Taiwan Cement Corp. and Asia Cement Corp., Taiwan’s two leading producers of cement, raked in handsome profits last year and will see their earnings further trend upward in the months to come.  Of domestic cement producers, Asia Cement was the most profitable with earnings per share hitting NT$2.82 (US$0.088 at US$1:NT$32) last year. Taiwan Cement posted NT$1.97 (US$0.06) in EPS for 2005, the highest record over the past 10 years.  Thanks to the increase of orders in core business and earnings from investments, Taiwan Cement estimated it would see whole-year earnings grow 20 per cent year-on-year this year. 
 
Taiwan Cement posted NT$2.558 billion (US$79.93 million) in operating earnings on sales of NT$25.232 billion (US$788.5 million) last year, with pretax earnings reaching NT$6.086 billion (US$190.18 million), up 30% annually from the previous year’s NT$4.653 billion (US$145.4 million). Yeh Chien-chiang, vice president of Taiwan Cement, noted his company would shrug off operating losses in mainland China as the Yingte plant in Guangdong Province has begun operations at the end of April. The company estimated it would score NT$400 million (US$12.5 million) in annual earnings in the mainland this year.
 
With annual sales amounting to NT$10.747 billion (US$335.84 million), Asia Cement posted NT$7.059 billion (US$220.59 million) in pretax earnings last year, a slight growth from the previous year’s NT$6.732 billion (US$210.37 million).  At present, Asia Cement has an annual production capacity of 5.38Mt of cement in Taiwan. The company will begin operation of a production line of Yadong plant in Sichuan Province of mainland China by the end of September. In addition, the construction of the company’s new plant in Jiangxi Province will be completed by the end of this year.
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