UltraTech Cement quarterly profit rises 15% YoY

UltraTech Cement reported a 15 per cent rise in net profit of INR8.4bn (US$138m) for the first quarter of the year on cost control initiatives.

The company said it saw continuing pressure on input and logistic costs due to the increase in railway freight and a continuous hike in diesel prices. Although there was some relief on account of softening prices of imported coal, the impact was negated by the depreciation of the Indian rupee. However, optimisation of its fuel mix and other initiatives helped the Indian cement major maintain costs almost at the previous year’s level.

Combined cement and clinker sales of grey cement were 41.47Mt for the quarter ending 31 March 2014. For the full year to the end of March, combined sales reached 12.18Mt, up nine per cent YoY.

During the fiscal year, UltraTech commissioned a 3.3Mta clinker facility and a 1.45Mta cement works at Rajashree Cement in Karnataka. A 1.6Mta grinding mill at Jharsuguda in Odisha was also completed. Commissioning of these units lifted group capacity to 53.95Mta.
 
The group also commissioned thermal power plants at Rajashree Cement in Karnataka (25MW), Andhra Pradesh (25MW) and Rawan in Chhattisgarh (30MW), as well as a 6.5MW waste heat recovery system at Awarpur in Maharashtra.