India Cements (ICL) has reported a 72% drop in net profit for the quarter ended June to R16.82 crore compared to R62.07 crore in the same quarter of the last fiscal, owing to a sharp drop in per-tonne net realisation, forex translation charges and a CCI penalty. However, total income grew 3% on higher productivity, said N Srinivasan, vice- chairman and managing director, India Cements.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said: “We lost nearly R100 crore in topline growth owing to a sharp decline in net realisation per tonne, from R3,550 to R3,185 in the current quarter, owing to sluggish market conditions as well capacity overhand, particularly in Andhra Pradesh. This, coupled with forex translation charges of R27.05 crore and a R18.74 crore penalty (10% of total penalty) as sought by Competition Commission of India (CCI) on alleged cartelisation by the manufacturers, cast a shadow on our profit.”
Ebitda declined 31% to R194 crore owing to a sharp drop in per-tonne realisation cost. The company imports 6 lakh tonne of coal and with the current rupee/dollar parity, it was hit majorly.
“Despite all this, our productivity during the quarter grew 15% to 20.78 lakh tonne as against 18 lakh tonne in the same quarter last fiscal. The volume of clinker too increased by 11% to 26.49 lakh tonne, which helped us post 3% growth in topline,” he said. “Our capacity utilisation has gone up from 66% in Q1 of FY13 to 76% in Q1 of FY14, which shows that demand for the commodity is picking up. However, the price needs to increase to our restoration level or as that of last fiscal,” he said further.
