Coal news and updates

UltraTech Cement Q3 net profit down 1.6%

January 28: UltraTech Cement Limited, the Aditya Birla Group flagship, recently reported a 1.6% drop in net profit at Rs 364 crore for the October –December quarter (third quarter) against Rs 370 crore recorded in the same quarter a year ago.

During the period under review, the company's net sales too increased by almost 15% to Rs 5,490 crore compared to Rs 4,783crore recorded in the corresponding period of 2013-14.

For the first nine months of the current fiscal, net profit of the company stood at Rs 1,400 crore compared to 1,306 crore in the same period of last fiscal.

“On a sequential basis, prices witnessed a downward trend. However, the on-going cost optimisation measures helped in containing costs despite the continuing increase in price of input material and logistics cost,” said an official statement of the company

The company expects demand to grow almost 8% on a long-term basis though the business outlook continues to remain challenging. The company expects that the key demand drivers will continue to be housing and infrastructure spends.

The following table explains Q3 and first nine month’s result of UltraTech Cement Limited in 2014-15 and 2013-14 (in Rs crore):