Sales were boosted by the acquisition of Compagnie des Ciments Belge (CCB) by Cementir subsidiary, Aalborg Portland, from HeidelbergCement, and the cement and ready-mixed concrete business of Sacci SpA in Italy by CementirSacci, a subsidiary of Cementir Italia.

CCB owns cement, aggregates and ready-mixed concrete operations, including the largest cement plant in France and the Benelux. The acquisition was finalised in October 2016 for an enterprise value of €312 million.

The Sacci assets include five cement production plants in central and northern Italy, three distribution terminals, and 28 ready-mixed concrete mixing plants. The acquisition was finalised in July 2016 for a total amount of €125 million.

Excluding the impact of the acquisitions, like-for-like sales of cement increase by 1.3% in 2016, while sales of ready-mixed concrete were up 13.7%. Sales of aggregates were down, however, by 5.6%.