Dangote Cement, Africa’s largest cement producer, has announced its unaudited results for the six months ended 30th June 2017, posting a 12.6% increase in sales volume across Africa.
The financials indicated that the increase in sales volume showed a growing capture of Pan-African market as Dangote Cement continues to gain ground.
Revenues from operations in Nigeria increased by 34.5% to ₦291.4 billion while Pan-Africa revenue increased by 63.7% to ₦124.4B from ₦76.0B mainly as a result of increased volumes and foreign exchange gains when converting the sales from country local currency into Naira.
Analysis of the half year result revealed that sales volumes of African operations increased by 12.6% to 4.7 million metric tons with Sierra Leone making a 53 kt maiden contribution.
Record of sales from its operations around Africa revealed that a total of 1.1million ‘metric tons (Mt) of cement was sold in Ethiopia, almost 0.7 Mt in Senegal, 0.6 Mt in Cameroon, and 0.5 Mt in Ghana.
Also, 0.4 Mt was sold in Tanzania and 0.3 Mtt in Zambia. Sales volumes from Nigerian operations fell from 8.8Mt to 6.9Mt, occasioned by the onset of rains which stalled many construction projects.
Reflecting on the half year results, Dangote Cement’s Chief Executive Officer, Onne van der Weijde expressed satisfaction that the company’s revenues have continued to grow despite low sales from the Nigerian operations noting that the revenues grew on the strength of sales from other African operations
“We are using much more gas and increasing our use of coal mined in Nigeria, thus reducing our need for foreign currency and supporting Nigerian jobs.
The Company reports that it estimated that Nigeria’s total market for cement was 10.2 million tonnes (Mt), 23.2% lower than the estimated 13.3Mt sold in Nigeria in the first half of 2016. Of total market sales in the first half of 2017, just 0.1Mt was imported.
“As a result of the slower market, our Nigeria operation sold nearly 6.9Mt of cement, down 21.8% on the 8.8Mt sold in the first half of 2016. We estimate our market share to have been about 64.5% during the first six months of 2017.
Dangote Cement is a high-growth, low-debt, internationally diversified company that has just paid a dividend amounting to nearly 75% of 2016 net profits to shareholders.
Francis Awowole
[email protected](www.DangoteCement.com)
