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UltraTech Cement, an Aditya Birla group company, reported that its net profit in the March quarter was up 47 per cent at ₹2,614 crore (₹1,774 crore) on the back of higher realisation and tax write-back of ₹198 crore.
The company board recommended a dividend of ₹38 per equity share, aggregating to ₹1,097 crore.
Income increased 10 per cent to ₹15,860 crore (₹14,466 crore). Overall expenses were up 15 per cent to ₹13,604 crore (₹ 11,790 crore).
Sales volume was down marginally 0.3 per cent at 27.69 million tonne. EBITDA was down 16 per cent at ₹3,165 crore.
After a slow start to the quarter, demand improved driven by various government projects. Input cost inflation remains a concern with the rise in fuel and diesel prices.
The company's energy cost increased 47 per cent to ₹3,968 crore (₹2,704 crore) with prices of petcoke and coal doubling in the period under review.
Raw material cost increased 7 per cent on account of the increase in the cost of fly ash, bauxite, gypsum and High Speed Diesel.
The company’s efforts towards prudent working capital management and control on cash flows, continued relentlessly.
Capacity utilisation
The effective capacity utilisation of the company was at 90 per cent during the quarter.
It commenced 42 MW of WHRS (waste heat recovery system) capacity during the year. With this, the company’s total WHRS capacity stands augmented to 167 MW covering nearly 16 per cent of its current power needs. This is expected to increase to 280 MW by end of FY23, after completing the on-going expansion, the company said. UltraTech remains focused on accelerating the decarbonisation of its operations.
UltraTech said its capital and financial resources remain fully protected and the liquidity position is adequately covered.
Rural and urban demand is also expected to pick up going forward which augur well for the company, it said.
Kunal Motishaw, Research Analyst, Reliance Securities, said the company is expected to sustain better-than-industry growth going forward and add huge capacity of 19.5 million tonne FY'23. Further, operating cash flow generation has been quite healthy in recent years, mainly supported by steady realisation and operating efficiencies, which have already enabled the company to de-leverage its balance sheet meaningfully, he added.
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