CRH expects full year earnings to grow by 10% on a like-for-like basis, the world's second-largest building materials supplier said today.
This comes after it increased prices by double-digit percentages in the first half of the year.
CRH reported a 13% rise in first-half core earnings to $2.2 billion and that it expected that to rise to $5.5 billion for the year despite a "continually challenging cost environment".
It said its profit margins grew by 90 basis points to 14.7% to the end of June.
Its shares rose today as it said its revenues for the six months to the end of June increased by 14% to $15 billion.
CRH said that despite adverse weather conditions impacting activity levels in some regions, strong pricing across all product categories resulted in like-for-like sales in Americas Materials 12% ahead of 2021.
It said its Building Products business benefited from good residential repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) and utility infrastructure activity in North America and Europe as well as contributions from acquisitions made in 2021.
In its Europe Materials, CRH said that strong pricing momentum across all products and good demand in key markets resulted in like-for-like sales 14% ahead of 2021.
The company also noted that its businesses in Ireland had a positive start to the year with strong demand in all key products compared to last year, which was impacted by Covid-19 restrictions.
Operating profit was ahead of the same time last year, it added.
After the sale of its Building Envelope business in April, CRH said it had invested $2.8 billion in acquisitions so far this year, including the purchase of Barrette Outdoor Living for an enterprise value of $1.9 billion.
"Our acquisition pipeline remains strong and our significant balance sheet capacity provides flexibility to capitalise on these opportunities to deliver further value for our shareholders," the company stated.
CRH also said it has decided to increase its interim dividend to 24 cents per share, an increase of 4% on the same time last year.
"CRH has delivered another strong performance with further growth in sales, EBITDA and margin despite a challenging and volatile cost environment," the company's chief executive Albert Manifold said.
"This performance reflects the continued execution of our integrated and sustainable solutions strategy. Looking ahead, despite some continued cost headwinds, the strength of our balance sheet and resilience of our business leaves us well positioned to deliver superior value for all our stakeholders," he added.
Looking ahead, CRH said that against a challenging inflationary cost backdrop, its Americas Materials Division is expected to be supported by resilient underlying demand as well as commercial and operational excellence initiatives.
It said its Building Products Division is expected to benefit from positive underlying residential RMI and utility infrastructure demand as well as contributions from recent acquisitions.
In Europe Materials, it said it expects the trading environment to remain challenged by inflationary cost pressures, macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions.
"Assuming normal weather patterns for the remainder of the year and absent any major dislocations in the macroeconomic environment, we expect full-year EBITDA to be in the region of $5.5 billion against a continually challenging cost environment," it added.
CRH said resilient demand for infrastructure projects and repair, maintenance and improvement works would boost its US operations, which make up 75% of group earnings and where it is the biggest producer of asphalt for highway construction.
While it added that macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and inflationary cost pressures would continue to test Europe, CFO Jim Mintern said publicly funded infrastructure projects - which make up 50% of CRH's total revenue - would underpin activity from Eastern Europe to the UK.
Residential projects in Europe are cooling but CRH are not seeing a dramatic fall, Mintern added.
Shares in the company rose in Dublin trade today.
