New cement guidelines

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), through the Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS), issued the new guidelines for mandatory certification of Portland and blended hydraulic cement with Pozzolan.

The DTI Department Administrative Order (DAO) 17-05:2017 is specifically issued for the mandatory certification of Portland cement and blended hydraulic cement with Pozzolan covered by PNS 07:2005 and PNS 63:2006, respectively. It states that only those sourced from foreign cement manufacturing plants holding a valid Philippine Standard (PS) Quality and/or Safety Certification Mark License shall be given permission to enter the Philippine market.

Under DAO 1705:2017, Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) shall be required for all cement importations except those imported by cement manufactures with an operating Integrated Cement Plant/s (ICP) in the Philippines, provided that the imported cement was sourced from a foreign-based manufacturer holding a valid PS License and bears the same brand reflected in the local PS license certificate of the importermanufacturer.

Following this new set of guidelines, the regional and provincial offices of DTI shall receive and process application for PS license/ICC certificate for cement, but BPS will be the one to do the necessary evaluation. If the application is exempted, the local DTI offices shall issue the certificate of exemption. Issuance of Conditional Release for all products by BPS or DTI regional and provincial offices is reinstated pursuant to DAO 05:2008 and its implementing guidelines. DTI11/WDG/jmm