Rinker CEO says on track

Australian heavy building materials company Rinker Group is still expecting 20 per cent profit growth in the current half year, as demand remains buoyant, its CEO David Clarke said on Thursday.  Rinker, which makes about 80 per cent of its revenue in the United States and nearly 40 per cent in Florida alone, was not strongly affected by the recent hurricanes that have lashed the state, he told the 19th annual Merrill Lynch Australasia Investment Conference in New York.  With the exception of a warehouse roof, the CEO said the company had sustained only modest damage in Florida, while "demand is very very strong."

Rinker makes asphalt for use in highways and airports and high-strength concrete for high-rise buildings. Two months ago Rinker upgraded its profit outlook to 20 per cent growth from a previous forecast of 5 percent to 10 percent.  Clarke said the company did not have immediate plans for any acquisitions and said any it considered in the future in the United States would have to come with quarries attached.

He said the gap between the rising price of quarry extracts, like cement and aggregate, and the consumer price index would "continue to widen, just because it’s so difficult to get a quarry."