Raysut Cement, Oman’s largest producer of the building material, posted its biggest quarterly profit ever doubling over the year-earlier period on higher sales, including for the Sohar port development project.

Net income in the three months to Dec.31 was OMR10.43m (US$27.10m), compared with OMR4.98m in the year-earlier period, Reuters calculated, based on full-year data the company released. The earnings beat analysts’ forecasts.

Sales surged 70 per cent to OMR19.67m, compared with OMR11.54m in the year-earlier period.

’The government has increased its spending, such as the Sohar port development, and there are new real estate projects, which has increased sales,’ S. Sekar, senior accountant at Raysut told Reuters from Oman’s Salalah city.

Analysts’ forecasts for fourth-quarter profit in a Reuters survey last month ranged from OMR5.8m and OMR9.8m.

Raysut also made OMR1.99m from gains on investment during the fourth-quarter, compared with 160,540 rials in the year-earlier period.

The company includes income from its Yemen operations only in its full-year results, Sekar said.