India: Shree Cement Q2 net profit up 18%

Shree Cement reported an 18.3 per cent YoY rise in its standalone net profit for the quarter ended 30 September 2016. Standalone net profit stood at INR2.91bn (US$43.7m) in the quarter compared to INR2.46bn in the same period last year.

Total standalone income was up 17.6 per cent to INR22.5bn in the quarter, compared to INR19.1bn last year. Total expenses registered higher at INR20.3bn against INR17.4bn in the previous corresponding quarter.

The company’s board of directors also recently cleared the proposal to enhance production capacity with an investment of INR6.5bn. The expansion project will be funded by internal accruals and consist of two new plants. Officials at the company said it has plans to set up a 3.6Mta grinding unit in Sriganganagar, Rajasthan, which will initially be set up as a blending unit. This is expected to be completed in the April-June quarter of the 2017-18 financial year.

"We have revised the expansion plans for Bihar. Instead of expanding the existing cement grinding capacity from 3.6Mta to 5.6Mta, we now propose to set up a new 5.5Mta unit in Bihar for a total investment of Rs 335 crore, The project is expected to get completed by January-March 2017-18. The existing capacity from 3.6Mta to 4.5Mta through installation of blending equipment as well as de-bottlenecking. The exercise will cost about Rs 17 crore," a company official said.

Shree Cement currency has production capacity of 27.2Mta spread across plants in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Harayana, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.