Holcim Philippines extends plant shutdown
Holcim Philippines, one of the country’s leading cement-makers, has prolonged the "economic shutdown" of a production line in Mindanao until end this year and reducing its total operating capacity by over 12 per cent due to continuing low domestic demand.
But Holcim Philippines chief operating officer Ian Thackwray reiterated in a statement that it is not a plant shutdown, but an economic shutdown of only one production line in Holcim-Lugait Plant and that there were no job losses as a result. Lugait Line 1’s annual cement production capacity is 884,000 metric tons or 12.4% of the total operating capacity.
"There were also no job losses resulting from the shutdown," Thackwray added.
The Lugait Plant continues to operate. The economic shutdown of line 1 was implemented beginning July 2008 due to low domestic demand and is likely to continue throughout all of 2009.
"We have one of our two kilns in Lugait that has been on economic shutdown since July. The reason for that is not the financial crisis. The reason is the fall in domestic demand for cement, which predates the financial crisis and was primarily driven by a slowdown in government infrastructure spending," Thackwray said in a statement.
Published under Cement News
