ABOUT the cement industry-which is so essential to our country’s physical and infrastructure development and yet so unsatisfactory as it is now-the Aquino administration must do better than the previous one. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s wrong with the cement industry?
January 23, 2011
Should govt give incentives to new players?
January 23, 2011
This undated file photo shows a local labor group staging a rally against cement importers who are allegedly committing massive tax fraud. Read the rest of this entry »
Smuggling problem also bugs domestic cement industry
January 23, 2011
Like other industries the cement industry also suffers from the smuggling of the product from abroad.
One type of smuggling is outright. This is when importers bring in the product without the government knowing. The other type is undervaluation and misdeclaration. Misdeclaration is when the real amount of imported cement is declared to be much less. Undervaluation is when the declared amount, whether correct or wrong, is priced much less than the real cost of the product imported. Read the rest of this entry »
A cement cartel exists, so government acts to break it
January 23, 2011
A 2007 article written by Rafaelita Aldaba, a senior research fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), cites a study of the cement industry showing that imports arising from trade liberalization do not have a favorable effect on domestic firms and do not bring down local prices. She noted that cement firms are characterized by collusive behavior. They manifest a tendency to engage in strategic behavior and use of anti-dumping and safeguard measures as protective instruments to control competition in the domestic market. Read the rest of this entry »
Govt sees manipulation
January 23, 2011
IS there a cement cartel? Why are cement prices so high?
No one really knows who’s telling the truth. The producers say they are doing nothing wrong, and that the price of cement here is less than that in Brunei, India, Indonesia and even Japan. Read the rest of this entry »
Philippine cement prices said to be among the highest in E. Asia
June 14, 2010
CEMENT PRICES in the Philippines are among the highest in East Asia, Board of Investments (BoI) data showed.
The data were made public late on Friday, a week after the 2010 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) was unveiled with provisions granting incentives to new entrants into the cement industry which the state agency said would encourage competition and thus bring down prices. Read the rest of this entry »
Keep cement tariff at zero
January 11, 2010
Last week, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) warned cement makers that the government would impose a price cap on the construction material barring a return to normal price levels. Read the rest of this entry »
Cement, wheat still duty-free
June 20, 2009
The technical level of the Committee on Tariff and Related Matters has endorsed the extension of the zero duties on cement and food wheat imports for another six months in a bid to lower prices of the commodities. Read the rest of this entry »
DTI queried on entry of China cement imports
May 11, 2009
Questions were being raised over the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) decision to allow into the country the initial shipment of cement imported from China despite the absence of an official document that would show compliance of the shipment to local quality and safety standards. Read the rest of this entry »
Trade department to lift zero duty on cement
April 30, 2009
The Department of Trade and Industry said it will not extend the zero duty on cement since its price has not gone down since its implementation. Read the rest of this entry »
