Eagle Cement posts 4% rise in profit to P4.26B

Newly-listed cement-maker Eagle Cement Corp. grew its net profit last year by 4 percent to P4.26 billion as buoyant sales volume defied a challenging period for the industry.

Excluding expenses from its initial public offering, net profit rose by 5 percent to P4.33 billion last year, the company disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.

Eagle attributed its performance to higher sales volumes as the company posted P14.87 billion in net sales in 2017, marking a 12-percent increase.

“We have continued to beat our operational targets in terms of volume growth and cost efficiencies. Our efforts in upgrading and debottlenecking of our existing production lines allowed us to keep healthy margins despite the challenging market environment,” Eagle president and chief executive officer Paul Ang said.

In line with the infrastructure push from both public and private sectors, Eagle Cement is currently expanding its capacity with its third production line in Bulacan bound to start operations this year.
This will expand its production capacity to 7.1 million metric tons yearly, opening up new capacity to serve new markets in Region I, Mimaropa (composed of the provinces of Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) and Bicol in Southern Luzon, and reach Western Visayas.

In November 2017, Eagle broke ground for its fourth production line (Line 4) in Malabuyoc, Cebu. The project is on track to its target completion in 2020, and will add another two million metric tons to its annual production capacity. This will include a manufacturing plant and a marine terminal to serve Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Masbate, Misamis Oriental, Davao, Zamboanga and South Cotabato. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA