Dangote-owned Sephaku Cement has posted a 16 per cent drop in its full-year profit, despite revenue increasing by 3.7 per cent to ZAR2.37bn (US$201.1m) in 2017.

The South Africa-based company turned a profit of ZAR73.9m in the 2H17, compared with a loss of ZAR16.1m in 1H17, resulting in full-year profit of ZAR58.7m. This was a 16 per cent decrease on the previous year’s profit of ZAR68.9m. EBITDA for the full year was 21.3 per cent, compared with 23.1 per cent in 2016.

Sephaku Cement stated that  South African economic growth was largely subdued in 2017 and that the cement industry similarly demonstrated only a modest improvement in pricing and customer mix stability.

The estimated industry sales volumes, including imports for 2017, were 12.9Mt, representing a decline of 0.8 per cent from the 13Mt in the previous year.