Cement-maker CRH has announced improved performance in the third quarter of the year after poor weather affected sales in Europe and the US in the first six months of 2013.

Like-for-like sales were up 2 per cent on the same period last year, while Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) rose 3 per cent to €660 million, despite adverse currency exchange rates.

Sales in the first half of this year were down 6 per cent on 2012, reflecting a 10 per cent fall in European operations and 1 per cent drop in the US.

The company’s interim management statement noted that there had been a moderation in the declining demand in Europe since mid-year, while both the residential and non-residential sectors in the US were growing despite a continuing fall in infrastructure-related activities.

This resulted in like-for-like sales growth of 2 per cent for the group overall, reflecting European sales close to 2012 levels and a 4 per cent increase in the US.

This brings the cumulative decline in sales to 3 per cent for the nine months to the end of September.

Overall sales revenue for the third quarter amounted to €5.4 billion, up 2 per cent on last year. Total revenue for the year to date is €13.4 billion, 1 per cent below the 2012 figure.

The company said it expects Ebitda for the last three months of the year to be similar to 2012, assuming normal weather patterns and a stable US dollar exchange rate.

Six acquisitions were completed in the quarter, bringing cumulative acquisition and investment expenditure to €660 million by the end of September. A quarter of this expenditure was related to investments in developing regions such as the Ukraine, China and India.

Business divestments and other asset disposals since 2007 have generated approximately €2 billion.

The company said it expects to achieve savings of €195 million for 2013, with further cost reductions of €175 million to be carried out in 2014 and 2015.