Displaying items by tag: Results
Jaiprakash Associates narrows net loss in third quarter
22 January 2018India: Jaiprakash Associates has narrowed its loss to US$23m in the third quarter of its financial year from US$171m in the same period in 2016. Despite this its income fell by 30% year-on-year to US$178m from US$258m, according to the Press Trust of India. The company has sold its assets, including a large number cement plants to UltraTech Cement, to reduce debt.
UltraTech Cement’s profit drops on fuel prices
18 January 2018India: UltraTech Cement’s profit after tax has dropped in the third quarter of its financial year that ends on 31 March 2018 due to rising costs of petcoke and coal. It also blamed a ban on petcoke usage in some states. Overall, its consolidated profit after tax for the first nine months of its financial year rose by 10% year-on-year to US$3.58bn from US$3.25bn in the same period in 2016. Its profit after tax fell by 10.5% to US$278m from US$311m.
The cement producer said that it had successfully launched the ‘UltraTech Brand’ in all the markets served by the plants it acquired from Jaiprakash Associates in 2017. It reported that production capacity utilisation is at 60% from a low of 18% at the time of the purchase. It is currently appointing new dealers and retailers in its new territories.
Steppe Cement revenue rises by 20% to US$65.6m in 2017
15 January 2018Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement’s revenue rose by 20% year-on-year to US$65.6m in 2017 from US$54.9m in 2016. Its sales volumes of cement rose by 4% to 1.63Mt from 1.57Mt. The cement producer says that its market share remained at 17% in the reporting period. Overall the country consumed 9Mt of cement in 2017. Steppe Cement’s exports doubled to 146,000t from 73,000t. Kazakhstan imported 0.7Mt of cement in 2017 compared to 0.5Mt in 2016. It exported 0.9Mt in 2017 compared to 0.4Mt in 2016.
Raysut Cement’s revenue falls by 22% to US$187m in 2017
15 January 2018Oman: Raysut Cement’s revenue fell by 22% year-on-year to US$187m in 2017 from US$240m in 2016. Its profit after tax fell by 66.6% to US$18m from US$53.8m. In November 2017 the cement producer blamed its falling profit on lower sales due to competition locally and in export markets, disruption to its export market in Yemen resulting from the on-going civil war and increased energy prices.
Vicem’s sales rise by 3% to 26.6Mt in 2017
10 January 2018Vietnam: The Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation’s (Vicem) cement sales rose by 3% year-on-year to 26.6Mt in 2017. 23.6Mt of cement and clinker were sold locally and 3Mt were exported, a drop of 3%, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. In 2018 the state-owned cement producer plans to produce 19.7Mt of clinker, a rise of 2%, and to sell over 28Mt of cement and clinker, a rise of 4%. The company intends to focus on ‘high-efficiency’ products to reach this target.
Rising energy costs to hit Indian cement producers profits
04 January 2018India: The credit agency ICRA forecasts that rising energy and freight costs due to higher pet coke, coal and diesel prices during the first half of 2017 – 2018 financial year may hit the profits of cement producers. Petcoke prices grew by 32% year-on-year in the first half of the year and coal prices rose by 44%, according to the Press Trust of India. Sabyasachi Majumdar, an analyst at ICRA, said that higher power, fuel and freight costs were likely to continue. He added that the ability of cement companies to raise their prices was crucial to maintaining profit levels.
HeidelbergCement warns of knock to profit in 2017 before boost in 2019 following US tax reform
03 January 2018US: HeidelbergCement expects its profit to be negatively effected in 2017 following reforms to the US tax system. Following a change in the rules from 22 December 2017 the federal corporate tax rate has been reduced from 35% to 21% from the start of 2018. In addition, the regulations regarding the utilization of loss carryforwards were changed. This has affected deferred tax assets on losses and interest carried-forwards that are expected to reduce the group’s balance sheet by Euro200m in its annual report.
However, the company still expects a ‘significant’ increase of 2017 group share of profit before one-time effects. In addition in 2019 the major reduction of the effective tax rate in the US is anticipated to have a positive effect on group net profit and cashflow.
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.
CMS profit increases in third quarter
30 November 2017Malaysia: Cahya Mata Sarawak’s (CMS) pre-tax profit rose to US$23.4m for the third quarter of 2017 from US$23.1m in the same quarter of 2016. The group said the better profit before tax was attributable to the cement division’s lower production costs. Its revenue, however, declined to US$85.0m from US$87.0m a year earlier. CMS said that the cement division’s clinker and cement operations’ combined profit before tax for the third quarter was 2% ahead of the corresponding quarter of 2016.
The company said that the operating environment was expected to remain challenging and the group’s healthy financial position would help weather the challenging environment. “We remain focused on growing our portfolio of businesses by taking advantage of the business opportunities in Sarawak,” said the company in a statement. “Our strong fundamentals and resilience will enable us to perform and to deliver a satisfactory financial performance for 2017. Coupled with other measures that the management is taking, we are positioning for long-term sustainable revenue and profitability growth.”
Melon struggling against Chilean headwinds
30 November 2017Chile: Cementos Melon has recorded a 56.8% drop in its profit to US$7.8m in the three quarters to 30 September 2017. The company said that a drop in sales had been partly mitigated by greater focus on margins and operational efficiency gains. Its revenue fell by 13.6% to US$210m.