Switzerland: LafargeHolcim’s sales volumes of cement remained static at 255.7Mt in 2015, up by 0.2Mt compared to 255.2Mt in 2015. However, the group’s overall net sales across all businesses fell by 6.2% year-on-year to Euro26.8bn from Euro28.6bn. It described having faced challenging emerging markets in China and Brazil and that it plans to further cut costs to cope with this.

“In a challenging environment in selected markets, we have exceeded all our 2015 commitments in terms of CAPEX, synergies, and net debt reduction…. We have also made significant progress on our divestment plan, while accelerating the pace of integration across the group and cost management actions,” said Eric Olsen, the CEO of LafargeHolcim. He added that the group has taken action to cut costs particularly in ‘difficult’ markets. It expects to see demand in its markets grow by 2 – 4% in 2016.

For the fourth quarter of 2015, LafargeHocim reported that its sales volumes of cement rose by 4.8% year-on-year to 66.5Mt from 63.4Mt.Overall net sales fell by 5.9% to Euro6.78bn from Euro7.21bn. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 33% to Euro900m from Euro1.34bn. The group recorded a net loss of Euro2.61bn in the fourth quarter of 2015 including a Euro2.73bn charge due to asset impairment and other costs.

By region for the 2015 financial year, the group reported static sales volumes of cement of 123Mt in its Asia Pacific region driven by growth in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. Cement sales declined in Indian and China. Sales volumes fell by 4.7% to 42.1Mt in Europe led by a poor construction market in France despite growth in the UK and Romania. Sales volumes fell by 1.2% to 27.9Mt in Latin America mainly due to the economic situation in Brazil. Sales volumes grew by 1% to 43.4Mt in the Middle East Africa region as some countries in the region failed to cope with low oil and commodity prices. Sales volumes grew by 4.2% to 21.8Mt in North America propelled by the continued economic recovery in the US.