RSA: No quick recovery from ‘worst crisis’ ever

THE slack in power and fuel demand has persisted in the first two months of the year as the country continues to suffer from the worst crisis ever, businessman Ramon S. Ang said on Thursday.

“I don’t think 2021 will be a good year. Business is becoming challenging because demand is shrinking. Oversupply ngayon tapos mababa ang demand [There’s an oversupply now while demand is low]. This is the worst crisis in the history of the Philippines in the last 100 or 200 years,” said the San Miguel Corp. president and CEO.

Ang was referring to the country’s electricity demand.

SMC Global Power Holdings Cop., the power unit of SMC, suffered losses in the first two months of the year. “Lugi kami. Ang liit ng consumption, tapos nasira pa ang Sual [We lost there. Consumption was so low; and then our Sual plant was damaged],” he said.

The second unit of the Sual power plant, which is being maintained by Team Energy, will not be operational until May 8. Sual Unit2 is capable of producing 647 megawatts.

Fuel demand is still “very low,” said Ang. “For fuel business to improve, people should be allowed to travel, but [it seems that is not possible] up to next year. So, if there’s no travel, demand will remain low,” he added, partly in Filipino

Among others, SMC holds interest in both power and oil sectors.

The spike in Covid-19 cases has again placed economic recovery on hold. To make it worse, many have expressed frustration over the perceived slow pace of Covid-19 vaccinations in the country.

Ang said if this scenario continues in the months ahead, then the country may not recover till 2023. “Baka mahirapan pa mag recover ang Pilipinas next year, so 2023 pa siguro [It may be hard for the Philippines to recover next year, so more likely it will be 2023],” he said.

But as a group, Ang said SMC has a solid balance sheet. “Very strong ang SMC group so walang magiging problema kahit magtagal pa itong problema. Ang problema ay ang taong-bayan. Kapag sila ang naapektuhan, lahat maapektuhan katulad ng demand at service. [The SMC group is very strong, so there shouldn’t be a problem even if this problem lasts. But the problem is the people. When they are affected, everything else is affected, like demand and service]. Then everybody will be affected by this crisis,” he said.