MANILA – The local cement market is expected to return to its 2019 levels by next year after contracting this year due to impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
Republic Cement president and chief executive officer Nabil Francis said the cement market is seen to decline by 15 percent this year compared to the previous year before bouncing back in 2021.
“In 2021, we will get back to 35 million tons for the total market, which is more or less the level that we reach in 2019,” Francis said at the Aboitiz virtual media briefing for the third quarter of 2020 Wednesday evening.
Republic Cement is a unit of the Aboitiz group.
“Definitely, it's going to be boosted by the ambitious infrastructure program -- the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program of the government,” he added.
Francis said Republic Cement is still on track to meeting its committed production capacity this year despite being “caught in a perfect storm” at the beginning of the pandemic while it was commissioning its new equipment.
Republic Cement is adding 2.3 million tons this year to boost its annual production capacity to 9.7 million starting 2020 after the mills in Bulacan and Iligan go online.
But Francis said imported cement will remain a threat to the local industry.
“We are very proud not to import cement,” he added.
Francis said purchasing locally manufactured cement will help in the country’s economic recovery and in retaining local jobs.
“It's high time to be patriotic and to buy locally manufactured products in order to help speed up the recovery,” he said. “We are fully supporting the ‘Buy Local’ campaign initiated by DTI (Department of Trade and Industry).” (PNA)
