Lafarge swings to quarterly net loss

French building materials firm Lafarge said that it swung to a fourth-quarter net loss of 38 million euros. Last year, the firm posted a profit of 40 million euros.

Sales declined 22% to 3.6 billion euros in the quarter. Lafarge said that emerging markets continue to show strength and it forecasts that cement volumes in these markets will continue to drive demand in 2010.

For developed markets, the group expects that demand will start to recover slowly during the second half of the year.

Overall, the group expects cement volumes in its markets to increase between 0% and 5% in 2010. Pricing is expected to remain solid for the year in most markets, it said.

From China Cement (2010-2-22)