Manila to lift order halting sale of Cemex cement

The Philippine trade department said on Thursday it would lift an order stopping a local unit of Mexico’s Cemex from selling and distributing its products, after a partially completed quality review showed positive results.  The deparment said, however, that the halt in sales by the Cemex unit, Solid Cement Corp, would remain in effect until tests were finished.  On Aug. 12, the trade department stopped the sale of all products from Solid Cement’s plant in Antipolo town, north of Manila, citing poor quality.  The trade department began a 28-day review of Solid Cement’s products on Aug. 28.

The deparment’s latest decision came a day after Solid Cement said it was suspending operations at its Antipolo plant for up to six months beginning Sept. 9, after the suspension order affected its commercial operations.  Solid Cement had continued to make cement at its Antipolo plant after the initial order, which led to a buildup of inventories.  The Antipolo plant has annual production capacity of 3 million tonnes but output is running well below that, at 75,000 bags of 40 kg each per day.