Saint-Gobain Sales For The First Nine Months Of 2009

This was more than offset by the 1.5% negative currency effect resulting chiefly from the slide in the pound sterling and Brazilian real. On a like-for-like basis, consolidated sales contracted by 14.5% over the nine months to September 30, 2009.Sales prices continued to prove resilient (up 1.2%) despite a 15.7% drop in volumes.
 
In the third quarter, consolidated sales came in at €9,720 million versus €11,294 million for the year-earlier period, representing a decline of 13.9%. Organic growth stood at -12.7% (reflecting a 0.2% price increase and a negative 12.9% volume effect), following negative organic growth of 15.9% in the second quarter and 14.9% in the three months to March 31, 2009.
 
After extremely tough conditions in all of the Group’s markets and geographic areas over the first half of the year, third-quarter figures show a relative improvement. However, although the overall climate is no longer deteriorating, economic conditions remain very depressed in most of the Group’s markets and signs of recovery are weak for the time being. Only Latin America and Asia reported a significant pick-up in trading (delivering organic growth of close to 9% between the second and third quarters) and appear to have put the crisis behind them. In contrast, while business appears to be broadly stabilizing in both western and eastern Europe as well as North America (with improvements in some industrial sectors such as automotive), trading remains at a low level in both housing and industrial markets. Household consumption continued to hold firm in all areas where the Group has operations.
 
All of the Group’s Business Sectors and divisions except Packaging continued to report sharp declines in sales volumes over the nine-month period, although the pace of decline slowed compared with the first half. With the exception of Flat Glass, sales prices remained upbeat across all Sectors and divisions. The Group therefore continued to benefit from a positive spread with respect to raw materials and energy costs. As expected, the increase in prices was smaller than in first-half 2009, due mainly to the high basis for comparison (3.8% price increase in third-quarter 2008).