Comments
The Ramco Cements Ltd expects to commission the ₹475 crore grinding unit in Vizag in AP in April.
The company says that while it has witnessed increase in cement sales in Kerala and West Bengal, in other states where it has operations the demand for cement has become sluggish.
Financials
In its unaudited standalone results for the three months ending Dec 31, 2014, Ramco Cements (earlier known as Madras Cements), showed a decline in income from operations to ₹815.93 crore as against ₹868.20 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous fiscal. The net profit for the quarter fell to ₹22.96 crore from ₹25.59 crore in the same quarter in 2013-14.
Sales
In the first nine months of the current fiscal, Ramco Cements sold 56.59 lakh tonnes of cement in the domestic market as against 62.01 lakh tonnes in the corresponding nine months in the previous year. Exports amounted to 1.29 lakh tonnes (1.49 lakh tonnes), taking the total sales to 57.88 lakh tonnes in the first nine months of 2014-15 (63.50 lakh tonnes).
Production
Ramco Cements said that the cement production was lower by 8 per cent and sales fell by 9 per cent in the April-Dec 2014-15 FY compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. The company had witnessed an increase in cement sales in Kerala and West Bengal. But in the other states where it has operations- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, AP, Telengana and Odisha, the sales had declined which it attributed to `slackness in demand’.
The company expects the 1 million tonnes per annum grinding unit being established at Vizag in AP at an investment of ₹475 crore to be commissioned in April this year. The project has been delayed, among other things, because of the damage caused by cyclone Hudhud.
Shares of Ramco Cements (face value Re 1) are trading at ₹336, down by ₹16.35, on the NSE.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.