CEMENT prices will stay the same even during the summer months—seen as the peak of construction activity—and the period when commodity costs traditionally go up.

Trade Secretary Peter B. Favila said he got this assurance from the local cement manufacturers in a recent meeting.

“There will be no price increases even during the peak months,” Favila said.

According to the latest price monitoring undertaken by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), cement prices range from a low of P160 per 40-kilogram bag in the Region 3 area to a high of P198 in Region 5.

In Metro Manila, the prevailing price of cement is P175 per bag.

However, Favila’s sentiments were not echoed by Cement Manufacturers Association of Philippines president Ernesto Ordonez, who said the pricing of cement during these summer months would depend on the individual company’s strategy.

“You know it’s a competition, so it will depend on their plans,” Ordoñez told the BusinessMirror, adding cement companies do not disclose their future prices to their industry group.

Last year price spikes prompted the government to consider setting up a trigger mechanism which will remove tariffs on imported cement on a seasonal basis to temper increases during demand hikes.

The Tariff Commission already gave its recommendation on this after conducting a public hearing since the agency believes that more competition due to the entry of imported cement at zero duties would be beneficial to consumers.

Trade Senior Undersecretary Thomas G. Aquino said later the plan has been scrapped owing to technical difficulties which will be encountered by the government.

Ordoñez said the local cement industry—dominated by foreign-owned companies Holcim, Cemex and Lafarge—is only projecting a maximum of 7-percent sales increase this year after recording a 9-percent increment in 2007.

“We are expecting growth, but it will not be as high as last year. Probably 5 percent to 7 percent,” Ordoñez said.

He said the 9-percent growth last year was due mainly to the low base figure, particularly since the industry was flat in the last six years.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA), through its attached agency, the National Food Authority (NFA), is encouraging the public to eat brown rice.

INSTEAD of helping returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) establish sari-sari stores, the Philippine government should encourage workers to go into rice production to ease the impact of the impending grain shortage.

HIGH oil prices have forced Filipino rice farmers to contend with soaring fertilizer costs which have gone up by more than half in recent months, an official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

OIL companies increased by another 50 centavos the prices of diesel, gasoline and kerosene, citing as basis the continuous surge of oil prices in the world market.

AFTER a textile firm shuttered its plant in Namibia, retrenched Filipino workers held a strike to oppose the company’s demand which instructed them to leave the South African country without severance pay or shoulder all responsibility for their repatriation.

CEMENT prices will stay the same even during the summer months—seen as the peak of construction activity—and the period when commodity costs traditionally go up.

NAGA, Zamboanga Sibugay—Agrarian-reform beneficiaries who used to be rubber-plantation workers are now enjoying the fruits of their labor, especially after wiping out their cooperative’s P60-million deficit in 15 years.

THE Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) has extended over P125 million in loans to 12,000 households in agrarian-reform communities (ARCs) nationwide through the Agri-Finance Solutions (Agrisol), a program jointly implemented by the bank and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) , with funding support from the World Bank.