Romanian market advances

Lafarge Romania expects the domestic market to grow by 2-5 per cent this year mainly on the back of infrastructure works.

The company sees revenues this year achieving 2011 levels or higher, financial daily Ziarul Financiar said, quoting Lafarge Romania head Sonia Artinian. “Last year the volume of deliveries increased but we cut prices, impacting revenues which decreased,” Artinian said. In 2011 Lafarge's like-for-like cement sales in Romania rose by 3.7%, driven by non-residential and infrastructure works.

Meanwhile, fellow local producer Carpatcement – a unit of  HeidelbergCement – reported that its cement division rose seven per cent in 2011. The group’s concrete and aggregates divisions increased last year by 20% and 35%, respectively, the group said in a statement. Carpatcement country manger, Florian Aldea, said in a statement that the future development of the group will be supported by the recovery of the local construction market, which has already shown some signs of improvement.