Excellent ACC Results Bring Cheer to Industry

ACC Results for Quarter Ending June 2018

ACC profits went up marginally by 1.1 per cent, at Rs 328 crores from Rs 326 crores, in the same period last year. The cement company's revenue was lower by 1.3 per cent to Rs 3,768 crores from Rs 3,818 crores in the same quarter for the previous year, though  sales volume grew by 7 per cent. EBITDA was down by 1.9 % at Rs. 624.7 crores as against Rs. 636.4 crores in the same quarter last year.

The stock market gainers for these good results were ACC's market competitors, Orient Cement, India Cements, Ultratech Cement, Sagar Cement, and Ambuja Cements on the BSE.

With a good monsoon with us this year, the cement industry is looking forward to excellent sales and performance in the coming quarters.

JSW Cements' 20 MPTA Target

JSW Cement Ltd., a part of $11 billion JSW Group led by Sajjan Jindal, is on track to expand it's capacity to 20 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from the current 12.5 mtpa, and launch an initial public offering (IPO). The capital raised through the IPO will be used to expand capacity further as the company aims to be one of the top three cement manufacturers in the country. The likely date of launch of the IPO is expected to be in 2019.

The strength of JSW Group is execution and hence the firm intends to scale up to 20 mtpa organically.

JSW Cement Ltd, is planning to expand the manufacturing capacity of its Dolvi facility in Maharashtra from 1 million tonne (mt) per annum to 2.2 mt by February.  Other expansions include the 2.4 mt Salboni plant in West Bengal commissioned in July and ongoing capacity addition of 2.4 mt at Vijayanagar, Karnataka, and 1.2 mt in Jajpur, Odisha.

Earlier this year, the company has acquired a stake of up to 54.4 per cent in Shiva Cement. The cement industries' expectation of a large uptick in demand continues to keep the valuation of cement assets high and hence JSW is not aggressively pursuing any acquisition. What it continues to pursue aggressively is the acquisition of limestone mines.

Hathi Cement

Saurashtra Cement Limited

Covering four continents - Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, the Mehta Group has business interests in Cement and Building Materials, Trade and Financial Services & International Trade, Packaging, Carbon Dioxide, Sugar, Engineering, Horticulture & Floriculture, Consultancy, Electrical Cables, Hospitality, Entertainment Sports and Agro Chemicals.

Saurashtra Cement Limited, the flagship company of the Mehta Group, established in 1956 produces and markets cement under the brand name "HATHI". The company manufacturers Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC 53 grade, 43 grade), SRPC types of cement and clinker. The company's products comply with world class quality standards.

Saurashtra Cement Limited's plant at Ranavav, located in Gujarat state has a capacity of 1.5 MTPA. The plant is a modern energy efficient dry process plant comparable to today's global standards and uses state-of-the-art machinery from reputed global companies. The plant offers locational advantages because of its proximity to the Porbandar and Veraval/Okha ports, rail network and is close to National and State highways. Saurashtra Cement Limited thus has a competitive in the domestic markets and also access to large export markets in the Africa, Middle East countries, Sri Lanka etc. by the economical sea route.

Saurashtra Cement Limited due to its ready access to ports has an advantage in marketing its products in the western coastal belt using coastal shipping lines.