TCL production at record high

General manager, Arun Goyal, confirmed that between March 1 and 31, TCL produced 75,000 metric tonnes of cement, a marked increase of 25 percent over its average monthly production of 60,000 metric tonnes in 2005. This is consistent with the successful completion of phase one of TCL’s US$20 million expansion programme, which has increased the company’s annual production capacity from 780,000 metric tonnes to 1,200,000 metric tonnes compared with local demand of 565,000 metric tonnes in 2005.

The local demand is projected to reach a maximum of 600,000 metric tonnes this year.

Since the start of 2006, TCL has been attaining a steady increase in its monthly output moving from 68,000 in January of this year to 73,500 in February and now 75,000 metric tonnes in March. This augurs well for the company, favourable comparing to the local monthly demand, which stands at 50,000 metric tonnes on average per month. In 2005, TCL produced 690,000 metric tonnes, 125,000 metric tonnes more than the local demand which closed at 565,000 metric tonnes. The company exports all surplus to its regional markets.

According to a release, TCL acknowledges that some concerns about a perceived shortage on the local market has arisen owing to recent media reports of cement shortages within the hemisphere. While there is a shortage of aggregate on the local market, which may have affected concrete production at some premix concrete companies, this has not affected cement production at TCL, the release stated.

The release added: Trinidad Cement Limited wishes to give the assurance that there are no supply issues with regard to cement in Trinidad and Tobago and neither does the company anticipate that there will be.

Over the years, TCL has reliably supplied Trinidad and Tobago and prior to a three-week period in November 2005 when the company experienced technical challenges related to integration of its new mill into the existing system, there were no shortages on the local market for over 23 years.

During the setback in November, the company was able to mitigate the impact by supplementing capacity with product from its Barbados operation, Arawak Cement Company.