(Hong Kong, 8 March 2015) – China Resources Cement Holdings Limited ("China Resources Cement" or the "Company", SEHK stock code: 1313, and together with its subsidiaries, the "Group"), one of the leading cement and concrete producers in Southern China, announced its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2014.

In 2014, the Company's consolidated turnover rose to HK$32.67 billion, representing an increase of 11.3% over 2013. Profit attributable to owners of the Company achieved a growth of 26% year-on-year to HK$4.21 billion. Consolidated gross profit margin increased by 2.8 percentage points to 31.3%, mainly due to increase in selling price and sales volume. The net profit margin of the Company increased by 1.4 percentage points year-on-year to 12.6%. The basic earnings per share reached HK$0.644. As of the end of 31 December 2014, the total asset of the Company was 57.5 billion, the net gearing ratio was 57.2%, and net assets per share was HK$4.31. The Board of the Company resolved to declare a final dividend of HK$0.10 per share for the Period (12 December 2013: HK$0.07) with a dividend payout ratio of 26.4%.

Mr. Zhou Longshan, the Chairman and Executive Director of China Resources Cement said, "In 2014, the Chinese government launched a series of policies and measures to ensure steady economic growth, promote reform and restructuring, improve people's livelihood and control risks, which maintained a stable growth of economy. During the year, FAI and consumption remained the key drivers of economic growth: FAI (excluding rural households) was increased by 15.7% to RMB50.2 trillion, and the investment in infrastructure (excluding power supply) was RMB8.7 trillion, representing an increase of 21.5% over the last year. In order to cope with the pressure of domestic economic downturn, the government has accelerated the approval of infrastructure projects, loosened the control measures on real estate market, which will provide the impetus for the recovery of the cement industry."

In 2014, the total cement production increased by 1.8%, reaching 2,480 million tons. According to the statistics of China Cement Association, the cement productions in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan, Shanxi, Yunnan and Guizhou were 147.4 million tons, 106.5 million tons, 77.3 million tons, 21.5 million tons, 45.4 million tons, 94.9 million tons and 93.9 million tons, representing changes of 12.8%, -0.04%, -1.4%, 8.3%, -7.7%, 4.1% and 15.5% respectively as compared to the preceding year.

In July 2014, A document regarding the capacity replacement of several severe overcapacity industries was released, which required those industries, including the cement industry, to strictly control new capacities and to establish capacity replacement mechanism. Among which, capacity reduction and replacement schemes are required to be implemented in the regions of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions. In December, the Standardization Administration Commission of China published the revised standard for Common Portland Cement which abolished the PC32.5 grade cement, so as to raise the quality of cement products.

During the year, our external sale volume of cement, clinker and concrete increased by 4.9 million tons, decreased by 1.9 million tons and increased by 715,000 m3, representing an increase of 7.3%, decrease of 23.9% and increase of 4.7% respectively over 2013. The average selling prices of cement, clinker and concrete were HK$338.2 per ton, HK$267.2 per ton and HK$422.7 per m3, representing year-on-year increases of 5.3%, 7.9% and 10.0% respectively. The utilization rates of our cement, clinker and concrete production lines were 99.3%, 117.1% and 42.4% respectively.

Enhance Regional Market Advantages

In 2014, the Group continued to adopt the "full-scaled production and sale" marketing strategy and to further solidify our regional market share and leading position: The cooperative sales program with Fujian Energy Group Company Limited is effectively implementing and further strengthening our market influence in Fujian market. During the year, the Group completed the construction of a 5000 tons per day clinker production line and two cement grinding lines at Jinsha County, Guizhou Province and a 5000 tons per day clinker production line and two cement grinding lines at Midu County, Yunnan Province, which which increased the Group's total annual clinker and cement production capacities by 3.2 million tons and 4.0 million tons respectively. The Jinsha project represents our first set of production lines in Guizhou and a milestone of the Group's regional market development.

Strengthen the Production Cost Control

In 2014, in response to the downward trend of coal market in China, the Group made reasonable adjustments to the structure of procurement channels, resulting in effective control of procurement costs and enhancing risk control capability. During the year, the Group purchased 9.3 million tons of coal, representing an increase of 2.2% over the previous year, of which, approximately 73%, 17%, 2% and 8% were sourced from northern China, neighbouring areas of our plants, Vietnam and other countries. During the year, the Group's direct coal procurement from coal supplier was approximately 68%.

The Group continued to adopt multiple logistic channels, including waterway freight, road freight and transhipment. As at 31 December 2014, through owning of vessels and tendering for shipping services, the Group has secured 670,000 tons of shipping capacity on the Xijiang River, with annual shipping capacity of about 30 million tons. In addition, the Group has controlled the operation of 57 silo terminals with an annual capacity of 38.6 million tons, enhancing our competitive advantage in terms of logistics and transportation in the Pearl River Delta Region.

Promote Green Development

The Group actively promotes green development and responds to the national call for energy saving and emission reduction: all our 41 clinker production lines are equipped with the advanced NSP technology, have completed technological upgrade on denitrogenation and are in full compliance with the latest standards on the emission levels of nitrogen oxides. As regards dust emission, we have completed technological upgrade on dust collection systems of 10 production plants and are in the progress of tendering the technological upgrade for 28 production plants. In 2014, the Group has continued to promote standardization on production safety. Fourteen of our cement production plants have been accredited the First-Class Enterprise in Production Safety Standardization by the State Administration of Work Safety in China.

In addition, the Group achieved a breakthrough in urban waste coprocessing projects. By leveraging extensive experiences from international cement equipment manufacturers, the Group collaborated with them in promoting the relevant technologies in China. Construction of urban waste co-processing projects in our cement plants at Luoding County, Guangdong and Binyang County, Guangxi has commenced, signifying a new page for the green development of the Group.

Mr. Zhou Longshan concluded, "Looking ahead, the Chinese government will strictly control new capacity expansion, actively eliminate obsolete ones, and raise the standards of environmental protection and production of the industry so as to improve the supply and demand dynamics and promote the long term healthy development of the cement industry. The promotion of infrastructure construction, the stabilization of the real estate market as well as the development projects of 'One Belt and One Road', 'the Synergetic Development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei' and the Yangtze Economic Zone will help to stabilize the medium and long term demands of the cement industry. We will persistently adhere to the '3+2' development strategy through control, conversion and distribution of resources, making us the producer with the lowest total cost and leading market position in the region. While promoting lean management, cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, we will continue to seek acquisition opportunities in the regions where we have presence, strengthen research and innovation, promote green development and contribute to the healthy development of the cement industry in China."