Dubai: RAK Ceramics’ efforts to cap the impact of COVID-19 on its operations seems to have paid off, with “early signs of recovery” in from June.
Production commenced again at the India and Bangladesh factories, while in the UAE, production lines were at “optimal capacity” from July. This was brought on by a demand gain from Saudi Arabia.
The imposition of anti-dumping duties on tiles imported from India and China and the reopening of Saudi borders in June supported increased demand for RAK Ceramics products, the company said in a statement.
Deep impact
But across all its markets, only Saudi Arabia showed a plus in the second quarter. There were revenue declines in April and May as the business began to feel the impact of lockdowns and reduced demand in the construction, hospitality and airline industries.
In a statement, Abdallah Massaad, Group CEO, said: “Second quarter 2020 was a difficult period as our business is closely linked to the construction, hospitality and airline industries, which were severely impacted by lockdowns in all our major markets.
"However, in June, we began to see signs of recovery in revenue as borders opened and economies restarted. In Europe, revenue improved month by month despite continued lockdowns in the UK and Italy."
