(Alliance News) - Steppe Cement Ltd on Wednesday reported a slight revenue fall but an improved annual profit, helped by a fall in costs and a reduced foreign exchange hit.
The London-listed, Malaysian-incorporated and Kazakhstan-focused construction materials firm had a 2.7% revenue in fall in 2019 to USD79.9 million from USD82.2 million.
Pretax profit rose 16% to USD12.5 million from USD10.8 million. General and administrative expenses fell 4.9% to USD5.9 million from USD6.2 million, while the net foreign exchange loss was almost wiped out to USD84,400 from USD1.8 million.
Steppe Cement said: "The overall domestic cement market increased by 2% to 8.9 million tonnes, while our sales volume remained flat. Our local sales increased by 4% while exports decreased by 29% due to increased competition from new factories.
"The market demand in 2020 is very difficult to estimate as we can see the drop in demand during the Covid-19 lockdown period. We expect a potential decrease of 10% as the effect of the lockdown and lower oil prices are felt across the economy. However, we are still confident to maintain the volumes over the summer."
Shares in the company were 5.1% higher at 26.80 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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Steppe Cement (STCM)