Foreign firms show construction products at CebuCon

THE 20th  Cebu Construction Show (CebuCon) at the SM Trade Hall which ran from June 1 to 4 showcased new products and services from close to a hundred exhibitors.

Among them was International Plant and Equipment Pte. Ltd. (IPE), a Singapore-based company which manufactures light construction equipment and sets up concrete and asphalt batching plants.

The firm recently opened its first Philippine showroom and service center in Cebu.

“Things are moving very fast here and we see Cebu as an aggressive place in terms of construction,” said sales manager Edwin Tay.

“The city’s economic growth is about six percent. We take that as the reason Cebu is the center of business in the Visayas.”

IPE’s concrete batching plant uses wet mix and can produce 40 cubic meters of concrete per hour compared to a traditional (dry mix) batching plant that only produces 10 cubic meters of concrete per hour.

IPE has grown its client base to 46, of which 30 were acquired two years ago. In Cebu, it services  concrete batching plants of four local contractors.

The CebuCon also welcomed back the French company Parex Group, which specializes in ready-to-use building materials, particularly facade products.

With their re-entry in the CebuCon, Parex Group hopes to get huge exposure to the Cebu market.

“Ten to 15 percent of our sales comes from Cebu so we’re looking at putting another office here in the near future,” said Chritophe Lejeune, managing director for the Philippines.

One of the products given a lot of attention at their booth was their new line of tile adhesives which promises 80 percent less dust emission.

“We recently secured a  worldwide patent for green technology for our products,” said Lejeune.

Parex Group Philippines started in Pasig, Metro Manila in 2008 and has been selling in the Philippines since the early 1990s through partner-dealers.

Parex Group has nine research and development sites in the world and won awards in the BEX Asia held in Singapore last year. BEX Asia is Southeast Asia’s premier business platform for the green building and construction industry. /Anabelle L. Balanzar