Grasim Industries, an Aditya Birla Group company, has reported that its net profit in the December quarter was down 29 per cent at ₹1,844 crore against ₹2,603 crore on the back of lower realisation.
Revenue was up at ₹34,793 crore (₹31,965 crore). Overall expenses increased to ₹32,724 crore (₹28,749 crore). EBITDA was down at ₹4,668 crore (₹5,150 crore) due to lower realisations in the cement business and initial investments for building consumer-facing Paints business Birla Opus.
Eco-friendly fibre
The Board has approved setting up of 1.10 lakh tonne per annum capacity of Lyocell, the fastest growing Cellulosic Fibre, at Harihar, Karnataka. The first phase of 55,000 TPA will be executed by mid-2027 at an investment of ₹1,350 crore. It will further strengthen the company’s speciality product portfolio of eco-friendly fibres.
With this investment, Grasim’s total Lyocell capacity marketed under the ‘Birla Excel’ brand will increase to 1.53 lakh TPA.
Stable demand scenario in China has led to steady Cellulosic Staple Fibre (CSF) prices of $1.65/kg in Q3FY’25.
CSF sales volume during the quarter stood flat at 2.05 lakh tonne due to production disruption at Excel Plant, Kharach and seasonally weak demand towards the quarter end.
CSF business recorded volume growth of 10 per cent y-o-y though on lower base; however, realisations remained under pressure due to surge of cheaper imports from China.
The Chemicals business revenue was up by 12 per cent at ₹2,226 crore. EBITDA increased 25 per cent to ₹329 crore driven by improved realisation in Caustic Soda and better profitability in the Chlorine Derivatives segment.
The company’s paint availability has increased to over 170 products with 1,000 SKUs already placed in the distribution channel. The product reach has increased to over 5,500 towns being serviced from 131 depots operational across India.
The total capex for the business stood at ₹9,015 crore till December-end and accounts for 90 per cent of the planned capex outlay.
The B2B e-commerce business Birla Pivot revenue continues to grow in-line with the plan and remains on track to achieve revenue of $1 billion by FY27. The business has launched ‘Birla Pivot Bathware’ expanding its private label portfolio beyond tiles and plywood.