ICT to boost CIMA sales
StarBiz - September
16, 2004
In the face of stiff competition arising from over-capacity
and soft demand, giving discounts has been a normal practice
among local cement manufacturers to maintain sales volume.
But now Cement Industries of Malaysia Bhd (CIMA) believes
it has another way of winning market share – using information
& communications technology (ICT) to improve customer
service.
Recognising that distribution logistics could be a crucial
differentiating factor in the market, CIMA yesterday launched
its distribution and logistics portal that would enable customers
to submit their orders over the Internet and receive real-time
status updates on their orders.
CIMA managing director Datuk Rosli Sharif said customer service
was essential to enhance sales as there was not much cement
manufacturers could do to differentiate their products.
“Price is one thing. But customer service is also important,”
he said at a news conference after the launch of the company’s
logistics portal in Subang Jaya yesterday.
According to Rosli, CIMA is the first in the local cement
industry to launch such a portal.
He said the portal would help the UEM group achieve just-in-time
delivery and enable customers to save costs.
Asked about the company’s expansion plan, Rosli said
CIMA had no plan to build a new plant in Johor. The company
would concentrate on improving the efficiency of its existing
production facilities instead to achieve higher yield.
“There is still room to increase production volume
with our present capacity by doing some process engineering
work,” he said.
Nonetheless, CIMA might set up new production facilities
near its existing plant in Negri Sembilan in the future should
the need arise.
Such a new plant would cater to the Singapore market, which
imported three million tonnes of cement each year, he explained.
CIMA is currently operating at full capacity. It has two
plants – one is Negri Sembilan and the other in Perlis.
The combined annual capacity of the plants in 2.8 million
tonnes of clinker.
In view of weak local demand, the company is also working
to expand its exports, especially to Singapore and Indonesia.
Rosli pointed out, however, that exporting cement was not
very lucrative because the region was now choked with over
capacity, which had pulled international cement prices below
local prices.
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