“In 2013 we will return to profitability and the profit will be similar to the one in 2011 [when the company had an 8% margin, i.e. a profit of around EUR18 million according to the Finance Ministry]. Last year we recorded losses amid the closure of certain operations and the transfer of costs to assets, which has not happened again this year,” says Daniel Bach, general manager of Holcim Romania.
But the turnover of Holcim Romania is expected to see a slight decline in 2013 against last year because there was a decline in volumes sold, although the price of cement went up this year. “But it is not very likely that the price increase will make up for the decline in volumes,” Bach says.
Holcim’s sales of cement and clinker in Romania fell by around 2.4% in terms of volume in the first nine months of the year, while the average selling price of cement on the Romanian market went up by 2.7% during the same period, according to the recently published annual report of the Swiss group. However, company representatives do not say how much cement they sold, nor do they say how much one ton of cement costs on average.
Clinker is an intermediate product in the manufacture of cement.
Holcim Romania had a turnover of around EUR213 million last year. As for the Romanian cement market, the head of Holcim Romania expects it to decline by 3 to 5% this year.
“2013 was a year when the construction market declined: although the residential segment went up, the infrastructure sector fell. (…) 2014 doesn’t look very well in this respect, either. In 2011 and 2012 the [cement] market was driven by infrastructure projects. At the moment we don’t see any high-value infrastructure projects that can be a growth driver for the market next year,” Bach says.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)