ACC net up 23 per cent

Analysts had expected the quarter to be the best for the sector.

ACC, the country’s largest cement maker, has posted a rise of 23.1 per cent in its net profit for the quarter ended March 2009, at Rs 399.3 crore compared with Rs 324.3 crore in the previous corresponding quarter. Net sales during the period grew to Rs 2,164 crore against Rs 1,896.58 crore last year, up 14.1 per cent.

Analysts had expected the March quarter to be the best for the sector in FY09, on the back of improved prices and a spurt in demand.

“The operations for the quarter were positively impacted through better volumes and tight control on costs,” said ACC in a statement. While power and fuel costs went up by 12 per cent, overall manufacturing cost increase was contained within 5 per cent, it added.

Operating profit during the quarter was 42.6 per cent higher, at Rs 588.3 crore. ACC, part of Holcim, the Swiss cement giant, registered an increase of 6.1 per cent in its sale volumes, at 5.7 million tonnes (mt). In its outlook, the company said, “Owing to brisk demand for cement emerging from rural housing and various infrastructural projects, India’s cement industry recorded a growth of 9 per cent in the March quarter. A number of new capacities are scheduled to go on stream in the second half of the current financial year and we expect the outlook will continue to be healthy in 2009.”