Cimpor said Monday flat sales and higher costs led to a 6.6 per cent decline in nine-month consolidated net profit. Profits fell to Euro 139.2m compared with EUR149.0 million for the first nine months of the previous year, on sales basically unchanged at Euro 1.04bn from Euro 1.03bn. Costs rose 8 per cent to Euro 682.9m. The Portuguese cement maker said sales were particularly strong at its Spanish and South African operations, as well as its units in Egypt and Mozambique.
In Portugal and Brazil, sales were lower. The domestic decline was driven by a weaker economic backdrop, while in Brazil sales were hit by falling prices as calculated in the Brazilian currency, the real. Cimpor said profits were hurt by a Euro 4.2m one-time loss in the period, compared with a Euro19m one-time gain in the same period the previous year. The company did not specify the one-time items for the two periods.
