Dangote Cement - July 2018


Dangote Cement has reported a “very strong” first half of 2018, driven by an excellent recovery in Nigeria where sales volumes increased by nearly 14 per cent YoY to 7.8Mt and revenues rose by more than 18 per cent to NGN344.1bn (US$952m). The company’s total cement sales volume for the six months came in at 12,362,000t, up 7.4 per cent on the same period last year. Total revenue over the same period improved by 16.9 per cent to NGN482.4bn, while EBITDA advanced by 20.8 per cent to NGN246bn and net profit increased by 3.1 per cent to NGN113.2bn.

Despite Nigeria’s muted economic recovery, the country’s cement market is enjoying robust growth in 2018. According to Dangote, the total cement market in Nigeria stands at 11.2Mt, nearly 10 per cent up on the estimated 10.2Mt sold in the first half of 2017. With domestic sales of 7.3Mt across its three plants, Dangote is forecast to have a market share of 65.7 per cent, compared to 64.5 per cent in the 1H17. Total sales from its Nigerian plants were 7.8Mt, which is 13.9 per cent higher than the 6.86Mt seen in the same period a year earlier. Second-quarter 2018 sales of 3.84Mt were significantly higher than the 3.1Mt sold in the 2Q17. Total export sales of 0.5Mt included 237,000t to Togo, 153,000t to Niger and 13,000t to Ghana. The company’s Nigerian EBITDA grew by 19.3 per cent to NGN226.9bn at a margin of 65.9 per cent. 

Its pan-African operations sold nearly 4.57Mt of cement in the opening half of 2018, a slight decrease on the 4.75Mt recorded in the same period a year earlier. This was due to lower sales in Tanzania, disruption due to civil unrest in Ethiopia and reduced exports from Nigeria to Ghana. Despite the lower volumes, pan-African revenues of NGN138.8bn were 11.4 per cent higher than the 1H17, representing 28.7 per cent of total group revenues. Meanwhile, the region’s EBITDA contribution of NGN25.9bn accounted for 10.5 per cent of group EBITDA.