SGC net income rose 47% to $295M in 1st quarter
That’s around 2,000 kilometers per person.
Urban mass transit is one way to allow less use of personal vehicles on the road. Bus rapid transit corridors are a cost-effective option that can handle up to 50,000 passengers an hour—nearly as many as subways. Jakarta is the first Southeast Asian city to introduce such a system. The results are striking: In 2009, the Trans-Jakarta Busway was used by some 250,000 people a day, an 11 percent increase on the previous year. That resulted in estimated fuel savings equivalent to some $100 million.
Asian cities can go even further, by providing an infrastructure for vehicles powered by cleaner fuels like natural gas, electricity and in the longer term hydrogen. Such smarter city planning could transform our global transport system over the next 50 years—and Asia could lead the way. But for these changes to happen, we will need far-sighted government policies and increased collaboration between governments and businesses.
Growing cities will have a voracious appetite for electricity, more so when more of the emerging middle classes buy refrigerators, air conditioners, television sets and washing machines. Governments need to address the environmental impact of the increased energy demand that ensues.
As Asian cities contend on a daily basis with emissions of sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and particulates, emissions that cause well-documented health burdens, they also have to manage carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning to produce power.
Gas is uniquely positioned to address these energy challenges – it is abundant, acceptable and affordable. Gas is abundantly available—the International Energy Agency suggests more than 250 years at current consumption rates. Its relatively low carbon dioxide and other emissions THAI conglomerate Siam Cement Group ( SGC) grew its profit by nearly half in the first quarter of 2013 over the same period last year amid strong demand in its home market and growth of its subsidiaries in the region.
The company last week said its net income for the January to March period rose 47 percent to $ 295 million amid the aggressive growth of all of its business units.
In the Philippines, where SGC has interests in ceramic tile manufacturing through publicly- listed Mariwasa Siam Ceramics, revenues rose 59 percent to P1.67 billion.
The company attributed the growth of its Philippine operations to the “consolidation of its ceramic tile manufacturing company and better performance of Mariwasa in SCG cement- building materials businesses.”
As of March 31, sales revenue of SCG’s combined Southeast Asian operations ( excluding Thailand) amounted to $ 278 million, 36- percent up year- on- year, representing 8 percent of SCG’s total revenue from sales.
SGC said it intends to be the market leader in Southeast Asia by continuing to enhance its capabilities and offerings.
“The good business performance of all our business units in the Asean region is a good way to jumpstart our 100th anniversary celebration,” SGC president and CEO Kan Trakulhoon said in a statement.
Revenues from units in the region helped boost SGC’s consolidated revenue for the quarter, rising 6 percent to $ 3.67 billion due to higher sales volume in the paper and cement- building materials businesses.
As part of its strategy to grow its business in the region outside Thailand, the company said it recently restructured its businesses by consolidating SCG’s cement, building materials, and distribution businesses into one market- facing entity, now referred to as SCG Cement- Building Materials.
The company said its latest investment in Vietnam, the acquisition of an 85- percent stake in Prime Group Joint Stock Company, was another significant step that would drive business expansion in Southeast Asia.