US: Eagle Materials’ revenue rose slightly to US$1.11bn in the nine months to 31 December 2018. Revenue from its Heavy Materials business, including cement, fell slightly to US$564m. Overall cement sales volumes remained stable at 4.41Mt. Operating earnings decreased by 10% to US$153m from US$170m.
“Adjusting for the effects of unusual weather trends during 2018 and a shift in the timing of wallboard price increases and related buying activity, we estimate that the overall market demand for our building materials, notably cement and wallboard, remained in positive territory in 2018, with growth rates in the low single digits,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Dave Powers. He added that in the quarter from October to December 2018 margins had been negatively affected by higher costs due to maintenance outages at two plants and upgrades to emission control equipment.
