The "dumping" of imported cement, coming particularly from Vietnam, has continued despite the safeguard measures in place to protect the industry, local cement manufacturers revealed on Thursday.

In a news statement, Cement Manufacturer's Association of the Philippines (Cemap) Executive Director Cirili M. Pestaño II expressed his worries over more cement being imported from Vietnam.

"With a huge surplus and lower domestic demand, we would likely see a more aggressive effort from Vietnam exporters to flood the Philippine domestic market with imported cement," he said.

Citing reports, the industry group said that Vietnam's cement exports in the first four months were up 42 percent year-on-year to 14.9 million tons. The shipments to Philippines comprised 2.51 million tons—17 percent more than last year—of the total exports, making the country Vietnam's second-largest cement export market.

"Imports benefit mostly the foreign manufacturers. Their exports generate jobs in their home county, not here in the Philippines where many of our people have already lost their jobs," he said. "We must support and protect local industries—whenever necessary—if we want to recover from this pandemic."

The Cemap official noted that majority of the domestic cement manufacturers had to temporarily shut down operations during the onset of the pandemic amid mobility restrictions. On top of this, he said, the pandemic also reduced construction activities and demand by 10 percent last year.

Meanwhile, Cemap lauded the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for "finding merit in the imposition of safeguard duties against imported cement from various countries to encourage and challenge the local cement industry to be globally competitive."

"Otherwise, it could bring dire consequences for the local industry that is still struggling to recover from the ill effects of the coronavirus pandemic," he added.

In 2019, the DTI imposed a three-year safeguard measure on cement based on the findings of the Tariff Commission that imports on said products are seen to inflict serious injury to the domestic industry.

The trade department announced its anti-dumping investigation on cement imports from Vietnam in April.

This, after Cemex Philippines, Holcim Philippines Inc. and Republic Cement Builders and Building Materials Inc. filed a complaint claiming that cements from Vietnam are imported at "dumped prices," which hurts the local industry.

DTI noted that the period of investigation (POI) for dumping is from July 2019 to June 2020. The POI of injury is from 2017 to June 2020.

The Anti-Dumping Act of 1999, or the Republic Act 8752, is in place to protect the local industry from being materially injured by the dumping of articles imported into the country.

"Unless stopped, the continuing increase in the volume of imported cement would cause injury not just to the local industry but also to the economy, in general," Pestaño stressed.

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