Warm weather triples cement sales

Cement producers tripled their cement sales in the first quarter of this year, assisted by the favourable weather conditions allowing construction works to be carried out. “The first quarter of 2007 was exceptional because there was very little bad weather in Romania, but the increase in this quarter does not reflect the trend for the whole year,” Phillipe Questiaux, president and general manager of Lafarge Cement, told ZF. The value of cement sales seen by Lafarge on the Romanian market saw a record high increase of 182.7% in the first quarter. This was generated by an increase of 160.7% in the volume of sales, according to the company’s quarterly report. In 2006, Lafarge Cement posted an approximately 230 million-euro turnover, up 34% on 2005. German group Heidelberg Cement also tripled its sales in the first quarter, amid the massive demand for cement on the private sector resulting from the warm weather conditions at the start of the year. The Germans posted 280 million-euro turnover for its three divisions of cement, aggregates and concrete. The Swiss group Holcim, another cement producer present on the local market also experienced a 117.3% increase in the volume of domestic cement sales against the same time in 2006, and recorded the biggest increase on any European market. Holcim Romania posted turnover worth 220 million-euros in 2006.