CRH, the world's second-largest building materials supplier, has reported higher sales and earnings for the nine months to the end of September and confirmed its full year guidance of about $5.5 billion - well ahead of last year.
In a trading update, CRH said its sales rose by 13% to $24.4 billion while its EBITDA increased by 14% to $4.2 billion.
The company said that third quarter sales in its Americas Materials division were underpinned by positive pricing initiatives across all lines of business, which offset lower activity levels which were impacted by unfavourable weather in certain markets.
The Europe Materials division saw softer activity levels in the third quarter amid a challenging energy cost backdrop.
But it said its Irish operations delivered improved sales and EBITDA in the first nine months of the year, due to strong pricing and improved activity levels.
CRH said its Building Products division saw strong growth in the third quarter led by good demand in utility infrastructure and outdoor living solutions, as well as strong contributions from recent acquisitions.
CRH CEO Albert Manifold said that notwithstanding a challenging and volatile cost environment, the company reported further growth in sales, EBITDA and margin during the first nine months of the year.
"This performance reflects the resilience of our business and the benefits of our integrated and sustainable solutions strategy," he said.
The strength of our balance sheet combined with our relentless focus on disciplined capital allocation provides further opportunities to create value for all our stakeholders," the CEO stated.
"Looking ahead to the remainder of the year we expect to deliver full-year EBITDA of approximately $5.5 billion representing another year of progress for the group," he added.
