Tarmac parent company Anglo American disclosed it had taken a US$16m hit on the new enterprise because of price reductions.
Lafarge Tarmac began life on 7 January, following final clearance from the UK Competition Commission, as a pooling of the UK operations of Anglo American鈥檚 Tarmac and Lafarge of France into a 50/50 joint venture.
Anglo American said: 鈥淒ue to poor UK market conditions, the Group's share in the underlying operating loss for the newly formed joint venture was $16m. The loss was caused by lower pricing in all lines other than aggregates partly compensated by increased sales volumes across all product lines. The integration of the businesses, delivery of cost savings and synergies have progressed well.鈥�
It added: 鈥淭he market outlook remains weak for the remainder of the year, based on low levels of private and public sector construction and infrastructure spend.鈥�
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