Cement sales growth likely to be marginal in February

The domestic cement industry is likely to register a marginal growth in February, on the back of less demand despite the start of the peak season.

Ambuja Cement, which is owned by the Switzerland-based Holcim, has performed relatively well as its cement sales jumped five per cent. While, ACC, Ambuja’s sister-concern, came up with a robust growth of 17 per cent, with a despatch of two million tonnes. However, this high growth is mainly because of the low-base as the sales of ACC were down last year.

UltraTech Cement, part of the Aditya Birla group, registered a sales growth of 4.2 per cent at 3.3 million tonnes. Whereas, Dalmia Cement posted a high growth of 20 per cent in its despatches.

According to the industry analysts, the high sales could be because of stocking by cement dealers amid high pricing scenario.

The last two months have already seen a rise of Rs 40 for a 50-kg-bag of cement from Rs 225 to Rs 265. And with companies in no mood to soften prices till June, and the recent rise in cement prices by Rs 5-10 a bag have confirmed that rates would only go up.

In October last year, it was stocking by dealers only which had brought an aberration in the sales growth at 18 per cent which was followed by negative growth in the following months.

Industry experts added that February saw the seasonal growth in demand for cement but there was no remarkable increase. The Cement Manufacturers’ Association will release the industry’s entire sales statistics next week. Cement analysts said there will be a marginal rise in sales in February.

At present, industry has an installed capacity of close to 300 million tonnes with over 50 players.