Germany: HeidelbergCement’s sales revenue has fallen slightly by 1% year-on-year to Euro6.41bn in the first half of 2016 from Euro6.47bn in the same period of 2015. This was blamed on consolidation and exchange rate effects. Otherwise, profit rose by 46% to Euro354m from Euro242m. Clinker and cement sales volumes rose by 2.9% to 39.9Mt from 38.8Mt.

“In operational terms, the second quarter of 2016 was the best since the financial crisis and thus continued the positive trend of the previous year,” said Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board of the company. “The positive market environment in our mature markets and the recovery of demand in Eastern Europe made a significant contribution. We were able to raise the margins in operational terms in all business lines thanks to our margin improvement programmes and price increases in core markets. Furthermore, we have benefited from declining fuel costs.”

The group’s cement sales revenue fell by 3% to Euro2.92bn from Euro3.01bn. Its Northern and Eastern Europe-Central Asia and Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin areas both reported falling revenue from cement sales. However, the Asia-Pacific area saw its cement sales fall by 11% to Euro675m. Sales in North America partially offset this, with cement sales volumes growing by 4.7% to 5.9Mt from 5.6Mt.

HeidelbergCement reported that its acquisition of Italcementi is well on track with the subscription period for a mandatory tender offer to the remaining shareholders of Italcementi set to end on 30 September 2016. The entire takeover transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2016. HeidelbergCement also said that it had received ‘high’ interest for its assets on sale in the US. Binding offers are expected in the first half of August 2016.