Madras cement profits dip 81%

High input costs, declining cement prices blamed.

{reg}India's Madras Cement's  says its Q2 profits have registered a drop of 81 percent due to a combination of high operating costs, and a steep fall in cement prices due to slack demand and large capacity additions.

An article by the Hindu Business Line reports that the increase in operating costs was mostly due to higher fuel prices and higher tariffs. The company's power costs also went up after it had to use diesel generators after having power cut by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

The company earlier announced plans to sell 33 wind power generators for Rs 137.76 crore. At the same time it announced plans to set up 85 MW of captive thermal power plants worth 310 crore. {/reg]