Ultratech Cem

Higher costs and pricing being under pressure, pushed down the Q1FY15 consolidated net profit of this Aditya Birla company, down 6% (YoY) at Rs.628 crore though net sales was down 14% at Rs.5989 crore, this includes those of Gujarat units of Jaypee Cement Corp. During the quarter domestic cement sales volume improved 14% (YoY). The combined cement and clinker sales during the quarter stood at 11.70 million tonnes (MT) compared to 10.08 MT in the same period a year ago. The sale of white cement and wall care putty increased marginally to 2.57 lakh tonnes from 2.50 lakh tonnes.  Variable cost rose 3% mainly on account of increase in prices of petcoke and input material.

The company commissioned a 25 mega watt (MW) thermal power plant at Rajashree Cement, Karnataka, and a 6.5 MW waste heat recovery system at Awarpur in Maharashtra. Its installed capacity  post Jaypee’s acquisition, the capacity has gone up to 58.8 mtpa and by 2016 it hopes to reach a capacity of 70 mtpa.  The company has planned on capex of Rs.10,000 crore, which will be spent on setting up the remaining grinding units, clinkerisation plants, cement terminals and other capex in the current round of expansions. These are likely to be commissioned in a phased manner by 2015. Looking ahead, the company is expecting cement demand to grow at around 7-8% and expects double digit growth in H2FY15, with key drivers being Govt push to build infra and housing.