Eagle Cement plant expansion gets BOI perks

Eagle Cement Corp. (ECC), the integrated cement company of the Ang family, has received the green light from the Board of Investments (BOI) for the expansion of the third production line in its plant in San Ildefonso, Bulacan.

In a disclosure, ECC said the BOI has approved the company’s application as expanding producer of cement on a non-pioneer status under the BOI’s 2017 Investment Priorities Plan.

ECC’s third line would bring the firm’s cement capacity to 7.1 million metric tons annually from the current 5.1 million MT, company officials said yesterday.

With an investment of roughly P7 billion, the third production will also boost ECC’s clinker capacity to 4.2 million MT from the existing 2.8 million MT.

Clinker is the basic raw material for cement.

The BOI also approved the application of ECC’s wholly-owned subsidiary, South Western Cement Corp. (SWCC) as a new producer of cement on a non-pioneer status but with pioneer incentives.

ECC entered the market in 2010 after establishing a newly built cement plant over an area of roughly 200 hectares.

At present, the company is the largest 100 percent Filipino-owned cement player in the country. It also has the newest cement plant compared to its peers, translating to operational efficiency and higher margins.

The plant is equipped with state-ofthe-art modern technologies and is able to house and handle all stages of cement production from limestone quarrying, clinker production, additives mixing, and market distribution.

It is currently composed of two production lines that produce 5.1 million metric tons of cement every year, or 130 million bags per annum.

ECC is presently the fourth largest player in the market in terms of sales volume, with footprint in high-economic activity areas such as the National Capital Region and Region 3.