Sri Lanka’s Tokyo Cement annual net profit falls sharply
Tokyo Cement Company, a unit of Japan’s Mitsui Mining, said March quarter group net profit fell by more than half, dragging down annual earnings by 39 per cent to LKR496m, according to a stock exchange filing.
Net profit for the March quarter fell 54 per cent to 67m rupees while turnover went up 24 per cent to LKR3.9bn.
The group’s annual turnover was up 24 per cent to LKR14bn.
Finance costs for the financial year rose by 26 per cent to LKR455m, with the March quarter seeing an even sharper rise, doubling to LKR134m.
Tokyo Cement has just doubled grinding capacity at a cost of US$20m at its grinding plant in the eastern port of Trincomalee.
A new vertical roller mill had begun trial production in March and would raise the plant’s output by 900,000t to 1.8Mta.
The firm, a joint venture with Japan’s Mitsui Mining Company and Sri Lanka’s St Anthony’s group, also has a cement bagging plant at Colombo port with a capacity of 600,000tpa. The new capacity in Trincomalee raises Tokyo Cement’s total capacity to 2.4Mta. Published under Cement News
