Akmenes Cementas reports encouraging start to 2013, Lithuania

Lithuania’s sole cement producer Akmenes Cementas reported a 13 per cent rise in revenues for the first two months of 2013 to LTL15.2m (EUR4.4m)

Sales volumes rose by 16 per cent to 65,000t from 56,000t in the same period of last year, company spokesperson Giedre Kundrotiene told Baltic News Service.

Domestic cement consumption is likely to have shown a five per cent decline in 2012 to 0.65Mt, but is expected to show a modest improvement in 2013, supported by the infrastructure spending financed by the European Union.

Akmenes said domestic sales in the Jan-Feb 2013 period rose by 26 per cent YoY to 24,000t while exports to EU markets remained stable at 18,000t.

The Akmenes plant’s nominal grinding capacity currently stands at 1.35Mta, with a clinker capacity of 1.2Mta. A €101m investment, replacing the present wet production method with a new dry-process kiln and enhancing the grinding capacity, was 60 per cent complete by the mid-2012. Final commissioning is expected by the end of 2013, probably in the third quarter. When completed, the facility’s cement capacity should rise to 1.5Mta.