A UNIT OF Cemex Holdings Philippines, Inc. (CHP) has secured the Board of Investments’ (BoI) approval as a new cement manufacturer.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Thursday, CHP said the BoI recognized its wholly-owned subsidiary Solid Cement Corp. as a new producer of cement, giving its new integrated cement production line in Antipolo City, Rizal pioneer status but with non-pioneer incentives.
The Antipolo facility has a capacity of 1.5 million metric tons per year.
The BoI declares a preferred area of investment as pioneer when it involves the manufacturing of processing of goods or raw materials that have not been produced in the country on a commercial scale; when it uses a design, formula, scheme, method, process or system which is new and untried, and conforms to the annual investment priorities plan, among others.
Meanwhile, getting non-pioneer incentives indicates that the company is exempted from paying income taxes for four years from the scheduled start of operations.
The listed cement manufacturer announced in 2018 that it will be spending about $235 million for the construction of the new production line. It engaged China’s CBMI Construction Co., Ltd. for the procurement, construction, and installation of the project.
The new production line is expected to increase CHP’s cement capacity by 26% in the country. Operations are scheduled to commence by the fourth quarter of 2020.
Solid Cement currently has an annual capacity of 1.9 million metric tons, serving the cement requirements of the National Capital Region and Souther Luzon.
CHP is the local unit of Mexican cement and construction materials company Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. The company’s cement products are sold under three brands, namely Island and Rizal for Luzon, and APO for the Visayas and Mindanao region.
The company booked an attributable loss of P604.7 million in the first nine months of 2018, versus a net income attributable to the parent of P687.98 million during the same period a year ago. It attributed the losses to higher input costs due to inflation and shutdown-related expenses.
Gross revenues stood at P17.91 billion, eight percent higher year-on-year. — Arra B. Francia

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR