On April 8, the CNBM Company Limited (HK.03323) Annual Results Press Conference 2023 was held in Hong Kong. Zhou Yuxian, Party Secretary and Chairman of CNBM, and Party Secretary, Executive Director and Chairman of CNBM Company Limited, Wei Rushan, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of CNBM, Deputy Party Secretary, Executive Director, and President of CNBM Company Limited, Xue Zhongmin, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of CNBM Company Limited and Chairman of BNBM, Zhao Xinjun, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of CNBM, and Party Secretary, Board Director, and President of Sinoma Tianshan, Chen Xue'an, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CNBM Company Limited, Pei Hongyan, Board Secretary and Chief Accountant of CNBM Company Limited, and Huang Zaiman, Party Secretary, Chairman and President of Sinoma Science & Technology Co., Ltd., communicated with investors and analysts, and gave detailed answers to concerns of the capital market.

Zhou Yuxian expressed his sincere gratitude to investors and analysts who long supported the development of CNBM Company Limited.

Zhou Yuxian emphasized that the basic building materials sector has accelerated transformation to lay a solid foundation for profit. The cement sector has continued to promote supply-side structural reforms and reached a stronger consensus on boosting ecological progress, and it will restore to its normal status. Moreover, it should leverage the "cement +" approach and continue to play a foundational role. The new materials sector has accelerated the development of strategic emerging sub-sectors and improved support for profit. The existing product sector further leverages strengths in technology, scale, cost, brand, and channels to enhance core competitiveness; rev up technological innovations, propel the commercialization of technological achievements, and diversify the product structure of new materials; flexibly leverage M & A to promote strategic emerging sub-sectors to accelerate reasonable planning and achieve rapid development, and attach importance to management integration after M & A for synergic effects. In the engineering and technical service sector, there are coordinated efforts to develop the engineering, equipment and services sub-sectors. With the world’s leading cement technologies, Sinoma International has switched the relations between EPC and equipment from being EPC-driven to being equipment-driven, and continuously improved its revenue and profitability after the reorganization and integration of the equipment sector.

Zhou Yuxian stated that, in 2024, CNBM Company Limited will accelerate internalization, achieving international operations of all business lines and elements and executing all processes in accordance with international standards. The basic building materials sector will expand market space through internationalization; and the new material sector will commence overseas expansion to increase global influence.

Moreover, CNBM will pay full attention to the interests of shareholders, strike a balance between value creation and value realization, emphasize effectiveness and efficiency around the total profit, the debt-to-asset ratio, the operating cash flow ratio, the return on net assets, R & D investment, and overall labor productivity, make a reasonable plan for capital expenditures, actively explore management methods for market value such as the increase of shares, repurchase, and cash dividends, and increase returns for shareholders.

Wei Rushan briefed the company's operating status. In 2023, CNBM actively responded to myriads of difficulties and challenges, and achieved an operating income of RMB210.2 billion and a net profit of RMB3.86 billion for the parent company. Its first measure was to maintain cost reduction. The basic building materials sector continued to improve energy consumption indicators, and the gypsum board, glass fiber, and waterproofing sectors continued to curtail costs which were already industry-leading; the wind turbine blade sector completed the integration of sub-sectors, continued to improve management and promote larger-sized products, and significantly expanded the scale of lithium-ion battery separator and carbon fiber manufacturing and achieved technical advantages. The second was to consolidate its position in the industry. The basic building materials sector put more efforts in integrated operations, the gypsum board and glass fiber sector improved sales strategies, and the aggregate, lithium-ion battery separator, and carbon fiber sectors expanded manufacturing scale. The third was to attach considerable importance to net cash flow from operating activities. In 2023, the net cash flow from operating activities amounted to RMB29 billion, up by 8.1% from the previous year. The fourth was to continuously increase returns for shareholders. The dividend rate increased to 50%, up by 10% from the previous year. The fifth was to complete planning for internationalization. In 2023, CNBM formulated the internationalization plan during the “14 ^th  Five-Year Plan” period and 10-year development goals; Sinoma International increased its investment in Sinoma Cement; the Zambia Industrial Park achieved a net profit of over RMB100 million; the gypsum board project in Uzbekistan was put into production and became profitable in the same year; and the wind turbine blade project in Brazil was the first such project in overseas countries. The sixth was to consistently promote green development. In 2023, CNBM formulated the implementation plan for carbon peak and carbon neutrality. The installed capacity of solar PV increased to 282MW, and the number of intelligent production lines increased to 108. Moreover, there were 48 production lines for collaborative disposal of cement kilns, with an annual capacity of 4.83 million tons. The Qingzhou Zhonglian 200,000t carbon capture project was launched.

In 2024, CNBM will make every effort to restore operating performance. It will put the 10-year action plan for internationalization into full action, promote development through reform, enable high-end transformation through technological innovations, and continue to propel green development. The basic building materials sector will focus on the “three carryover effects” to accelerate transformation towards the “cement +” model, dual carbon targets, and internationalization; and accelerate high-end, intelligent, and green transformation. In the new materials sector, the glass fiber, gypsum board, and wind turbine blade sub-sectors will continue to consolidate their leading positions, the lithium-ion battery separator, carbon fiber, and waterproofing sub-sectors will continue to expand market shares, the coatings sub-sector will ensure effective management integration with Carpoly, and the graphite and hydrogen storage tank sub-sectors will increase their contribution to incremental benefits. The engineering and technical services sector will further upgrade the integration of engineering equipment and O &M services, and continuously increase the overseas market share of engineering technology, high-end equipment and O &M services.

CNBM's management discussed with investors and analysts on industry trends, corporate business strategies and business development, internationalization, dividends, and capital expenditures.

Around 70 people attended the press conference, including employees from world-renowned investment banks such as Morgan Stanley, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, CICC, Guotai Junan, and Zhongtai Securities, as well as institutional investors and analysts.