Cementarnica Usje 1H net profit declines, Macedonia

Macedonia’s sole cement producer Cementarnica Usje AD Skopje reported consolidated net profit in the first half of the year fell to MKD616.4m (EUR10m) from MKD741.3m a year ago.

Operating income fell 13 per cent YoY to MKD1.8bn in the first six months of the year while operating costs were down MKD1.23bn from MKD1.37bn the year before.

The company, owned by Titan, has a 0.9Mta production plant located at Usje, near Macedonia’s capital Skopje and around 20km from the Kosovo border. Last year, domestic cement demand was expected to have declined by 18.3 per cent to 0.67Mt as the economic slowdown in the eurzone took its hold. For this year, a slight increase to 0.7Mt is forecast, a figure which is likely to remain steady into 2014.