Cement
Dispatches grow by 11% yoy in May 2007
The industry dispatches grew by 11% year on year (yoy) to 14.2 million tonne in May. Among the major players, the volumes of ACC jumped by a massive 19.2% yoy to 1.8 million metric tonne (MMT) boosted by the capacity expansion at Lakheri. Ambuja Cements and the AV Birla group witnessed a marginal volume growth of 2.7% yoy and 4.8% yoy to 1.5MMT and 2.7MMT respectively, as they did not witness any capacity additions. Among the mid-cap cement companies, Shree Cement's volumes jumped by 20.2% yoy fuelled by its third unit at Ras whereas Madras Cement's volumes grew by 15% yoy to 0.45MMT on account of a lower base in the same month last year. JK Cement's volumes declined yoy in both April and May on account of routine maintenance shutdown of its grinding mill at Nimbahera.
VIEWPOINT
Lakshmi Machine Works
Growing at a rapid pace
Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW) is a leading textile machinery manufacturer in India with presence in machine tools and foundry businesses. The company is a major player in the textile machinery space and has about 50% of the domestic market share. The machine tools division makes the CNC machine tools and is a brand leader for customised products while the foundry division makes precision casting.
Though the company has presence in three sectors but the revenues from its textile machinery segment, which contributed 89% of the total revenues in FY2007, dominate its top line. LMW is known for its quality and all its divisions are ISO 9000 certified.
Sharekhan Investor's Eye dated June 15, 2007