ACC net profit jumps 30% to Rs 292 cr

ACC, the country's largest cement maker, has posted a rise of 30.15 per cent in its net profit for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, at Rs 292.42 crore compared with Rs 224.68 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Its net sales during the period grew to Rs 1,678.78 crore during the quarter against Rs 1,373.51 crore last year, up 22.23 per cent.

Higher sales, improved realisation coupled with good demand scenario helped the company offset the increase in input costs mainly in coal and enabled it to put a good quarterly show.

The company is in the process of expanding its cement manufacturing capacity from the current 20 million tonnes per annum to over 27 million tonnes within two years with an overall investment of around Rs 4,000 crore.

During the September quarter, the operating profit of the company rose by 24 per cent to Rs 480.88 crore compared with Rs 387.69 crore last year.

The cement major, which has its 14 plants located across the country, produced 4.78 million tonnes of cement during September quarter, up 15 per cent from 4.16 million tonnes produced during the same period last year.

Similarly, the company sold 4.76 million tonnes of cement, up 13 per cent against 4.2 million tonnes sold in the corresponding period last year.

The cement major, in which world's second largest cement maker Holcim holds around 41 per cent stake, commissioned its first wind farm of 9 mw in its Tamil Nadu plant.

It has plans to go for similar set ups at its other cement plant locations as well. Besides, its expansion projects at Bargarh in Orissa and New Wadi in Karnataka are progressing as scheduled.

Optimistic on demand scenario in the days to come, the company in a statement, said, "The cement industry recorded a growth rate of about 7.8 per cent during the first nine months of 2007. The housing, construction and infrastructure sector continue to record strong growth which has a positive impact on cement demand."

However, depite giving a good results, markets did not welcome the results. Market experts said that higher expectations could be one of the factors which brought the dip in company's share prices on Thursday.

The stock fell by 13.86 per cent to close at Rs 1,036 against the previous close of Rs 1,202 in the weak Mumbai market.