Cementos Bio Bio sees little financial impact from quake

Cementos Bio Bio sees little financial impact from quake
04 March 2010


Chilean cement company, Cementos Bio Bio SA, said Wednesday that based on its preliminary findings it doesn’t expect Saturday’s deadly earthquake to affect its financial situation.

"All of the companies in the group have insurance that covers damage to their installations and business interruptions," the company said in a filing with the Santiago Stock Exchange.

Cementos Bio Bio said it is working to bring its largest cement factory in Curico online after it suffered minor damage, while it’s still trying to quantify possible damages to its No. 2 cement factory in the port city of Talcahuano.

Curico and Talcahuano accounted for 52 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively, of the company’s installed capacity of 3.25Mt of cement in 2008.

The company said that only two of its more than 45 concrete plants in Chile have been temporarily closed.

"In any case, the situations described don’t impede us from meeting the needs of our clients throughout the country," Cementos Bio Bio said.

Talcahuano, the country’s second-largest city Concepcion, as well as smaller cities throughout south-central Chile were heavily damaged by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake.

Chile’s cement industry is dominated by Grupo Polpaico SA, locally-owned Cementos Bio Bio SA, and Melon SA, which is controlled by Peru’s Brescia Group.

Cementos Bio Bio said its ceramics factory in Santiago was badly damaged, and that its still doesn’t have any information about a ceramics factory near Concepcion.

Shares of Cementos Bio Bio fell 15.5 per cent to close at CLP1511.30 on Wednesday, after rallying 33 per cent the previous session as investors bet the company stands to benefit from reconstruction work.
Published under Cement News