Country’s largest cement maker capacity-wise UltraTech Cement has posted a 53% rise in its profit after tax for the quarter ended September 30 at INR 251 crore as compared with INR 164 crore in the corresponding period last year. The company’s net sales during the period stood at INR 1,541 crore against INR 1,396 crore up by 10%. Improved realizations, higher sales and softened fuel prices helped the company put a good quarterly show.

The 23.1 million tonne company, part of the Aditya Birla group sold 11% more cement during the quarter, with its sales volumes reaching 3.58 million tonnes against 3.23 million tonnes last year.

The company has a capital outlay of around INR 2,000 crore to be spent over the next two years. The cement division of its parent company, Grasim, will be merged with UltraTech next year, taking the company’s overall capacity to close to 50 million tonnes per annum.

Mr K C Birla CFO of UltraTech told Business Standard that “On a year on year basis, our realization improved by 6% from INR 3,530 a tonne to INR 3,740 a tonne in the September quarter. Along with that our energy costs came down 30% as captive power plants contributed 70 per cent of our requirement.”

Change over Q2 of FY09
In INR million tonnes

(Sourced from Business Standards)