Cemex says its like-to-like net sales increased by 8% to $3.7 billion in the third quarter, the biggest year-on-year quarterly increase since Q1 2014.
Operating EBITDA at the global construction materials group also increased by 2% like-for-like in Q3 to $704 million compared with G3 2017.
According to Cemex, the increase in quarterly consolidates net sales was due to high prices of products in local currency terms in most of its regions, as well as higher volumes in Mexico, the US and the Europe and Asia, Middle East and Africa regions.
Fernando Gonzalez, Cemex’s CEO says, the results were underpinned by healthy volume and pricing dynamics in the company’s cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates products across most of its portfolio.
"We are pleased with our operations in Mexico and the United States, with strong growth in year-over-year volumes for our three core products and improved prices. In our Europe region, prices continued to improve with growth in ready-mix and aggregates volumes. In addition, in our Asia, Middle East and Africa region we saw volumes and prices in the Philippines rising in the mid-single digits as well as a double-digit increase in cement prices in Egypt", Gonzalez adds.
He reveals progress has also been made on a ‘A Stronger Cemex’ plan, with more than $60m in assets being sold during the quarter and a reduction of total debt plus perpetuals of $254m.
The company's net sales in operations in Mexico, on a like-to-like basis, increased 15% in Q3 to $857m. Operating EBITDA, on a like-to-like basis increased by 5% to $303m in the quarter, versus the same period 2017..
US operations reported net sales of $999m in Q3, an increase of 11% on a like-to-like basis from the same period in 2017. Operating EBITDA increased by 12% on a like-to-like basis to $178 million versus the same quarter of last year.
In South, Central America and the Caribbean, net sales reached $442m, a decline of 1% on a like-to-like basis over the same period last year. Operating EBITDA decreased by 14% on a like-to-like basis to $97m in the third quarter of 2018, from $114m in the same quarter of 2017.
Additional findings are available on our sister title Aggregates Business.
