Displaying items by tag: Sales

Mexico: Mexican cement giant Cemex has reported that sales growth in its operations in the United States, Central and South America and the Caribbean helped it to narrow its first-quarter loss in 2012.

"The favourable performance in most of our regions leads us to believe that we are in the initial stages of a turnaround," said Fernando Gonzalez, Cemex's executive vice president of finance and administration, who added that the quarter marked Cemex's sixth consecutive quarter of top-line growth.

Sales rose by 4% year-on-year in the January-March 2012 period to US$3.5bn. Higher sales in the US helped compensate for weaknesses in Mexico and Europe, although the US operations were still a drag on operating earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).

Cemex said its operating EBITDA rose by 7% on the year to US$567m. On a like-to-like basis for its ongoing operations and adjusting for currency fluctuations, operating EBITDA increased by 10%.

Cemex's net loss for the quarter was US$26m, narrower than a loss of US$229m loss a year earlier.

Indonesia: Indonesia's domestic cement sales grew strongly in February 2012, up by 23.9% year-on-year, according to data from the country's largest cement firm PT Semen Gresik. Sales for the month reached 4.1Mt, slightly higher than January 2012's 4.06Mt.

"Low 2011 loan to GDP ratio at around 30% combined with low interest rates should allow credit to continue growing, paving the way for economic growth," said Teguh Hartanto, deputy head of research at Jakarta-based Bahana Securities. The country's cement sales fluctuate from month to month depending on a variety of factors, including religious holidays, which can delay construction, and the government's end-of-year project completion deadlines.

Turkey: Italcementi has announced that it has reached an agreement to sell 51% of its Afyon Turkish unit to Cimsa Cimento Sanayi ve Ticaret AS for Euro25m. The stake and the payment will be done at the closing of the operation, which has to be cleared by antitrust authorities. With the closing of this deal, and following the 2011 divestment of Set Group, Italcementi will be left without any presence on the Turkish market as a cement producer.

France: Ciments Français, part of the Italcementi Group, has announced its consolidated revenues and sales results for the year ending 31 December 2011. These show that, in a difficult economic environment, group sales decreased marginally in its cement sector. Cement and clinker sales were down by 1.4% year-on-year to 42.4Mt in 2011 but sales increased in France, North America, India and Morocco.

In western Europe the company sold 9.9Mt of cement and clinker, an increase of 1.3% year-on-year. In North America it sold 4.2Mt, a 5.1% improvement on 2010. In 'emerging' Europe, north Africa and the Middle East it sold 16.1Mt of cement and clinker, 5.4% less than in 2010. In Asia the company sold 11.1Mt, up by 0.3% compared to 2010.

In the fourth quarter of 2011 Ciments Français' sales were down by 1.7% year-on-year at 10.2Mt. The group sold 2.2Mt of cement and clinker in western Europe (+0.7% year-on-year), 1.1Mt in North America (+7.4%), 4.0Mt in emerging Europe, north Africa and the Middle East (-3.0%) and 2.6Mt in Asia (-5.0%) during the final quarter. Sales in Thailand took a large hit due to the severe flooding there in late 2011.

The group's total consolidated revenues for 2011 across all of its business units came in at Euro3.89bn, which it attributed to reduced volumes and currency fluctuation effects in some countries, notably Egypt, North America and India. Revenues improved in France, Belgium and Thailand.

Its cement segment took in Euro2.59bn, a drop of nearly 8% compared to 2010. Sales were highest in western Europe (Euro1.27bn), followed by emerging Europe, north Africa and the Middle East (Euro1.03bn), Asia (Euro499.5m) and North America (Euro405.1m).

Indonesia: Indonesia's domestic cement sales grew by 17% in 2011 on the back of new property construction, according to Indonesia's cement association (ASI). Total domestic cement sales in 2011 reached 48Mt, with more than half the sales in the main Java island, data from the association showed.

"Indonesia had large physical development during 2011 and the result followed strong economic growth figures. We also saw a huge decline in exports, which means domestic suppliers prioritised the domestic market," said ASI chairman Urip Trimuryono.

