India: ACC Cement announces capex plan of INR6bn for 2017

ACC Cement have announced a capital expenditure plan of INR6bn (US$92.4m) for the coming financial year, CEO and Managing Director, Neeraj Akhoury, said at the company's annual general meeting. Mr Akhoury said the outlay will be used for various projects.

The company reported a profit of INR6.04bn for the year ending 31 December 2016, up from INR5.87bn in 2015 and registering a growth in profit of 2.9 per cent. Revenue stood at INR11.27bn, down by 5.39 per cent since last year at INR11.91bn.

Total sales declined from 23.62Mt in 2015 to 22.99Mt in 2016, a drop of 2.7 per cent.

The cement major suffered from low capacity utilisation this past year, reaching just 75 per cent. While production took place at levels above 85 per cent of capacity in the northern, central and eastern regions, excess capacity in the south dragged down the average capacity utilisation.

On the topic of the supposed merger between ACC Cement and Ambuja Cement, Mr Akhoury said that as of now the two companies are operating as independent legal entities with separate boards and no such discussion has happened at the board level.