LafargeHolcim continues sales growth in Q1 2018 – on track to hit full year targets

8161 LafargeHolcim, the French-Swiss global building materials giant, saw its year-on-year, like-for-like sales rise 3.1% to CHF 5.83 billion (€4.87 billion) in Q1 2018. The sales rise is said to have been driven by growth in cement volumes during the first three months of the year. The Group’s Recurring EBITDA was down by 7.7% on a like-for-like basis, affected by the especially harsh winter in North America and Europe.

Broadly, the underlying market trends seen at the end of 2017 continued into the first quarter of 2018. Latin America continued its positive development with top and bottom line growth. In North America, LafargeHolcim is said to be well positioned to take advantage of good market conditions despite the effect of a particularly harsh winter. Strong performance in China and India contributed to growth in the Asia Pacific region. In contrast, Middle East Africa underperformed with challenging conditions in some markets. In Europe, where underlying demand was good, first quarter performance by the Group was reflected in the adverse weather, fewer working days and higher maintenance activity in preparation for high season growth.

LafargeHolcim Group has reconfirmed its 3-5% sales growth target for full year 2018.

Jan Jenisch, Group Chief Executive Officer of LafargeHolcim said: “Q1 was a good start to the year. The continued growth in the top line is encouraging and confirms the positive outlook for our businesses. Though the quarter was affected by several headwinds, we expect the strength of our portfolio and the benefits of our new strategy to become increasingly visible over the full year. That makes us confident we will deliver on our 2018 targets.

“We are executing our Strategy 2022. Our new organisation is getting us closer to our markets and we are making good headway on simplifying our business, a critical factor in the future success of LafargeHolcim.”