India: Ramco Cements Ltd expects to commission the US$76.9m grinding unit in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh in April 2015. The company said that, while it has witnessed increased in cement sales in Kerala and West Bengal, in other states where it has operations the demand for cement has become sluggish.

In its unaudited standalone results for the three months that ended 31 December 2014, Ramco Cements showed a decline in income from operations to US$132m as against US$141m in the corresponding quarter of 2013. Net profit for the quarter fell to US$3.72m from US$4.14min the same quarter of 2013.

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, Ramco Cements sold 5.66Mt of cement in the domestic market, compared to 6.2Mt in the corresponding nine months in the previous year. Exports amounted to 129,000t, taking the total sales to 5.79Mt in the first nine months of the 2015 financial year.

Ramco Cements said that cement production was 8% lower and sales fell by 9% in the first nine months of the 2015 financial year compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. Sales declined in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana and Odisha.