Displaying items by tag: Results

Italy: Italcementi has reported a 51.7% fall in third quarter net profits to Euro25m despite the sale of its assets in Turkey earlier in 2011.

The profit over the nine months to 30 September 2011 was up at Euro123.2m from Euro18.5m in 2010, with the group saying that cement sales were up in Belgium, France, North America and in the emerging markets of India, Morocco and Thailand. Total group sales remained almost unchanged at Euro3.6bn for the same period. Italcementi's cement sector reported Euro2.3bn for the first nine months of 2011, a drop of 8.4% from Euro2.5bn in the same period in 2010. Cement sales volumes remained steady at 38.9Mt. The group reported a contraction in Egypt due to the civil unrest there and said there was, "stagnation in some industrialised economies."

"The positive results seen on emerging markets where, with the exception of Egypt, sales volumes rose by around 3%, confirms their strategic importance," said Italcementi's chief executive Carlo Pesenti in a statement. "More than 60% of our production capacity is located in these regions and this will increase in the near future with the new development projects recently set up in India," Pesenti continued.

The group said the profit fall was due to 'the unfavourable dynamic of operating costs and exchange rate effects' Italcementi sold equity investments in Turkey for Euro133.4m earlier in 2011 and said it would continue with cost cutting.

"While the Egyptian market will still be affected by political instability and increased local competition, the rest of the group should generate improved operating results, also thanks to positive price trends in Italy," it said. "In the fourth quarter, the group should record a decline in operating results that will be less than those of the previous quarters," it said, adding that it expected a 'significant improvement' in net profit for 2011 overall.

France: Lafarge has released its financial results for the third quarter of 2011, which reveal an increasing reliance on emerging markets. Its sales were up by 1% in the third quarter to Euro4.21bn and were up by 6% in like-for-like sales. Its current operating income was down by 9% to Euro750m, a 7% drop like-for-like. The group's net income was down by 10% to Euro336m.

For the first nine months of 2011, its sales are up by 2% compared to 2010 (up by 4% like-for-like) and its current operating income was down by 12% to Euro1.64bn. Its net income fell by 22% to Euro596m.

Sales in Lafarge's cement sector increased by 1% in the quarter (up by 5% like-for-like) and increased by 2% for the year-to-date (up by 3% like-for-like), reflecting volume improvements in emerging markets partially offset by the negative impact of foreign exchange. Its cement volumes increased by 6% in the quarter (up by 5% like-for-like) and by 7% for the year-to-date (up by 5% like-for-like), with growth driven by emerging markets. Pricing moved marginally higher in the third quarter versus 2010 while slightly down on a year-to-date basis. Despite the group's cost reduction programme, higher cost inflation and foreign exchange weighed on results and margins.

The group achieved Euro50m of structural cost savings in the third quarter and Euro150m for the year-to-date, on pace with its Euro200m full-year target. Lafarge also announced a new cost savings programme of Euro500m for 2012. The group made the strategic decision to divest its gypsum activities in the early part of the quarter. In total, Lafarge has secured over Euro2bn of divestment proceeds for 2011 for debt reduction.

Bruno Lafont, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge, said, "In the current economic environment, the group continues to be proactive and already secured over Euro2bn of divestments as part of its actions to reduce debt. These efforts will continue and today the Group is announcing a new Euro500m cost reduction programme. These measures, including price actions in response to a high cost environment, are part of ongoing steps to strengthen profitability, reduce debt and maintain strong liquidity."

"Looking ahead, the fundamentals of our business are strong. The group, fully focused on its core businesses, foresees sustainable cash-generating growth led by high quality positions, a unique exposure to emerging markets and the advantages created by innovative products and solutions."

Overall, Lafarge continues to see cement demand moving higher and maintains its estimate of market growth of 2-5% in 2011 compared to 2010. Emerging markets continue to be the main driver of demand and growth and Lafarge benefits from its well balanced geographic spread of high quality assets.

Oman: Raysut Cement, Oman's biggest cement producer, has announced a 47% fall in profit before tax at USD26.4m for the first nine months of 2011, against USD49.4m posted for the same period of 2010. The drop is not as dramatic as it appears, however, because its profit before tax in 2010 included a government price subsidy of USD4.1m.

The company said that the decline in profit was attributable to severe competition faced by the company both in the domestic and the export markets that had impacted both volumes and selling prices.

The company has sold 1.54Mt of cement and 0.33Mt of clinker during the period against 1.56Mt of cement and 0.32Mt of clinker in the corresponding period of 2010. This represents a decline of about 1% in terms of volume for cement and an increase of 3% in terms of volume for clinker.

The Americas: Cemex has announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2011. These show that its consolidated net sales increased by 5% compared to the same period of 2010 to approximately USD3.9bn. Operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 1% during the quarter to USD658m compared to 2010. Operating income in the third quarter increased by 7% to USD305m, from the comparable period in 2010.

Cemex attributed the increase in consolidated net sales to higher sales, mainly from its operations in northern Europe, the United States and South & Central America and the Caribbean. It said that the infrastructure and residential sectors were the main drivers of demand in those and other regional markets.

Cemex's net sales in Mexico decreased by 1% in the third quarter of 2011 to USD856m, compared with USD868m in the third quarter of 2010. Operating EBITDA of USD285m was unchanged.Operations in the US reported net sales of USD713m in the third quarter of 2011, up by 4% from the same period in 2010. Operating EBITDA was a loss of USD10m.

