The company attributed the good performance to the consolidation of Egyptian cement producer Suez Cement in April 2005 and of Egyptian ASEC Cement in August 2005, as well as to the increase of sales prices, which offset the higher operating costs. The first-quarter results in 2005 were also negatively affected by the unfavourable weather conditions.
Ciments Francais generated a turnover of 942 mln euro up by 41 per cent. Like-for-like turnover rose by 19.8 per cent. Cement sales totalled 10.9Mt, up by 46.2 per cent, or 9.9 per cent on a like-for-like basis. Sales of aggregates rose by 5.9 per cent and by 4.7 per cent on a like-for-like basis to 11.1Mt. Concrete sales totalled 2.7 million cu m, up by 2.5 per cent or by 2.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis.
