India Cements Q3 Net slumps 98 pc to Rs 42 lakh

India Cements Ltd today reported a whopping 98.3 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 42 lakh due to sluggish market sentiment and poor demand.
The cement maker had posted a net profit of Rs 26.12 crore in the year-ago period.
"The growth (of cement industry) for the year so far has been one per cent. This is a sector which has been growing at 14 per cent. Practically, one per cent growth is no growth at all...," India Cements Ltd Vice-Chairman and Managing Director N Srinivasan told reporters here while announcing the results.
However, the company did a tad better sequentially, he said. It had posted a net loss of Rs 22.53 crore in the July-September, 2013 quarter.

"This quarter we have slightly done better than last quarter. Our net plant realisation has gone up. Sales is expected to increase this year...," he said.
For the nine month period ended December 31, 2013, the net loss of the company stood at Rs 5.29 crore as against net profits at Rs 137.27 crore registered during the corresponding period of previous year.

Total income from operations declined to Rs 1,037.64 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 as against Rs 1,083.88 crore registered during the same period of previous year.
For the nine month period ending December 31, 2013 the total income from operations stood at Rs 3,372.14 crore as against Rs 3,414.59 crore registered during the same period of previous year.

Commenting about the net plant realisation, he said it moved up by to Rs 3,466 for the third quarter from Rs 3,090 registered during the second quarter of the current fiscal.
"Volume has come down by almost two lakh. Sales has come down to 22.37 lakh tonnes in December quarter (of 2013-14) as against 24.3 lakh tonnes registered during the (sequential) quarter," he said.