Sales in Romania by cement producer Lafarge Romcim grew by 22.1% in the first quarter compared with the corresponding period last year, said Lafarge representatives, though they declined to specify the value of the sales.
The growth pace announced by the French group for Romania is twice as high as estimated growth for the overall market in 2004 and four times the yearly average level of growth during the pervious year of 4-5%, estimates by market players show.
Lafarge made no comment as to its strong growth in first-quarter sales by the time this edition went to press.
The increase in sales was helped by the 17.1% surge in the number of products delivered, as well as other factors, such as price hikes and changes to the sales structure, which had a combined contribution of 5%.
Despite the positive results in Romania, however, sales for Eastern Europe shrank due to the lower quantities in Poland and Russia.
Lafarge entered the Romanian market in 1997 and to date has invested some 300 million euros on the cement, concrete and aggregates market.
Lafarge Romcim reported net profits of 28.4 million euros against turnover of 125 million euros in its 2003 balance sheet. The 2004 results are yet to be published.
Last year saw the Romanian cement market grow by its highest amount since the arrival of the three international strategic investors in Romania, Lafarge (France), Holcim (Switzerland) and HeidelbergCement (Germany).
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro