Building
solutions company, Lafarge Africa Plc, has commenced export of cement to Ghana.
The company, thus, grew its sales in the third quarter and nine-month perio
d
ended September 2017 by 39 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively.
This
increase, the company explained in its financial statement, was partly
attributed to the export of cement to Ghana.
Stable
prices, fuel flexibility and, better logistics and commercial performance
increased the company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and
amortisation by four times to N41.7bn with margins stable at 30 per cent.
Commenting
on the performance, the Chief Executive Officer, Lafarge Africa, Michel
Puchercos, said, “Our company continues to recover since we implemented the
turnaround plan in September 2016 and have delivered a good performance even in
a challenging market. As of September 2017, the cement demand in Nigeria was
significantly lower than prior year.
“Nevertheless,
operating EBITDA for our Nigeria operations was up four times at N41.7bn and
EBITDA margin stood at 30 per cent, thanks to stable pricing environment,
steady industrial operations, fuel flexibility, execution of our commercial and
logistics performance improvement plan. We shipped the first batch of cement to
the Ghana market, which was well accepted.
“The South
African economy exited a recession Q2 2017, supported by secondary and tertiary
sectors. Cement revenue was up 30 per cent; supported by stable pricing and the
strengthening of the rand against the naira. However, operations were impacted
in the quarter by industrial challenges at the Lichtenburg plant.”
Overall, the
company said cement demand in Nigeria was expected to close the year lower than
the prior year, on account of the economic slowdown in the first half 2017.
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