Grasim Industries, an Aditya Birla group company, reported that its net profit more than tripled to ₹2,412 crore against ₹588 crore logged in the same period last year, on better realisation.
Revenue from operations was up 53 per cent at ₹19,919 crore against ₹13,044 crore registered in the same period last year. However, it was much lower when compared to ₹24,399 crore logged in the March quarter. Consolidated Ebitda doubled to ₹4,736 crore (₹2,545 crore).
The second wave of Covid slowed down the pace of economic activity. Selective restrictions on business activities during most of June quarter impacted sale of textile products, leading to an accumulation of inventory in the value chain, it added.
Due to the lockdown-led drop in domestic volume, the company advanced the Harihar plant maintenance shutdown to May. Viscose fibre yarn volumes were also impacted due to lower demand. The VSF prices in China corrected from multi-year high and have stabilised at the current level of 13,000 RMB.
The company mitigated fall in domestic VSF demand by increasing exports and increasing sale of speciality products.
Chemical business
The second Covid wave had a marginal impact on chemical business operational performance. International caustic soda prices maintained the upsurge in the June quarter driven by supply outages due to maintenance shutdown and demand improvement. The caustic soda capacity utilisation stood at 85 per cent during the quarter, higher than the industry average.
Land acquisition for setting up plants to produce paints at different States is in process, and project engineering plans are also in progress.
One of the two VSF lines of 300 tonnes per day will be commissioned in September and another line in the subsequent quarter, the company said. The company will spend ₹2,604 crore this fiscal.
The company’s subsidiaries UltraTech Cement and Aditya Birla Financial Services have reported that their profit were up 114 per cent and 52 per cent at ₹1,702 crore and ₹302 crore, respectively.