Semirara Mining and Power—the coal miner of billionaire Isidro Consunji and his family’s DMCI Holdings—produced a record volume of coal last year as demand from China increased.

The Philippine-listed company shipped 16.5 million metric tons of coal in 2024, surpassing the previous record of 15.8 million metric tons that was set the year before.

Foreign shipments rose 4% to 8.4 million metric tons as exports to China jumped a whopping 46% to 7.6 million metric tons while domestic shipments climbed 4% to 8.0 million metric tons as sales to local cement producers and power plants increased, Semirara said in a statement on Tuesday. About 20% of the 1.3 million metric tons sold to cement plants were supplied to Cemex Holdings Philippines, which DMCI acquired last year.

Semirara will focus on “strengthening our customer network and enhancing operational efficiencies to effectively support national energy security and meet the growing demand from the industrial and cement sectors,” Maria Cristina Gotianun, president and chief operating officer of Semirara, said in the statement.

In October, the company said it plans to spend $5 billion over five years to expand its coal operations to meet growing power demand and the requirements of the group’s cement operation. The Philippines relies on coal and oil for 62% of its energy consumption that’s forecast by an Enerdata February 2024 study to grow about 6% a year from 2020 through 2040.

Consunji and his siblings inherited DMCI after their father David, a titan of the Philippine construction industry, died in 2017. Besides coal mining and cement manufacturing, DMCI also has interests in real estate as well as power and water utilities. With a net worth of $3.4 billion, the family ranked No. 5 on the list of the Philippines’ 50 Richest published in August.