Monday, December 17, 2007

Dwarikesh Sugar expands capacity by 53.6%

Dwarikesh Sugar Industries announced today that the commencement of crushing at its Greenfield plant of 7,500 tons per day (TCD) (expandable up to 10,000 TCD) at Faridpur, in district Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.

With the commencement of production in this plant, the transformation of the company from a single sugar mill complex in 1994 to a conglomerate with multiple composite facilities for manufacture of sugar, power and ethanol is complete. The company now has a combined capacity to crush 21,500 TCD of sugarcane every day. The commencement of crushing in its Faridpur plant is as per schedule.

The year 2006-07 was one of the most difficult years faced by the sugar industry in the country. While prices of sugar and other by products were on downward spiral, the cost of raw material viz. sugarcane went up significantly. However outlook for the year 2007-08 is better. The company has already incurred capital expenditure to put its assets in place and is now poised to reap the benefits. Whereas, the cost side is already reflected in numbers, the revenue side is about to unfold.

C R Morarka, chairman and managing director, of the company said, ``The commencement of the new Greenfield project is in line with our long term strategy of growth in areas of our core competence. We are now among the leading manufacturers of sugar in the country. Going forward, we should reap the benefits of economies of scale.``

For the year ended September 2007 though, the company posted losses of Rs 62.8 million on a gross income of Rs 2.97 billion. However the company is perhaps one among very few sugar companies in the country which has not reported cash losses during the year.

Shares of the company gained Rs 1.45, or 1.65%, to settle at Rs 89.10. The total volume of shares traded was 372,405 at the BSE. (Monday)

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