Crown Asia sees higher sales with new manufacturing plant

MANILA, Philippines - Crown Asia Chemicals Corp., expects a big boost in sales with a new manufacturing plant in Bulacan.

Crown Asia chairman Walter Villanueva said with the new plant which is expected to commence full operations in August, the company expects to be able to introduce new products in the market, which could eventually increase sales to P1 billion.

The company’s sales stood at around P900 million in 2014.

Crown Asia’s new PP-R plant has an annual capacity of 4,320 metric tons. PP-R pipe, or polypropylene random copolymer, is a special type of pipe used in many different applications, such as residential water systems, underground heating systems, air pipelines, and many other industrial uses, since it can handle a wide range of hot and cold water applications.

“The Crown PP-R adheres to international standards and is manufactured with high-grade quality materials for maximum safety, strength and durability. It has a complete line-up of standardized products that are available in sizes ranging from 20- to 160-mm,” Villanueva said.

He said the company understands each customer has very specific needs and very high expectations when it comes to quality.

Crown Asia positions itself as the first local company to manufacture a complete range of highly resistant to abrasion and corrosion products and offers cutting and installation tools for perfect-fit precision and convenient connection systems.

Moreover, the new plant will manufacture high-grade HDPE pipes. HDPE pipes are strong, durable, flexible and lightweight and ideal for different purposes including industrial, energy, geothermal, landfill and other uses.

The company embarked on an initial public offering last April, making it the first pipe company to list in the bourse and the first to do so in 2015.

Its market capitalization has now reached more than P1.5 billion.

“Our transformation into a listed company was envisioned eight years ago. It took a lot of planning, restructuring, and re-engineering of the entire organization, to meet up to the challenges of being a public corporation-a far cry from our humble beginnings,” Villanueva said.

Crown Asia, which started operations more than two decades ago, with just a single Taiwan machine and 22 employees grew its business through the years and added more plants, buildings and equipment.

Presently, the company manufactures PVC compounds for applications in wires and cables, IC tubings, bottles and films. Crown Pipes, on the other hand, though the youngest in the branded pipe industry, is already a preferred supplier to projects of big-name developers. Crown Pipes are also used in the NAIA Expressway and the NAIA rehabilitation, to name a few.