CEMEX, S.A.B de C.V. (NYSE:CX) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 2, 2023 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Louisa Rodriguez - EVP, IR
Fernando Gonzalez - CEO
Maher Al-Haffar - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Gordon Lee - BTG Pactual
Adrian Huerta - JPMorgan
Paul Roger - Exane BNP Paribas
Vanessa Quiroga - Credit Suisse
Anne Milne - Bank of America
Francisco Chavez - BBVA
Carlos Peyrelongue - Bank of America
Nikolaj Lippmann - Morgan Stanley
Operator
Good morning. Welcome to the CEMEX First Quarter 2023 Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Bethany and I'll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
And now, I will turn the conference over to Lucy Rodriguez, Chief Communications Officer. Please proceed.
Louisa Rodriguez
Good morning. Thank you for joining us today for our first quarter 2023 conference call and webcast. We hope this call finds you in good health. I am joined today by Fernando Gonzalez, our CEO; and Maher Al-Haffar, our CFO. As always, we will spend a few minutes reviewing the business, and then we will be happy to take your questions.
And now I will hand it over to Fernando.
Fernando Gonzalez
Thanks Lucy and good day to everyone. I'm quite pleased with our first quarter growth achieved against a backdrop of difficult winter weather conditions in the U.S. and a strong prior year comparison base. Sales grew at a high single digit growth rate. Importantly, our largest regions accounting for 90% of sales are showing good momentum growing at a high single or double digit rate.
In terms of costs, for the first time since early 2021, there was evidence that inflationary pressure is easing. Cost of goods sold as a percent of sales was 1.1 percentage points lower than the prior year. EBITDA growth and the significant recovery in margin was driven by pricing, easing cost headwinds, as well as incremental contributions from our growth investment and urbanization solution business.
I believe this quarter marks an important inflection point in our mission to recover 2021 margins and compensate for the steep cost inflation we have experienced over the last two years.
With our growth investment strategy paying off, we continue to pursue additional bolt-on margin enhancement projects primarily in developed markets. We closed one aggregate transaction which will substantially boost our aggregate reserves for supply constrained markets.