Steppe Cement shares rise after strong Q1 update

(Sharecast News) - Steppe Cement's share price jumped on Friday after the Kazakhstan-based cement manufacturer reported a solid increase in market share and big jump in sales over the first quarter. The company sold 344,058 tonnes of cement for KZT9.70bn ($19.5m) over the three months to 31 March, representing a volume increase of 25% and revenue increase of 50% compared with the year before.

The average price received, excluding VAT, was KZT28,181 ($57) per tonne, up 20% year-on-year in KZT terms.

Meanwhile, the company's market share increased to 16.0% from 13.5% 12 months earlier.

Domestic demand for cement across the market was resilient, rising 2% year-on-year to 2.03m, which the firm said "reflects relatively strong demand despite the seasonal slowdown typically associated with winter months". That offset a 48% drop in cement exports.

As previously announced, Steppe Cement said it is expanding cement production to a total capacity of 2.5m tonnes to "enable it to meet with increasing demand".

The stock was up 5.3% at 20p, briefly hitting a 52-week high of 23p earlier on, compared with Thursday's close of 19p.

See the latest RNS on Investegate.