PHILIPPINES: Northern Cement starts $200-M expansion

Northern Cement Corp. (NCC), the cement manufacturing subsidiary of San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp., is set to double its capacity to more than two million tons as part of its expansion project.

The company recently held ground breaking ceremonies for its $200 million capacity expansion project in its cement plant in Sison, Pangasinan.

Northern Cement president Ramon Ang said the expansion supports the growing infrastructure industry in the country.

“The economy and the infrastructure sector are growing rapidly and by expanding Northern Cement, we are supporting the development efforts of the Philippine government and reducing dependence on imported cement,” Ang said.

Established in 1968, Northern Cement is one of the pioneers in the local cement industry.

With the entry of the San Miguel Group as an equity shareholder in 2012, Northern Cement has since completed a modernization program, acquiring the latest manufacturing technologies for its existing lines.

San Miguel is building five new cement plants with a total annual capacity of 10 million tons.

Affiliates Northern Cement and Eagle Cement will build the new plants in Pangasinan, Bulacan, Quezon, Davao and Cebu, with a capacity of two million metric tons each.

San Miguel owns a 35 percent stake in Northern Cement, a company owned by SMC chairman Eduardo Cojuangco, while Eagle Cement is privately owned by Ang.

The additional 10 million metric tons of cement capacity would bring the San Miguel Group’s cement capacity to roughly 16 million metric tons.

For all five plants, San Miguel is pouring in $1 billion, higher than the earlier announced budget of $800 million.

Ang said the industry has a current capacity of 33 million metric tons which would increase to roughly 43 million once the new cement plants of the San Miguel Group are in place.

SMC previously announced its intention to go full blast with its expansion into cement and power. The conglomerate has been bullish about the local cement industry as the Philippines has a per capita consumption of 170 kilos, far lower than the per capita consumption of 1,000 kilos in other countries.