Lucky Cement earned after-tax profit of PKR12.2bn (US$98.4m) in FY18 as compared to PKR13.69bn in the same period last year, said the company filing to PSX.
Experts comment that Lucky Cement's net sales grew by only 4.1 per cent YoY to PKR47.54bn despite a 9.3 per cent YoY increase in dispatches, largely due to lower retention prices during the year. Cost of sales grew by 25 per cent YoY PKR30.59bn, mainly on account of elevated coal and fuel oil prices on the international market, the devaluation of the rupee against the greenback and higher dispatches made during the year.
According to Lucky Cement, it achieved an overall growth of 9.3 per cent, reporting a total sales volume of 7.82Mt during the current fiscal year as compared to 7.15Mt sold last year. While local cement sales quantities registered a growth of 14.8 per cent to reach 6.63Mt as compared to 5.77Mt last year, local clinker sales volumes declined by 80.1 per cent to 0.06Mt during the current fiscal year as compared to 0.30Mt last year. As a result, the cement producer reported an overall local sales growth of 10.2 per cent to 6.69Mt during the fiscal year, as compared to 6.07Mt in FY17.
The exports sales volume increased by 4.6 per cent to 1.13Mt during FY18 from 1.08Mt the previous year.
In terms of projects, Lucky Cement achieved the financial close of its 660MW Lucky Electric Power company. At Pezu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, construction work started on the 2.6Mta, while at Kia Lucky Motors construction work continued and is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2019. Meanwhile, negotiations are underway for a 1.2Mta clinker line in Iraq with a financial close expected in the third quarter of 2018.
