Mill breakdown hits City Cement’s bottom line

City Cement, the company which raised just over $250m for expansion when it floated on Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange in October, has announced that net profits dropped during the fourth quarter of 2012 by 35% to $11.6m, compared with $17.7m in the same period a year earlier.

The company blamed the weaker fourth-quarter profits on the breakdown in one of its two mills, which occurred on October 24.

The mill is used to grind clinker, and anthough the company said that it was continuing to produce and store clinker to resume work once it restarts, in November it estimated that the breakdown could cost it over $13m in lost revenues.

Net profits for the full year were up by 9.11% to $64.8m.