By James A. Loyola Cemex Holdings Philippines, Inc. (CHP), reported a 65 percent drop in net income to P659 million last year from the P1.87 billion earned in 2016 although it reported that domestic cement volume sales rose in the last quarter. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said net sales declined 10 percent to P21.8 billion in 2017 from P24.3 billion in the prior year “mainly due to its lower cement prices.” Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 52 percent to P3.3 billion last year from P6.7 billion in the previous year. “CHP remains positive on the prospects of Philippine construction, with expectations of sustained economic expansion in 2018,” said CHP President Ignacio Mijares. He added that, “we remain focused on executing our capacity expansion plan in Solid Cement Plant. In addition, we are undertaking efforts to debottleneck our operations, achieve higher customer service levels, and reduce costs to drive growth for our business.” CHP announced that it has obtained the main environmental permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources last December for the 1.5 million ton expansion of its Solid Cement Plant. The firm reported that domestic cement volume sales for the fourth quarter increased 10 percent year-on-year, despite challenging weather conditions. This was because public infrastructure spending continued to increase in the last three months of the year, driving demand for CHP’s products, and compensated for a slowdown in private construction activity. CHP also noted that, domestic cement sales volume in the second half of 2017 was the all-time highest second half volume for the company and volume recovery in the second half of 2017 resulted in full-year domestic cement volumes ending flat versus 2016.