Holcim says govt effort
to drive industry growth
LEADING cement maker Holcim Philippines Inc. expects a modest single-digit hike in its net revenues for the year, with demand for its product expected to rise due to prospects of more public sector infrastructure projects in 2006.
“We are looking at a good year ahead of us,” Holcim Philippines chairman Oscar Hilado told reporters after the company’s annual stockholders meeting at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Wednesday.
Hilado said with the administration doing a good job in fixing the government’s fiscal condition, they expect a lot of state-funded infrastructure projects for the year.
He said while the private sector has been pouring in investments for vertical infrastructure, it would still be the government’s horizontal projects that will really drive cement demand up.
Hilado said the company hopes that government would finally start unlocking the Overseas Development Aid (ODA) funds by doing better in putting up the required counterpart funding.
For the whole of 2005, Holcim reported a 6.5-percent increase in total revenues to P14.15 billion from P13.29 billion in 2004. However, its net income for the same period dropped 14 percent to P1.269 billion from P1.409 billion in 2004.
The whole industry, Hilado said, suffered a 4-percent dip in demand for the first quarter, but there was a strong rebound in April and May is also seen to be a strong month. “We are hoping that there will be no decline in demand for the year,” he said.
Holcim eats up about 32 percent to 40 percent of the 11.6 million tons annual domestic demand. Aside from its domestic sales, Holcim exported 1.7 million tons in 2005 to countries like
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