ACC cement announces capex plan
ACC Cement announces a capital expenditure plan of Rs 600 crore for the coming financial year, CEO and MD Neeraj Akhoury said at the company’s Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday. Akhoury said the outlay will be used for various projects, without divulging details. The company reported a profit of Rs 604.38 crore for the year ending 31st December, 2016, up from Rs 587.60 crore in 2015, registering a growth in profit of 2.9%. Revenue stood at Rs 11,275.75 crore, down by 5.39% since last year at Rs 11,916.94 crore. Total sales declined from 23.62 million tonnes in 2015 to 22.99 million tonnes in 2016, reporting a decline of 2.7%. The homegrown cement major that commissioned a new plant at Jamul in Chhattisgarh suffered from low capacity utilisation in the industry in the year gone by, which stood at 75%. While production took place at levels above 85% of capacity in the northern, central and eastern regions, excess capacity in the south dragged down the average capacity utilisation in the industry. The cement industry has remained impacted in the last few months by demonetisation as well as state elections held in five states in the country, a report by investment advisory firm Emkay Research said. On the question on the buzz around the supposed merger between ACC Cement and Ambuja Cement, Akhoury said that as of now the two companies are operating as independent legal entities with separate boards and no such discussion has happened at the board level. It recently sold its 12.13% stake in Odisha-based Shiva Cement to JSW Cement for Rs 38.67 crore.
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