Global Cement News

India: Ambuja Cement’s net sales grew by 3% year-on-year to US$410m in the first three months of 2019 from US$398m in the same period in 2018. Its cement sales volumes rose by 2% to 6.37Mt from 6.22Mt. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 9% to US$66.7m from its net profit after tax increased by 57% to US$61.4m. The cement producer said that its focus on alternative fuels had partly mitigated a ‘significant’ rise in power and fuels costs.

Indonesia: Indocement’s revenue grew by 8.5% year-on-year to US$262m in the first three months of 2019 from US$242m in the same period in 2018. Its net income rose by 50% to US$27.9m from US$18.6m.

Philippines: Ramon Lopez, the head of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), says that there is no need to impose a price cap on cement yet. However, he said that the government might intervene if the price of cement reached around US$4.6/bag, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. The DTI applied a US$4/t tariff on imported cement in mid-January 2019 for a period of 200 days in response to a surge in imports.

Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo’s sales revenue dropped slightly to US$94.6m in the first three months of 2019. Its consolidated earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also fell a little to US$28.3m. However, its sales volumes of cement, concrete and precast rose by 5.4% to 593Mt from 563Mt. It blamed the declines in revenue and earnings on a slow down in public investment connected to a change in regional governments.

The cement producer also said that it has started selling cement in Iquitos. The capital of the country’s Amazonian Loreto region has been hard to reach due to its lack of road links. Cementos Pacasmayo said that it has been ‘aggressively’ taking advantage of a new tax law that supports its Rioja plant giving it a competitive advantage.

UK/Ireland: Breedon Group says that it has made ‘good progress’ across the business in the first quarter of 2019. Its revenue grew by 10% year-on-year to around Euro276m on a like-for-like basis. It attributed this to milder weather than in the same period in 2018. It said that it expects construction output in the UK to rise by 3% and at a higher rate in the Republic of Ireland.