Taiwan Cement plans to increase exports to China

The Taiwan Cement Corporation has said that it expects to ship 1.1Mt of cement to China in the first quarter of 2017, an increase of two per cent on its performance in 1Q16, the Taipei Times reports.

In an earnings statement covering the first nine months of 2016, Taiwan Cement saw its profit increase by 13.7 per cent to TWD4.5bn (US$141m), driven by rising prices and a fall in the cost of coal.

The company’s exports to China reached 3.9Mt in the first three quarters of 2016, up 10 per cent on the same period in 2015. The first quarter usually sees slower sales due to the Lunar New Year holiday, but Taiwan Cement believes that Chinese efforts to reduce domestic overcapacity will have a positive impact on both import demand and prices.

Accordding to Macquarie analyst Benson Pan, the average price of cement in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi increased by CNY60-70 (US$8.70-10.20)/t since September, buoyed up by infrastructure spending and low inventory levels.