India’s Orient Cement has posted a 17 per cent QoQ decline in operating revenue to INR6.9bn (US$92.95m) in the first quarter of FY21-22, compared with INR8.32bn in the previous quarter. EBITDA also slipped 8.5 per cent QoQ to INR1.85bn, while profit after tax was down 10 per cent to INR886m. However, on a YoY basis, the company’s profit after tax more than doubled from INR256.1m in the 1QFY20-21.

"The cement industry is expected to witness a volume growth due to demand revival in infrastructure and urban housing segments, driven from a low base. However, the industry’s need to improve operating leverage with a focus on improving capacity utilisation is likely to limit price improvement. Concurrently, the recent increase in power and fuel prices may lead to margin compression, although higher volume is likely to support higher absolute profitability and debt reduction," said the company in its report.