Melón to decide on new plant in September

Chilean cement company Empresas Melón will decide in September whether to build a new cement plant in Region VIII or a limestone plant in Region III, according to Melón finance director Joao Pereira, report local press.

The cement plant would be built in the town of Coronel and cost some US$20m, and the limestone plant would be built in the town of Vallenar.  Pereira, speaking at the company’s annual shareholders meeting, also said Melón would invest some US$10m this year in operational costs and in maintenance.

Melón posted a 16.6bn-peso (US$27m) consolidated net profit in 2003, up 6.68 per cent from the year before. For the period, revenue increased 9.34 per cent to 139bn pesos and operating profit grew 26.8 per cent to 26.7bn pesos.

For the first quarter of this year, Melón led market share with 37.3 per cent, followed by Cemento Polpaico (34.1 per cent) and Cementos Bio Bio (28.6 per cent). The conclusion of large infrastructure projects in 1Q04 affected cement deliveries, which fell 3.2 per cent compared to 1Q03.