Cemento Argos, Colombia’s biggest cement company, on Wednesday reported a 23 per cent jump in Jan-Sept net earnings compared with the same 2004 period on higher sales and investment income. The Medellin-based company reported earnings of 177.9 billion pesos ($78m), not including earnings by affiliates, in the first nine months of the year compared with 144.3 billion pesos in the same 2004 period.
Argos, which controls just more than half the Andean country’s cement market, reported a 17 per cent increase in operating income during the January through September period to 201.1 billion pesos compared with 171.2 billion in the same 2004 period. Operating costs fell 18 per cent in the first nine months of the year to 25.7 billion pesos compared with 31.2 billion in the same 2004 period. Argos also sold 20 per cent more concrete during the period compared with the first nine months of 2004.
