Similar increases were seen across its other product lines as profit margins rose across the business.

A half year report released today revealed pre-tax profits increased to £44.2m for the six months to June 30 2022 from £29.1m last time as turnover increased to £222.8m from £180.3m.

Stephen Harrison Chief Executive Officer said:  “Forterra delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2022, against the backdrop of robust market conditions.

“Sales volumes were slightly ahead, limited by capacity constraints rather than demand, with our factories generally operating at capacity and with inventory levels remaining at record low levels.

“We also benefited from our ability to pass on cost inflation to our customers with two price increases delivered in the period, facilitating an improvement in margins relative to 2021 as a whole.

“We continued to produce strong operating cash flows, enabling us to progress our strategic capital investment and innovation plans. Our strong financial position allows us to increase capacity, to better serve our customers; to focus on efficiency; and to reduce our carbon footprint, thus progressing our sustainability agenda.”

The firm’s new factory at Desford is on track to start production later this year and the Wilnecote plant is closing for refurbishment in September with full reopening scheduled for October 2023.

Harrison said:  “We anticipate current trading conditions will continue in H2, despite growing macro-economic uncertainty.

“The temporary closure of our Wilnecote brick factory, ongoing capacity constraints and the closure costs and inefficiencies relating to the old Desford brick factory will influence H2 performance.

“Despite this, the performance to date and our expectations looking forward, lead the Board to anticipate a full year 2022 result slightly ahead of the Board’s previous expectations.”