Cementos Molins first-quarter profit down by 53%

Spanish cement maker Cementos Molins reported a 53 per cent on the year drop in its profit for the first quarter of 2013 to EUR4.7m, mainly due to the losses sustained by the domestic market. Spanish subsidiaries closed the quarter with a EUR10.96m loss, 47 per cent more than the previous year.

Consolidated turnover reached EUR195m with income falling by 18 per cent in the Spain and 6.6 per cent in overseas markets. 

The company, which operates a cement plant in the Catalan capital of Barcelona, managed to cut its debt by EUR6.5m to EUR309.1m. Some 25 per cent of the liabilities are due to be repaid this year.

Cementos Molins, which has a cement capacity of 1.64Mta in Spain, also has cement interests overseas, generally in partnership with other cement companies. Its foreign interests softened the impact of the difficult market at home and generated a profit of EUR15.69m, but the figure still represents a YoY drop of 10.8 per cent. Molins said first-quarter EBITDA proved solid at its subsidiaries in Bangladesh and Tunisia. In Tunisia, gross operating profit expanded 77 per cent YoY. Meanwhile, in Mexico, increased competition affected EBITDA, which fell by 15 per cent. The Argentine market was impacted by the peso depreciation vs the euro and EBITDA noted a 10 per cent drop.