TIMELY to the ongoing massive infrastructure projects of the government and the booming real-estate industry in the country, Big Boss Cement Inc. (BBCI) has launched two bulk cement products that are of good quality yet produced ecologically sound.
These are the B40 “High Early Strength”, which caters to the ready mix concrete (RMC) market; and the B43, or the so-called Diamond, that is for precast applications.
While 80 percent of the cement consumption throughout the country are sold in hardware stores, the homegrown company has decided to tap the RMC segment for a more meaningful purpose.
Producing such a high-grade kind of cement “is a challenging business,” according to BBCI President Engr. Gilbert S. Cruz.
“It is needed for infrastructural requirement,” he said. “So we also want to share our new technology to this industry.”
BBCI uses the so-called G-ASH (Grinded Activated Sand by Heating), a patent pending cement manufacturing process. It enables the production of a binding material for concrete that uses less clinker.
The latter, per scientific studies, is a major contributor to air pollution globally. With G-ASH, the clinker is replaced with substitute materials that are locally available.
“So this is completely a green technology,” Cruz boasted, while adding that it adheres to the Philippine National Standards for cement manufacturing.
The newly introduced Big Boss products guarantee a strength of 40 megapascal and 43 MPa, thus, allowing for more sturdy and durable buildings, houses, bridges and roads.
This could be attributed to the company’s investment in research and development, as well as in the reengineering of its plant operations and processes.
To achieve a pharmaceutical-grade cement quality formulation that is devoid of any inconsistencies, B40 and B43 also rigorously undergo physical and chemical tests every hour during production.
“We are proud to say that our cement can already manifest a strong strength on the first day,” the BBCI president said.
In fact, he noted that the toughness of these latest variants could reach a range of 5 MPa within 24 hours of production, 16 MPa to 25 MPa on the third day, and 30 MPa and above on the seventh day.
“We are trying to change the rules of the game and we are confident that our product is a game changer,” Cruz added.
At present, BBCI’s manufacturing plant in Pampanga has two working lines. To increase its production capacity further, the third and fourth lines are slated to be operational in February or March, and May or June of next year, respectively.
“We are at 1 million bags per month at present. But from now until June, we have [expansion] programs to steadily increase our output to 4 million bags,” bared Dr. Ishmael Ordoñez, vice president for operations and admin of BBCI.