Denmark’s FLSmidth sees slow recovery in investment by mining firms

COPENHAGEN, June 21 (Reuters) – Danish mining equipment and cement factory maker FLSmidth said on Wednesday that investment by mining firms was only slowly recovering and low prices were still weighing on the cement business.

“It is still a bumpy road ahead, investments are very low – crudely low – in the mining industry, and pricing pressure is very strong in cement,” Chief Executive Officer Thomas Schultz told Reuters at the firm’s capital markets day in Copenhagen.

“We see that there’s more willingness among miners to increase capex, but it’s a slow recovery,” Schultz said.

He also said that there were no plans to split the company into separate cement and mining businesses.

Rival Atlas Copco will split into two listed firms next year and Sandvik, another competitor, could follow suit.

(Reporting by Julie Astrid Thomsen; Editing by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Edmund Blair)