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MANILA, Philippines — Listed cement manufacturer Holcim Philippines, Incorporated reported a banner year in 2015, with a 58.4% surge in net income backed by strong sales and improved operational efficiency.
Holcim told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, March 3, that its net income for 2015 reached a record P8.1 billion ($171.94 million).
The cement maker said 2015 financial performance was also boosted by a one-time gain of P2.6 billion ($55.19 million) from the revaluation of its investment in an affiliate.
Minus the one-time gain, net income would still have increased by 7% to P5.5 billion ($116.75 million) from 2014 level, while revenues rose by 14.9% to P37.5 billion ($796.07 million) from the previous year on higher sales revenues.
Holcim Philippines president and CEO Eduardo Sahagun said investments in the company’s facilities improved its operating efficiency.
The company also drew on its regional strength to meet the robust demand.
“The local cement market has greatly changed due to the sustained investments of the public and private sectors in the past years,” Sahagun said.
“Serving the market required us to act differently and we did just that by pushing our plants to new limits and strengthening our logistics operations,” he added.
Sahagun said initiatives to increase Holcim Philippines’ annual capacity to 10 million tons from 8 million are “underway and on time” and will improve the company’s ability to support the country’s development.
Holcim Philippines earlier said it will spend $40 million to address bottlenecks in existing cement plants, which will boost capacity to 10 million metric tons by 2016-2017.
Among the facilities being expanded are the Calaca and Mabini plants, both in Batangas.
At the same time, the recently acquired facilities from Lafarge Republic Incorporated will also help boost the company’s capacity.
Holcim Philippines has 4 cement plants in La Union, Bulacan, Misamis Oriental and Davao.
For 2016, Holcim expects demand for cement to remain strong amid continued spending by the public and private sector.
Plans to build a new plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan, are also under review amid robust demand.
However, Sahagun said the company may also consider importing cement from affiliates within the region, particularly Vietnam, to augment domestic supply. – Rappler.com
US$1 = P47.11
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