Cement producer Holcim Philippine Inc. said Friday net income grew 34.2 percent in the third quarter to P613.7 million from a year ago, on cost management and efficiency improvement initiatives across the business.
Holcim Philippines said in a disclosure to the stock exchange third-quarter sales declined by 10.6 percent to P7.36 billion from P8.24 billion recorded in the same period last year on lower cement volumes from interruption in the sales operations as a result of the lockdown implemented by the government in August.
The cement firm said, however, that there was improvement in sales from June to July and the normalization in September.
Most of the clusters in Luzon exhibited volume growth because of the increase in operating days. Mindanao sites showed a decline because of the major maintenance shutdown in Davao and operational challenges in Lugait.
Cement prices this year were affected by the shift to pick-up and cash sales coupled with downward pricing actions in response to competition.
“While there are challenges ahead, we remain confident that the steps to keep our people healthy and safe, preserve cash, and be prudent on costs enable us to emerge stronger from this crisis. Opportunities abound for our business as the construction industry will play a key role in the country’s recovery from the pandemic. Moving forward, we are ready to support our partners build better and deliver great value to all our stakeholders,” Holcim Philippines president and chief executive John Stull said.
The company said net income in the first nine months went down by 45 percent to P1.03 billion from P1.87 billion posted in the same period last year.
Nine-month net sales went down by 21 percent to P18.8 billion from P23.7 billion a year ago because of lower volume and price.
Cost of goods sold also declined because of lower productions costs.
Holcim has manufacturing facilities in La Union, Bulacan, Batangas, Misamis Oriental and Davao.
The share price of Holcim Philippines rose 1.06 percent Friday to close at P5.72.