DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd (DSCL) expects its sugar output to go up by about 44 per cent to around 3.9 lakh tonnes in the current 2011-12 season (October-September) on the back of higher cane crushing as well as better recovery.

“We plan to crush about 40 lakh tonnes of cane, a 35 per cent increase over last year's 29.7 lakh tonnes,” said Mr Ajit S. Shriram, Deputy Managing Director, DSCL. The company is targeting a higher recovery of 9.8 per cent for the current season with favourable weather conditions aiding the crop.

The higher cane crushing is on account of better yields due to the change in varietal mix on the field and also an in the company's cane area which has gone up by about 10 per cent this year, Mr Ajay S. Shriram, Chairman and Managing Director told Business Line .

Higher yields

The cane productivity improvement project started with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) about two years ago covering about 2,000 farmers in Central Uttar Pradesh on a pilot basis has begun to pay off resulting in better yields. “We plan to expand the programme to another 3,000 farmers by next season,” Mr Shriram said.

DSCL, a diversified industrial group with interests in fertilisers, bio-seed and chlorovinyl business, is one of the large domestic sugar producers. It has four sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh with a total crushing capacity of 33,000 tonnes crushed per day. The sugar business accounted for 14 per cent of the company's revenue in fiscal 2011.

Mr Vikram S. Shriram, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, said the higher sugar output should help the company to better its financial performance in the second half of the current fiscal.

For the September quarter, DSCL posted a loss of Rs 38.4 crore on revenue of Rs 1071.3 crore as against a loss of Rs 29 crore on revenue of Rs 1052.8 crore in corresponding last year.

The DSCL scrip gained 3.5 per cent on the BSE to close at Rs 43 on Monday. The company also informed the exchanges that another 8 lakh shares were pledged with the IFCI recently as part of the margin requirement. In August, the promoters had earlier pledged 86 lakh shares with IFCI to raise a loan.

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