Buildmax lifts half-year revenue but is battling to become profitable
Coal mining contractor Buildmax increased revenue 29.7% to R420.5m for the first six months of its year to end-August, but the company is still struggling to become profitable. Buildmax reported a loss for the period of R24.4m. The company said trading conditions in the mining industry remained challenging. The sluggish Chinese economy and negligible growth in Europe and SA had resulted in a significant drop in demand for mining commodities, it said. Buildmax managed to reduce its headline loss per share from continuing operations by 7.9c, from 17.9c to 10c. It said that while coal prices had started to recover, Eskom’s management of coal procurement, coupled with unpredictable export demand, had resulted in very few new coal mining projects and unpredictable production calls. Buildmax said that a growing concern was that the group’s current liabilities exceeded its current assets, of which 64.2% was due to the short-term portion of its long-term debt. The company said that it was a...
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