Eagle Materials releases quarterly results
Published by Nicholas Woodroof,
Editor
World Cement,
Dave Powers, President and CEO, commented: “We are pleased to report another quarter of record revenue and net earnings. We saw strong margin improvement in our light materials sector and pricing improved across nearly all businesses during the quarter. We were also pleased to announce the start-up of our new frac sand drying plant in Illinois and we began loading railcars in late June. Tight freight markets continued to limit our ability to move product and led to higher freight costs which impacted net sales prices in both cement and wallboard this quarter.”
Powers concluded: “Looking ahead, we anticipate another strong year, as the backlog of work in our markets continues to drive demand for our products.”
Revenue in the heavy materials sector, which includes cement, concrete and aggregates and joint venture (JV) and intersegment cement revenue, was US$227.3 million, a slight improvement from the first quarter of fiscal year 2018. Heavy materials operating earnings decreased 13% to US$42.8 million primarily due to increased maintenance costs resulting from the timing of the annual maintenance outage at the Fairborn cement plant. Because an outage had been performed after the purchase of the plant in March 2017, there was no outage in 2Q17.
Cement revenue for the quarter, including JV and intersegment revenue, was up 2% to US$186.8 million, reflecting higher sales prices. The average net sales price for the quarter improved 2% to US$108.69/t. Higher freight costs impacted net cement prices by approximately US$1.50/t during the quarter. Cement sales volume for the quarter was 1.5 million t, flat with the prior year.
Operating earnings from cement were US$37.3 million, 14% below the same quarter a year ago. The earnings decline was primarily due to the timing of the planned maintenance outage at the Fairborn cement plant partially offset by improved average net cement sales prices.
Concrete and aggregates revenue was US$40.5 million, a decrease of 7%. Operating earnings were US$5.5 million, a 9% decline, reflecting lower sales volumes partially offset by improved pricing.
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/the-americas/09082018/eagle-materials-releases-quarterly-results/
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