ACC, the country's largest cement maker, has posted a robust increase of 60 per cent in its net profit, at Rs 415.51 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared with Rs 260 crore in the corresponding previous quarter. Net sales during the period grew to Rs 2,077.4 crore from Rs 1,900.1 crore last year, up 9.3 per cent.
This is despite the fact that ACC's sales growth was one-fourth of the industry average. The company sold 5.01 million tonnes (mt) of cement during the quarter, a growth of 3.2 per cent against the industry's growth of close to 12 per cent.
Sumit Banerjee, managing director, told Business Standard there were four key factors for the good quarterly show. “Lower commodities prices, our internal cost management activities, better utilisation of our captive power and higher realisation helped us during the quarter," said Banerjee.
In its outlook, the company said sizeable additional capacity was expected to materialise in the country within the next year in all the regions. However, on the demand side, the company foresees good growth in demand from the infrastructure sector and other development schemes of the government.