Building materials group CRH has reported a positive start to the year with first quarter like-for-like sales up by 3% on the back of strong demand for residential construction, particularly in North America.
CRH, the world's second-biggest building materials group, also said it was seeing good underlying demand and continued pricing progress across its key markets.
In a trading update for the three months to the end of March, CRH said that a particularly strong performance in its Building Products division was partly offset by weather disruption in its materials businesses in North America and Europe.
It also noted that Covid-19 restrictions in Ireland resulted in lower cement volumes than the same time last year.
CRH said it expected first half core earnings to be well ahead of the same period last year, which was hit by the first Covid-19 shutdown.
Construction projects, many of which have had to adhere to social distancing rules, should continue to return towards pre-pandemic operation levels in the second half as the health situation continues to improve, it added.
The company said its quarterly sales fell by 1% in its largest Americas materials division, where CRH is the biggest producer of asphalt for highway construction, and were up 1% in Europe materials.
Building product sales were 12% higher due to the rise in housebuilding, it said.
Within that, architectural products sales were up 27% on strong demand for outdoor living products as people were encouraged to spend more time outdoors as lockdowns lifted.
CRH resumed a share buyback programme earlier this year, having paused it when the pandemic hit. It said today it expected to buy back a further €300m by the end of June.
It also said it has spent about $0.2 billion on four acquisitions so far this year, the largest of which was a building products pipe and precast concrete business, which expanded its Infrastructure Products footprint in the Midwest of the US.
It also completed the divestment of its Brazil cement business for $0.2 billion, as well as two smaller deals resulting in total business and asset disposal proceeds of about $0.3 billion.
Albert Manifold, CRH's chief executive, said the company had a positive start to the year in a seasonally quiet period for the business with good underlying demand and pricing progress across its key markets.
"While near-term uncertainties remain, we expect first-half profitability to be well ahead of the prior year period which experienced a heavily disrupted second quarter due to Covid-19," Albert Maniford said.
"As we look ahead to the second half of the year, we expect further normalisation in our markets as the health situation continues to improve," he added.
CRH shares moved higher in Dublin trade today.
