Eagle Cement Corp. expects net income to hit P6.5 billion next year on the strong domestic economy and higher production capacity.
Eagle chairman Ramon Ang told reporters revenues next year would reach P23 billion from a P15-billion target this year. The company posted a total revenue of P13.27 billion in 2016.
Ang said net income was projected to hit between P4.3 billion and P4.5 billion.
“The company will even improve the performance [next year] compared to last year because we are in the process of finishing the third line,” Ang said, adding production from the third line would start by January or February next year.
“With GDP growing about 6.9 percent, which is the highest in the region, I think the consumption of construction material will continue to grow more than the neighboring countries,” he added.
The country’s cement consumption is about 210 kilos per capita, lower compared than 600 kilos per capita of neighboring countries.
Eagle plans to complete its third production line in Bulacan by 2018, which will raise capacity to 7.1 million metric tons per year. This will expand the company’s coverage to more markets in Southern Luzon.
Eagle embarked on a plan to raise its production capacity to 9.1 million metric tons with the recent ground breaking of its fourth production line in Malabuyoc, Cebu.
The Cebu plant (Line 4) targets its completion date in 2020 and will include a 2-million-metric-ton integrated cement manufacturing plant, port facilities and cement terminals to serve the Visayas and Mindanao markets.
“This groundbreaking brings us a step further to achieving our long-term goals as a company, which is to strengthen the brand and increase market share. We hope to continue succeeding by increasing capacity to better serve our consumers nationwide,” president and chief executive Paul Ang said.
The company has two lines producing about 5.1 million metric tons of cement yearly serving the greater Luzon markets.
“We are expanding more to new markets such as Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. By next year,” the younger Ang said.