Votorantim Cimentos earns revenues of BRL4.9bn in the 1Q22

Votorantim Cimentos ended the 1Q22 with consolidated net revenue of BRL4.9bn (US$953.1m), an increase of 22 per cent compared to the same period last year. This was primarily due to favourable price dynamics in Brazil, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, in addition to the positive effect of new sales volumes resulting from acquisitions made by the company during 2021.

In the first quarter, the company’s global cement sales totalled 8Mt, a growth of five per cent compared to 1Q21, despite the market retraction experienced during the period in some of the countries where it operates.

“The war in Europe, sanctions imposed on Russia, new lockdowns in China and bottlenecks in logistics chains continue to impact the global economy. In addition, rising interest rates and cost inflation have affected companies and markets as a whole. Faced with this challenging environment, we remained aligned with our strategy and attentive to costs, our operational excellence and our business plan in all regions,” said Marcelo Castelli, global CEO of Votorantim Cimentos.

Votorantim Cimentos ended the first quarter with consolidated adjusted EBITDA of BRL418m, 57 per cent lower than in the same period in 2021. This was due to the strong basis of comparison with 1Q21, combined with climatic factors.

Pressure on raw material, energy and fuel prices affected the quarterly EBITDA margin, which was nine per cent. As a result of global macroeconomic challenges, the company ended the first quarter with a loss of BRL317m, in contrast with the BRL227m profit posted in 1Q21.

At the end of the 1Q22, leverage (measured by the net debt/adjusted EBITDA ratio) was 1.84x; while this represents a small increase, as expected, compared to December 2021 (1.55x), it maintains the long-term downward trend, in line with the company’s financial policy.