Mexican cement giant Cemex (IW 1000/340) posted Monday a loss of $203 million in the third quarter, an improvement from a year ago after good performances in Mexico, the Americas and Asia.
The company, badly hit by the U.S. real estate and financial meltdown in 2008, had posted a net loss of $730 million in the same period last year.
Cemex announced consolidated net sales of $3.9 billion in the third quarter, a 2% increase from the same period last year when adjusted to currency fluctuations.
The company also reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $730 million, a 13% increase from the same quarter last year.
"An improvement in pricing and volume in several of our regions as well as the continued success of our transformation effort has led to the highest operating EBITDA margin in three years," said Cemex Executive Vice President of Finance Fernando Gonzalez.
"We are particularly pleased with the quarterly performance of our operations in Mexico, United States and the South, Central America and the Caribbean and Asia regions," he said in a statement.
Cemex posted net sales of $826 million in the United States in the third quarter, a 12% increase from the same period in 2011.
They rose 2% to $875 million in Mexico and 15% to $520 million in the Caribbean and South and Central America.
In Asia, sales increased by 2% to $133 million. In northern Europe, net sales fell 15% to $1.1 billion while they dropped 19% to $342 million in the Mediterranean region.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
