LONDON (Alliance News) - Steppe Cement Limited Tuesday said third quarter revenue remained broadly flat at KZT7.23 billion, as sales decreased 3% to 501,412 tonnes.
The cement producer operating in Kazakhstan said revenue for the nine months ended 30 September increased 3% to KZT15.399 billion, from KTZ14.96 billion in the previous period.
However, during the same period, sales volumes decreased 6% to 1,065,852 tonnes from 1,134,271 tonnes.
Steppe remained optimistic and said it expects to recover some of the lost volumes during the fourth quarter, entering October with 35,000 more tonnes in stock when compared with the same period in 2012.
Overall, Steppe said the cement market in Kazakhstan has increased 14% during the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2012, while imports increased to 19% from 14% of the total consumption.
Despite this, Steppe said its market share had decreased to 16% from 20% and it is now predicting a 17% market share for the full year 2013. It expects to start recovering market share in 2014.
Steppe Cement revised its estimate of the cement market for 2013 to 8 million tonnes from 7.7 million tonnes.
The stock was trading at 37.00 pence Tuesday morning, down 0.75 pence or 2.0%.
By Anthony Tshibangu; anthonytshibangu@alliancenews.com; @AnthonyAllNews
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Steppe Cement (STCM)