Asia Cement Corp, one of Taiwan’s leading producers of cement, will see substantial growth in sales because of the rise of the central Chinese region as the mainland government will move to boost infrastructure construction in that region. Asia Cement has made years of investments in such central Chinese provinces as Jiangxi and Hubei. Another Taiwanese cement producer Hsing Ta Cement is also expected to benefit from the development of the central Chinese region as it is planning to set up a plant in Huangshi of Hubei Province in the near future.
With the continued implementation of the macro-economic control policy imposed by the mainland government since April last year, Asia Cement saw a year-on-year drop in profits in the first half of this year and Chia Hsin Cement, another Taiwanese firm that has set up plants in the mainland, even encountered operating losses in the same period. The central-China development plan is expected to bring in massive business opportunities for cement producers in such central-China provinces as Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan.
Asia Cement is speeding up the third-stage expansion of its cement-grinding plant in Wuhan of Hubei Province. The plant is expected to see annual production capacity reach 2.3Mta of cement by the end of this year when the expansion project is completed.
More recently Asia Cement has set aside US$200m to set up two production lines of cement, each with annual output of 2Mta, in the Yanglo Economic Development Zone of Wuhan province. By the end of next year, the company will see annual output reach 10Mta of cement in the central Chinese region.
