ARM suffers heavy half-year losses

Kenya's ARM Cement Ltd announced a half-year 428.53 per cent increase in losses to KES1.41bn (US$13.5m) from KES266.78m during the same period last year.

The firm's revenue for the six-month period declined by 19.79 per cent to KES5.35bn compared to KES6.67bn last year.

In May the firm, whose shares trade on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, cited strained cash flow as well as increased competition and lower selling prices as key factors contributing to the company's poor performance.

Kenya's National Bureau of statistics (KNBS) reports that cement production for the first six months of the year went down by 3.93 per cent to 3.18Mt from 3.31Mt during the same period last year.

Cement consumption in Kenya fell by 62,000t in the first five months of the year, raising the prospect of the first annual decline in consumption in more than a decade.

KNBS state that cement consumption for the period between January and May fell by 2.34 per cent to 2.5Mt from 2.56Mt consumed the same period last year.

"The quantity of cement produced dropped from 509,589Mt in May 2017 to 500,109Mt in June 2017. Consumption of cement contracted from 497,087Mt in April 2017 to 457,937 Mt in May 2017," KNBS said in its June economic indicator report.