The three largest cement producers on the Romanian market, Lafarge, Carpatcement Holding and Holcim, with cumulated profits worth over 190 million euros last year, maintained their fast-paced growth achieved in 2006 in 2007, seeing an over 40% sales increase in the first half of the year.
Swiss group Holcim reported a 40% sales volume increase on the Romanian market in the first six months of the year, against the same time in 2006, the biggest rise seen by the company on its European markets. Cement sales are continuing their explosive growth, stimulated by investments in the private sector and by infrastructure works.
Previously, Lafarge Romania, held by the French group by the same name, reported an 84% sales increase for its cement sales in the first half of the year, against the same period of 2006. In its turn, the second largest cement producer on the Romanian market, Carpatcement Holding, the domestic division of the German group HeidelbergCement, posted an approximately 40% sales increase in the first six months of the year.
The three main cement producers present in Romania, Lafarge, Carpatcement Holding and Holcim, witnessed profits worth 191 million euros last year, almost double the value registered in 2005. At the same time, the three companies' turnovers rose by values ranging from 29 to 40%, according to data published by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The domestic subsidiary of the cement producer Holcim witnessed the highest growth rate among the European markets where the group operates, in the first half of the year. By comparison, the Swiss company saw a 37.9% increase in the volume of cement sales in Bulgaria and lower growth rates on the rest of its markets, such as Hungary (4.5%) and Italy (4.7%), and even declines in the volume of cement sold in Switzerland (-2.3%) and Belgium (-1.4%).
In terms of value, the growth rate registered by Holcim on the Romanian market in the first half exceeded 40% due to the increase in the cement price domestically, by 10% in the above-mentioned period. Officials of Holcim Romania did not wish to reveal any details on the company's financial results for the first half of the year.
The sales growth rate of Holcim Romania in the first half was higher than that seen by the company last year (up 32%), but less than half the growth rate witnessed in the first quarter of the year.
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