely to extend its cooperation to SMEI, to voluntarily delist its shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange (subject to SMEI's acquisition of more than 90% of shares) and to hold a special meeting of its shareholders.

Philippines: Cemex Holdings Philippines subsidiary APO Cement has suspended operations at its 25,000 bag/day Davao cement terminal. The Philippines Star newspaper has reported that the cement producer and importer cited low sales volumes, along with high operating costs, as the cause of its decision. It added that an 'influx' of Vietnamese cement imports had precipitated the situation. Cemex's Philippines supply chain vice president Edwin Hufemia said that the suspension will allow the company to keep its focus on its cement plant and other facilities in the Philippines.

Hufemia said “We remain committed to supporting the country’s development programme and the administration’s Build, Better, More infrastructure programme, and we assure the public that there will be no disruption to the supply and delivery of our cement."

Philippines: Phinma Corporation subsidiary Philcement has taken a US$1.73m loan for an expansion and upgrades to its Mariveles cement terminal in Bataan. The Manila Times newspaper has reported that the company secured the loan using the proceeds from its bond issuance earlier in September 2022.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines has signed a deal to receive 6.5t/yr of shredded waste from Bunawan municipality’s Panacan barangay for co-processing as alternative fuel (AF) in its cement production. SeeNews has reported that Holcim’s waste management subsidiary GeoCycle will process the AF. The partners aim to increase the volume of deliveries in future.

Davao cement plant manager Sam Manlosa said, “We are proud to provide our host barangay Panacan a sustainable waste management solution and thankful for their trust. We hope this partnership will further expand to other communities and the entire city of Davao so we can be a stronger partner in its sustainable progress.”

Panacan is the 28th community throughout the Philippines to enter into a waste management partnership with Holcim Philippines, and its 18th new partner in 2022. In August 2022, the company secured deliveries of waste collected in Bulacan province’s Binangonan, Cainta and Taytay municipalities in Rizal province for co-processing at its Bulacan cement plant.

Vietnam: Cement producers and exporters will pay an additional 5 – 10% tariff on their exports of cement and clinker from 1 January 2023. Viet Nam News has reported that the move aims to bring down local cement prices by increasing supply in the country. These have risen over the past six months, while export prices have remained level.

The Vietnam National Cement Association (VNCA) says that its members are struggling to increase exports in a highly competitive export market. In the six months up to the end of August 2022, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Taiwan all reduced their imports of Vietnamese cement. The decline included a ‘substantial’ reduction of imports by China and the Philippines. Exporters faced logistical difficulties in shipping cement to the Philippines, while China’s consumption dropped due to new Covid-19 restrictions and low residential construction activity there.

The VNCA forecasts cement production of 108Mt in 2022, against a national demand of 65Mt. It projected that a series of infrastructure projects will bolster domestic consumption between 2022 and 2025.

Philippines: Cemex Philippines says that it was the sole supplier of cement for the construction of the Cordova Link Expressway, the longest bridge in the country. It supplied nearly 70,000t of cement for the project. It connects Cebu City to the municipality of Cordova on Mactan Island and spans a total of 8.9km standing on twin tower pylons reaching 145m in height. The bridge opened to road traffic in 2022.

Philippines: Republic Cement has announced that it has become plastic neutral, thanks to the continued efforts of its Ecoloop subsidiary. By collecting and co-processing the equivalent volume of residual plastic waste as it has used in the packaging and transport of its cement products, Republic Cement was able to offset its plastic packaging footprint for 2020, 2021 and so far in 2022. This is equivalent to over 890 dump trucks filled with plastic waste. Ecoloop has already helped a number of other companies to reach plastic neutrality.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines has launched its ECOPlanet 30% reduced-CO₂ cement range in the city of Davao on Mindanao. The producer also introduced its Balik-Plastic waste cement bag recycling programme, offering a collection service to customers in order to reuse waste bags as alternative fuels and raw materials in cement production at its Davao plant.

Philippines: Eagle Cement’s sales rose by 24% year-on-year to US$246m in the first half of its 2023 financial year from US$199m a year earlier. Its income was US$53.4m, down by 20% year-on-year from US$66.6m. Eagle Cement attributed the decline to cost impacts resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and bottlenecks in global supply chains. Its operating expenses were US$26.1m, up by 35% year-on-year.

Philippines: Cemex subsidiary Solid Cement is installing a new US$356m, 1.5Mt/yr line at its Antipolo cement plant. When operational in April 2024, the line will increase the plant’s capacity by 79% to 3.4Mt/yr. Over the first four months of the project since March 2022, Solid Cement invested US$197m in silos and mechanical installation. The new 1.5Mt/yr line will use Low Temperature Clinker technology to reduce its CO₂ emissions, and will also recycle waste hot gases for raw materials drying.

Solid Cement is building the plant using 6000t of its own Vertua reduced-CO2 cement, which it says will further reduce its net carbon footprint by 564t.

Philippines president and CEO Luis Franco said “We will maintain our active role in supporting the development of this nation, as we have done in the past 25 years.”