Cement major ACC today clocked over 31% dip in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,077.53 crore for the year 2010 on subdued prices, contacted sales and high raw material costs.
"Profits were adversely affected by a fall in selling prices as well as by escalations in the costs of major inputs such as slag, fly ash, coal and power," the company said in a release.
ACC, in which Swiss major Holcim holds the majority stake, had recorded Rs 1,563.91 crore net profit in the January-December period of last year.
The company does not see any silver lining immediately as it believes that the pressure on selling prices would continue in the near term.
"Some bottlenecks faced by the industry like consistent supply of major inputs like coal, slag and power are likely to continue. We also expect that the pressure on selling prices will be maintained in the near term," it said.
However, it hopes that the demand for cement was likely to grow in the coming year at about 9-10 per cent and said that the company would be able to service the enhanced demand with its enhanced capacity.
ACC Ltd has already started expanding capacities in its two plants -- Wadi and Chanda in Maharashtra -- to ramp up the total installed capacity to 30 million tonnes per annum. The expanded capacity will go on stream in the first half of the current year itself.
ACC's sales turnover declined to Rs 8,258.77 crore from Rs 8,479.55 crore in 2009, registering a 2.6 per cent fall.
The company sold 21.29 million tonnes cement in 2010, a 1.1% dip from 21.52 million tonnes sales recorded in 2009.
The input costs have impacted the bottomline of all the major cement makers in 2010 as the price of coal and power jacked up.
Meanwhile, in a separate filing, ACC said that its Board has approved the amalgamation of its wholly-owned subsidiaries -- Lucky Minmat, National Limestone Company and Encore Cement & Additives -- with itself.
The company has also appointed Sushil Kumar Roongta as a director.
