Despite an income fall of 32%,
The company’s third quarter results show that income fell by nearly 32% to CHF418 million (approximately €339 million) in the third quarter from CHF612 million (€497 million) in the second quarter of 2011.
Over the nine months to 30 September, 2011 Holcim’s income fell by 17.9% year-on-year to just over CHF1 billion (€811 million) from CHF1.223 billion (€990 million) in 2010. Sales also fell year-on-year by 6.1% to CHF5.318 billion (€5.314 billion) over the nine months to 30 September, 2011 compared to CHF5.666 billion (€4.6 billion) in 2010. The decline in sales between the second and third quarters was similar at 6.7%.
However, despite the fall in total group income and sales, sales of cement rose in both the nine-month and quarterly period. For the nine months to 30 September, 2011 sales rose by 5.2% to 108.1 million tonnes from 103 million tonnes. For the quarter ending 30 September, 2011, volume sales rose by 6.2% to 37.2 million tonnes from 35 million tonnes in the quarter ending 31 July, 2011.
Shipments of aggregates increased by 9.8% to 130.4 million tonnes, and ready-mix concrete rose by 5% to 36.1 million m³.
“The strong appreciation of the Swiss franc during the first half of 2011 continued to negatively impact the financial result during the quarter, albeit to a lesser extent than during the second quarter,”" said chief financial officer Thomas Aebischer.
Holcim's sales during the three months to 30 September, 2011, were reduced by €697miliion by the currency.
In its outlook Holcim pins its hopes for consistent growth in the emerging markets of Latin America and Asia while singling out Africa and the Middle East for continued poor trading.
In Europe and North America Holcim's intends for its lean cost structure to enable it to benefit more than average from any economic recovery.
