Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. is spending $250 million to $300 million over the next three to five years to expand cement production, a top executive said Monday.
Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. president Sabin Aboitiz said in an interview at the sidelines of the annual stockholders’ meeting that the planned investment would increase the group’s capacity by 1 million metric tons from the current 7 million MT across six cement plants.
The expansion involves ‘debottlenecking’ existing cement plants and construction of a new kiln.
Several cement companies are also expanding production capacities in anticipation of increased government spending on infrastructure. The Duterte administration announced plans to roll out more than P3.6 trillion in public infrastructure projects from 2018 to 2020.
Cement demand, however, was weak in the first quarter, which resulted in a number of cement firms such as Holcim Philippines, Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. and AEV-owned Republic Cement to report lower profits in the first quarter.
“While 2017 may be lower than originally forecasted, we do believe in the future growth of the industry. The demand for cement given the construction boom, housing boom and the all the infrastructure projects that are expected to come still we are very bullish on the prospects of the cement industry moving forward,” said AEV president Erramon Aboitiz.
