Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥), the nation’s largest cement maker, yesterday said that it aimed to grow its shipments of cement and clinker by 19.37 percent this year on the back of capacity expansions and improved demand from China.
Based on that goal, the company would sell 60.83 million tonnes of cement and clinker this year in China and domestically, up from 50.96 million tonnes last year, chairman Leslie Koo (辜成允) said at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday.
Taiwan Cement added one production line with an annual capacity of 2 million tonnes of cement and clinker in October last year, vice president Edward Huang (黃健強) said.
“Cement demand for urbanization in southwest China and the demand for infrastructure renovation in south China is stronger this year than a year ago, making our profit increase from last year,” Huang said.
About 54.4 percent of Taiwan Cement’s production capacity is in south China, while its capacity in southwest China accounted for 34.68 percent of its total 56.8 million tonnes of cement and clinker a year, the company said.
Because of higher demand, the company reported a first-quarter profit of NT$1.83 billion (US$61.11 million), or NT$0.5 per share, up 29.79 percent from NT$1.41 billion, or NT$0.38 per share, in the first quarter a year ago, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Huang said that the company would report double-digit profit growth throughout this year compared with last year.
The sixth-largest cement maker in China by capacity, Taiwan Cement maintained its target capacity of 100 million tonnes a year by the end of 2016, Huang said.
Its new Chinese production line Kaili City, Guizhou Province, is to be operational in October, Huang said, adding that the company is applying to the Guangdong provincial government to build a factory with a capacity of 4 million tonnes a year in Shaoguan City.
Huang said the company estimated spending 1.6 billion yuan (US$257 million) to build the Shaoguan factory after it wins approval from the government.
The firm is also in talks with four cement companies regarding mergers and acquisitions, Huang said.
Taiwan Cement shareholders yesterday backed a cash dividend of NT$2.3, based on earnings per share of NT$2.72 last year.
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