Nigeria: Dangote Cement has reported that its first quarter pre-tax profits fell by 1.25% year-on-year to US$331.7m. Gross earnings rose to US$652.5m compared with US$599.9m in the same period of 2013.
Dangote's chairman, Aliko Dangote, disclosed that its expansion drive would increase capacity and add an additional 9Mt/yr of production capacity by July 2014, expressing satisfaction that cement imports into Nigeria had continued to fall. An estimated 1.1Mt of cement was imported in 2013, down from 1.9Mt in 2012.
Dangote vowed that the company would stop at nothing to expand, as most of Nigeria's neighbours are currently importing cement from the Far East. "We are confident that Nigeria's cement will prove more attractive than the imports, particularly within the 15 member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)," he added.
To stabilise the price of cement and free the consumers from 'profiteering middlemen,' Dangote said that his company would intensify its direct-to-consumer deliveries.
