HeidelbergCement’s group revenue rose by 4 percent in the second quarter to €4.8 billion ($5.6 billion). Negative currency effects of €226 million ($264 million) had an adverse impact on revenue. Adjusted for currency and consolidation effects, revenue increased by 9 percent due to sales volume growth in all business lines and successful price increases.
Negative currency effects also affected operating profit: Result from current operations before depreciation and amortization decreased by 3 percent to €936 million ($1.09 billion); after depreciation and amortization, the result from current operations fell to €663 million ($774 million). Adjusted for currency and consolidation effects, result from current operations before and after depreciation increased by 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively. A relatively lower energy cost level in the same quarter of the previous year and further increases in coal and oil prices in the current year slowed down earnings growth.
“The solid development of results in the second quarter indicates a positive trend reversal after a weather-related difficult start of the year,” said Dr. Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board. “The growth of revenue and sales volumes in all business lines reflects the strong market dynamics. All in all, we could significantly improve the profit also in the second quarter. The strong operational development, lower restructuring charges and a further reduction in financing costs more than compensated for the increasing cost inflation and negative exchange rate effects. We expect the business development to further improve in the second half of the year and confirm our outlook for 2018.”
In the second quarter, cement and clinker sales volumes rose by 3 percent to 33.7 million metric tons (previous year: 32.6 million). Adjusted for the disposal of the white cement business in the United States, the deconsolidation of Georgia and the acquisition of Cementir Italia, the growth rate amounted to 4 percent and all group areas contributed to this increase.
