Tanzania Portland Cement, a subsidiary of Germany based Heidelberg Cement AG announced that its H1 net profit surged 43% and forecast higher sales for the rest of 2011 following a construction boom in the country.

The company said that posted a net profit of USD 17.6 million up from USD 11.6 million approximately TZS 19 billion year earlier.

Tanzania Portland Cement Company Limited engages in the manufacture, sale and distribution of construction cement in Tanzania. It sells cement under the Twiga Ordinary and Twiga Extra brand names through a network of distributors, as well as directly to customers. The company posted revenue of USD 65.8 million approximately TZS 106.9 billion in the H1 of 2011, a 24% increase on the same period in 2010.

According to the statement the company planned to complete work on its main cement production line in the Q1 2012.

Mr Jean Marc Junon the company's chairman said that “Imported clinker negatively impacted the costs of the first half of 2011. Such import was made necessary because of power outages and quality of electricity supply combined with subsequent production problems. With a continued strong demand for cement coupled with our ability to produce the clinker locally, TPCC should further improve its performance in the H2 of 2011."

(Filed by Matsiko Mike Steelguru Uganda correspondent)