Speaking at a recent interview with CNBC-TV18, Ashish Guha, MD & CEO, Heidelberg Cements India, said it is unsure of when the sector is likely to see a pick-up: “It is difficult to say. Last time I was talking about significant price increases. We have seen some price increase after the monsoon period but we are far away from where we should be. Input cost on everything that we touch is higher.
“We have tried to better our consumption parameters in most respect and are trying further to reduce them. We can’t do anything about coal prices going up and power shortage of coal. We are in a situation where external world is pretty unkind to us.”
Asked which costs saw the biggest increased, Mr Guha said: “Both fuel and power significantly and also each raw materials ranging from 10-20% for various raw materials. Coal went up by about 35-40%, power by 20% and distribution expenses by about 10%.”
