Birla group beats Holcim again in despatches

Riding on the back of volume expansion, the Aditya Birla group has once again left the Swiss cement giant Holcim far behind in the domestic operation in terms of cement despatches for the second time in a row in April. The Birla group, which comprises UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries, registered over two times increase in its despatch growth than the Holcim group which controls majority stake of 46 per cent in ACC and Ambuja Cements.

The Birla group despatched 3.18 million tonnes of cement in April - a rise of 17.34 per cent against 2.71 million tonnes in the corresponding month last year. Holcim could see a despatch growth (despatches of ACC and Ambuja) of only 7.17 per cent in April at 3.44 million tonnes against 3.21 million tonnes last year in the same period.

Industry analysts said that low despatch growth was expected in case of ACC and Ambuja as the two companies were having capacity constraints whereas Birla group has been constantly raising its capacity. “Grasim had a significant capacity expansion of grinding units in the later part of last year which helped the company increase its volumes,” said an analyst with a domestic brokerage firm. Moreover, now that the demand is robust and the prices are firm, Birla firms are successfully reaping the benefits. UltraTech has already inched very close to ACC in terms of capacity at 21.9 million tonnes, just 0.7 million tonnes lesser than ACC.

In March, the Birla group despatched 3.37 million tonnes of cement - a rise of 11.24 per cent against 3.03 million tonnes in the corresponding month last year. However, Holcim could see a rise of mere 2.75 per cent in its despatches at 3.73 million tonnes in March against 3.63 million tonnes last year in the same period. The cement capacity of Aditya Birla group is scheduled to go over 45 million tonnes with its expansion projects whereas Holcim’s overall expansion will take its capacity to around 50 million tonnes in the next one and a half year. However, taking into consideration the B K Birla’s Century Textiles and Industries’ cement capacity, the Birla group will be around 54 million tonnes.

The 212-million-tonne domestic cement industry is expected to add around 30-35 million tonnes of fresh capacities in the current financial year. Since November last year, the industry is consistently maintaining a despatch growth of over 8 per cent. In December, the growth had even touched 12 per cent on the back of demand from the semi-urban regions for low housing projects, pre-election demand for infrastructure and personal housing segment.