Higher sales, mainly from operations in the United States, South and Central America and the Caribbean, helped
These increased by 4% to approximately US$3.5 billion (€2.64 billion) compared to the same period in 2011 while operating EBITDA increased by 7% during the first quarter to US$567 million versus the same period in 2011.
On a like-to-like basis for the ongoing operations and adjusting for currency fluctuations, operating EBITDA increased by 10% in the same period.
The group’s consolidated first-quarter 2012 financial and operational highlights show that the infrastructure and residential sectors were the main drivers of demand in most of Cemex’s markets and that free cashflow after maintenance capital expenditures for the quarter was negative $287 million, compared with negative $300 million in the same quarter of 2011.
Operating income in the first quarter increased by 34%, to $240 million from the comparable period in 2011.
Fernando A. González, executive vice president of finance and administration, said: “The favourable performance in most of our regions leads us to believe that we are in the initial stages of a turnaround.
“This is the sixth consecutive quarter of top-line growth in our results. We also saw growth in our consolidated cement volumes during the quarter versus the same quarter last year.
“Consolidated prices for cement, ready-mix, and aggregates also increased on a quarter-on-quarter basis both in local currency and US dollar terms.
“In fact, all of our regions showed stable to growing prices on a quarter-on-quarter basis in all three products with the exception of our aggregates business in Asia. We are particularly pleased with the quarterly performance of our operations in the United States and the South, Central America and Caribbean region.
“During the quarter, we also had the narrowest controlling interest net loss since the third quarter of 2009.
“We remain focused on our transformation process and expect an incremental improvement of $200 million in our steady-state EBITDA during 2012, reaching a run rate of $400 million dollars by the end of this year.
We also continue to be confident in our ability to meet all of our financial obligations.”
During the first quarter of 2012, controlling interest net income was a loss of $26 million, an improvement over the loss of $229 million in the same period last year.
