Eagle Materials’ turnover, including its share of the Texan cement joint venture with HeidelbergCement, edged ahead by a marginal 0.1 per cent to US$299.79m for the six months of the end of September. The trading profit, on the other hand, fell by 20.9% to US$41.5m. Other expenses were down by 11.2 per cent and the net interest charge fell by 24.9 per cent to US$8.4m, giving a pre-tax profit 22.25 per cent lower at US$25m. 

Turnover from cement was three per cent lower at US$128.1m, with the wholly-owned operations declining by 7.5% to US$91.4m, but the group’s share of the Texas Lehigh joint venture improved by 10.1% to US$36.84m.  The trading profit declined by 29.6 per cent to US$25.8m, with the joint venture in Texas seeing its contribution fall by 13.7 per cent, but wholly-owned businesses recorded a 37.7 per cent drop in the profit contribution to US$15.1m.

Group cement deliveries improved by 2.4% to 1.34Mt (1.48Mst) declined by 1.9 per cent, with the Buda joint venture seeing volumes improve by 11%, compared with a 0.5 per cent reduction in the wholly-owned tonnage.  The average cement price declined by 7.6 per cent to US$88.92/t (US$80.67/st).