Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement Co., which is Saudi Arabia's biggest cement firm by market value, has announced that its second-quarter net operating profit rose by 29.2% compared with the year-earlier period, to USD63.7m. It attributed the increase to higher demand driving sales.
The result was marginally above the USD63.2m predicted earlier by the firm. First-half earnings per share were USD0.88, compared with USD0.71 in 2010.