Displaying items by tag: India

India: Nagarjuna Cement, a cement brand produced by NCL Industries, has signed the film star Varun Tej Konidela as its brand ambassador. The performer from Telugu language cinema will feature in a new song as well as in television commercials which will be launched by Nagarjuna Cement as part of its upcoming campaign that aims to connect with a broader demographic, according to the United News of India. Initiatives on radio, social media and other media channels will accompany the campaign.

India: HeidelbergCement has recorded a profit of US$8.77m in the three months to 31 March 2020, up by 8.9% year-on-year from US$8.06m over the corresponding period of the 2018 - 2019 fiscal year. Sales fell by 4.7% to US$67.5m from US$70.8m. HeidelbergCement India has attributed the profit to a decrease in operating expenditure of 8.6%, to US$50.7m from US$55.4m, according to Dion News Service.

India: Birla Corporation has recorded a consolidated net profit of US$25.8m over the three months ending 31 March 2020, the fourth quarter of the Indian fiscal year 2020, up by 52% year-on-year from US$16.9m in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2019. Sales were US$223m, down by 5.5% from US$247m. This was due to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak, which ended dispatches from late March 2020.

Birla Corporation said, “Despite muted market conditions, the company was able to raise price realisation through judicious adjustment of geographic and product mix aimed at increasing the share of blended and premium cements.”

Birla Corporation’s full year net profit for the fiscal year 2020 was a record US$66.7m, nearly doubling from US$33.7m in the fiscal year 2019.

India: Nuvoco Vistas has received approval from the Competition Commission of India for its 100% acquisition of Emami Cement from Emami Group. Reuters has reported that the acquisition, through which Nuvoco Vistas enters the Bihar and Odisha markets, brings its installed cement production capacity to 23.5Mt/yr.

India: JK Lakshmi Cement’s profit in the first three months of 2020, the fourth quarter of the Indian fiscal year 2020, was US$13.0m, up by 150% year-on-year from US$5.21m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales were US$151m, down by 11% year-on-year from US$169m. The Press Trust of India has reported that the coronavirus outbreak had a ‘marginal impact’ on the results.

JK Lakshmi Cement said, “The company's concerted efforts in improving product mix, market optimisation, enhancing the premium products sales, reducing logistic costs and improving plant efficiency parameters enabled the company to post better returns. Softening of petcoke prices also helped the company to improve its margins.”

India: UltraTech Cement’s sales have been negatively affected by coronavirus-related lockdowns in the fourth quarter of its financial year. Its net sales fell by 13% year-on-year to US$1.40bn in the quarter to 31 March 2020 from US$1.61bn in the same period in 2019. The cement producer was forced to shut down certain plants in March 2020, usually one of the busiest months of the year. Plants started to reopen in late April 2020.

The cement producer’s annual net sales rose slightly to US$5.48bn in the financial year to 31 March 2020. Its profit before interest, depreciation and tax (PBIDT) grew by 27% year-on-year to US$1.31bn from US$1.03bn. It also reported that it reduced its net debt and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) ratio to 1.7 from 2.83.

India: KCP has appointed Indira Dutt as its chairperson and managing director following approval by its shareholders. She succeeds V L Dutt, who died in February 2020, according to the Press Trust of India.

Indira Dutt holds a B.A. in economics from Madras University. She holds a number of directorships including Fives Cail - KCP Limited, Velagapudi Foundation, KCP Vietnam Industries Limited and V Ramakrishna Sons Private Limited. She was also the chairperson (CSR) member of finance committee and risk management committees of KCP. She is the president of the World Telugu Federation and Chairperson of Andhra Chamber of Commerce.

KCP is a conglomerate with businesses in the cement, heavy engineering, sugar and power industries. It operates two integrated cement plants in Andhra Pradesh.

India: Construction work has yet to return to normality following the easing of the coronavirus lockdown in Uttar Pradesh as cement and other materials have not reached building sites. The Hindustan Times has reported that restrictions to the movement of goods across state and district borders have caused extensive disruption of supply chains. The website for travel permits needed by workers who do not live at the site at which they are employed has reportedly crashed multiple times due to oversubscription, leading to some staffing issues. Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) deputy chair Uttar Pradesh West Amit Modi said, “We can only resume work once these things get back to normal."

India: Tata Chemicals has resumed full production of salt and sodium bicarbonate at its Mithapur site in Gujarat. It said that production levels have been matched to market demand for soda ash and cement. The 1500t/day integrated cement plant at the industrial complex manufactures two varieties of cement under the brand name Tata Shudh. Tata Chemicals has also resumed the operations at its chemical plants at Mambattu-Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu and Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu). Operations at the company’s various production sites were scaled down in late march 2020 in response to the Indian coronavirus lockdown.

France: Vicat has reported first-quarter sales of Euro615m in 2020, up by 7% year-on-year from Euro600m in the first quarter of 2019. Cement sales grew by 5.5% to Euro319m (52% of total sales), up by 5.5% year-on-year from Euro302m.

Vicat chair and CEO Guy Sidos said, “The Group's performance over the first quarter of 2020 was solid despite a sharp slowdown at the end of the period in France, India and Italy.” In spite of the coronavirus crisis, “Industrial and commercial activity was maintained on almost all sites, in line with market evolutions.” Sidos says that the group expects ‘a significant impact on first-half results’ in 2020.