Argos and Holcim Colombia report performance

Cementos Argos reported profits of Pesos$129,810m over Q1/2005 (Jan -March), a 201% growth from Q1/204 (Pesos$43,144m). The company results benefited from the selling off the coal plant Jagua Coal for US$110m early this year. Cement sales went up 36% to above 1Mt, while concrete sales rose 20%. Exports of gray cement and clinker were 507,000t, down 6%, while exports of white cement rose 57%.

Argos associated companies sold Pesos$175,000m of which US$24m from exports. Foreign based subsidiaries sold 465,000t of cement and earned US$42m. Holcim Colombia, which runs a plant at Nobsa municipality, increased sales by 9% for the whole 2004 period to 755,000t of cement and 680,000 m3 of concrete, but profits went down to Pesos$34,147m due to lower cement prices, the integration of the concrete operations and higher coal costs. 

Holcim now operates 15 concrete plants throughout Colombia, and has the transportation company Transcem with a fleet of 250 vehicles that in 20054 transported 541,000t of cement and 2,770t of waste residues to be processed at Nobsa plant that has a capacity for 1.6Mta of cement.