Displaying items by tag: Results

Tunisia: Les Ciments de Bizerte recorded a 69% year-on-year fall in sales to US$9.2m in 2024, down from US$30.3m in 2023, amid a complete halt to clinker production.

The company published its financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2024, revealing production costs of US$7.6m and a record high net loss of US$14.9m, up from a US$11.3m deficit in 2023. It purchased 114,128t of clinker to attempt to supply the market, but failed to meet demand due to the production halt.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos recorded sales of 7.7Mt of cement in the first quarter of 2025, up by 2% year-on-year. Revenues rose by 1% year-on-year in local currency terms, to US$998m. The producer partly attributed the growth to its on-going geographical diversification. Nonetheless, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 14% year-on-year to US$107m, resulting in a net loss of US$58m. Votorantim Cimentos invested US$97.6m in capital expenditure during the quarter, including commencing kiln upgrades at its Alconera and Málaga plants in Spain, up by 35% year-on-year. It expects to commission its newly expanded Salto de Pirapora and Edealina cement plants in Brazil later in 2025 and in early 2026 respectively.

CEO Osvaldo Ayres said “Our financial strength and discipline in capital allocation have enabled us to navigate this volatile global environment. At the same time, we continued to maintain our focus on the long term through our programme of investments in capacity expansion, structural competitiveness and acceleration of new businesses.”

Italy: Cementir reported revenues of €368m in the first quarter of 2025, down slightly from 2024. The company said this was despite the reduction in sales volumes in many regions and negative currency exchange effects in Egypt and Türkiye. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also fell slightly to €66.4m from €66.5m. Profit before tax dropped by 48% year-on-year to €30.3m from €56.7m previously.

Cement and clinker sales declined by 6% to 2.24Mt, due to the Turkish government’s ban on exports to Israel active from the second quarter of 2024, as well as the general decline in the ‘main geographical areas’, with the exception of Malaysia, Egypt and China. Ready-mixed concrete volumes rose by 2%, while aggregates remained stable.

Chair and CEO Francesco Caltagirone said “Notwithstanding a modest reduction in cement sales volumes, group revenues for the first quarter of 2025 are in line with the same period of last year, as is EBITDA, which at constant exchange rates would instead have grown by 7.5% over 2024. Despite the current phase of significant geopolitical and trade uncertainty, we are keeping our industrial targets unchanged and continue on our decarbonisation path.”

Greece: Titan Cement reported a ‘positive start to the year’, having recorded sales of €638m in the first quarter of 2025, up by 2% year-on-year. Aggregates sales rose by 18% and ready-mix concrete saw an increase of 6%, while cement volumes remained flat year-on-year. The company said that the impact of severe weather conditions in both the US and Southeast Europe weighed on sales volumes in these regions, however, the strong performance in Greece, as well as the significant rise in cement exports from Egypt, mitigated those effects.

It reported an earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €123m, an increase of 12% year-on-year. Profit before tax increased by 3% to €66.6m. Titan is ‘cautiously optimistic’ for the remainder of the year, despite global uncertainties.

Germany: Heidelberg Materials increased its revenue by 5% year-on-year to €4.71bn in the first quarter of 2025. Operating earnings from current operations rose slightly to €235m from €232m in the previous year.

“Despite the political and economic uncertainties as well as difficult weather conditions in some regions, we got off to a very good start to the 2025 financial year,” chair Dominik von Achten said. “In particular, we benefitted from significant growth in the Africa-Mediterranean-Western Asia group area.”

He added “In the first three months of 2025, we continued to set the course for our sustainable transformation. Final preparations for our CCS lighthouse project in Brevik, Norway, are currently well underway. We started capturing, liquefying and temporarily storing CO₂ a few days ago as part of the plant's ramp-up. We look forward to the grand opening of the world's first large-scale industrial carbon capture facility at a cement plant in June.”

The company confirmed its outlook for the 2025 financial year. It expects full-year earnings of €3.25bn – €3.55bn.

Stop press! The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has renamed itself as the American Cement Association (ACA).

Speaking to the audience at the IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Cement Conference taking place this week in Birmingham, Alabama, ACA president Mike Ireland said that the new name better represents its members, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific coast. He added that the old name, the PCA, had caused the association confusion over the years with it being mistaken as only representing Portland, Oregon, or Portland, Maine.

This follows comments from Ireland to Global Cement Magazine in April 2024. At that time he also mentioned how changing levels of production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) compared to blended cements had suggested a rethink. Surveys were then sent out by the PCA asking people what they thought about in connection to the association and which name suggestions they liked. A year or so later and the new name has arrived. Thankfully the PCA didn’t determine the name by public ballot alone, thereby avoiding the risk of a joke name. Readers wondering about this can remind themselves about the time the UK Natural Environment Research Council ran a website survey asking what a new polar research ship should be called. The vessel was eventually called the RRS Sir David Attenborough rather than the internet’s choice of Boaty McBoatface!