Total cement exports fell by 59% to 1.2Mt from 2.9Mt in 2010. The country's cement sales fluctuate month-to-month depending on factors such as holidays and the government's end-of-year project completion deadlines. Sales volumes in December 2011 rose by 17% from the same month in 2010 to 4.6Mt. The association has forecast cement sales growth by 6% in 2012.

"We believe the 2012 outlook for cement remains promising, supported by the land-clearing law and continued strong property demand on the back of a continued low interest rate environment," said Teguh Hartanto, an analyst at Jakarta-based Bahana Securities.

Indonesia's parliament stamped a long-awaited land acquisition bill in December 2011, an attempt to break the bottleneck in infrastructure development that has long been seen as holding back growth in the country.

South Africa: South African cement sales rose for the first time in four years in 2011.

Sales climbed by 3.2% to 11.2Mt/yr in 2011 compared with 2010, when they fell by 7.8%, according to newly released figures from the Johannesburg-based Cement and Concrete Institute. Sales dipped by 1.8% to 730,000t in December 2011 from a year earlier.

"A long-term recovery in South African cement demand is long overdue and latest industry trends indicate that further decline is unlikely," said Pretoria Portland Cement Co, South Africa's largest cement producer.

Tukey: Oyak Cement Group has posted a net profit of Euro73m and a sales revenues of Euro336m in the first nine months of 2011. The group said that domestic cement demand increased by 12% your-on-year in the first half of 2011 and Oyak has reiterated its expectation that domestic cement sales would increase by 8% year-on-year in 2011 as a whole.

The group's Mardin Çimento recorded an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin of 38.7%, a net income margin of 31.4%, and return on capital of 21.1% over the first nine months. This performance was the strongest of the 15 cement companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

Pakistan: Cement sales fell to their lowest level in Pakistan since September 2010 in August 2011 to 2.4Mt, down 18% month-on-month. This is the steepest month-on-month fall in sales since 2009.

The key contributors to the decline were heavy rainfall along with lesser working hours during Ramadan. Domestic demand stood at 1.6Mt, down 19% month-on-month. Exports slipped to 714,000t, down 14% month-on-month, hindered by logistical issues in Afghanistan.

However, the floods in 2010 have helped total sales in the 2011/12 fiscal year (which started on 1 July 2011). According to statistics from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association, sales by Pakistani firms rose by 7% to 5.23Mt in the first two months of the 2011/12 fiscal year from 4.91Mt in the 2010/11 fiscal year.

Analysts expect this monthly trend to reverse on the back of an improvement in weather conditions. Overall cement sales should reach 32.8Mt in the 2011-12 financial year, up 5% from 2010-11, mainly driven by increased domestic demand.

Pakistan: The sales of Pakistani cement firms surged by 7% to 5.23Mt in the first two months of the 2011/12 fiscal year (which started on 1 July 2011) from 4.91Mt in the 2010/11 fiscal year, according to statistics from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA).

The growth in overall dispatches is attributed to the 14% year-on-year upsurge in local dispatches that have reached 3.68Mt, up from 3.24Mt a year earlier. Cement exports fell by 7% to 1.55Mt from 1.67Mt/yr over the same time frame.

China: China's cement industry has maintained its rapid growth in production, sales and profits so far in 2011, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

According to MIIT statistics China produced 198Mt of cement in June 2011, an increase of 19.9% over June 2010. This represents record highs for both monthly cement output and monthly growth rate. In the first half of 2011, China's cement production increased by 19.6% year-on-year to 950Mt.

Cement and clinker exports stood at 5.6Mt during the same period with an export value of USD310m for June 2011, down 35.5% and 14.9% year-on-year respectively.

According to the statistics provided the cement industry witnessed sales of USD50.4bn in the first five months this year with profits of USD5.4bn, up by 48% and an extraordinary 170% year-on-year respectively. Chinese cement production statistics are viewed with skepticism by some in the cement industry, who believe that they may be inflated.