Akmenes February sales

Akmenes Cementas, the only manufacturer of cement in Lithuania, boosted its turnover 20 per cent over the first two months of 2005, due to increased sales in Lithuania and Latvia.  In January-February this year, the company earned income of 7.7 million litas (Euro 2.2m), a 20.7 per cent increase year-on-year.  "The sales went up, because we sold more products in the domestic and Latvian markets this year, Arturas Zaremba, the CEO of Akmenes Cementas, said. 

According to Zaremba, the company achieved such good results due to warm weather in January, however, it does not expect to grow in March because of the wintry season.  In February alone, Akmenes Cementas earned 3.5-million-litas (Euro 1.0) income, 2.3 percent higher than the sum in the same month last year.  The sales estimate of the company, which was awarded the quality management certificate according to ISO 1400 standard requirements last week, stands at 111 million litas (Euro 32.2m) in 2005. 

This year, Akmenes Cementas intends to continue the ongoing projects: invest in the new packaging unit, the second coal mill, as well as incineration of used tires. 

In 2004, the sales of the cement manufacturer amounted to 104.3 million litas (Euro 30.2m), an increase of 16.7 per cent year-on-year. The sale of cement products went up 24.6 per cent to 746,400t. The largest amount of the produce (67 per cent) went in the Lithuanian market. 

Akmenes Cementas has not yet reported its profits for 2004. The meeting of shareholders, which will approve the results for 2004 and discuss distribution of profits, should take place in April.  In 2003, the company earned a net profit of 5.1 million litas (Euro 1.5m), 3.5 times higher than the profit it earned in the preceding year.  With RMC a sizeable shareholder in Akmenes it will be interesting to see if Cemex wishes to further push for majority ownership control, a position strongly resisted by Akmenes majority local owners until now.