Mangalam Cement has declared its first quarter results. The company's Q1 net profit is up at Rs 20.4 crore (Rs 204 million) versus Rs 7 crore (Rs 70 million).

MD of the company KC Jain says that the number of despatches have fallen on account of power cuts.

He says that realisations are high on YoY and QoQ basis. According to him, the impact of customs duty cut, recently announced, will only be felt in coastal areas.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with KC Jain:

Q: Brilliant set of numbers on a YoY basis, I believe your net profit has gone up to Rs 20 crore. But if I look at the QoQ numbers, Q2 FY07, I believe for the September quarter you have clocked in a net profit of Rs 20.3 crore, it has come to around Rs 20.4 crore. So on a QoQ basis the net profit has been pretty flat. Any insights on that?

A: This quarter our production has been low, but market realisation has been good compared to the last quarter.

Q: Have the dispatches fallen?

A: Dispatches have fallen because there wasa 100% power cut in Rajasthan for almost 20-25 days and because of that our output has fallen, our clinker and cement output has also come down because of that. But as far as realisations are concerned it has been almost Rs 730 higher compared to last year same quarter.

Q: On a quarter on quarter basis how much have realisations gone up?

A: Here also it has increased from Rs 2.53 in last quarter to Rs 7.23 in this quarter.

Q: I believe you are adding around 0.5 million tonnes of capacity, which according to my calculations should come on stream by September ’07. Do you confirm this?

A: The new capacity will come definitely and we hope to do one or two months earlier. Our captive power plant is also expected to be commission by June 2007 that will also add further to our profits.

Q: The government has scrapped the 12.5% import duty on Portland cement but for companies which are near ports, how much of an impact do you see on price ranges or maybe price cuts?

A: There may be some impact but I don’t think in the next couple of months anything will come like that. But maybe afterwards there will be some impact especially in the coastal areas but landlocked areas are not going to be affected like our factories.