Polpaico’s president, Juan Antonio Guzman, also announced details on the company’s investment plan for 2006, encouraged by the rising domestic demand. Polpaico plans to direct US$8.0m to increase its readymix production by 100,000 cu m, US$6.0m to optimise the energy consumption of its plant Cerro Blanco and US$3.0mfor environmental improvements of its facilities.
In 2005, the company, Polpaico 54.3 per cent owned by Holcim and 40.9 per cent by Chilean natural gas distributor Gasco, registered a decrease of 5.2 per cent year-on-year in its profit, falling to 14.623 bln Chilean pesos ($27.8m), due to the rising energy costs.
