Two new cement brands harden market competition, Vietnam

Two new cement brands harden market competition, Vietnam
19 October 2006


Two new cement brands jumped onto the local Vietnamese market this week, which will make the competition tougher at a time supply is seen gradually outpacing demands. 
 
Lafarge Cement Vietnam Company yesterday announced its PCB40 cement of the brand Lavilla which the joint venture company said would be competitive on the market. One day earlier, FICO-Tay Ninh Joint Stock Cement Company (TAFiCO) also put its first products onto the local market after three weeks buying Phuong Nam Cement Factory valued at more than US$25 million. 
 
Both companies have combined capacity of some 1Mt. 
 
Lafarge Cement Vietnam, a joint venture between France’s Lafarge Co. and Vietnam’s Doan Duc Co., said at a press conference at the Renaissance Riverside Saigon Hotel yesterday that the new product is quoted at VND48,000 a 50-kilo bag. It will also roll out next month a new multi-purpose pozzolan blended cement in loose form for industrial projects, said the company’s general director Marc Jarrault.
 
He added the company was supplying the first cement product to HCMC, Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Tay Ninh, and would expand its market to to Long An, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and the Mekong Delta provinces in the coming time. 
 
Marc Jarrault said he “believe that Lafarge cement products will prove very popular, and that within three years the internationally-recognized brand will become one of largest cement producing companies in South Vietnam.? Meanwhile, TAFiCO, with its factory of 500,000 tons a year in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park in Nha Be District, said it would focus on HCMC and neighboring provinces for its product of the name FICO Cement. The company currently enjoys a network of 4,000 sales agents in the country. 
 
In addition, TAFiCO is building a new cement factory in Tay Ninh Province capitalized at US$178 million with a capacity of 1.5 million tons of cement a year. 
Published under Cement News