India Cement sales firms up on realty, infra push

India Cement sales firms up on realty, infra push
06 January 2010


The December quarter witnessed a healthy performance by the cement companies in terms of production and sales figures and this indicates that the industry could witness a strong demand from the realty and infrastructure sectors in the remaining period of this fiscal.

Ambuja Cement, the third-largest cement maker, reported a rise of four per cent in dispatch to 17.29 lakh tonnes in December compared to a year-ago period. The production also surged to 17.37 lakh tones as against 16.28 lakh tones reported in December 2008.

Moreover, Jaiprakash Associates posted a growth of 60 per cent in sales in December to stood at 10.5 lakh tonnes as against 6.6 lakh tonnes cement reported in December 2008. While, for the first nine months of FY10, the company has sold 74.5 lakh tonnes as compared to 54.4 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Shree Cement, the largest cement manufacturer in northern India, witnessed a growth of 22.4 per cent in its shipments to 8.58 lakh tonnes as against 7.01 lakh tonnes a year earlier. Moreover, the company has a capacity of 9.5 million tonnes and its plants are situated in Rajasthan. The total shipments during the nine period ended December surged 24.6% to 6.77 million tonnes as against 5.43 million tonnes for the same period of 2008.

Meanwhile, ACC posted a decline in sales to 1.88Mt in December as compared to 1.90Mt reported in the same period last year. The company, in which Holcim holds more than a 46 per cent stake, said production dips to 1.86Mt from 1.91Mt a year ago.

While the Cumulative cement production of ACC during Jan-Dec 2009 stood at 21.38Mt as compared to 20.84Mt of Jan-Dec 2008 while cumulative cement despatches in Jan-Dec 2009 is 21.36Mt as compared to 20.86Mt in Jan-Dec 2008.

Moreover, Shiva Cement said that the despatch of cement and clinker during Q-3 of current FY is up by 34.9%. The dispatches on YOY basis (Apr-Dec, 2009) was up by 48.8% on YOY basis in comparison to Apr-Dec, 2008.
Published under Cement News