Coal news and updates

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Bina Engineer, Director of Gujarat-based Sanghi Industries   , talked about the cement demand situation in the state and whether there is an uptick going into next year's state elections.

 

Mangalam: First up could you tell us what is the price increase being in Gujarat quarter on quarter (QoQ) and the price increase in the last one month if any? 

 

A: The price increase over the last quarter is in the range of about 8-9 percent, so QoQ we have seen an improvement. There would be very marginal change between the last month and the current month. 

 

Reema: The cement prices the current quarter that we are in, they are higher than the March quarter by nearly 8-9 percent. Has that affected demand in any way, could you give us a sense of how the demand is shaped up in the last two quarters and what is the current capacity utilisation? 

 

A: For us the current capacity utilisation is in the range of about 75 percent on dispatch basis. However, the volumes are slightly depressed as compared to the March quarter. We have still not seen any huge uptick which was anticipated on a pre-monsoon period. We are now only looking forward to a better monsoon and better demand that would arise out of the retail segment. 

 

Mangalam: There is Gujarat government elections in FY17 itself. So has there been any traction from that front as well. Has the government started announcing development projects and how does that augur for demand going forward? 

 

A: Yes, clearly there has been an uptake from the infrastructure mainly backed by the road and transportation sector in the sense that Gandhinagar Metro has started work. The various kind of highways construction is seeing and additional expenditure. There we are seeing an additional demand which apparently you could say that is on the back up of the upcoming election. Mangalam: You spoke about your capacity utilisation being around that 75 percent mark, but could you break up your capacity utilisation in terms of your old plant, which was 3 million tonne as well as the new plant which is now 1 million tonne, I believe? 

Source: Moneycontrol.com