Lafarge revises business forecast down after significant decline caused by winter

Lafarge Ciment, the local subsidiary of French group Lafarge, the biggest cement producer on the Romanian market, has revised its business forecast down due to the significant sales decline recorded in the first quarter of the year brought about by bad weather. The French had budgeted a rise of 0% to 5% in the volume of sales for 2010 in the company’s annual report published at the beginning of the year, after last year business fell by 34.4 %, to around 243 million euros.

“Given that the sales decline was largely caused by the very bad weather conditions in the first quarter of 2010, it is still difficult to predict when the local market will rebound. We think part of sales lost because of the weather can be recouped, but the market and our sales will most likely see a decline compared with 2009,” Philippe Platon, CFO of Lafarge Ciment, told ZF.

Platon says the current market progresses at a pace similar to that of 2005-2006, when the winter was not as tough. “If compared with a year with a similarly tough winter, the market is completely different,” Platon explains.