Mr Tony Liu, General Director of ChinFon Cement Corporation Mr Tony Liu, General Director of ChinFon Cement Corporation, talks about its performance amid a tougher global environment.
Vietnam’s economy faced difficulties and challenges in 2009 from the impact of the global economic crisis. How did ChinFon cope with problems in the Vietnamese market?
Under the impact of the global economic crisis Vietnam’s economy did face quite a few problems, such as a slowdown in foreign direct investment (FDI) and in the construction business, leading to less demand for cement.
The price of input materials such as electricity and coal also rose, leading to an increase in production costs. In such a context, certain difficulties for ChinFon and other enterprises were inevitable. But thanks to the government’s economic stimulus package and our own efforts in overcoming the problems and seizing the opportunities when they appeared, we have recorded some encouraging results. In the first nine months of the year ChinFon generated revenues of over $140 million and recorded pre-tax profits of nearly $28 million.
It is reported that ChinFon is expected to remit to the State budget around VND116 billion in taxes in 2009. What percentage of the plan does this represent?
We are glad to say that ChinFon has, at this point, already remitted over VND130 billion, around VND16 billion of which was customs taxes. We have therefore surpassed our projected target in terms of tax remittances by 10.7 per cent.
It is predicted that in 2010 and 2011 the supply of cement in Vietnam will exceed demand. Have you developed any business strategy to deal with such an eventuality?
One of our immediate solutions is to focus on raising workplace productivity, reducing production costs, and bringing down product prices so as to increase our competitive edge in the market. Trade promotions and expanding of foreign markets are also being considered seriously by ChinFon’s Board of Management.
In the long term ChinFon intends to reassess our material sources for cement production: clay and limestone. We are now working out a business plan to ensure sufficient material sources for production and business activities.
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