Nigeria’s biggest cement producers, namely Dangote Cement Plc, BUA Cement Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc, raked in N600 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, as their revenues rose despite the economic headwinds in the country.
Their combined revenue increased by 29 percent year-on-year, compared to N455 billion in Q1 2021, according to data collated by BusinessDay from their financial statements available on the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
The data showed that Dangote Cement recorded the highest revenue of N413.18 billion, followed by BUA Cement (N96.99 billion), and Lafarge Africa (N90.61 billion).
Dangote Cement, the country’s biggest cement producer, saw its revenue rise by 24.2 percent in Q1 2022 from N332.65 billion in the same period of last year.
It generated N321.9 billion from domestic sales and N91.26 billion from export sales. Domestic sales increased by 34 percent to N321.9 billion in Q1 2022 from N239.7 billion in 2021.
The company’s cement sales volumes fell by 3.6 percent year-on-year to 7.25 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2022 from 7.52Mt in the same period in 2021.
“Our group volumes were down 3.6 percent mainly due to energy supply challenges in Nigeria. Our operations relying on cement and clinker imports – namely Ghana, Sierra-Leone, Cameroon – were impacted by the global supply chain challenges,” Michael Pucheros, chief executive officer of Dangote Cement, said.
The company grew its profit after tax by 18 percent to N105.85 billion in Q1 2022 from N89.71 billion in the previous year. Its production cost of sales increased by 20 percent from N128 billion in Q1 2021 to N154 billion in Q1 2022.
Its total assets increased by 16 percent to N2.46 trillion as of March 2022 from N2.12 trillion a year earlier.
BUA Cement grew its revenue by 58.5 percent to N96.99 billion in Q1 2022 from N61.19 billion in the same period last year.
In 2020, BUA Group consolidated its cement operations and listed BUA Cement on the Nigerian Exchange Limited, with a total combined installed capacity of 8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) and a market capitalisation of N1.18 trillion, making it the second largest cement producer in the Nigerian market and the largest cement producer in the north-western region of the country.
This year, the cement company inaugurated a 3 mtpa Sokoto line 4 cement plant to help scale up cement production, with the aim of meeting current and projected demands.
“We believe the firm must have begun to see gains from its recently commissioned 3 mpta line 4 in its Kalambaina plant in Q1 2022,” analysts at CSL Stockbrokers Limited said. “Though the management is yet to provide details of the drivers of the solid revenue growth, we attribute the robust top-line growth to price-volume mix.”
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BUA Cement grew its profit by 48.2 percent to N33.14 billion in Q1 2022 from N27.37 billion in the comparable period of 2021. Its net profit margin improved to 36.56 percent in 2o22 from 34.17 percent in 2021.
Its total assets improved by 7.58 percent to N783.7 billion in March 2022 from N728.5 billion a year before.
Lafarge Africa reported N90.61 billion in revenue in Q1 2022, up from the N71.47 billion it recorded in the same period of 2021.
It made N 87.99 billion from the sales of cement, N 2.5 billion from the sales of aggregate and concrete, and N98.9 million from the sale of mortar.
The company’s profit after tax surged by 92.20 percent to N17.56 billion from N9.14 billion in Q1 2021.
Its total assets increased to N535.6 billion as of March 2022 from N532.7 billion a year earlier.
Lafarge Africa is a member of the Holcim Group – the world’s leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions. With plants in Ewekoro and Sagamu in the South-West, Mfamosing in the South-South and Ashaka in the North-East of Nigeria, the company currently has an installed cement production capacity of 10.5mtpa and has plans to grow in the near term.
