Dangote Cement Plc has disclosed that fuel and power consumed by the company increased by 34.4%. That is, to N196.634 billion in 2021 and from N146.342 billion in 2020.
The Group Chief Financial Officer, Dangote Cement, Mr. Guillaume Moyen, disclosed this at the company’s 13th AGM. He said the increase was because of volume growth and inflationary pressures on the costs.
Moyen said, “Manufacturing costs increased by 25.8% to N551.0 billion from N437.9 billion in 2020. while fuel and power consumed increased by 34.4% to N196.6 billion from N146.342 billion. And also materials consumed increased by 30% to N175.4 billion from N134.91 billion. The Nigerian naira depreciated from N401/1US$ at the end of 2020 to N424/1US$ at the end of 2021.”
“Thanks to our continuous cost control efforts, total selling and administrative expenses only rose by 19.6% to N256 billion in 2021 mainly from higher haulage expenses which are driven by volume, AGO costs and other general administrative expenses. Inflationary pressure and the foreign currencies’ conversion to Naira is driving part of this increase”.
The Group Managing Director, Michel Puchercos said one of the biggest challenges the company faced in 2021 was the increased inflationary pressure across cost lines.
Puchercos said: “We experienced a significant increase in our energy costs and spare parts. Some of these cost pressures were due to the depreciation of the Naira while others were due to macro-economic inflationary pressure, especially in our domestic market Nigeria, where average inflation was at 16.95% in 2021.
-Nairametrics.