Caribbean Cement records JMD2.5bn profit

Jamaica's Caribbean Cement Co set a record profit of JMD2.47bn (US$18.89m) in its last financial year. Sales by the cement producer rose six per cent to JMD17.5bn, while its net profit more than doubled from JMD1.1bn to JMD2.47bn.

The results follow the restructuring of inventory and manpower and other efficiency measures, as well as investments in the plant at Rockfort, Kingston, reports The Gleaner.

"The year 2018 marked the beginning of a period of stability for the company," Caribbean Cement Cosaid in its financial report released last week. "Planned investments yielded expected outcomes in health and safety, production and operational efficiencies."

Caribbean Cement regained control of its assets from immediate parent Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) last year, a US$118m buy-back of the Rockfort plant that was mostly financed by large loans from Cemex.

Trinidad Cement
TCL made a loss of TTD7m (US$1m) on flat revenue of TTD1.7bn for the year ending December 2018. Its earnings, however, were an improvement on the TTD257m net loss of 2017.

"We have made significant progress on our restructuring programme designed to achieve a competitive cost structure," said TCL in market filings on the Port-of-Spain stock exchange. "While we expect some incremental restructuring costs to continue in 2019, we believe the majority of these investments are behind us," the company said.