Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s consolidated sales in the 2021 financial year, which ended on 30 June 2021, were US$1.26bn. The figure corresponds to a rise of 67% year-on-year from US$752m in the 2020 financial year. Standalone cement sales rose by 31% to 9.96Mt – consisting of 7.56Mt of local sales and 2.41Mt of exports – from 7.60Mt in the 2020 financial year. The company more than doubled its consolidated profit after tax to US$171m from US$44.4m. Its cement segment’s profit after tax more than tripled to US$85.5m from US$20.3m, and all group companies were profitable.

Lucky Cement attributed the sales growth to increased capacity due to the commissioning of a new line at one of its cement plants in the second half of the 2020 financial year. During the 2021 financial year, the company commenced trial production at its new 1.2Mt/yr-capacity Samawah cement plant in Iraq. It overcame Covid-19-led disruptions to complete the trial in March 2021.

Australia: James Hardie has raised its full-year earnings forecast for the 2022 financial year to US$550-590m from US$520-570m. The decision follows a year-on-year increase in consolidated sales of 35%, to US$843m from US$624m.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Cement’s consolidated sales totalled US$207m in the first half of 2021, up by 3.9% year-on-year from US$199m in the first half of 2020. Its net profit for the period took an 8.2% drop to US$54.9m from US$59.8m.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) plans to raise US$747m through the issuance of fixed-rate debentures. Dow Jones Institutional News has reported that SCG will pay a 2.7% coupon on the debentures, which will be due in 2025. The group will use the proceeds to replace existing debentures when they expire in October 2021.