The Phnom Pneh Post
Wednesday, 27 October 2010, by Soeun Say
KHAOU Chuly Group planned to begin producing up to 50,000 roof tiles a day in Cambodia next month, aiming to out-compete imports from abroad, president Khaou Phallaboth said yesterday.
Much of the tiles used in Cambodia come from neighbouring nations such as Thailand and Vietnam, but Khaou Phallaboth said he was optimistic about the US$5 million project’s potential to gain domestic market share.
“We can do it,” he said. “We have ability to produce roof tiles in our country, and I hope that it will be able to reduce imports of roof tiles from abroad.”
Construction on the factory in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district was complete, and machinery was being installed ahead of the start of production, he said.
“We decided to produce roof tiles here because we strongly believe the Cambodian economy is getting better,” he said.
Many investors were interested in coming to the Kingdom – particularly from China, Vietnam and Korea, he said.
With production planned to encompass up to 50,000 tiles every day, he said the rate of $0.30 per tile was similar to what is presently charged for imports, which average $0.35.
The Khaou Chuly Group recognised that the standard of quality of the Cambodian-produced products must be able to compete with imports in order to gain market share.
Cambodian governmental authorities currently do not release separate statistics for roof-tile imports.
Cambodian developers said they were eager to use locally-produced products – provided the goods were made at an acceptable quality level.
“We welcome Khmer production,” said Or Chan Kosal, development project site manager at Grand Phnom Penh International City.
“We will consider using locally produced roof tiles for our projects."
