Steppe Cement Ltd posted an increased pretax profit during the first six months of the year of US$3.8m compared with US$391,000 a year earlier.

Revenue rose to US$54.3m versus US$52.2m while operating income was up to US$6.2m versus US$3.2m.

Net profit attributable to shareholders swung to a profit of US$2.2m versus a loss US$109,000 in the same period a year earlier.

Sales volumes, however, fell by 8.3 per cent to 564,440t versus 615,838t in the first six months of 2012. The average sales price increased from USD 85/tonne to USD 96/t or 13 per cent during the period.

The company has the funds to both complete the remaining Line 5 works and make scheduled loan repayments to EBRD and HSBC until the end of the year.