Cement supply to normalize after the holidays
Posted on December 25th, 2009
Holcim, global cement giant, reiterated that there is no shortage in the supply of cement in the market. It assured the public that the supply of cement in the market will normalize after the Christmas holidays. Ed Sahagun, sales manager of Holcim’s cement plant in the Philippine made the assurance even as trucks lined up in their factories waiting to be loaded for days.
The Holcim official said that cement supply will be back to normal soon as repair works on their machine have been completed and would be operational. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) earlier said that the temporary shortage was primarily due to the rush to complete large government infrastructure projects in order to avoid the election ban.
Holcim’s vice president for operations, Bobby Sajonia, said that the long line of trucks in front of their Norzagaray plant was formed because of their reduce production capacity to half. They were conducting preventive maintenance on their milling machine, which necessitated the shutting down of their mills. Sajonia added, “It’s just normal to have 100 to 200 trucks lining up in our factor because our production capacity is 200,000 bags per day.”
Plant’s manager for logistics Apolonio Placido aired the same sentiment, adding that cement haulers usually stay in their parking lot for a while, even though they were already loaded, because they are avoiding the truck ban in Metro Manila.
The shortage of cement has caused the retail price to skyrocket. Rhine Aldana, DTI provincial director in Bulacan said, “The cement shortage is already a national concern,” noting that they have validated the supply problem as hardware and other store retailing cement in Bulacan reported limited stocks.
The production of Holcim and Republic Cement factories in Bulacan however remain normal, according to Aldana, as they produce at least hundreds of thousands of bags a day. But because of the demand, these were not enough and trucks that used to haul bagged cement have already lined up at two Norzagaray factories.
