Chilean cement producer Cemento Polpaico reported a 32.2 per cent increase in revenues to CLP82.114bn (US$120,143m) in 1H18 from CLP62.118bn.

The company has attributed the higher operating revenues mainly to an increase in cement and concrete sales volumes, driven by an uptick in economic activity during the first six months of 2018, compared with 1H17.

However, distribution costs went up from CLP13.3bn to CLP17.7bn as a new law of manual handling loads affected working practices.

Net profit reached CLP4.035bn, compared with a CP2.648bn loss of the comparable period of the previous year.