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Published on September 25, 2007

CPAC managing director Annop Tegajarin said more plants would cut costs by shortening the distances travelled by lorries carrying cement to construction sites.

Estimates of transport cost savings are not available.

The company will not increase its vehicle fleet until next year.

It currently has 350 plants, 130 of which are operated as franchises. Annop said each plant costs about Bt10 million. The company builds or provides much of the machinery itself. Some components are imported from China. Land is both owned and leased.

He said plants were constructed by "plug and play" - all equipment and machines are put together on site. When there is no longer a need for a plant they are disassembled and relocated.

Production capacity ranges between 60 and 120 cubic tonnes.

The company's fleet includes 400 small lorries, which can carry up to two cubic tonnes, and 2,000 larger ones that can take up to seven cubic tonnes.

CPAC is testing in Bangkok what it calls a "hub" system. These centres use large lorries to transfer cement to a fleet of smaller ones that are dispatched to construction sites where access is limited.

CPAC sales volume during the first eight months of this year was seven million cubic tonnes.

It expects this to rise to 12 million cubic tonnes by the end of the year.

Total annual volume in the ready-mixed concrete market is estimated to be

Nitida Asawanipont

 The Nation

UTHAI THANI