Lafarge plans to double investments in China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-08-03 14:05
French construction giant Lafarge, the world's largest cement maker, plans to
double its investments in China in the coming years, the company's chairman said
on Wednesday.
Bruno Lafont told Xinhua that Lafarge had settled in China
for ten years and half of the group's cement production was made in China, which
has exceeded the United States to become Lafarge's first biggest cement producer
in the world.
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Bruno Lafont, CEO of Lafarge
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| Lafarge now operates in four provinces in southwest China:
Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan and Guizhou, where Lafarge's current production
capacity in cement amounts to 20 million tons against the region's total annual
production of 100 million tons per year.
According to Mr. Lafont, the
group plans to establish new factories in neighboring provinces in a bid to
double its production capacity in five or six years and prove it would be the
best in China as it did elsewhere.
At a press conference on Wednesday,
Lafont said that the group's net profit reached 548 million euros (702 million
U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2006, compared to 359 million euros (450
million U.S. dollars) in the same period last year.
Its first-half turnover
totaled 8.76 billion euros (11.22 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 21
percent, compared to the same period last year.
The group's operating
profit in the first half of 2006 surged 41 percent to 1.17 billion euros (1.50
billion U.S. dollars), with operating profit in cement division rising by 34
percent to 871 million euros (1.115 billion U.S. dollars).
In the granulates
and concrete sector, the profit went up by 74 percent to 188 million euros
(240.8 million U.S. dollars), and that in roofing rose by 54 percent to 37
million euros (28.9 million U.S. dollars) and in plaster and plasterboard by 39
percent to 110 million euros (140.8 million U.S. dollars), according to a
statement of the company.
The profit was achieved due to "significant
sales price increases" which had made up for "the big increase in energy and
transportation costs".
Lafont said the group also revised its yearly
growth rate in 2006-2008 period to 10 percent from the previous 8
percent.
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