Lafarge’s net loss grows in first quarter of 2014

Print this page

France: Lafarge's net loss has grown by 15% year-on-year for the first quarter of 2014, from Euro117m in 2013 to Euro135m in 2014. The company blamed the result on the 'seasonality' of its business and the effect of the variations of the net-of-tax gains and losses on divestments.

Overall sales across all business lines fell by 2% year-on-year to Euro2.63bn from Euro2.68bn. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 21% to Euro343m from Euro342m. Notably an improvement in EBITDA in the group's Western Europe region was noted.

"Our first quarter results confirmed the positive trends experienced at the end of 2013. Our volumes were supported by continuing growth in emerging markets and the progressive improvement in several European markets. North America was affected by a harsh winter but the underlying market trends are positive. Our outlook for the year is confirmed and we expect to see cement demand growth in our markets of between 2% to 5% in 2014," commented chairman and chief executive of Lafarge, Bruno Lafont.

For its cement business, cement sales volumes rose by 8% to 25.9Mt from 23.9Mt. Despite this rise in volumes, cement sales remained static at Euro365m for the quarter.

By region for its cement business, Lafarge reported static sales volumes for cement year-on-year for the quarter in North America due to adverse weather. Sales volumes rose by 7% to 2.6Mt in Western Europe with notable improvements recorded in Spain and Greece. Volumes rose by 19% to 1.9Mt in Central and Eastern Europe with increases in Poland and Romania but a fall in sales in Russia. In the group's Middle East and Africa region cement sales volumes rose by 15% to 10.5Mt. In Latin America sales volumes fell by 15% to 1.9Mt impacted by group divestment and deconsolidation in Honduras and Mexico, despite increase sales volumes in Brazil. In Asia sales rose by 7% to 7.5Mt.

Register for the Global Cement Weekly email newsletter

Global Cement Weekly is Global Cement’s weekly email newsletter. Keep up to date with cement industry news, analysis, diary dates and news of people in the sector.

Register >

URL: https://globalcement.com/news/item/2476-lafarge%E2%80%99s-net-loss-grows-in-first-quarter-of-2014

© 2024 Pro Global Media Ltd. All rights reserved.