Sri Lanka's Tokyo Cement (Lanka) Plc, the island’s biggest cement manufacturer said net profits for the March quarter rose just two percent to 130.24 million rupees from a year earlier, held back by a steep increase in taxes.
The group, which includes a packing plant and biomass power subsidiary, reported earnings of 43 cents per share for the quarter.
For the financial year ended March 31, 2012, Tokyo reported earnings of 3.22 rupees per share on profits of 978.90 million rupees, up 14 percent, interim accounts filed with the Colombo Stock Exchange showed.
The company's voting stock closed up 20 cents to 28.40 rupees, while the non-voting share slipped 40 cents to 19.00 rupees, on Tuesday.
The Japanese-Sri Lanka joint venture, said revenues rose sharply by 61 percent to 6.81 billion rupees in the March 2012 quarter, lifted by the post-war construction boom.
Gross profits also rose 36 percent to 832 million rupees, but steep increase in income tax to 177 million rupees in the March 2012 quarter from just 14 million rupees a year earlier, kept profits nearly flat.
Full-year revenues grew 41percent to 22.93 billion rupees, while gross profits grew at much slower 16 percent to 3.90 billion rupees.
Tokyo Cement, which marks 30-years of operations this year has it main manufacturing facility is situated at the eastern seaport town of Trincomalee.
Sri Lanka’s total cement usage in 2011, rose 21.6 percent to 4,588 metric tonnes, according to Central Bank of Sri Lanka figures.
Domestic production rose 13.6 percent to 1,974 metric tonnes, while cement imports was up 28.4 percent to 2,584 metric tonnes.
Much of the cement demand came from government-related projects, to build roads, bridges, a port in the south, an airport in the south and large-scale projects in the north and east.
Tokyo imports clinker, which is ground and mixed at the Trincomalee plant. It also has a packing plant. The company’s production costs have come under pressure from a weak rupee since late last year.
Sri Lanka also has price controls on cement, which is part of a series of restrictions placed on private business in recent years.
Analysts say the price controls are a threat both to producers of cement who are denied the right price that is available to their foreign counterparts and also the construction industry which faces delays when importers halt shipments to escape losses from state intervention.
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