Anhui Conch Cement, the mainland's biggest cement producer, anticipates sales growth of up to 40 per cent this year, despite an expected slowdown in demand for construction materials.
A company spokesman yesterday said that this year's sales growth would come on the back of sustained investment to raise capacity, with 2.6 billion yuan earmarked for this year following 2.86 billion yuan last year.
To boost sales, Anhui Conch planned to focus on penetrating deeper into the thriving Pearl River Delta over the next three years, by accelerating the construction of a clinker plant in Yingde and a cement grinding facility in Jiangmen, the spokesman said.
Expanded output last year helped boost sales by 47 per cent to 8.33 billion yuan, or 37.58 million tonnes of cement. Net profit jumped 29 per cent to 960.91 million yuan against a Thomson First Call consensus of 1.08 billion yuan.
Anhui Conch, which produces high-grade cement mainly in Anhui and distributes it in the Yangtze River Delta region, saw the average selling price of its product barely change at 222.7 yuan per tonne as macroeconomic measures to cool the economy curbed demand.
'We managed to increase our sales after large-scale investment in production capacity of clinker and cement,' the spokesman said.
The government's economic restraints were expected to persist this year, meaning further credit tightening and slower growth in fixed-asset investment, he said.