The first three months of 2022 have seen group sales for building materials firm CRH rise 15% compared to those of last year. This is despite the challenges over the last period. The Irish company released the results in their last trading update, indicating that sales were up 13% on a like-for-like basis, with earnings and margin expected to be up on the same period in 2021.
CRH’s building products division saw first quarter sales up 22% on 2021 on the back of residential construction growth, particularly in North America.
It confirmed that Europe materials sales were 11% ahead of 2021 in the first quarter, with strong demand and milder weather in most key markets. Sales for CRH’s Americas materials business were 13% ahead of the same period in 2021.
On the back of positive demand in North America and demand for building products, and assuming normal weather and no economic “dislocations”, CRH said group sales earnings and margin for the first half of the year are set to be up on 2021.
CRH chief executive Albert Manifold, commented that, “The continued delivery of our solutions strategy resulted in a good start to the year. Although a number of challenges and uncertainties continue, our demand backdrop remains favourable and absent any major dislocations in the macroeconomic environment, we expect first-half sales, EBITDA and margin to be ahead of the prior year period.”
CRH’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were $5.35bn (€4.82bn) in 2021, up 16% on 2020. On a like-for-like basis, EBITDA was 11% ahead of 2020.