Riding on a strong demand from southern region, particularly from Andhra Pradesh market, the cement industry has reported a strong 8% growth on the consumption level for the nine-month period ended December 2008, despite there has been a drop in the offtake from the real estate sector, particularly on the commercial front, said industry sources here. The production during the period has seen a healthy growth of 7%.
Interestingly, the industry has added close to 9 million tonne during the said period, thereby increasing the overall installed capacity 207 million tonne as against 198 million tonne as of March end 2008.
Buoyed by an impressive offtake from Andhra Pradesh, particularly with the number of irrigation projects, the southern region witnessed a whopping growth of 12% in consumption during the nine-month period, followed by eastern region with 9%. The western region, considered to be the major pocket for consumption witnessed a growth of 7% while that of central region with 7%. The consumption growth in the northern region seen almost stagnant at 2%, said industry sources.
According to the sources, the overall despatches during the April-December 2008 period stood higher at 131 million tonne as against 121 million tonne during the same period previous fiscal. Similarly, the production was at 131.50 million tonne as against 122 million tonne.
On the all-India front, Delhi has reported a whopping growth of 38%, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 26% growth. Kerala has been surprise for the industry as the state shown a remarkable growth in consumption with a 13% growth during the nine-month period as compared to the same period previous fiscal. Some of the other states which have shown sizeable growth including Orissa (13%), Jharkhand (12%), Chattisgarh (10%), Bihar (11%). Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh have reported a growth of 9%, 4%, 8%, 9%, respectively, the sources pointed out.
On the production side too, southern region tops the chart with 12% growth, followed by northern region (11%), eastern region (7%). Western region, however, shown a negative production growth of 2%. During the nine-month period, companies such as Rain Commodities, India Cements, Ultra Tech have added capacities of 2 million tonne, 1.20 million tonne, 1.30 million tonne, respectively while others added capacities in a smaller way.