On March 27, CR Cement announced the annual results of 2019. In 2019, the Company's consolidated turnover amounted to HK$39.0 billion, representing an increase of 0.4% over last year. Profit attributable to owners of the Company amounted to HK$8.6 billion, representing an increase of 8.1% over last year, reaching the historical new high. The annual dividend was HK$0.595 per share, representing a dividend payout ratio of 48.2%.

As a large-scale and competitive cement, clinker and concrete producer in Southern China, as at 31 December 2019, the Group had 96 cement grinding lines and 45 clinker production lines in operation, with annual production capacity of 84.3 million tons of cement and 61.3 million tons of clinker respectively, as well as 61 concrete batching plants with annual production capacity of 36.9 million m³ of concrete. In addition, The respective annual production capacities attributable to the Group according to our equity interests in these associates and joint ventures were 20.2 million tons of cement, 11.6 million tons of clinker and 4.4 million m³ of concrete.

In 2019, in order to enhance the operational efficiency of production plants, the Group continuously implemented delicacy management of production operation, strengthened internal benchmarking management. The Group continuously promoted informatization, digitalization and intelligentization. Pilot projects of intelligent manufacturing had been rolled out at the cement production plants located in Tianyang and Nanning, Guangxi as well as Fengkai, Guangdong. Meanwhile, The Group is committed to production safety standardization and raising the overall standards of safety management. As of the end of 2019, 28 cement production plants of the Group (inclusive of grinding stations) have passed the on-site assessments as the First-Class Enterprise in National Production Safety Standardization.

Through its positioning in Southern China, the Group promotes transformation and innovation, and actively explores opportunities for extension of industrial chain. The Group has achieved breakthroughs in the new businesses of aggregates, prefabricated construction and engineered stones.  The Group acquired the mining rights of aggregate quarries located in Wuping County, Longyan City, Fujian and Shangsi County, Fangchenggang City, Guangxi in November 2019 and March 2020 respectively, and proactively explores the opportunities for the development of aggregates in the regions where it has business operation. Prefabricated construction business is one of the Group’s key new businesses for future development. Prefabricated construction business is one of the Group’s key new businesses for future development. So far, the Group has 7 prefabricated construction projects, among which, projects in operation include Dongguan RunYang in Guangdong and Nanning Hongji in Guangxi; projects under construction include Nanning City and Guigang City in Guangxi as well as Zhanjiang City in Guangdong. In January 2020, the Group successfully acquired lands for prefabricated construction in Jiangmen City, Guangdong and Laibin City, Guangxi, with planned design annual production capacity of precast concrete components of approximately 50,000 m³ and 200,000 m³ respectively. In 2019, through Runfeng New Materials, the Group acquired 40.0% equity interests of Universal Marble, meanwhile, the Group proactively strengthened the capability in R&D, realized the development of the products, promoted the enterprise strategic transformation, created business synergy values and achieved the development strategy for extension of industry chain.

The Group proactively responds to the policy on energy saving and emission reduction, in reliance on independent innovation, the Group continuously promotes co-processing projects in the three scopes of municipal solid waste, urban sludge and hazardous industrial waste. As of the end of 2019, the Group had 8 co-processing projects in total. Annual Processing Capacity reached 1,250,000 tons.

During the period of the "Thirteenth Five-Year National Work Plan", the Group will be committed to developing the three core strengths of the "lowest total costs, leading market position in the region, innovation-driven development", to further improve the quality and efficiency of the operation. The Group will be continuously committed to enhancing the efficiency and quality of the operation, and further improving the standard of environmental protection and management of the safety and health. The Group will deepen brand marketing and the construction of sales channels, strengthen the capability in R&D of new products, new technologies and new materials for the creation of competitive advantage by differentiation. The Group will fulfill corporate social responsibility, promote co-processing by use of cement kilns and foster green development of the industry. In addition, In addition, the Group will grasp the opportunities in the development of the Greater Bay Area, accelerate the pace of transformation and innovation, and promote the development strategy for extension of industry chain and motivate the sustainable development of the cement industry in China.