Akmenes Cementas (Akmene Cement), the sole Lithuania’s cement manufacturer, posted LTL61m (EUR 17.68m) in revenues for the first half of this year, down 2.3 times from the year-earlier figure of LTL143m.

Sales volume plummeted by 2.1 times, YoY, to 251,000t, Richardas Sudaris, the company’s spokesman, told BNS.

"Both Lithuania’s and neighboring markets have contracted, the scale of construction has declined," he said. Akmenes Cementas posted LTL48.754m in net profit for 2008, down 9.7 per cent versus 2007. Its full-year revenues declined by 14 percent, to LTL281.586m.