RP cement prices among lowest in world

Philippine cement prices are among the lowest in the world, according to a recent report by JP Morgan.

JP Morgan’s Construction & Building Materials Sector report, published in February this year, ranked the Philippines at No. 69 out of 73 countries analyzed.

The same report showed that Philippine cement prices are the lowest in the ASEAN region, lower than those in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

JP Morgan noted in its report that Philippine cement prices have stabilized largely as a result of government intervention.

The Philippine government imposed temporary safeguard measures on imported cement in December 2001.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) imposed a provisional duty of P20.60 per 40 kilogram bag following a petition for safeguard measures from local cement and manufacturers.

Local cement manufacturers had complained that cement imports from Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan had captured up to 35 percent of the Philippine market as of July 2001 from a market share of only 1.4 percent in 1998.

However, Philippine tariffs on imported cement are still lower than those imposed by other ASEAN countries.

For instance, Malaysia’s tariff on imported cement is 50 percent; Vietnam, 40 percent; Bangladesh as high as 100 percent.

Even Taiwan imposed tariffs specifically on Philippine cement of as high as 104.5 percent despite the fact that Philippine cement only had less than a four-percent share of the Taiwanese cement market.

Prior to the relief measures imposed by the government in 2001, the Philippine cement market was the most open in the region.