Building materials group CRH has said it has seen a "satisfactory" start to 2017.
In an interim management statement issued ahead of its AGM tomorrow, CRH said that its first quarter sales were up 4% compared with a strong first quarter of 2016 which benefited from very mild weather conditions across all its major markets.
CRH said its group EBITDA for the seasonally less significant first half of the year is expected to be ahead of last year's figure of €1.12 billion.
The company said that despite less favourable weather conditions and very challenging annual comparatives, the economic and business environment in the Americas remained positive.
Excluding the favourable impact of the strong US dollar exchange rate this year, American like-for-like sales were in line with 2016, it added.
In Europe, CRH said that like-for-like sales growth of 6% was supported by stabilising trends in certain key markets and by the timing of Easter holidays which occurred in the first quarter of 2016.
But activity in the Philippines had a slow start to the year with like-for-like sales 12% behind the first quarter of 2016 due to poor weather conditions and competitive market conditions.
Looking ahead to the second quarter of the year, CRH said that it expects some modest improvement across its main markets in Europe.
In the US, residential construction is expected to advance, while non-residential activity is also set to improve.
The company is expecting the "Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act" will result in a more positive trend for volumes in the second half of the year.
But challenging market conditions will continue in the Philippines will continue in the second half of the year, it added.
Shares in the company moved 0.67% higher in Dublin trade today.
