Turnover at HeidelbergCement rose by 7.5% to EUR3,242m in the first half of this year, with the EBITDA climbing by 22.5% to EUR485m. Helped by the inclusion of China Century Cement and Indocement, deliveries of cement and clinker were 29.2% higher at 30.71Mt. The trading profit for the period almost trebled from EUR81m to EUR240m, helped by the elimination of EUR82m of goodwill amortisation, but ignoring this there was still an improvement of 47.3%.
However, the consolidation of the Indocement debt pushed up the financial charge by 33.9% to EUR150m, but the running profit before tax shot by from EUR80m to EUR273m. Net debt at the end of June was down by a fifth compared with the same period last year at EUR3,603m, with the gearing level down from 118.4% to 92.0%.
Cement volume in Germany declined by an underlying 13% to 3.43m tonnes as HeidelbergCement took a lead in pushing up prices, but thanks to acquisitions the actual volume drop was limited to 5.0%. Turnover rose by 6.4% to €387m and the EBITDA jumped from EUR4 to EUR33 and prices in July were some EUR9/t higher than the same month last year, when they were still on the way down.
