Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is spending $700 million to build the country’s largest glass manufacturing facility.
San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said in an interview at the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders meeting unit San Miguel Yamamura would break ground over the next two months for a glass manufacturing with an 800-metric ton capacity.
The plant, which will rise within the company’s industrial estate in Davao Occidental, is expected to be completed over the next 24 months.
Ang said the production plant would cater primarily to the export markets including the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
“The plant will be competitive because of very low power rate within the industrial estate,” Ang said.
He said aside from the glass manufacturing facility, San Miguel would also build a plastics manufacturing facility and carton converting plant..
Phase 1 of the glass manufacturing project will cost roughly $700 million, Ang said.
San Miguel has a joint venture partnership with Japan’s Nihon Yamamura Glass Company Ltd. for packaging.
San Miguel Yamamura posted a 3-percent increase in revenues in the first quarter to P25 billion. Consolidated operating income went up 2 percent to P2.3 billion, as a result of improved efficiency and cost management.
San Miguel owns a 2,000-hectare industrial estate in Malita, Davao Occidental that is expect to attract both local and foreign companies.
Share price of San Miguel was unchanged at P108 per share Thursday.
Ang said he remained bullish on Mindanao despite the current developments in the region.
He said he was hopeful that recent actions taken by President Rodrigo Duterte would finally resolve the long standing peace and order problems in Mindanao.