Storage battery marlet leader Exide Industries clocked a 35 per cent rise in sales the second quarter of the current fiscal mainly on the back of strong industrial battery demand.
The segment revenue grew by 40 per cent during Q2FY09.
Gautam Chatterjee, director-industrial of Exide, said that the outlook for the coming two quarters was very positive with a healthy order book. "In the industrial segment Exide has a diversified presence, so slowdown in one sector like power has not affected demand", he added.
The automotive segment, in comparison, was marginally more affected clocking a 35 per cent growth in revenue.
"The outlook for the next half of the year is slightly uncertain, as the general slowdown has impacted the automotive manufacturing. The feel-good factor is not there", said Paban Kataky, director-automotive of Exide.
"While the passenger vehicles segment registered double digit growth during the last quarter, commercial vehicles sales, especially, light commercial vehicles(LCV), has not grown significantly", Kataky added.
Commenting on whether the delay in the Nano roll-out could impact the company's sales, Kataky clarified that sales to original equipment manufacturers did not contribute to the bulk of sales that came in from the replacement market.
Replacement sales accounted for nearly 67 per cent of the segment sales for Exide.
"While our sales will not be affected because of the delay in Nano's roll out, the investment made for producing the customised batteries for the car is temporarily blocked", he added.
Exide planned to manufacture the Nano batteries at its Shyamnagar plant to be dispatched to Singur before it could come up with a facility at the vendor park area in the Tata Motors' Singur plant.
The company posted a 25 per cent rise in net profit at Rs77.8 crore for the quarter ended September 30, and net sales stood at Rs 900.8 crore.
"Proactive steps taken during the last 12 months to secure a portion of raw materials from secondary lead indigenously available by acquiring lead smelting capacities coupled with an improved sales mix has ensured satisfactory growth despite the very challenging economic environment", said T V Ramanathan, managing director and chief executive officer, Exide.
Lead constituted approximately 70 percent of the material cost of a battery.
In June this year, Exide acquired 51 percent in a lead smelter, Leadage Alloys, for Rs35 crore.
Earlier, in October 2007, it had bought Tandon Metals limited to access recycled raw materials and cut dependence on high-cost imported lead.
