August 12 -- Tangshan Jidong Cement (000401) posted 38-percent growth in net profit to 748 million yuan in the first half on revenue growth of 56 percent to 7.14 billion yuan, reports yicai.com. All percentage changes cited in this article are year-on-year.

The firm produced 25.78 million tons of cement in the first half, up 48 percent. It produced 25 million tons of clinker, for a 44-percent increase. Sales of cement and clinker together totaled 32.81 million tons in the first half, up 47 percent.

Gross margins rose 2.24 percentage points to 32.74 percent in the first half due to higher cement prices and Jidong Cement’s cost control efforts.

But the company’s earnings growth is far below than competitor Conch Cement (600585), which forecasts 200 percent growth for the first half.

Statistics published by dcement.com show that China’s cement production grew 19.6 percent to 950.83 million tons in the first half. Total investment on cement dropped 15.34 percentage points to 65.4 billion yuan in the first half. Some 22 major cement suppliers produced 53 percent of China’s total production.