May 3 (SeeNews) - Romanian plastic products manufacturer Teraplast Group [BSE:TRP] said on Thursday it has posted a loss of 1.07 million lei ($265,047/ 220,000 euro) in the first quarter, compared to a net profit of 1.65 million lei in the same period of 2017.
TeraPlast's turnover almost doubled year-on-year to 131 million lei in January- March, it said in a press release. The main contributors to this increase were the businesses that joined the group's portfolio in 2017: Depaco - Wetterbest, the sandwich panel factory in Serbia and the Politub business.
"From the perspective of the TeraPlast Group's management team, 2018 began as a volatile year, and we do not have any reasons to believe that this volatility will decrease in the next quarters," TeraPlast said. "In these first three months, the competition between manufacturers was primarily on price, as showed by the Group’s EBITDA margin of 6% for Q1 2018."
The private sector will continue to drive the growth of the construction market in 2018. For the infrastructure sector, which represents 12% of the group's planned turnover for the year 2018, there are no clear forecasts, the group added.
In January, TeraPlast took control of local roof tiles producer Depaco by increasing its stake in the company to 67% and said it targets 100% ownership.
In October last year, TeraPlast opened its TeraSteel sandwich panels factory in Serbia, as well as plastic products manufacturer Politub.
TeraPlast is Romania’s leading PVC manufacturer and one of the main producers of materials for the construction and installation market. The company was founded in 1896 in Bistrita, in northern Romania, as a ceramic tiles manufacturing unit.
TerapPlast shares traded 1.39% higher at 0.4260 lei on the Bucharest Stock Exchange as of 1359 CET on Thursday.
(1 euro=4.6618 lei)