Dangote offshore plants boost revenue to N208.2bn

 
 
Sales recorded by Dangote Plants across Africa has significantly impacted on the revenue of the company for the first quarter ended on March 31, 2017 by 74 per cent to a whopping N208.2 billion.
Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Cement, Onne van der Weijde, who revealed this while presenting the company’s first quarter results to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), also stated that the company’s earnings per share for the first quarter increased by up 36.2 per cent cent to ₦4.25.
According to him: “Dangote Cement produced record financial results in the first three months of 2017. Despite lower Group volumes, we delivered significantly higher revenues and EBITDA after realigning prices late in 2016. Our new pricing strategy meant every tonne worked harder for us in Nigeria, delivering 78.4 per cent more EBITDA per tonne than the same quarter last year.
We have now begun sourcing a significant amount of coal from Nigerian mines owned by our parent, Dangote Industries, and this has not only helped us to improve margins but also reduced our need for imported coal and the foreign currency needed to buy it.      
Our Pan-African operations performed strongly, increasing sales volumes by 21.0 per cent and revenues by 74.2 per cent. Pan-African operations now contribute nearly 28 per cent of Group revenues and we are pleased to report a good start for our new import facility in Sierra Leone. We will begin operations in Congo in the coming weeks, further consolidating our position as Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading supplier of cement.”
It would be recalled that the Federal Government (FG) recently lauded Dangote Cement for its efforts in making the country to be self-sufficient in cement production. FG confirmed that Nigeria has attained self-sufficiency in the production of cement and is now an exporter of the commodity, ascribing the feat to Dangote Cement which spearheaded the “backward integration policy” introduced by the government.
The Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, who led a government team to the Dangote Cement plants in Ibese, Ogun State, said the government was happy with the leadership role played by Dangote Cement in executing the backward integration policy in the cement industry.
The minister said it is a success story that Nigeria, which few years ago imported over 60 per cent of her cement needs, now can produce to meet local demands and still export to other nations.
The Minister said: “As you all know, as the Federal government moves to diversify the economy away from oil, two areas the government is focusing on are agriculture and solid minerals, this is why we are embarking on tour of mining operations across the country to know the challenges they face and what could be done to tackle those challenges.
“What Dangote is doing is marvelous. We need to commend them. The way they led the backward integration policy to turn around our fortunes in the cement industry. I am delighted to see the development here bigger than what I saw the last time. And we are looking at how we can replicate the successes in the cement industry in other non-oil sectors of our economy.”
Dangote Cement is Africa’s leading cement producer with nearly 46Mta( million metric tons per annum) capacity across Africa, a fully integrated quarry-to-customer producer with production capacity of 29.25Mta in Nigeria.
Its Obajana plant in Kogi State, Nigeria, is the largest in Africa with 13.25Mta of capacity across four lines.
The Ibese plant in Ogun State has four cement lines with a combined installed capacity of 12Mta.
The Gboko plant in Benue state has 4Mta. The company plans to build new factories in Ogun State (3-6Mta) and Edo State (6.0Mta).
In addition, it has invested several billion dollars to build manufacturing plants and import/grinding terminals across Africa. Our operations are in Cameroon (1.5Mta clinker grinding), Congo (1.5Mta), Ghana (1.0Mta import), Ethiopia (2.5Mta), Senegal (1.5Mta), Sierra Leone (0.7Mta import), South Africa (3.3Mta), Tanzania (3.0Mta), and Zambia (1.5Mta).