Phinma Corp will bring panamax vessels to Mariveles Terminal

The Phinma group will invest PHP500-700m (US$9.5-13.4m) on its Bataan cement terminal in Philippines. The Mariveles cement terminal will be ideal for large panamax vessels and is set from completion in May 2019.

"In the meantime, we're already beginning to import," said Phinma Corporation president and CEO, Ramon Del Rosario Jr. "I think we already brought in the first four shipments of two million bags."

The aim is to supply only the domestic market at this stage. "Initially, that's what we will use and then we will distribute all over the Philippines. For now, we do not intend to go beyond that because there's a surplus of cement in southeast Asia anyway and in Asia in general," he added.

The Mariveles terminal will have a storage capacity of 2Mta and will act as a hub for large vessels coming from Vietnam. "Mariveles is a deepsea port and we want to bring in very large vessels from Vietnam—it's called a Panamax vessel—which improves the efficiency and the cost per bag," said Mr Del Rosario Jr.

"If we can accommodate these types of vessels, then our cost per bag will go down and therefore we will be able to benefit the consumer at the end of the day," he added.