Cost pressures intensify for UltraTech in Q2, analysts foresee price hike

Realisation improvement remains crucial for profitability, which is expected post festive season

UltraTech Cement’s September quarter (Q2) performance was healthy in terms of volume growth and realisation, but higher costs impacted profitability. Analysts, though are hopeful that the coming quarters will be better.

Domestic sales volume growth at 21 per cent year-on-year to 15.1 million tonnes (MT) stands out (including exports, volumes at 15.7 MT were up 20 per cent). Though volumes were 10 per cent down sequentially, the same is understandable given that Q2 is seasonally weak on account of monsoon. Nevertheless, volume is closer to the upper-band of estimates of 15.5-16 MT. Also, UltraTech’s volume growth was significantly better than