GCC reports full year and 4Q 2007 results

GCC reports full year and 4Q 2007 results
27 February 2008


Mexico-based Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) has announced consolidated results for the year and quarter ended December 31, 2007. 
 
GCC’s product and market diversification, as well as the successful growth strategy and continued efforts to achieve higher levels of operating efficiency, contributed to the company’s double-digit increase in sales and EBITDA in 2007.  
 
GCC’s Net Sales in 2007 grew 11.7% over 2006, driven by increases of 16.2% and 9.4% in the United States and Mexico, respectively. This was the result of better pricing, successful integration of the concrete companies acquired in the U.S. and solid demand in Mexico. In Bolivia, sales in declined 2.4% compared to 2006, due primarily to delays in highway projects.  
 
Net sales totaled $1,978.3 million pesos in the fourth quarter of 2007, a 1.9% decline in comparison with the same quarter of last year.  
 
In the United States, sales totaled $1,072.2 million pesos in the quarter compared to $1,106.0 million pesos in the fourth quarter of 2006. This decline was the result of less activity in the residential sector, as well as to weather-related delays of certain projects.  
 
In Mexico, sales declined 6.5% in the quarter due mainly to an exceptional fourth quarter in 2006, delays in housing projects, and a deceleration in public infrastructure projects following the change in municipal governments in the state of Chihuahua,.  
 
In the fourth quarter of 2007, GCC’s proportional sales in Bolivia rose 21.7% as a result of greater demand in the housing and commercial sectors.

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