Chennai: India Cements Ltd has turned out an improved performance during the fourth quarter ended 31 March aided by the improved selling prices for cement and increased volume.
According to the firm, overall cement sales including clinker was at 33.30 lakh tonnes for the quarter as against 30.93 lakh tonnes in the year ago period, registering a growth of eight per cent for the quarter under review.
The volume for the year was 124.40 lakh tonnes as against 111.75 lakh tonnes, up by 11 per cent.
The capacity utilisation of the company during the quarter was 84 per cent as compared to 79 per cent in the same quarter of the previous year.
The interest and other charges were up by Rs 11 crore at Rs 83 crore while depreciation was lower at Rs 65 crore. The resultant net profit before taxes for the quarter was Rs 62 crore against Rs 24 crores in the same quarter of the previous year.
Net profit during the quarter improved to Rs 43.85 crore compared to Rs 35.27 crore in the same quarter in the previous year.
The profit for the year was, however, lower at Rs 93 crore against Rs 116 crore on comparable basis because of the lower NPR and increase in variable cost offset to a certain extent by reduction in fixed costs, said the firm.
The firm stated that net plant realisation (NPR) during the quarter had gone up on account of improvement in selling price by six per cent over that of previous year while it was lower than that of previous year by nearly two per cent for the year as a whole.
Managing director and VC, India Cements, N Srinivasan, said, ‘Going forward, we expect good demand for cement to continue in the coming quarters. During the fourth quarter, EBITDA per tonne increased to Rs 629 from Rs 470 per tonne in the third quarter. We expect it to be better in the first quarter of current year.’
Speaking about the NDA government coming to power, he said, “The NDA government is on the right track. Certainly, it will continue to be pro-development. We expect the Government to continue its thrust on infrastructure development and housing.”