India: UltraTech Cement’s consolidated net sales rose by 34% year-on-year to US$1.39bn in the fourth quarter of its 2017 financial year from US$1.04bn in the same period in the previous year. Its profit before interest, depreciation and taxation increased by 20% to US$283m from US$236m.
The group benefitted from its acquisition of assets from Jaiprakash Associates in mid-2017. Its cement production capacity grew by 28% to 85Mt/yr from 66.3Mt/yr. However, its capacity utilisation rate fell slightly to 80% from 82%. Its local sales rose by 32% to 17.6Mt from 13.4Mt and exports increased by 15% to 0.82Mt from 0.72Mt. The cement producer also warned that a rise in petcoke and coal prices following a government ban had caused its input costs to inflate during the reporting quarter.