Malaysia: Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad’s (CMS) cement division’s operating profit rose by 2% year-on-year to US$23.6m in 2016 from US$23.2m in 2015. However, its sales revenue fell by 6% to US$127m from US$135m. The group blamed its falling sales on ‘challenging’ market conditions. Overall the group’s sales revenue and profit fell in 2016.
“2016 was a challenging period for us in terms of group performance meeting targets as we had faced challenging market and operational conditions. These macro factors included low commodity selling prices, higher costs of raw materials in the Cement Division resulting from the strong US dollar, and generally the sluggish private and public sector demand attributable to bank lending restraints and the lack of any new big projects. Our group’s core businesses, however, remained resilient during this period and continued to report stable earnings,” said Richard Curtis, Group Managing Director of CMSB.