Building material producer Cemex has reported a turnover of €78 million in Latvia in 2017, up 34 percent on 2016. And while the company failed to make a profit last year, it succeeded in reducing losses by 71 percent to €4 million through improved sales. Cemex sold 970,000 tons of cement last year with exports to Sweden and Finland rising 70 percent. Robust growth in the domestic Latvian market also aided in the improved results. However, as a result of sanctions, exports to Russia fell in 2017. The main reason behind the continued losses was the interest and depreciation on its €300 million spent on building a new cement plant in Broceni, western Latvia. The new plant allowed CEDEM to double its annual output to 1.6 million tons.
