Italy: Italcementi's loss for the first quarter of 2013 has grown to Euro58.5m from Euro34.4m in the same period in 2012. The Italian cement producer singled out poor weather in March 2013 and the absence of income from CO2 emission rights as contributing factors.
Group revenue fell by 9.3% to Euro0.96bn in the first quarter of 2013 from Euro1.03bn in the same period in 2012. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 36.8% to Euro88.7m from Euro140m.
Revenue for the group's cement and clinker sector fell by 9.5% to Euro627m from Euro693m. Total cement and clinker sales volumes fell by 9.6% to 10Mt. By region, in central Western Europe sales volumes fell by 18.6% to 3Mt. In North America sales volumes fell by 3.9% to 0.7Mt. In the group's 'Emerging Europe, North Africa and Middle East' region sales volumes fell by 14.6% to 3.3Mt. In Asia sales volumes rose by 11.2% to 2.7Mt. Particular drops in revenue were noted in Italy (22.3%) and Spain (28.9%).
In its quarterly report Italcementi described how the group is coping with the fall in cement consumption in Italy from 46.5Mt in 2006 to 25.5Mt in 2012 with its 'Project 2015' programme that was announced in December 2012. During 2013 a number of continuous-cycle plants will continue to operate only as grinding centres. The group also placed the value of lost CO2 emission rights income - principally from Italy, France and Bulgaria – at Euro18m in 2012.
In its outlook Italcementi believes that its full-year recurring EBITDA will be substantially stable compared with 2012. The healthy trends on the Asian and North American markets together with the benefits arising from the on-going efficiency measures should counterbalance the effects of the reduction in demand expected on the European markets.
