November 22, 2008

India Cements bucks slowing industry trend

At a time when the domestic cement industry is reeling under the pressure of rising input costs and declining net realization per tonne of cement, India Cements has bucked the trend by registering a 6.32% rise in net realization in June quarter.

The realization is squeezed by around 5% to 10% on an average in the financial year 2008 owing to higher input costs and inability to pass on the cost increase to the end consumers.

Mr N Srinivasan VP & MD of India Cements said that "There has been no price reduction by the company. To offset the soaring input costs, we have increased the prices marginally in the June quarter. The net realization of the company in 2007-08 was INR 2,784 a tonne and in the current quarter the realization is INR 2,960 a tonne."

The 196 million tonne cement industry is adding around 30 million tonne of fresh capacity in the financial year 2009.