Cemex Philippines said its sales volume may expand by 3% this year from last year’s 5.1 million tonnes despite lower first-quarter figures.
Paul Vincent Arcenas, the company vice president for communications, marketing and investor relations, said the company expects a rebound in volume sales by the second half of the year, about an 11-percent increase, after the first quarter posted a decline.
Cemex said domestic cement-sales volume declined 8.6% for the first quarter, resulting to the company’s 24% drop in profit.
Arcenas said Cemex is now preparing for the construction of an additional 1.5 million tonne a year capacity in its Solid Cement facility in Antipolo to augment the existing 1.5 million tonne a year .
Chinese firm Sinoma is to to construct the $220-million cement works that will bring Cemex’s total capacity in the Phillipines to to 6.9 million tonne a year by 2019 from the current 5.4 million tonne a year .
Cemex is betting on the potential cement consumption of the Philippines in the backdrop of the country’s 269 kilogram per-capita monthly consumption, or just half of Vietnam’s consumption and a third of Thailand’s.
Cemex Holdings Philippines is planning to increase production capacity to meet demand expected from the government's plan to ramp up infrastructure spending. "This year we plan to ramp up domestic production and lessen our requirements for imported cement," Pedro Palomino, chief executive, Cemex Holdings Philippines said.
