Cemex threatens to close Solid Cement

Cemex Philippines, the local unit of the Mexico-based cement giant, may be forced to close down its affiliate Solid Cement Corp.’s plant in Antipolo, Rizal as the Department of Trade and Industry’s cease-and-desist order (CDO) on the sale of the Island Cement brand has taken its toll on the plant’s operations.

On Aug. 12, the DTI issued the stop order on the selling, distributing and disposing of Island Cement or any brand manufactured by SCC after the products allegedly failed laboratory tests made by the Bureau of Product Standards and the Department of Public Works and Highways’ Bureau of Research and Standards.

However, Cemex Philippines president and chief executive officer Jaime Ruiz de Haro contested the test results, offering government to conduct another test at the cement plant itself to prove the quality and integrity of its output.

Among the standards that the product reportedly failed to comply with is the minimum compressive strength, and that it had "too much impurities" which compromise its strength.

"We are a leading global producer of quality cement products, and we totally dispute the claim that we are selling substandard products in the Philippines," De Haro stressed.

"We don’t know where they got their cement. We don’t know if this cement was our cement. We haven’t been told about this," De Haro said.

But since the CDO was issued, SCC has stopped the production and sale of its cement products, which account for about 40 percent of the market in Metro Manila.

SCC’s cement sales, in turn, has gone down from more than 3,000 tons or 75,000 bags per day to zero since last week.

"We will be forced to stop our plant if we do not solve the situation as soon as possible and it doesn’t look like we can do this soon," De Haro said.