DCM Shriram says utilisation in chloro-vinyl business is around 95%

DCM Shriram reported a good set of Q4 earnings led by the sugar and the cholor-vinyl segments. DCM Shriram's net profit jumped nearly six-fold jump to Rs 293 crore for the fourth quarter of last fiscal, compared to Rs 51 crore in the year-ago period, the company said.

Vikram Shriram, vice chairman and managing director, said the current prices of chloro-vinyl are relatively strong at Rs 36,000 per tonne. “The margins are relatively similar to the previous year because input prices have also gone up,” he added.

On the capacity front, Shriram said, “Our capacity last year has gone up by 9 percent at Rs 1,850 tonne per day after a further increase of 10 percent this year.” He further said that our utilization will be close to 90 percent to 95 percent.

The company had a planned shutdown which led to losses in the fertiliser business, said Shriram.

Talking about sugar business, he said, “Sugar is still marginally loss-making. The cost of production is Rs 3,350 per tonne in our case for the last year and the current prices are about Rs 3200 per tonne.”

“The big change has been that we commissioned a distillery in January ’18 and that has supported and we commissioned that the additional co-gen capacity last year. So that has supported the sugar business,” he further added.