02 March 2012
Titan profit drops by 89% 02 March 2012
Greece: Titan Cement, Greece's biggest cement producer, has posted an 89% drop in its 2011 net profit compared to that of 2010. It has forecast further declines in 2012 after the collapse of the building industry in its recession-hit home market. The company, which recently celebrated its 100-year anniversary, said that it will not distribute a dividend for the first time in 58 years.
Titan has been hit hard by a plunge in private housing investment and drastic cutbacks in public spending on infrastructure in Greece, which is stuck in its fifth year of recession at the centre of the Eurozone crisis.
The group said that its net profit fell to Euro11m in 2011 from Euro103m in 2010. Conditions at home are not expected to improve in 2012.
"In Greece there is no visibility at this time of either a reversal of the downward trend in private construction or the much anticipated restarting of infrastructure works," the company said in a statement."Demand for the group's products will record a further considerable decline in 2012."
The company has been counting on growth in new markets such as north Africa and Turkey to offset building slumps in Greece and the United States and difficult conditions in Egypt where it also has operations. However, political unrest in Libya, where Titan runs two cement plans, halted exports to the region throughout 2011. Group sales across all of Titan's markets declined by 19% year-on-year to Euro1.1bn in 2011. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 23% to Euro243m.
Titan has embarked on a two-year restructuring plan, which is expected to cut costs by Euro26m/yr. The impact of the restructuring and a Euro19m asset impairment charge hurt its fourth quarter performance. In the last quarter of 2011, Titan had a net loss of Euro42m versus a net profit of Euro5m in the same period in 2010.
UK: Lafarge UK is celebrating the achievement of one of its UK cement production sites, which has reached the milestone of 10 years without a lost-time injury (LTI). Workers at the Cookstown Works in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, have not suffered any injury that prevents an employee or contractor returning to work the next day since 2002.
Thanks to a strong team commitment to safety, the achievement has put Cookstown Works in the Lafarge Group's record books. Of the company's 170 cement production sites across the world, this is the longest any site has gone without a LTI.
Commenting on the major achievement, Cookstown Works manager William McGuckne said, "This is a proud moment for the team. Through continued hard work and constant vigilance on safety in all aspects of our operation, we have managed to maintain our safety performance and achieve this fantastic record. A culture of assessing risks, proceeding with care and looking out for each other has helped us contribute to the Lafarge Group's ultimate goal of zero harm to any of our employees or contractors."
Lafarge UK president Dyfrig James added, "My congratulations go to the whole Cookstown Works team of employees and contractors for achieving this world first for Lafarge's cement business."