The Greece-headquartered TITAN Cement Group saw its first nine months of 2022 sales increase by 31.6% to €1,661.8mn, with very strong Q3 growth at 41.8% compared to the same period of last year.
The sales growth resulted from higher volumes and strong price performance, offsetting energy and transportation cost pressures and supported by a stronger US dollar. The group's EBITDA rebounded in Q3 to €95.4mn, up by 23.9% vs Q3 2021. Meanwhile, TITAN Cement Group margins improved compared to previous quarters. The group's first nine months of 2022 EBITDA stood at €234.5m, up 6.8% vs 2021.
In the first three quarters of 2022, TITAN Cement Group completed a successful low-carbon product rollout in the US market, bringing the overall percentage of green products and solutions to 19% of the group's sales volumes. Growth and decarbonisation capex projects continued, with an investment of €158m in the first nine months. Meanwhile, the group accelerated the digitising of its manufacturing and customer interfaces in the US and other main markets, including the market launch of predictive maintenance AI-powered solutions.
TITAN Cement Group is also reporting a significant reduction in its direct CO2 emissions of 5.5% across 90 ongoing projects. The group has announced new CO2 targets in line with the 1.5°C climate framework.
Looking ahead, TITAN Cement Group says the elevated energy costs, higher interest rates, and the risk of a recession pose challenges to the building industry's growth. On the other hand, the group notes that the fundamental underlying drivers of cement and heavy materials demand, in the form of economic and population growth, are still there in addition to stimulus infrastructure programs in our key markets.
TITAN Cement Group says it is well prepared to deal with short-term uncertainties given its proven resilience and stresses that its teams maintain a "relentless focus on ensuring positive pricing over cost and managing our assets for cash, as well as further increasing the positive customer experience."
