India: South India's largest cement producer by volume, India Cements, has reported that its revenue fell by 54% to US$4.84m in the quarter ending on 31 December 2012. The producer reported US$10.4m in the same period in 2011.
However, the company's revenues rose by 14.82% to US$200m in the quarter. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) remained steady at US$36.1m. .
"Considering the problems we had in the quarter the performance is good. Almost all costs went up sharply. For example, freight and handling costs are up 25% year-on-year," said vice chairman and managing director N Srinivasan. "For us, the EBIDTA is steady at around 18% sequentially when there was substantial drop in margins for competitions."
Srinivasan added that India Cements' expansion into many locations also helped to increase capacity utilisation in the quarter, which was about 70%. The company is looking at strong growth in some of the markets like Gujarat. It is also contemplating adding one more production line in its Mahi plant in Rajasthan, which currently has a capacity of 1.3Mt/yr. The proposed expansion may entail an investment of up to US$130m.
