Lafarge Africa’s announcement on Wednesday of an aspiration to raise the capacity of two of its factories to 5.5 metric tonnes per annum caused its shares, which have been stuck at N157 since 27 January, to rise by 5.1 per cent.
The stock closed at N165 in Lagos, while trade volume quickened by 950 per cent to 10.5 million, its peak level in at least the last ten days.
Lafarge Africa, which manufactures cement, concrete, and aggregates, stated in a note to the Nigerian Exchange that it has lined up its Ashakacem and Sagamu plants for expansion, which will increase their annual capacity to 2 mt and 3.5 mt, respectively.
The company’s installed production capacity is currently 10.5 million tons per annum, shared across its Sagamu, Ewekoro, Ashaka and Mfamosing plants, according to information on its website.
The move is part of the first scale-up projects to be announced since last August, when Chinese-based Huaxin Cement acquired an 83.8 per cent interest in the company from Holcim, one of the world’s largest cement manufacturers.
Nigeria’s highly restrictive cement sub-sector, where just three companies – Dangote Cement, BUA Cement and Lafarge Africa – dominate, has fostered a less competitive market that has kept cement prices elevated and shut out potential players over the years.
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Those corporations have benefitted immensely from import bans and other regulator-induced barriers to entry that drove their average EBITDA margin – a measure of companies’ operating profit – to about 45 per cent as of June 2025. That figure is well above the average for both Africa and Europe.
In the nine months to September, profit after tax for Lafarge Africa expanded by 246 per cent to N208 billion, with revenue leaping to N780.5 billion from N479.5 billion in the same period of 2024.
Return on equity for the period stood at 33 per cent, compared to just 12.9 per cent a year earlier.
