Orient Cement plans to reduce debt in Q4; expects demand to go up in FY22

Orient Cement's Q3 earnings were boosted by higher prices and came in-line with Kotak Estimates. Deepak Khetrapal, MD and CEO of Orient Cement discussed the numbers in detail with CNBC-TV18.

In the current quarter, the company is hoping to sell about 1.7 million tonne of cement. "In the next year we would like to believe that the cement demand would go up," Khetrapal said.

According to him, the Union Budget 2021 was positive for infrastructure sector. Moreover, he said that the company was targeting 6 million tonnes in sales in FY22. "With good performance and good cash-flow we have witnessed strong working capital improvement. As a result, in this particular year, we have reduced our debt by close to Rs 300 crore and we still have cash in hand and in this quarter we will reduce our debt further," he elaborated.

The company plans to make a major investment in the grinding unit in the next two years. "Major investments will happen in a split grinding unit closer to markets where we cannot reach as of today," he said.