ACC net up 23%; sales grew 14%

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 399.34 crore compared with Rs 324.31 crore in the previous corresponding quarter. The company's net sales during the period grew to Rs 2,164 crore against Rs 1,896.48 crore last year, up 14.1 per cent.

The industry analysts had expected March quarter to outperform the other quarters of FY09 for the cement sector on the back of improved prices and spurt in demand.

"The operations for the quarter were positively impacted through better volumes and tight control exercised 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.

The operating profit during the quarter was 42.6 per cent higher at Rs 588.29 crore. ACC, part of the Swiss cement giant Holcim, registered an increase of 6.1 per cent in its sales volumes at 5.73 million tonnes against 5.4 milliont tonnes in the corresponding quarter last year.

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 fiancial year and we expect that the outlook for cement will continue to be healthy in 2009."

ACC is adding another 8 million tonnes of fresh capacities till 2010 to take its overall cement making capacity to a little over 30 million tonnes from the current 22.63 million tonnes. It is spending Rs 1,600 crore in 2009 on its expansion projects and has earmarked a capex of Rs 1,300 crore for 2010.