Phoenix’s asphalt facility starts operation

Phoenix Asphalt Philippines Inc., a subsidiary of Phoenix Petroleum, said Wednesday it has completed the first phase of construction of its asphalt plant in Calaca, Batangas.

The facility is now fully operational to supply quality bitumen products to contractors in the country, parent Phoenix Petroleum said in a disclosure.

The asphalt storage facility features two vertical storage tanks that can accommodate 6,200 metric tons of bitumen asphalt 60/70, a penetration grade bitumen for hot mix asphalt used in road constructions.

Currently, Phoenix Asphalt is supplying naphthenic asphalt—a superior kind of bitumen product that exhibits much better performance than those that are usually sold in the market—imported mostly from our partner’s asphalt refinery in Malaysia.

The facility also features a loading gantry equipped with two loading bays and with a weighbridge capacity of 80 metric tons. It also has a 2.5 million kilocalorie-capacity hot oil unit and a back-up generator set unit with 350 kilovolt-ampere capacity.

“We have finally completed a major step in our venture into the asphalt business with the completion and operation of our own asphalt facility. Phoenix Asphalt aims to help build better roads and better runaways. We are on track with this goal and are now ready to provide high-quality asphalt products that will help support the various infrastructure developments in the country,” Phoenix Petroleum president and COO Henry Albert Fadullon said.

The newly built asphalt plant also has a functioning central fire station, a material recovery facility, a technology showroom, an asphalt laboratory, a road transport and dispatch room, and an administrative office, according to the company.

The plant also has access to its own fleet of delivery trucks that can bring Phoenix Asphalt’s products directly and quickly to its clients.

Phoenix Asphalt is also set to start the next phase of the plant’s construction early next year which will include Polymer Modified Bitumen and Emulsion facilities which are key for manufacturing high-performance asphalt products for roadways, tollways, and runways.

In 2018, the Phoenix Petroleum announced its partnership with Thailand-based TIPCO Asphalt Public Co. Ltd. and PhilAsphalt Development Corp. to form a 40-40-20 joint venture company meant to operate, market, and distribute bitumen and bitumen-related products in the Philippines.

In May 2018, it broke ground for the construction of an asphalt plant at the Calaca Industrial Seaport Park in Batangas and officially started building it in February 2019. —LDF, GMA News