India: Dalmia Bharat says that price rises and cost cutting helped it to improve its profits in the first quarter of the Indian financial year. Its income from operations fell by 22% year-on-year to US$263m in the quarter to 30 June 2020 from US$338m in the same period in 2019. Its cement sales volumes dropped by 20% to 3.66Mt from 4.55Mt. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 8% to US$81.9m from US$88.9m. However, its profit after tax grew by 24% to US$25.1m from US$20.3m.
The group said that, once the coronavirus-related lockdown in April 2020 ended, cement demand picked up due to infrastructure projects and the residential sector, especially in east India, with an emphasis on rural markets. It also reported that the ongoing upgrade to grinding plants has been delayed by the health situation with completion rescheduled to December 2020.
