CEMEX chief executive officer Fernando A. Gonzalez said a "very challenging year" had led to the Mexican building materials giant posting flat consolidated net sales in both Q4 and full-year 2019.
The group’s year-on-year consolidated net sales stood at US$3.3bn in Q4 2019 and decreased 1% for the full year 2019 to US$13.1bn. CEMEX operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) decreased 15% during the fourth quarter of 2019 to US$554mn and by 10% for the full year to US$2.4bn.
“In a very challenging year with weaker macroeconomic and market conditions prevailing in several of our operations, we were able to limit the downside to our EBITDA and free-cash-flow generation through the decisive and proactive initiatives under our ‘A Stronger CEMEX’ program,” said Fernando A. Gonzalez, CEMEX chief executive officer.
“We are cautiously optimistic about the outlook for 2020, with expected improved market conditions in our two main markets, Mexico and the U.S., and continued favourable performance in our Europe region. We remain committed to our ‘A Stronger CEMEX’ initiatives, which will further help in strengthening our capital structure and reposition our portfolio for higher growth.”
Gonzalez said climate change had been a CEMEX priority for many years. He added: “Our efforts have brought significant progress to date, but we need to do more. This is why we have defined a more ambitious target for CO2 emissions by 2030: a reduction of 35% to ensure alignment with the Paris Agreement commitments. In addition, we are now establishing an ambition to deliver net-zero CO2 concrete by 2050. We will publish a detailed position paper on climate action on February 18.”
