Eagle Materials keeps moving cement prices ahead
Eagle Materials produced a 21.1% advance in first half turnover to US$516.4m and the pre-tax profit rose by 63.0% to US$188.9m.
Largely, these increases are price induced and still highly beneficial to margins, with the group achieving its highest prices ever in its second quarter, both in cement and in plasterboard.
The cement operations increased first half turnover by 16.5% to US$175.5m, of which US$37.1m came from the joint venture with HeidelbergCement at Buda, Texas, and the trading profit rose by 47.2% to US$56.9m. Cement shipments were 2.8% ahead at 1.66Mt (1.83Mst) and average selling prices improved by 14.1% to US$83.34/t (US$91.86/st). With the sole exception of Northern California, cement demand remains strong, and around a fifth of the cement sold had to be bought in, and price increases of between $10 and $12/st have been announced for January.
Turnover from aggregates and concrete rose by 9.9% to US$51.2m and the trading increased by 31.6% to US$8.8m. Ready-mixed concrete deliveries were virtually unchanged at 0.36Mm³ but the average price rose by 16.4% to US$53.39/m3. Aggregates shipments were declined by 13.2% to 2.51Mt though the average price improved by 17.3% to US$6.12/t.
Published under Cement News