Cemex's operations in South & Central America and the Caribbean reported net sales of USD453m, a 24% increase. In this region, its operating EBITDA increased by 33% to USD144m, compared to USD108m in 2010.

Fernando A González, Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration, said, "This is the fourth consecutive quarter of top-line growth in our results. We also saw stable consolidated pricing on a quarter-on-quarter basis in local-currency terms. We are particularly pleased with the quarterly performance of our operations in the Northern Europe and the South, Central American and Caribbean regions."

"We have raised USD80m in asset sales during the first nine months of 2011 and expect to raise an additional USD100-200m during the fourth quarter. We estimate total proceeds from asset sales will reach USD1bn by the end of 2012."

"We also continue to be confident in our ability to meet all of our financial obligations. We have also prepaid all of maturities under our Financial Agreement until December 2013 and proactively bolstered our liquidity needs," he added.

Indonesia: Indonesia's largest cement producer PT Semen Gresik has reported income of USD1.28bn in the first nine months of 2011. This represents an increase of 12% over the same period of 2010. The net profit of the state company rose by 10% to USD305m, according to its president Dwi Soetjipto.

The rise in income and profit followed was attributed to a 10% increase in sales to 14.5Mt in the nine month period. This represents 74.3% of the company's sales target for the whole of 2011.

According to Dwi, the increase in net profit would have been even higher if it had not been for increased production costs. Dwi reported that the company had experienced a particular rise in fuel and electricity costs.

China: China's building materials industry recorded USD29bn in net profit in the first nine months of 2011, up by 59.5% compared to the same period of 2010 according to data from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Of the total, the cement manufacturing industry contributed USD10.2bn, up by 150% on the year.

The NDRC also revealed that China's cement output in the first nine months of 2011 amounted to 1.51Bnt, up by 18.1% year-on-year. The output growth rate was up by 2.2% compared to that of 2010.

India: UltraTech Cement has reported strong results for its second quarter that ended on 30 September 2011. Net profit after tax for the quarter surged upwards by 140%, reaching USD57m compared to USD24m for the same quarter in 2010.

Total income for the company has increased by 22%, to USD810m for the quarter under review from USD670m for the similar quarter in 2010. Net sales have risen by 22% over the same period USD800m. However both net profit and sales were lower than USD140m and USD890m respectively, as reported in the previous quarter that ended on 30 June 2011.

UltraTech has an installed capacity of about 52Mt/yr and it hopes to increase that by over 9Mt/yr by mid-2014. The company warned that a surplus scenario in the Indian cement industry would likely continue for 2-3 years.

"Variable cost rose by 14% (during the quarter) because of the increase in input and energy costs. The 30% increase in the price of domestic coal, continuous rise in prices of imported coal together with escalation of freight costs... have constrained the company's performance," the firm said in a statement. It continued, "Growing input costs will result in a squeeze in margins."

Cement demand in India, the world's second-largest producer after China, has declined in recent months on a slump in the construction and real estate industries due to high interest rates and growth moderation in Asia's third-largest economy.

Brazil: Domestic demand for cement in Brazil is leading to an increase of imports. Imports of cement and clinker reached 2.2Mt from January to September 2011, an increase of 74% from the same period in 2010. The total value of imported cement cost USD135m from January to September 2011, compared with USD80m from the same period in 2010.

From 2007 to 2010 Brazilian per capita consumption rose from 224kg to 310kg while production rose from 40Mt/yr to 59Mt/yr. The country has 70 plants to meet this growing demand. Exports have fallen from 515,000t/yr in 2008 to 36,000t/yr in 2010.

Votorantim Cimentos leads the market with 40 plants and a production of 21Mt/yr. It currently plans to build eight plants by 2014 with investments of USD1.4bn, a sum that includes concrete units as well. CSN Cimentos is an emerging player in the market and it is planning to meet a production level of 8.4Mt/yr by 2013. Camargo Correa Cimentos runs 5.2Mt/yr and Joao Santos 5.9Mt/yr.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Cement Co has reported a 39% rise in its third quarter net profit. The rise was attributed to increased efficiency and higher local demand. The firm made a net profit of USD52m in the three months ending 30 September 2011, compared with USD37m in the same period in 2010. The company said it had raised efficiency by using new production lines and that local demand had grown. It attributed the fall in profits from the second quarter to a seasonal decline in sales. The company posted a second quarter net profit of USD57m.

Ireland: CRH plc, the Dublin-based international building materials group, has reported a 280% increase in pre-tax profit to Euro95m for the six months to 30 June 2011. The first half of 2010 saw a pre-tax profit of just Euro25m.

Turnover in the first half of 2011 was up by 7% to Euro8.1bn compared to the same period of 2010 when it was Euro7.6bn. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose by 10% to Euro574m from Euro520m in 2010. CRH said the increase in profit was largely driven by its Products and Distribution operations in Europe and the Americas.

The group's net debt at 30 June 2011 was down by 17% year-on-year to Euro3.9bn, compared with Euro4.7bn at 30 June 2010. Cash spent in the first six months amounted to Euro163m, while proceeds from disposals amounted to Euro392m.

Commenting on the results, CRH chief executive Myles Lee said that the improved results demonstrated the benefits of the group's recent reorganisation and restructuring, which has been carried out in response to 'exceptionally difficult markets' in recent years.

Looking forward, Lee said that CRH would continue to focus on, "Operational and commercial excellence, delivering the price increases necessary to recover higher input costs in our businesses and on delivering a year of progress for CRH in 2011." He added that this would be difficult given the recent turbulence seen in the global stock markets.