Carpatcement expects 15-20% surge

Carpatcement Holding, local subsidiary of German producer HeidelbergCement, expects to double the sales growth this year, to approximately 15-20%.
Consequently, Carpatcement Holding’s turnover could reach some 180-190 million euros this year.
“The revaluation of the cement business growth is due to the market trend in the first six months, when we posted a 20% increase in sales, a level that will hopefully be maintained by the end of the year. Real estate investment has been the main factor behind the surge of the cement market this year,” Mihai Rohan, general manager of Carpatcement Holding told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
The German Group’s business could top 220 million euros this year, on the three markets where it operates: cement, aggregate and concrete.
The sales growth registered in first half of the year was prompted by the major inflow of cash from the workers employed abroad, who came to Romania at Easter and started building houses, according to Carpatcement representatives.
In 2005, the German group’s business, on all the three divisions – Carpatcement Holding, Carpat Beton and Carpat Agregate – amounted to some 194 million euros, up 22% from the previous year, with net profit of 34.6 million euros.
German-owned HeidelbergCement shares the cement market with Swiss-owned Holcim and the French from Lafarge, each of them holding approximately 1/3 of the local market, estimated at over 400m euros annually.
Last year, cement consumption in Romania totalled 276 kilos per capita, topping the 225 kilos in 2003 and the 256 kilos in 2004, according to data provided by CarpatCement. The annual growth rate is approximately 7-8%, yet, once the great infrastructure projects such as Transilvania and Brasov-Bucharest highways are developed, the market is likely to grow 13-15% per year, according to Carpatcement representatives.