Caribbean Cement Company Ltd (CCCL) posted a pretax profits of $255m compared to a loss of $3m the previous year.

The company said its performance was assisted by a new record year for sales which climbed from $12bn to $14.3bn.

Domestic cement sales volumes only rose by one per cent to 594,164t, while cement exports inched up to 232,765t. Clinker exports, however, quintupled to 155,423t because of a supply agreement with Venezuela.

Parent company Trinidad Cement Ltd earlier declared a TDD211m loss for 2014 as the Caribbean-based producer was affected by extraordinary expenses.