Higher-than-expected sales volumes helped offset low costs of the essential building material, as India’s Shree Cement exceeded second-quarter profit projections on Monday.
With a net profit of 931.3 million rupees ($11 million) for the three months ending September 30, the nation’s third-largest cement manufacturer by market capitalization reported an 81% decrease from the same period last year.
LSEG’s data showed that analysts were anticipating a profit of 765.8 million rupees.
Although operations revenue dropped 18% to 37.27 billion rupees, it was still less than the average expert expectation of 38.91 billion rupees.
In the quarter, Shree Cement recorded a volume growth of 7%, which was lower than the 10% growth it recorded the year before but higher than the 8% decline to 3% growth predicted by four analysts.
With prices falling to a five-year low and demand not rebounding from the June quarter when elections had halted infrastructure and development, cement producers faced difficulties.
In the long term, though, the businesses were optimistic about demand.
Market leader UltraTech Cement reported a steep reduction in second-quarter earnings and the first revenue decline in four years last month, raising early warnings of a price recovery.
Ambuja Cements and ACC, UltraTech’s smaller competitors, both had greater-than-anticipated volume growth.
