DTI urged to scrap cement tariff wall

The Philippine Cement Importers Association (PCIA) is urging Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II to go by the recommendation of the Tariff Commission to junk the petition of local cement manufacturers for safeguard measures against import surges.

"The Tariff Commission findings were very detailed and were based on data supplied by the Philippine Cement Manufacturers Corp. (Philcemcor)," the PCIA said yesterday.

The PCIA is also urging Roxas to lift all quantitative restrictions and tariffs imposed on imported cement.

The PCIA members pointed out that since the provisional tariff of P20.60 per bag was imposed in January, local importers have not imported any cement, thereby contributing to the cement shortage.

The group disclosed that contrary to Philcemcor’s claim that local cement is being sold at P125 per bag in the National Capital Region (NCR) and at P135 per bag elsewhere, the real retail price is P140 to P150 per bag since local cement firms are also not producing enough to supply the demands of the market.

They also disputed Philcemcor’s claim that the landed cost of imported cement is only P86.10 per bag.

According to Samson J. Lim of Standwood Industries Corp., the landed cost of his imported cement is P96 per bag, while Ferdinand G. Co of Cohaco Trading Corp. reported a slightly higher landed cost of P100 per bag.

Their cost, Lim explained, depends on the quality or source of the cement, freight cost, port cost and a few other factors.

They then pass on the imported cement to retailers at an additional P10 and the retailers add another P10 per bag to the consumers.

However, imported cement, Lim said, is still P10 cheaper than locally produced cement.

Without the presence of imported cement, the PCIA warned, local cement companies will again result to cartel price fixing.

"The Philcemcor is actually controlled by foreign interest who want to monopolize the market," the PCIA said.

Meanwhile, the local cement industry belied allegations that its present problems are rooted in high interest expenses.

"We have to remember that it was government in the first place that encouraged local cement producers to make sizeable investments in expansion and modernization projects in order to get the country out of the import-dependent state that it was in," Edcel Lagman, Philcemcor spokesman.

Lagman was reacting to earlier claims made by importers and what he described as "importer-friendly" organizations like the Consumers Union of the Philippines and the Confederation of Homeowners Associations for Reform in Governance and Environment that the cement industry’s recent financial losses were mainly due to its huge interest expenditures and not to the unabated dumping of imported cement into the country.