Ambuja Cement Ltd of India has reported an increase in total income of 3.1 per cent and profit after tax (PAT) advance of 2.8 per cent during FY19, despite an increase of 0.6 per cent in operating expenses, according to detailed stand-alone financial result released recently.
 
The total income increased to INR120.94bn (US$1.586bn) in 2019 from INR117.32bn in the year-ago period. PAT reached to INR15.29bn in 2019 from INR14.78bn in 2018. Operating expenses increased from INR94.65bn in 2018 to INR95.19bn in 2019 and finance costs from INR820m to INR840m. The company's sales revenue grew by 3.4 per cent YoY to INR113.53bn in 2019.
 
The sales volume of cement decreased by 0.9 per cent to 23.96Mt while cement production was down by 1.7 per cent to 23.93Mt in 2019 when compared with 2018.
 
Greenfield project
Ambuja Cement is setting up a greenfield project at Marwar Mundwa, Rajasthan with total estimated investment cost of INR23.5bn. It will have clinker capacity of 3.1Mta and a cement capacity 1.8Mta. A 15MW waste heat recovery system is also planned to be part of project, which will cater to north and west regions and optimise clinker distribution in north region. The new plant will take Ambuja Cement's total installed cement capacity over the 32Mta mark.
 
Implementation is on track and production is expected to start towards the end of 2020, Ambuja's annual report 2019 said before the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.