LafargeHolcim's profit more than doubled year-on-year to Tk 1.91 billion in the first quarter through March, backed by what it said is new products and innovative building material solutions.
The sales revenue also jumped 37 per cent year-on-year to Tk 8.54 billion in the quarter, according to its unaudited financial statements.
The quarterly performance shows, said Iqbal Chowdhury, chief executive officer of LafargeHolcim Bangladesh, "the strength of our diverse product portfolio" and "high-value solutions, digital footprint and new [business] channels."
Operational excellence and cost optimisation also helped the company achieve a strong start of the year, he said.
The company's profit before interest and tax (EBIT) stood at Tk 2.43 billion in the quarter, a whopping 90 per cent jump from the same quarter a year ago despite challenging market conditions.
The chief of the company said it would continue to focus on expansion of channels and product portfolio and improve digital footprint to ensure sustainable growth.
Mr Chowdhury said the company continued to advance in ensuring sustainable business with "Geocyle", a waste management initiative towards becoming carbon neutral by 2050.
"The rest of 2023 will be challenging as geopolitical uncertainty and inflationary pressure continue. Despite that we are optimistic about delivering strong performance as we demonstrated in the previous quarters."
Since the beginning of 2022, the overall cement industry in the country has been suffering. It showed its lowest performance in a decade in 2022, rendered by soaring costs, a decline in development works, and a stiff competition among peers amid the acute crisis of the dollar.
Out of the seven cement manufacturers listed in the stock market, four went into the red and two others saw their profit go down by 15-90 per cent last year. LafargfeHolcim is the only cement maker that posted record profit.
The year 2022 was remarkable for LafargeHolcim, as the company gained a profit of Tk 4.45 billion, the highest in its history, while its local peers were scrambling to stay afloat.
The robust growth led to the company declaring record 48 per cent cash dividend to shareholders for 2022.
Industry insiders say LafargeHolcim has a unique edge in business as it depends on its own source of core raw material - limestone, which is transported from mines in Meghalaya to its factory in Chhatak, Sylhet by a conveyor belt.
This advantage creates an opportunity for the company to avoid freight charges and escape international raw material market volatility, two major factors that shrink the profitability of its competitors.
LafargeHolcim also started producing aggregates in its Chhatak plant in January 2021. The profitable business also contributed to the company's revenue growth.
Some other cement makers rebounded in the January-March quarter as the prices of raw materials started cooling down in the global market since October last year while the selling prices of cement at the retail market rose about 10 to 15 per cent.
LafargeHolcim is a member of Holcim Group based in Switzerland. Cementos Molins of Spain has been operating it in Bangladesh for almost two decades.
There are 37 active cement factories in Bangladesh and more than Tk 350 billion has been invested in the industry, according to Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association (BCMA).
The industry's combined production capacity is more than 83 million tonnes while the local demand is about 47 million tonnes as of November 2022.
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