LAFARGE expects an upward trend in sales of cement

The building materials Group Lafarge – France reported, for 2012, a 31% share of the Romanian subsidiary Lafarge on the local cement market (estimated at about 600 million EUR per year). The company owns two manufacturing units at national level (in Hoghiz and Medgidia) and a grinding one (in Târgu-Jiu), corresponding to a total production capacity of 4.9 million tons per year. According to the annual financial report recently published by the group, Romania is the second market in terms of size in the region of Central and Eastern Europe for the company, after Poland, where the corporation has three cement plants, totalling over 5.7 million square meters / year. Furthermore, at national level, Lafarge coordinates 11 centres of extraction and processing of aggregates and other 16 concrete plants, which reported, in 2012, sales of 3.5 million tons of aggregates and 0.5 million cubic meters of ready-mixed concrete. The activities of Lafarge Romania have entered on an upward trend in 2012 across all divisions, thus resulting a net increase of 7% of the quantity of cement sold compared to the previous year. Led by Sonia Artinian, who holds the function of CEO for local operations, the company supplied building materials and services for the country's major sites such as Corridor IV, the segment of highway between Sibiu and Sebeş, and the rehabilitation of railways from the same Corridor IV. Furthermore, the company will supply the necessary materials for the execution of other commercial and infrastructure projects in different parts of Romania, namely the bridge Agigea, the ring road of Braşov, the subway and the Promenada Mall from Bucharest. One of the notable projects for which construction materials were delivered, was the largest wind farm in Europe, accomplished in Dobrogea (240 turbines were installed on an area of 1.100 hectares), where three different types of cement were provided. Last year, the holding continued to implement a process of centralization of liquidity management in most European countries - and not only, including Romania, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, UK and the U.S. and initiated new partnerships with habitat associations in order to improve the housing conditions. For further information and a detailed analysis of the current TOP-Agenda Constructiilor issue click here!