Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. vowed to keep cement prices below the competition in a bid to obtain the anti-trust body’s approval for the acquisition of Holcim Cement Philippines.
“We will always be cheaper than everybody else in the market,” SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang told reporters in a recent interview.
Ang said SMC would continue to improve and invest in Holcim to enhance its production efficiency. HPI currently operates four integrated cement plants and one grinding plant with a total annual capacity of 10 million MT.
It is currently embarking on a $300-million expansion to increase its capacity by 30 percent to 13 million metric tons by 2020.
SMC and HPI filed a notification to the Philippine Competition Commission on June 6 regarding the conglomerate’s plan to acquire the cement assets of Switzerland-based cement giant LafargeHolcim in the Philippines.