Eagle Cement Corp., a company led by San Miguel Corp. president Ramon Ang, said net income rose 5.7 percent in the first nine months to P3.48 billion from a year ago, on sustained growth in sales volume.
Eagle Cement said in a disclosure to the stock exchange net sales grew 8.57 percent in the first three quarters to P12.2 billion despite a slight decline in average selling price during the period.
The cost of goods sold was up 12.67 percent to P6.6 billion from P5.87 billion on the back of higher fuel prices and cost of imported raw materials following the depreciation of the peso against the US dollar.
Gross profit margin ended at 46 percent.
“We remain aggressive and committed in growing our company organically as we are leveraging on the rising cement demand in the country on the back of the infrastructure push of the government and optimism on the private sector,” Eagle Cement president and chief executive Paul Ang said.
“In 2019, we will start building additional grinding capacity in Bulacan that will add 1.5 million metric tons, bringing our plant’s total annual cement capacity to 8.6 million metric tons,” he said.
The company said net income in the third quarter grew 8.4 percent to P1.16 billion from P1.07 billion in the same period last year. Net sales climbed 5.4 percent to P3.9 billion from P3.7 billion.
Eagle said it allocated P2.94 billion in capital expenditures in the first nine months, of which 67 percent was spent for construction of a third production line in Bulacan and 23 percent on plant machinery and equipment.
Eagle Cement, which has a production capacity of 5.1 million metric tons, is currently the fourth largest cement player in the country based on sales volume.
It said that with the ongoing expansion in Bulacan and Cebu, it was poised to become as one of the leaders in the cement industry.
The company’s total assets stood at P44 billion as of end September.