East proves best for Shree Cement in June quarter

A better-than-expected recovery in cement realisations helped it beat cost pressures

Shree Cement’s Street-beating Q1 performance was led by its cement business. Though the company’s power segment reported a loss at the operating level, cement was the show-stopper, enabling Shree Cement post an Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of Rs 680 crore, which was reasonably ahead of Bloomberg consensus estimates of Rs 646 crore.

A better-than-expected recovery in cement realisations, led by price hikes since the start of April, helped the company beat cost pressures too. Per-tonne power and fuel costs increased 22 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), while freight cost jumped 25 per cent y-o-y, because of rising