Cement maker India Cements Ltd secured a net profit of Rs 43.85 crore for the January-March quarter on the back of increase in cement volumes and net plant realisations. The Vice-President and Managing Director of the company Srinivas, who announced the results, said they expected the NDA government to continue working on infrastructure development and housing in its second term.
India Cements had recorded net profit at Rs 35.27 crore during the corresponding quarter of last year. Total revenue for the quarter ending March, 2019 went up to Rs 1,581.38 crore from Rs 1,401.73 crore of the Q418. Net profits for the year ending March, 2019 stood at Rs 69.44 crore as opposed to Rs 100.62 crore registered in the previous fiscal.
Total income for the FY2018-19 increased to Rs 5,658.96 crore from Rs 5,360.13 crore in the previous year. The company board has recommended a dividend of eight per cent on equity capital. The company witnessed a 84 per cent increase in its capacity utilisation during the January-March 2019 period as compared to 79 per cent in 2018. For the year 2018-19, capacity utilisation went up 79 per cent as against 71 per cent registered in previous year.
Net plant realisation during the quarter under review went up on account of improvement in selling price by six per cent over that of previous year while it was lower than the previous year by nearly two per cent for the year ending March 31, 2019.
Henceforth, one expects good demand for cement to continue in the coming quarters. In the fourth quarter, (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) EBIDTA per tonne increased to Rs 629 from Rs 470 per tonne in third quarter. They expect it to be better in the first quarter of current year, said Srinivas.
Speaking the recent win of the NDA government, Srinivas said they expect the government to continue its thrust on infrastructure development and housing.
Commenting on Telegana, Srinivasan hopes that there would be good demand for cement with government implementing big ticket irrigation projects. The cement sales including clinker increased to 33.30 lakh tonne for March 2019 quarter as against 30.93 lakh tonne in the year ago period. While cement prices have started improving from February, it was expected they would stabilise for the near demand, he said.
The demand in the South was driven by Andhra Pradesh and Telengana mainly due to infrastructure projects, he said. The company’s volume for the year was 124.40 lakh tonne as against 111.75 lakh tonne recording a growth of 11 per cent.
