Displaying items by tag: Q1

US: Eagle Materials Inc has reported a 29% rise in total revenue for the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year which ended on 30 June 2012. The North American building materials producer noted revenue of US$154m for the quarter, up from US$120m in the same period in 2011.

Cement sector revenues for the first quarter, including joint venture and intersegment revenues, totalled US$76m, a 26% increase year-on-year from US$59m in 2011. Sales volumes rose by 26%, including wholly-owned and joint ventures, to 848,000t from 674,000t. The revenue improvement reflects a 26% increase in first quarter cement sales volume. Cement price increases were achieved in both the Texas and Mountain regions during the first quarter but were offset by the increased pace of high-volume, lower-priced bid work in the company's other markets.

Operating earnings from cement for the first quarter were US$9.9m, a 12% increase from US$8.8m year-on-year. The earnings impact from increased cement sales volumes was mostly offset by higher maintenance costs associated with scheduled maintenance at all of Eagle's cement facilities. The company calculated that first quarter operating earnings were negatively impacted by approximately US$8m due to this maintenance.

Greece: Titan Cement has reported a widening quarterly loss after construction activity collapsed in the wake of the Greek debt crisis.

Titan's net loss for the first quarter of 2012 stood at Euro19.4m from Euro4.3m in the same period of 2011. Titan has been hit hard by a plunge in private housing investment and drastic cutbacks in public spending on infrastructure in Greece. Greek building volume contracted for a sixth consecutive year in 2011, shrinking to just a fifth of its size in 2005, the sector's last year of expansion.

"In Greece the uncertainty associated with the ongoing crisis and the worsening economic recession form a particularly challenging backdrop for private building activity," Titan said in a statement. The firm said it would continue cutting its operating costs and that it expected annual savings of Euro26m from a restructuring plan it launched in 2011.

Titan, which earlier in 2012 scrapped its dividend for the first time in 58 years, has been counting on growth in new markets such as north Africa and Turkey to offset the building slump in Greece. Yet, political crisis in Egypt has hurt its prospects there.

Titan's group sales declined by 11% year-on-year to Euro225.4m. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 29% to Euro34 m.

India: ACC has posted a total income of US$579m for the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 19% compared to the US$488m that it made in the same quarter in 2011.

Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased by 10%, growing from US$112m in 2011 to US$124m in 2012. Net profit after tax for the quarter fell from US$67.2m in 2011 to US$29.1m in 2012, a decrease of over 55%!

In its consolidated financial results ACC explained that the marked decrease in profit was due to its decision to change its method of providing depreciation on captive power plants from 'Straight Line' to 'Written Down Value' methods at the rates prescribed in Schedule XIV to the Companies Act, 1956. Accordingly, ACC has recognised an additional depreciation charge of US$65.5m. Using the previous method of depreciation profit after tax would have been US$73.6m, a slight increase on the 2011 figure. This change would have had no impact on EBITDA and cash profit for the quarter ended March 2012.

While the company's results benefited from better volumes during the quarter, manufacturing costs and realisations were affected by steep escalations in the cost of inputs such as coal, fly ash and gypsum. The cost of transportation also rose significantly as a result of the hike in rail freight and increase in diesel prices.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement, a construction materials producer in Kazakhstan, has sold 170,080t of cement for US$13.2m in the first quarter of 2012, a fall in sales volume of 9% year-on-year. Yet in the same period in 2011 the producer sold 187,404t for US$11.7m, an increase of revenue of 13%.

Total market consumption in Kazakhstan during the first quarter of 2012 increased by 9% compared to the same quarter in 2011. Its marketshare fell to 18% in the quarter compared with 20% for the whole of 2011. The average price of cement from the producer increased by 25% in the first quarter year-on-year. By share price the company is currently valued at US$68.5m.

Vietnam: Vietnam's cement sales came to 9.57Mt in the first quarter of 2012, according to the Ministry of Construction. This fulfilled 17.4% of the whole-year plan due to the implementation of several projects in March 2012. Production was 9.98Mt, meeting 18.1% of the full-year target. Production in March 2012 was 4.85Mt, representing nearly half of the quarter's total.

Vietnam spent US$90.5m on imports in the first quarter of 2012, making up 20.7% of the whole-year plan, including US$30.9m in March 2012. The country's exports were US$43.3m, fulfilling 19.2% of the full-year target, including US$10.4m in March 2012.

National consumption is forecast to reach between 55Mt and 56.5Mt in 2012, rising by 11% and 12% from 2011 respectively. Yet the country's cement output is forecast to rise to 73Mt in 2012 due to the additional operation of eight new cement plants with combined production capacity of 6.9Mt. In 2011 Vietnam produced and sold 49.3Mt. The country also imported 1.15Mt and exported 5.5Mt of cement and clinker during the period, the ministry noted.

Saudi Arabia: The Qassim Cement Company has reported that its net profit for the first quarter of 2012 grew by 7.65%, from US$39.2m in 2011 to US$42.2m.

The firm added that its consolidated gross profit rose by 4.87% to US$45.5m, up from US$43.4m in 2011. Its consolidated operating profit in the quarter went up by 6.93% to US$43.2m, compared with US$40.44m in 2011. Qassim Cement's first-quarter consolidated net profit increased by 8.45% from US$39m as reported in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Switzerland: Holcim has reported a return to profitability in its first quarter 2011 financial results, with net income of Euro8.07m on a 1.8% decline in sales. For comparison Holcim made a loss of Euro54.9m in the same period of 2010. The group's revenue for the first quarter of 2011 was Euro3.67bn compared to Euro3.83bn in the first quarter of 2010. The group's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was down by 17.1% compared to the first quarter of 2010 at Euro608.2m. The company attributed the decline to negative currency impacts of Euro59m. When looking at like-for-like EBITDA, however, the decline was only 1.8%. The company added that like previous first quarters, the cash flow from operating activities was minus Euro434m due to seasonal factors.

Holcim said that it expects the construction market to continue to recover in 2011. Reporting its expectations for the rest of 2011 Holcim said, "We are still of the opinion that the construction sector in the mature markets will recover and that the growth in emerging markets will continue." Holcim added that it was confident of, "securing its share of future growth in the emerging market and that its lean cost structures will enable it to benefit above average from continuing economic recovery in Europe and North America."

Brazil: Votorantim's overall operating performance improved in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same period of 2010, with cement sales increasing. The group's consolidated net revenues and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) amounted US$3.53bn and US$851m, an increase of 11% and 1% respectively. Ebitda margin declined from 26.5% to 24.0%, impacted by its cement and steel businesses.

The groups cement interests were negatively impacted in Brazil, as a result of the exchange of certain production plants for Cimpor shares in the third quarter of 2010. Nevertheless, sales volume increased by 1% in the country and by 2% in North America. Net revenues went up by 6% to total US$1.16bn, supported by a price increase in Brazil. EBITDA decreased from US$412m to US$312m mainly due to the exchange of certain production plants for Cimpor shares. In addition, EBITDA was also impacted by higher electricity and petcoke costs in Brazil and increased inventory in North America. Votorantim's total debt decreased by 1% by the end of the first quarter of 2011 compared to the first quarter of 2010, from US$14.06bn to US$13.93bn.

Capital expenditure amounted to US$690m, mainly for expansion projects and investment in cement accounted for 47% of the total.