Vulcan Materials’ first half turnover fell by 28.1% to US$1,322.2m and the running EBITDA dropped by 37.3% to US$258.8m, while at the pre-tax level a loss of US$20.3m was incurred compared with a US$226.0m profit a year earlier.  Capital investment in the period declined by 69.8% to US$60.1m, while the net debt amounted to US$2950.2m to give a gearing of 60.9%.  Turnover from aggregates dropped by 26.0% to US$899.4m as the tonnage fell by 30.9% to 66.02Mt (72.78Mst), while the average price improved by 2.5% to US$11.36/t. 

Prices in Florida and in parts of the western states actually declined, but reasonable increases were achieved in some other markets.  Average aggregates prices for the full year are expected to improve by between 3% and 4%.

Ready-mixed concrete deliveries fell by 33.2% to 1.69m m³ and prices were off by 0.3%.  Vulcan sold 0.29Mt of cement in the period, of which sales to external customers fell to just over one third of the level achieved last year or 112,493t. 

Vulcan’s average cement average price edged ahead by 0.5% to US$107.79 per tonne (US$97.79 per short ton).  The turnover in cement fell by 39.3% to US$36.6m and a US$1.83m loss was incurred at the gross level, compared with a US$11.6m profit a year ago, because of low volumes. 



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