Cement

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ABOUT the cement industry-which is so essential to our country’s physical and infrastructure development and yet so unsatisfactory as it is now-the Aquino administration must do better than the previous one.

This undated file photo shows a local labor group staging a rally against cement importers who are allegedly committing massive tax fraud.

Like other industries the cement industry also suffers from the smuggling of the product from abroad. One type of smuggling is outright. This is when importers bring in the product without the government knowing. The other type is undervaluation and misdeclaration. Misdeclaration is when the real amount of imported cement is declared to be much…

A 2007 article written by Rafaelita Aldaba, a senior research fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), cites a study of the cement industry showing that imports arising from trade liberalization do not have a favorable effect on domestic firms and do not bring down local prices. She noted that cement firms are…

IS there a cement cartel? Why are cement prices so high? No one really knows who’s telling the truth. The producers say they are doing nothing wrong, and that the price of cement here is less than that in Brunei, India, Indonesia and even Japan.

CEMENT PRICES in the Philippines are among the highest in East Asia, Board of Investments (BoI) data showed. The data were made public late on Friday, a week after the 2010 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) was unveiled with provisions granting incentives to new entrants into the cement industry which the state agency said would encourage…

Last week, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) warned cement makers that the government would impose a price cap on the construction material barring a return to normal price levels.

The technical level of the Committee on Tariff and Related Matters has endorsed the extension of the zero duties on cement and food wheat imports for another six months in a bid to lower prices of the commodities.

Questions were being raised over the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) decision to allow into the country the initial shipment of cement imported from China despite the absence of an official document that would show compliance of the shipment to local quality and safety standards.

The Department of Trade and Industry said it will not extend the zero duty on cement since its price has not gone down since its implementation.

Makati City, Philippines — Leading cement company Holcim Philippines said today that it has no plans to cease operations in any of its cement plants. 

Holcim Philippines Inc. announced they will be shutting down their plant for six weeks as demand for cement continues to weaken.

PLANS for massive infrastructure spending to stimulate the economy in 2009 have given hope for the beleaguered cement industry to make a rebound this year and achieve a modest 2-percent growth.