Listed cement manufacturer Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc. said Tuesday it suffered a P1-billion net loss in 2022, with higher cement prices not enough to offset the decline in sales volume, higher fuel cost, and foreign exchange losses.
Cemex said cement prices was up 9 percent last year, but net sales still slipped 2 percent to P20.6 billion as cement volume dropped 10 percent for the whole of 2022 compared to the year before.
The company said cost of sales, as a percentage of net sales, was at 67.2 percent for 2022, an increase of 5 percentage points from 2021 mainly due to higher fuel costs. As a percentage of net sales, fuel cost stood at 22.6 percent last year, up 10 percentage due to higher energy prices.
Cemex said foreign exchange losses amounted to P934 million because of the weakness of the peso against the dollar. A large part of the foreign exchange losses are unrealized or non-cash expenses, it added.
The cement manufacturer doesn’t expect any dramatic upturn in sales volume for 2023. At best, it expects cement demand to stay flat.
“We expect 2023 to be a year of transition for our company. We anticipate that market conditions and cost inflation will remain challenging through the first half of the year. Nevertheless, we expect to start to see the benefit of our efforts to reduce cost as the year progresses,” said Luis Franco, president and chief executive officer of Cement, in a statement.