Global Cement Weekly also reflected upon the point Ireland made about the change in the blends of cement being used. The adoption of Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) production in the US contributed to the rise in blended cements shipments. United States Geological Survey (USGS) data shows that shipments of blended cements more than doubled from 26Mt in 2022 to 61Mt in 2024. This compares to shipments of OPC of 41Mt in 2024. This change appears to have been mostly accepted so far, but it is not without its detractors. For example, take this campaign promoting a return to traditional Type I and II cements on ‘performance’ grounds.

As for the US cement market, USGS data shows that shipments of Portland and blended cement fell by about 13% year-on-year to 11.8Mt in the first two months of 2025 from 13.8Mt in the same period in 2024. This was for both domestic shipments and imports. Most of the cement companies that have so far released first quarter financial results for 2025 reported poor weather adversely affecting sales. Holcim noted that sales improved in March 2025. Cemex blamed its lower sales volumes of cement and ready-mixed concrete on the period having one less working day compared to 2024. CRH pointed out in its analysts’ presentation that the first quarter of the year is typically the smallest of the four in terms of sales volumes. The really interesting data may start to emerge in the second and subsequent quarters, as the markets and supply chains start to react to current US trade policy. At the time of writing, widespread tariffs on many countries were announced at the start of April 2025 but then subsequently paused for 90 days.

The American Cement Association has a new name for the 21st Century. The PCA has served it well as a name for over 100 years, but now seems a good time for a change. Whether the future is one of blended cements, carbon capture, a return to OPC or whatever else remains to be seen. Yet the future of construction in the US looks set to involve plenty of cement. There are sure to be challenges along the way. Here’s to the next 100 years.

Ireland: CRH recorded total revenues of US$6.8bn in the first quarter of 2025, up by 3% year-on-year, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$495m, up by 11%. However, it reported a net loss of US$98m, compared to a net income of US$114m in the first quarter of 2024.

The company said performance was driven by its ‘differentiated strategy’, positive pricing and acquisition contributions, with underlying demand across key markets remaining positive. CRH completed eight acquisitions for US$0.6bn during the period and reaffirmed its full-year 2025 guidance for a net income of US$3.7bn – 4.1bn and adjusted EBITDA of US$7.3bn – 7.7bn.

Spain: Molins has reported that a cement market slowdown, exacerbated by tariffs and adverse weather in Spain and Argentina, affected its financial performance during the first quarter of 2025. The company reported sales of €327m, a 3% year-on-year decline compared to the same period of 2024, although like-for-like sales rose by 6%.

Molins’ earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came to €87m, a 3% decline compared to the same period of 2024. Again the like-for-like result was a 9% improvement.

Molins reported that higher average sales prices and lower costs due to ongoing efficiency plans, mitigated the unfavourable impact of exchange rates, particularly the Mexican and Argentine Pesos.

India: Nuvoco Vistas Corporation has reported that a decline in cement and ready-mix concrete sales caused an 85% year-on-year fall in its net consolidated profit for the 2025 financial year (FY2025), which ended on 31 March 2025.

Its net profit attributable to its owners fell from US$17.5m in FY2024 to just US$2.6m in FY2025. Its revenues from operations fell by 3.5% to US$1.23bn, while revenues from cement operations also fell by 3.5%, to US$1.12bn. Nuvoco Vistas sold 1.94Mt of cement during FY2025.

Nuvoco Vistas’s managing director, Jayakumar Krishnaswamy, said "Despite a subdued demand environment in the first half of FY2025, the company witnessed a strong rebound in the second half. The company responded swiftly by capitalising on emerging opportunities to strengthen its market presence.”

Trinidad & Tobago: Cemex subsidiary Trinidad Cement (TCL) has reported a strong start to 2025, posting a net profit attributable to shareholders of US$3.8m in the first quarter of the year. This represents a significant turnaround from the US$1.1m loss recorded in the first quarter of 2024, with TCL reporting higher revenues and ongoing cost management initiatives. TCL attributed this to a series of necessary price rises, the most recent of which took effect in February 2025.

TCL’s revenue for the first quarter of 2025 rose by 9% year-on-year US$92.2m, up from US$84.4 in the first quarter of 2024. Its gross profit climbed to US$27.4m, which the company attributed to improved sales volumes and operational efficiencies across its regional markets, including Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados and Guyana.