Ambuja Cements on Thursday reported a four per cent increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 1,262.97 crore for the calendar year 2010, helped by higher production and sales of the key construction material.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,216.84 crore in the calendar year 2009, Ambuja Cements said in a statement. The net sales rose by 4.4 per cent to Rs 7,390.21 in 2010 as against Rs 7,076.87 crore in the previous year.
Ambuja Cements, which is controlled by Swiss Cement major Holcim, also announced a final dividend of equity shares at the rate of Rs 1.4 per share. “With the interim dividend of Rs 1.2 per share paid during the year, the total dividend for the year 2010 works out to Rs 2.60 per share“.
The company’s cement production for the calendar year 2010, went up by 6.9 per cent to 20.1 mt compared to 18.8 mt in 2009.
The domestic cement sales were increased by 8 per cent to 19.5 mt from 18 mt during the period under review. However, the exports declined to 5 lakh tons from 7.5 lakh tones.
Ambuja Cements said that during the last calendar year the company’s annual cement capacity increased to 25 million tonnes.
“This will increase further in 2011 to approximately 27 million tonnes, following completion of additional grinding capacity at the Bhatapara (Chhattisgarh) and Maratha (Maharashtra) plants,” the statement said.
On the outlook, the company said that margins might remain under pressure in short-term because of imbalance in demand-supply scenario.