Siam Cement Plc, the country's largest
industrial conglomerate, said over the weekend it expects to continue seeing
robust earnings growth this year and in 2004 on the back of strong domestic
demand and uptrends in the petrochemical cycle."This year we are going to
break all records in profitability and sales. We hope next year will even be
better," SCC chief financial officer Kan Trakulhoon noted. He said that
higher prices of cement, petrochemicals, and building materials will likely
be the main reason for the sharp increase in profits. Siam Cement has
predicted that domestic demand for cement will rise ten per cent in 2004.
Siam Cement wants to reduce the percentage of products it exports because
the profit margin is higher on products sold in the domestic market.