ABOITIZ-LED Pilmico Foods Corp. has just increased the feed milling capacity of its plant in Iligan but is already considering whether it should gear up for another round of expansion.

?Probably by 2012 we may be at almost 90 percent capacity,? Pilmico president and CEO Sabin M. Aboitiz said in a briefing, referring to the expanded Iligan feedmill.

He said the growth would come from improved feed sales and demand from the company?s own swine business.

?We will make a decision next year if we should prepare for additional capacity for 2013,? Aboitiz said.

Pilmico completed the P120-million expansion of its Iligan feed mill last July. This involved the construction of a second production line.

The new production line has an estimated annual capacity of 115,000 metric tons, increasing total production by 94 percent.

The food manufacturing business contributed about 8 percent of the income of Aboitiz Equity Ventures and helped push profitability despite challenges in the group?s transport business.

For the first half of 2010, Pilmico and its subsidiaries contributed P867 million to AEV?s income, up by 125 percent year on year. The AEV group booked P14.33 billion in net income for the first six months of the year.