Business Report on Eagle Materials Inc

Organizational Overview

Eagle Materials Inc. (Eagle Materials or EXP) is one of the leading manufacturers and distributors of building materials and construction products. The company's product portfolio includes gypsum wallboard, Portland cement, gypsum paperboard, concrete and aggregates. All the products offered by the company are used in the construction industry to build and renovate residential, commercial and industrial structures, and to build and improve the country's roads and bridges. The company operates its business through five reportable segments, which include Gypsum Wallboard, Cement, Paperboard, Concrete and Aggregates; and Others. Eagle Materials principally operates in the US region. The company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the US.

Eagle Materials Inc. is one of the leading manufacturers and distributors of building materials and construction products. The company's product portfolio includes gypsum wallboard, Portland cement, gypsum paperboard, concrete and aggregates. All the products offered by the company are used in the construction industry to build and renovate residential, commercial and industrial structures, and to build and improve the country's roads and bridges. The company operates its business through five reportable segments which include Gypsum Wallboard, Cement, Paperboard, Concrete and Aggregates; and Others. Eagle Materials principally operates in the US region. The company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the US.

Eagle Materials Inc. on May 5 reported financial results for fiscal year 2011 and the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011. Notable items for the fiscal year and quarter include the following:

Fiscal year 2011 revenues of $462.2 million.

Fiscal year 2011 net earnings of $14.8 million, or $0.34 per diluted share.

Net debt-to-total capitalization ratio of 38 percent compared to 40 percent a year ago

Fourth quarter revenues of $95.4 million.

Fourth quarter net loss of $10.8 million or $0.25 loss per diluted share.

An extended plant shutdown for maintenance and inventory control at our Illinois cement facility, combined with an exceptionally harsh winter in the Midwest, increased our fourth quarter cement operating costs by approximately $5.0 million (after-tax $0.08 per share). Additionally, our fourth quarter results reflect $10.7 million (after-tax $0.17 per share) of non-operating expenses. About $8.9 million of these non-operating expenses are associated with the write-off of deferred project costs as a result of our decision not to proceed with the Nevada Cement modernization. The remaining non-operating expenses include the write down of unused aggregates equipment at the company's Texas operation and other miscellaneous write-downs.

Strategic Assessment - External Analysis

The cement industry is ideal example of the continuous process manufacturing where the traditional mass production system is adopted in order to produce, accumulate, and move thousands tons of materials between the work areas. The nowadays challenge is to change the cement industry from traditional mass production into more effective production system aiming to increase the productivity, overall performance, and capacity utilization to meet high marker demand. The cement industry is forced to reduce the production costs and delay times in order to take advantages in the global competition environments.

Porter's Five Forces



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