Cement Manufacturers’ Association to release industry-wide statistics next week.

A slight decline in the demand, mainly from the semi-urban regions of the country, has put brakes on the pace of the growth of the cement industry’s despatches. Initial statistics from top players indicate that growth in September could be the poorest in the last six months. The major reason is the monsoon, which hit the demand in major parts of the country.

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Hari Mohan Bangur, president of CMA, had told Business Standard earlier that September would see relatively less growth.

For instance , Birla firms — Grasim and UltraTech, together in September saw a growth of 15.8 per cent in despatches, which in August stood at 32.15 per cent. Likewise on a month-on-month basis, despatches of Jaiprakash Associates and Shree Cement fell from 42.64 per cent to 12.74 per cent and 29.76 per cent to 13.81 per cent, respectively.

Several cement makers have registered a fall in growth on a month-on-basis, but seen a reasonable rise on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, country’s leading cement maker ACC has gone into the negative territory. The Holcim-owned company saw a 2.4 per cent dip in its September’s despatches at 1.63 million tonnes. Similarly, its sister company Ambuja Cements too could not do better and witnessed a drop of 0.73 per cent in despatches.

Industry analysts pointed out that ACC and Ambuja had not added newer capacities this year. This was making them a laggard in the industry compared to their peers, they added.

The prices in September, on an average, dipped Rs 5 a bag (each of 50 kg) across the country. Incremental capacities have gone on stream resulting in pressure on prices in some of the regions.

The 227-million-tonne cement industry is expected to add around 45 million tonnes in the current financial year. In the Eleventh Five-Year plan (2007-12), the industry is embarking on an expansion plan worth Rs 50,000 crore to take the capacity to 298 million tonnes.

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