By ALBERT CASTRO

Sto. Tomas, Batangas — Mariwasa Siam Ceramics, Inc. (MSCI) plans to wrest back market share lost to cheap imports from China. The local unit of the Thai conglomerate Siam Cement Group, sees sales of over P2 billion this year.

MSCI president Kraiwitchaicharoen Suarasak, said the company’s market share will increase to 33 percent from the current 27 percent as it brings out new designs.

"In 1997, Mariwasa has a market share of 50 percent, in 2007, it was down to 27 percent. We aim to get back that 50 percent," said Suarasak.

When SCG bought Mariwasa, the conglomerate decided to keep the name since it enjoys goodwill and known even abroad where many Filipinos live. In fact it exports to Guam.

MSCI plans to invest P131 million this year to improve operational efficiency with P31 million set aside for research and development.

Threatened by the influx of cheap imported ceramic tiles, notably from China,

Suarasak said part of the MSCI’s design is to "launch new designs every year" to address market demands for new designs.

MSCI is looking at an 11 percent growth in sales at P2 billion, from last year’s P1.8 billion. Bottomline meanwhile is seen to grow by about 20 percent at P30 million, from P25 million last year.

Suarasak said the P7 billion to P8 billion industry is projected to grow by about 10 percent for the year, driven the current property boom.

He said MSCI plans to launch 100 new designs for the year, catering to the changing taste of real estate developers and users.

SMCI’s clientele is made up by real estate developers, 60 percent and individual owners, 40 percent.

MSCI added that it is trying to conserve energy by putting up its own biomass power plant, to complement its current bunker fueled facility.

Emilie B. Maramag, MSCI vice president for finance, said the company plans to put up a 2MW plant worth P50 million. The power plant is expected to reduce by 10 percent the company’s dependence on oil.

MSCI is the biggest ceramic tile manufacturing company in the Philippines and is a joint venture of the Coseteng Group and SCG in 1993.

MSCI sits on a 24-hectare land in Sto. Tomas, Batangas and has a plant capacity of 30,000 square meters per day, with a manpower of 1,000.

In addition to its ceramic tile production, MSCI imports sanitary wares and bathroom fixtures to complement its product lines. MSCI also exports to Thailand, Singapore, Korea, Saipan, Guam, Palau, Canada, and Africa.