Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Tanga Cement profit declines

DAILY NEWS Reporter
TANGA Cement Company Limited profit for 2015 has declined to 8.24bn/- compared to 28.40bn/- of the preceding year.

According to the audited financial results, the group experienced a decline in sales revenue of 9.9 per cent to 209.11bn/- compared to 232.10bn/- of the preceding year.
The decline was contributed by increased competition from new entrants to the market which put downward pressure on sales prices and volumes.
At the macroeconomic level, the cement firm witnessed a significant devaluation of the local currency to the US dollars in excess of 20 per cent.
Also the Group accounted for the realised and unrealised losses on foreign exchange amounting to 9.97bn/- in the year under review compared to 3.65bn/- of the year before.
Similarly, the cement company experienced setbacks in terms of overall equipment efficiencies and some unplanned equipment failures during the year under review.
The unavailability and poor quality of electricity supply from the national utility remains a major challenge for equipment efficiency which resulted in the importing of more expensive clinker which negatively impacted on the cost of production of cement.
However, the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) listed company commissioned its second kiln for the first time on December last year and produced the first clinker in accordance with the original project plan.
The report said the operation of the new kiln was a significant achievement for the cement firm as the project was executed within the planned timeframe.The project was concluded within the approved capex budget of 152 million US dollars.
“We expect market conditions to remain challenging in the coming year but the management is confident that the initiatives will yield positive financial returns,” stated the report.
It added, “A number of critical infrastructure projects have been approved by the government funded by both sovereign foreign direct investments and private investors and these are most likely to increase demand for our products,”

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