Moroccan cement company Lafarge Ciments’s 2003 consolidated net profit rose 13.6 per cent year-on-year to 784 mln Moroccan dirhams (US$87.6m), the company’s CEO Jean Marie Schmitz told a news conference, held on March 30, 2004.  The company’s gross operating profit stood at 1.386 bln dirhams (US$154.9m), while its consolidated turnover went up 12.3 per cent to 2.986 bln dirhams (US$333.7m).  The results were attributed to a 9.1 per cent rise in sales and to an increase of the average prices in the sector.  Lafarge Ciments will use some of the profits to finance an ambitious investment programme, which will take US$279.4m for the period from 2004 to 2008. Published under Cement News