Philippine imports pass quality tests

The Philippine government has confirmed that all of the country’s cement imports have passed quality tests after the implementation of an administrative order by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

"In the review of implementation of the revised DTI Department Administrative Order 17-06:2017, governing the procedure in testing the standard compliance of all imported cement, we found 100 percent compliance where all shipments of imported cement passed the post shipment tests conducted by the Bureau of Product Standard-accredited testing laboratories," said Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez.

The DTI issued the order after a President Duterte mandate to protect consumers’ interests and ensure cement imports are of a high quality, according to The Manila Times.

"This (order) is also in support of the aggressive infrastructure program that the Duterte administration is pushing for, where [the] supply of quality cement will also be assured…to stabilize cement prices," said Mr Lopez. 

Since the order was issued in November last year, there have been 167 inbound cement shipments totalling 1.934Mt. Of these, 24 underwent pre-shipment tests in its source country through accredited laboratories and subsequently passed post-shipment tests in the Philippines.