Dangote Cement Plc, Africa’s biggest producer of the building material, reported on Friday that first-half profit increased 52 percent on record sales in Nigeria.

After-tax income for the six months through June advanced to N107.7 billion ($670 million) from N70.8 billion a year earlier.

Revenue rose 28 percent to 198.5 billion naira, as cement sales in Nigeria advanced 29 percent to 6.76 million metric tons.

Dangote Cement, controlled by billionaire Chairman Aliko Dangote, has production capacity of 19.3 million metric tons in Nigeria.

The company has three plants in Nigeria – Africa’s second largest economy and plans to expand into 13 other nations on the continent, bringing total capacity to 55 million tons by 2016.

The Chief Executive Officer, Devakumar Edwin said in his statement that Nigeria’s demand for cement remained robust across the first six months of 2013, adding that the 29.4 percent increases achieved in shipments were more than double the market’s rate of growth.

Gas supply to Dangote’s two largest cement factories in Nigeria will probably fall in the third quarter due to vandalism of pipelines in the south of the country.

The company estimates that 80 percent low-pour fuel oil will be used to run the plants this year. A factory in Senegal hasn’t been able to start production in the first half as intended because of a legal dispute over the land title.

Dangote Cement’s joint venture with Sephaku Holding Ltd. on a plant in South Africa is expected to start producing in the first quarter of 2014. The plant will have a capacity of three million tons, Dangote Cement said. Dangote Cement’s stock was unchanged at N190 naira on Friday in Lagos.

The shares have risen 48 percent this year, outpacing the 33 percent increase in the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index.