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[August 2002]
Overall Sales Up for Lafarge
First-half 2002 results for Lafarge show sales up 29.1% to 7.203 billion euro, compared with 5.578 billion euro in 2001, including scope of consolidation changes of 1.622 billion euro.In Roofing, the slowdown in the sales decline in the second quarter (-2.2%) compared to the first quarter (-8%) resulted in a limited drop of the division sales of 4.6% for the first half of 2002. This relative improvement was mainly due to market conditions in Germany. Roofing division sales were generally rising outside of Europe and particularly in Malaysia.
In the Clay Roof Tile subsector, sales for the half-year were down 7% in Europe, from 12.2 million square metres to 11.4 million square metres. Half-year sales in Asia amounted to 400,000 square metres (first time performance). Clay tiles represent 16.6% of all Lafarge roof tile sales, broadly the same percentage as in the first half of 2001.
The Chimneys business dipped 1.8%, from 1,302km of product to 1,278km.
In Lafarge's two largest product sectors - Cement and Aggregates & Concrete - the half-year sales were up 3.8% and down 0.4% respectively (at constant scope and foreign exchange). Lafarge now employs 83,000 people in 75 countries and holds top-ranking positions in all four of its divisions.
ENDS