UltraTech Cement, an Aditya Birla Group company on Friday posted its fiscal first quarter earnings with profit at Rs 1,690.22 crore, up 6.8 per cent in comparison to Rs 1,582.02 crore during the first quarter of FY23. It posted revenue from operations at Rs 17,737.10 crore, up 17 per cent from Rs 15,163.98 crore during Q1FY23. The company EBITDA stood at Rs 3,049.3 crore, up 1.5 per cent on-year. According to CNBC TV18 estimates, UltraTech Cement was expected to post Q1 profit at Rs 1,665 crore, and revenue at Rs 17,374 crore.
UltraTech Cement achieved capacity utilisation of 89 per cent as against 83 per cent during Q1FY23. Domestic sales volume registered 20 per cent growth on-year. The energy cost was higher by 3 per cent YoY, primarily due to currency devaluation. Additionally, there was a 6 per cent rise in raw material cost, mainly driven by the higher costs of fly ash and slag, the company stated in a regulatory filing.
The ongoing projects under UltraTech Cement
The company stated that following the commissioning of 12.4 mtpa capacity of grey cement in FY23, UltraTech Cement has further commissioned 4.3 mtpa capacity so far in this financial year. These include: (i) 2.2 mtpa brownfield cement capacity at Patliputra in April, 2023; (ii) 0.8 mtpa brownfield cement capacity at Neem ka Thana, Rajasthan in May, 2023 and (iii) 1.3 mtpa brownfield cement capacity at Sonar Bangla, West Bengal in July 2023.
The company has the total grey cement manufacturing capacity in India at 131.25 mtpa, while it is working on the next phase of growth of 22.6 mtpa. “Commercial production from these new capacities is expected to go on stream in a phased manner by FY25/FY26,” it said.
Going forward, UltraTech Cement is expecting good performance on the back of growth in cement demand across all sectors. Also, higher infrastructure spending ahead of the general elections 2024 is expected to propel cement demand during the fiscal, it added.