Peru: UNACEM has reported that its profit fell by over 50% to US$40m in 2015 from US$83m in 2014. The Peruvian cement producer blamed lower output, rising costs and a foreign exchange loss in a report to a regulator.
Sales rose by 3.4% to US$429m in 2015. However, cement production fell by 2.7% to 5.57Mt. Clinker output fell by 7.3% to 5.72Mt. The company attributed this to delays in infrastructure projects such as Line No. 2 of the Lima metro and a decline in homebuilding. Exports dropped by 5.2% to 0.97Mt.
UNACEM said that its domestic market share slipped to 49.6% in 2015 from 49.9% the previous year. Peru's cement production fell 2.5% to 10.4Mt in 2015, according to the cement producers' association Asocem. National exports increased to 0.36Mt from 0.31Mt.
