Circle Cement back in black

Circle Cement is back in black following the lifting of price controls in April. Price controls were replaced by price monitoring, and though it had just two months before the end of its first half, the company turned around from a loss of $359 million in the first half of last year to a profit of $1.9 billion.

Cement provided a net profit of $1.5 billion. The balance of $400 million came from non-cement business.

The company made a loss of $862.3 million last year.

Turnover increased from $1.3 billion to $7.1 billion. Clinker production was suspended for four weeks because of problems in sourcing coal.

Throughout the period during which the price of cement was controlled the company was incurring losses with the cement business contributing a loss of $451 million in the first half of last year.

The company says demand for cement is expected to remain firm and it is optimistic that the performance of the first half will continue into the second.

It has obtained funding for essential maintenance and plant rehabilitation and is working to ensure that production is not interrupted.

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