Lucky Cement sees half-year profits rise 12.5% to US$67m

Lucky Cement has announced that its profits rose by 12.5 per cent YoY in the last six months of 2016 to PKR7bn (US$67m).

In a statement to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, Lucky revealed that it had sold 3.5Mt of cement and 235,000t of clinker during the first six months of FY17. Cement sales improved over the previous year by 5.4 per cent, while no clinker sales at all took place in the corresponding period in FY16.

Cement production also rose to 3.5Mt, up six per cent on FY16, while clinker production was up 5.5 per cent at 3.4Mt.

This improved performance was a result of better domestic conditions. The cement sector as a whole saw demand rise by 11 per cent for the period June-December 2016, reaching 16.9Mt. Lucky outperformed this, raising its own domestic cement sales by 13.5 per cent to 2.7Mt and expanding its market share to 17.6 per cent.

In exports, Lucky was harder hit than the industry in general, seeing shipments fall by 16.3 per cent to 0.75Mt.

The announcement also contained an update on Lucky’s investment projects. The company stated that the addition of a new 1.25Mta line to its Karachi plant was on course for completion by the end of 2017, while a 10MW waste heat recovery unit at the PEZU plan was expected to come into operation by the end of January.

A planned new plant in Punjab was still in the process of obtaining regulatory approval, but the firm said it expected to begin construction by June 2017.

Lucky also announced that the joint venture 1.18Mta plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo had begun commercial operations in December 2016. In Iraq, the firm said that its project to expand its cement grinding unit by 0.871Mta was on course for completion by August 2017.