Italcementi's Bulgarian Units Halt Production for Two Months on Dwindling Demand

Bulgaria's construction sector was hit hardest by the financial crisis. The two Bulgarian companies said in a joint statement the cement demand fell by over 40% this year according to their estimations, without providing figures.

The companies have halted production two times so far this year, once in March and again in August. In December and January most workers will be sent in paid leave of absence or relocated to other jobs, the companies said.

Devnya Cement plant has an annual capacity of some 2.0 million tonnes of cement a year and expects a new 500 million levs ($372.6 million/255.6 million euro) production line to reach its full annual capacity of some three million tonnes of cement in 2012, a senior company executive told SeeNews last month.

Italcementi Group (www.italcementigroup.com), the world's fifth largest cement producer, operates in 22 countries worldwide. The group has 62 cement plants and over 22,000 employees. It reported a net profit of 272 million euro for 2008 on a consolidated turnover of 5.779 billion euro.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)