Siam Cement Group targets customised products

The Concrete Products and Aggregate Co (CPAC), a ready-mixed concrete production unit of the Siam Cement Group, aims to increase its sales of customised products to 15 per cent of total revenues from 10 per cent currently, according to managing director Annop Tekajarin. The company projects total sales of 10 billion baht this year, up 25 percent from eight billion baht last year when its sales volume was 7.6 billon cubic metres.

To boost sales of customised products, Mr Annop said that the company needed to spur consumption demand by building awareness and, by having engineers work hand-in-hand with sales teams to introduce customised concrete to customers and work on special specifications and explain technical terms. As well, the sales engineers must survey market demand in terms of concrete users’ problems in order to develop new formulas for ready-mixed concrete. The company also has set up the Concrete Technical Centre to provide consulting services to customers through a hotline. Currently, the company has centres at 23 branches nationwide.

Another segment targeted for growth by CPAC is in the ready-mix concrete consumption market, which is viewed as relatively low in Thailand. Mr Annop said the company expected sales volume this year in the segment to rise 10 per cent to around 20 million cubic metres, spurred by growth in the
property sector.  The volume used in the Thai ready-mix concrete market is around 0.2 cubic metres per head per year, much lower than around two cubic metres per head in Singapore, for example.

He also forecast that the growth of ready-mixed concrete would remain healthy, mainly driven by the strong demand from infrastructure projects. "So far, healthy growth in the construction sector has remained on track this year despite various negative factors, particularly high oil prices," he said.  CPAC currently has around 250 batching plants throughout the country and nine plants overseas.