Eagle Cement eyes P6.5-B profit in 2018

LISTED Eagle Cement Corp. is targeting net income of P6.5 billion in 2018 as it expects its third production line in San Ildefonso, Bulacan to be operational by then.

Revenues next year are expected to hit P23 billion with gross profit of P10 billion.

“[Growth] will continue because line three of Eagle will start production about January or February full production [but that is not yet full production because] usually [in the] first six months, bottlenecking [there is a bottleneck problem],” Eagle Chairman Ramon Ang told a news conference on the sidelines of the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday.

Line 3 of the plant is currently being constructed, along with the fourth and fifth production lines.

The third line alone is expected to bring Eagle’s cement capacity to 7.1 million metric tons (MT) yearly from the existing 5.1 million MT. It will also spur clinker capacity to 4.2 million MT from the 2.8 million MT currently.

The fourth line will be located in Malabuyoc, Cebu, while the fifth plant will be in Davao City to cater to the Visayas and Mindanao markets.

Eagle said it expects to be the largest cement manufacturer in the country once the Cebu plant is fully operational as it will hike the company’s production to 9.1 million MT.

For full year 2017, the cement maker projects net income will reach P4.3 billion to P4.5 billion as revenues grow 20 percent to about P15 billion, with gross profit of more than P7 billion. “And our cash on hand—

cash IPO (initial public offering) proceeds [as you well know, we have a lot of cash because of the IPO proceeds]— [the] cash on hand [is] P15 billion to P16 billion,” Ang said.

The company expects to produce 95 million bags of cement for this year, rising 36 percent next year to 130 million bags.