Displaying items by tag: GCW328
Congolese cement producers support import ban
10 November 2017Democratic Republic of the Congo: Cement producers have expressed their support for a ban on cement imports. The comments were made during an evaluation meeting on the ban held by the Minister of Foreign Trade, Jean Lucien Bussa, according to the Congolese News Agency. The minister noted, that since the ban was implemented on 25 August 2017, cement prices had not risen. Before the ban started imports from Lufu, Angola were blamed for flooding the market.
Italy: Sales in Scandinavia and the US have stabilised Cementir’s growth so far in 2017. Its sales volumes of cement and clinker increased by 1.7% year-on-year, on a like-for-like basis, to 9.6Mt in the first nine months of 2017. This was attributed to a ‘favourable’ performance in Denmark, Egypt, Malaysia and China, slight growth in Turkey, although Italy recorded a downturn in sales volumes.
The group’s sales revenue remained flat at Euro964m for the period, on a like-for-like basis, despite the negative impact of foreign exchange rates. The group said that the positive trend of revenue in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, China and Italy offset a drop in Turkey and the fall in revenues expressed in Euros in Egypt, while revenue performance in Malaysia was almost stable. Cementir’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 0.6%, on a like-for-like basis, to Euro152m.
"The results in the first nine months of 2017 were slightly better than management expected following the strong performance of the Nordic and Baltic and US, despite the lower earnings in Turkey and the unfavourable exchange rates. The results benefited from the effect of the acquisitions in the second half of 2016, which contributed Euro30.5m to EBITDA,” said Francesco Caltagirone Jr, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO).
India: Shree Cement’s sale revenue fell by 5.8% year-on-year to US$807m in the six months to the end of September 2017 from US$761m in the same period in 2016. Its profit fell by 18.4% to US$100m from US$123m. However, its sales and profit rose for its cement business and fell its power business.