D&L bullish on 2027 prospects

MANILA, Philippines — D&L Industries Inc., the country’s largest producer of oleochemicals and specialty plastics and food products, is seeing brighter prospects next year after the results of the recent US midterm elections.

D&L president Alvin Lao said there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about next year, citing the recent drop in the price of Brent crude oil and the strengthening of the peso.

“The good news, it looks like, after the blue tsunami at the US midterm elections, there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel of when the war with Iran might end,” he said.

Lao, however, remains cautious about the geopolitical situation and said it is still too early to make projections on how the company would perform next year.

“But you never know. We can’t relax yet. The reality is, even if the war ends, for a lot of raw materials, a lot of these manufacturing plants in the Middle East were destroyed. Those plants will take years to rebuild,” he said.

On the local front, Lao expects some positive developments with the upcoming 2028 Philippine presidential elections, with election-related spending likely to start in the second half of 2027.

However, he said the Philippine political situation is also a cause for concern.

“Every time there are political issues, business kind of freezes. Our political situation could get a lot worse (should the conflict between Marcos and Duterte groups intensifies). So, there are a lot of reasons to think that things will hopefully get better. But you never know. This is the Philippines,” Lao said.

D&L delivered robust profit growth despite a challenging business environment in the first nine months of the year.

Strong third-quarter performance powered the company’s nine-month net income to P2.24 billion, up by 15 percent from P1.95 billion in the same period last year.

Its third-quarter earnings climbed by 32 percent to P735 million from P554 million in the same quarter of 2025.

Lao said D&L is ramping up efforts to attract new customers overseas to boost exports and utilize additional capacity from its new Batangas plant.

He said the company also D&L continues to invest in research and development to come out with new high-margin products that will attract new customers.