Cemex released its first-quarter report for 2018, revealing that consolidated net sales increased by 8 percent to $3.4 billion versus the first quarter of 2017.
Cemex’s operations in the United States reported net sales of $856 million in the first quarter of the year, an increase of 7 percent from the same period in 2017. Operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) decreased by 4 percent. The company also revealed some other details, including that:
• Its increase in quarterly consolidated net sales was due to higher prices of products, in local currency terms in Mexico, the United States and its Europe and Asia, Middle East and Africa regions, as well as higher volumes in its U.S. and Asia, Middle East and Africa regions.
• Operating earnings before other expenses, net, in the first quarter decreased by 5 percent to $332 million.
• Operating EBITDA decreased by 4 percent during the quarter compared to the same period in 2017, to $535 million.
“The first quarter of 2018 was characterized by solid operating results with good consolidated daily volumes and improved pricing performance, both sequentially and on a year-over-year basis,” says Fernando Gonzalez, CEO of Cemex. “However, our EBITDA generation during the quarter was affected by seasonal effects, including adverse weather in our European and U.S. operations, fewer business days and an inventory costing-variation effect.
“We expect the impact of the fewer business days and the inventory effect to revert in upcoming months while we should recover most of the pent-up demand caused by adverse weather to be recovered during the rest of the year,” Gonzalez adds.
For the rest of 2018, Cemex expects favorable consolidated volumes and improving pricing dynamics in most of its markets.
“This, together with an expected moderation in our energy cost increases and our initiatives to contain other costs, should translate into increased operating EBITDA generation for the full year,” Gonzalez says.
