Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s (GCC) cement sales volumes increased by 18.2% year-on-year to nearly 4Mt in the first 11 months of 2017 due to high US cement sales in October and November. The US generates around 75% of GCC’s revenues.

October and November US cement sales volumes rose by 31.2% compared to the same period of 2016. Overall, for the first 11 months of the year, US cement volumes increased by 28.8% from 2016. The increase reflects strong demand and GCC’s acquisitions in Texas and New Mexico in late 2016. October and November sales volumes in Mexico also grew by 10.2%, rebounding from decreases earlier in the year. However, for the first 11 months, Mexico’s cement volumes fell by 1.6%.

“GCC reached record cement sales volumes as a result of strong demand and high level of backlog in our core markets, especially West Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, and the state of Chihuahua. In addition, builders and contractors enjoyed favourable weather in October and November, which offset the effect of some weather and project-related delays in the third quarter. As a result, we are confident that GCC will significantly exceed our US volume outlook for the year and, as a result, also surpass our earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) growth target,” said GCC´s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Enrique Escalante.