Argos announced positive financial results for the first half of 2023 despite climate challenges in the United States.
The successful execution of its pricing strategy, efficient cost management and efforts to consolidate a winning value proposition allowed the company to achieve an EBITDA of $278 million, an increase of 26% compared to the first six months of 2022. In terms of consolidated revenue, it obtained $1.5 billion, an 8% increase.
In the first half of the year, shipments decreased 2.7% for cement (7.9 million tons) and 6.5% for concrete (3.5 million cubic meters), compared with the prior-year period, mainly caused by a higher number of rainy days in the United States, the slowdown of the housing segment in Colombia, and the difficult social and political situation in Haiti.
Despite the heavy rains that occurred in the southern part of the United States and operational issues at the Newberry, Fla. plant, productivity and pricing improvements allowed Argos to achieve a record EBITDA for the first half in this region, which reached $158 million and increased 41% compared to the same period in 2022. Similarly, sales reached $860 million, 14% higher than the previous year. Based on this, cement shipments remained steady and concrete shipments decreased by 7.8%.
The company also noted that it successfully executed three of the five pillars of its SPRINT program or the Share Price Recovery Initiative.
“The progress in the execution of SPRINT, the growth of revenue and the expansion of the profitability margins of the businesses in our main markets motivate us to continue working every day in the value generation for all our stakeholders through the participation in housing and infrastructure projects that contribute to improve the quality of life and competitiveness in the 16 countries and territories where we have presence. The strength of our figures, the price dynamics and some improvements in the macroeconomic conditions support a positive perspective for the rest of 2023,” said Juan Esteban Calle, Argos president.
