Colombia: Cementos Argos has introduced a share price recovery programme at the same time it has released its financial results for 2022. It plans to spend around US$50m on a share buy-back program. Its sales revenue rose by 24% year-on-year to US$2.37bn from US$1.92bn. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 7% to US$422m from US$396m. However, its net income dropped by 14% to US$81.7m from US$95.5m due to mounting financial expenses. Its cement sales volumes fell by 3.7% to 16.2Mt in 2022 from 16.8Mt in 2021.
The group blamed the decline in cement sales volumes on problems in the Haitian market as well as lower trading volumes to the Caribbean and Central America region. Sales volumes of cement and revenue grew in the US but earnings fell. In Colombia, local cement sales volumes fell but were boosted overall by exports.