Philippine-based Eagle Cement Corp increased its net profit last year by four per cent to PHP4.26bn (US$82m) on strong sales volumes. Excluding expenses from its initial public offering, net profit rose by five per cent to PHP4.33bn last year, the company disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.

Eagle Cement reached PHP14.87bn in net sales in 2017, a 12 per cent YoY increase.

"We have continued to beat our operational targets in terms of volume growth and cost efficiencies. Our efforts in upgrading and debottlenecking of our existing production lines allowed us to keep healthy margins despite the challenging market environment," said Paul Ang, Eagle president and chief executive officer.

Eagle Cement is currently constructing its 2Mta No4 Line at its Cebu plant which is scheduled for completion in 2020.