Etex-AR2017-WEBSITE

2.2
Activity report
Etex Building Performance
Etex Annual Report 2017
Activity report
Etex Building Performance
Preparing
for tomorrow
in Africa
Etex Building Performance faced adverse
market conditions in Africa. Concrete plans
are in place to gain market share and
enhance our local operations.
In Nigeria, the economic recession
continued. Still, we boosted our sales
thanks to a new and effective route-tomarket
strategy with reinforced sales teams
in combination with product portfolio
innovation. The earlier optimisation
of our industrial network brought us
profitability gain.
In South Africa, the country’s economic
and political instability endured. We aim
to recover profitability through a series
of cost-reducing measures. We will also
develop new products for select market
segments, redesign our route-to-market
and optimise our distribution.
qqThe Hong Kong-Zuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) and tunnel
system is one of the world’s longest undersea vehicular
tunnels. A substantial number of Promat solutions have been
used to construct this challenging civil engineering project
making it one of the largest fire-resistant board construction
jobs for the Promat tunnel segment business worldwide.
Varying results
in Asia Pacific
In the Asia Pacific region, our biggest
markets are Australia, China, Hong
Kong, Indonesia and Singapore. Our
results for 2017 vary in line with local
economic conditions.
The high-rise residential market in
Australia is gradually slowing down.
While sales for our fire protection products
and systems did well, our goal is to
safeguard our position in the fireproofing
market through product innovations.
In China, heightened local competition
impacted our sales in 2017. We finalised
the closure of our production facility
in Shanghai.
In Hong Kong, government administration
is stagnating the local construction market.
The outlook remains positive, as we
expect public spending on infrastructure
to continue.
Our business faced increased competition
in a weakening economy and construction
market in Singapore. Developing new
products and systems will prove crucial in
safeguarding our market share.
In Indonesia, we increased our domestic
sales and exports to nearby markets
such as India, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Our new
fibre cement factory in Karawang doubled
volume output and will operate at full
speed in 2018. Despite tough competition,
growth prospects are promising.
QQOur Aquaboard gypsum-based panels were widely used in
the construction of the Bacau Airport in Romania.
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