Philippine cement sales up 13% in first four months
Cement sales for the first four months of the year amounted to 4.3Mt, growing by 13.158% from the 3.8Mt of cement sold during the same period last year, data from the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines showed.
An industry insider said the increase in sales could be attributed to the boom in infrastructure spending of the government, with the first-ever trillion-peso national budget being passed in the first quarter.
Infrastructure spending has been set at P162.9bn for 2007, with the Public Works department being allocated some P71.2bn.
Infrastructure accounts for 14.47% of the national government’s P1.126-billion budget this year, and is 41% higher than the P115.6m allotment for both 2005 and 2006, the latter having a reenacted budget.
The source said although public spending programs of the government were initiated even last year, the actual execution of this is occurring just now - after the election ban - thus manifested in increased spending on cement.
For April alone, sales of cement amounted to 1.1Mt, 16% higher than the 956,844Mt in sales for April 2006.
Cement sales for the whole of 2006 amounted to 11.5Mt. Published under Cement News
