India?s second largest paints maker Kansai Nerolac Paints is looking at an 18-20% sales growth for the 2010-11 fiscal. It had recorded a similar growth in 2009-10 when the company clocked a turnover of Rs 1,970 crore.
The company, which holds a 12% market share in the decorative paints segment after Asian Paints, might go for a price hike post October. ?There has been supply-side constraint. Till October 31, we will not take a price hike but if the price of the raw material (titanium dioxide) continues on an upward trend, we might look at hiking prices,” said HM Bharuka, managing director, KNPL. It already hiked its price first by about 4.2% and then 2.5% during the June quarter and by 1% during the second quarter of FY11. Hence, the total price hike has been of around 7%.
Tha average price of titanium dioxide is $2,600 per tonne, which is expected to increase by $150 on October 2 this year, according to Bharuka.