MARIVELES, Bataan — PHINMA Corp. on Saturday inaugurated its first state-of-the-art cement and port facilities under its subsidiary, the Philcement Corp., at the Freeport Area of Bataan here.
The inauguration and blessing signaled the operation of the plant with highly-automated equipment that initially has an annual capacity of two million tons of cement.
The cement and port facilities that sit in 1.9 hectares of land have total investment of P1 billion.
“We want to contribute what we can in nation-building to making lives better,” PHINMA president and COO Ramon del Rosario said.
“One of the best ways to making lives better is to support the administration of President Duterte in the infrastructure development programs. Build, Build, Build program is a very important component of this administration and I think it is worthy of support,” Del Rosario added.
According to Del Rosario, domestic manufacture of cement is inadequate to satisfy the demand so that the entry of Philcement in the industry will help fill the gap.
He said cement is key to infrastructure and a reliable supply of quality cement is a golden key and that only the best quality cement has to be used to build roads, bridges, railways, airports and ports and so with school buildings and public housing.
Del Rosario said they were fortunate to be able to get together with one of the world’s largest exporters of cement from Vietnam with a facility very well-secured to export cement like in Mariveles, pointing to Philcement in Mariveles as “only one of its kind and also the largest independent cement bulk terminal in the whole world.”
He said they have resurrected Union cement that became their brand.
No pollution
Eduardo Sahagun, Philcement president and CEO, allayed fears of pollution: “I want to assure that there is no emission that will be harmful to the community especially along the seashore.”
He said that their unloaders and loaders are meant to make sure that there is no emission at all: “There is a zipper that zips it and can only be found here. This is the only plant that zips the conveyor while in operation.”
He said that in his many years in the cement business, “I have not seen a plant with elastic equipment, filter, to make sure it is actually clean and we will add some more.”
Emmanuel Pineda, chairman of the Freeport Area of Bataan, said Philcement has placed Bataan in the map of the world in cement production being the biggest cement facility in the entire world.
He committed full support for the successful operation of the plant and port facilities.
