JK Lakshmi Cement today reported a 35% growth in net profit for the April-June quarter of the current fiscal at Rs 22.75 crore on better prices and volume growth.
Attributing the higher net profit to better prices of the building material, JK Lakshmi's Whole-Time Director Shailendra Chouksey told PTI that the 10% growth in volume during the quarter at 1.123 million tonne over the same period last year also contributed positively to the bottomline.
The company had clocked Rs 16.81 crore net profit in the April-June quarter of last fiscal.
The turnover of the company also grew by 21% to Rs 441.45 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year over the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
Chouksey said that right from January to the middle of last month, prices of cement were good. However, monsoon and continuous low growth of cement resulted in the prices falling thereafter.
Stating that the continued lull in the demand was a matter of concern, Chouksey said that it was bound to have its repercussion on the prices in the coming quarters.
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"There are no signs of improvement in prices immediately. We are trying to meet the challenge by increased volume and better cost efficiency," he said.
The fuel prices continue to rise unabated. In fact, the company would have registered much better margins had it not been for the increase in the fuel and logistic costs, which also registered substantial increase during the quarter.
Chouksey said the work on grinding unit in Haryana and 2.7 million tonne greenfield project at Durg were progressing "satisfactorily". However, no time-frame was given.