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Gujarat Ambuja H1 net lower at Rs 463.6 million

The directors of Gujarat Ambuja Cement have declared an interim dividend of 25 per cent for the year 1998-99 amounting to Rs 183.9 million.

The company has posted a net profit of Rs 463.6 million for the first half-year ended December 1998 against Rs 559.8 million of the corresponding period of the previous year. The turnover increased by nine per cent to Rs 5.53 billion as compared to Rs 5.09 billion in the first half of the previous year.

During the month of December 1998, the company produced 567,000 tonnes of cement, a record. The capacity utilisation was 136 per cent. Company has sold 2.67 million tonnes of cement during the first half of this year, against 2.29 million tonnes in the previous year.

According to a media statement, the company has put up a good performance in the first half of the financial year ended June 1999 in spite of cement industry reeling from oversupply scenario.

The situation was particularly difficult in Gujarat during the second quarter of this year as the prices during October and November 1998 in Gujarat had touched a low of ten years.

Ambuja Cement was able to meet the challenge due to its strategy to reduce the cost on all fronts. Since December 1998, cement prices in Gujarat have started improving.

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