Interview - Heidelbergcement's Crisis-Hit Bosnian Unit TCK Strives to Remain Profitable in 2009

KAKANJ (Bosnia and Herzegovina), August 26 (SeeNews) - The half-year net profit of Bosnia's Tvornica Cementa Kakanj (TCK), majority-owned by Germany's HeidelbergCement, fell by nearly a third from the same period of 2008 due to the global economic downturn but the company strives to remain profitable by cutting costs, TCK director general Branimir Muidza told SeeNews in an interview. After raising its net profit by 38% to 48.96 million marka ($35 million/25 million euro) last year thanks to record-high cement output of 770,000 tonnes, TCK saw its fortunes dwindling in the first half of 2009, when net profit shrank 27% year-on-year to 20.8 million marka.