Cement Holdings Philippines Inc., a leading cement producer, said Friday it widened its net loss to P662 million in the first half from P267 million in the year-earlier period, hurt mainly by rising cost and declining sales.
It said first half consolidated net sales dropped 15 percent to P9.1 billion as domestic cement volumes decreased by 17 percent year-on-year due to subdued cement demand, stiffer competition and slower construction activity compared to the election-boosted spending in 2022.
Cemex price was up 2 percent after the company raised prices to offset higher cost of fuel, electricity and transport, among others.
It said cost of sales, as a percentage of net sales, was at 77.5 percent for the first six months of 2023, an increase of 15.9 percentage points year-over-year mainly due to higher fuel and power costs. Fuel cost was 26.8 percent of net sales, up 7 points on-year while power cost rose 3.7 points to 15.5 percent of net sales.
Cemex said while the cost base remained elevated year-over-year, the company has now seen two consecutive quarters of sequential decline in cost of sales and in distribution cost, mainly driven by significant reductions in fuel cost.
“We are cautiously optimistic for the second half of the year, in light of decelerating inflation and the government’s continued roll-out of its infrastructure programs. While we still have work in front of us, we are encouraged by the steady improvement in our cost base over the last two quarters,” said Luis Franco, president and chief executive officer of Cemex.
Cemex expects domestic cement sales volume this year to decline between mid-single-digit to high-single-digit percentage.
