Home ›› 09 Mar 2022 ›› Stock
Aramit Cement’s earnings turned negative in the second quarter of the current fiscal year due to the rising cost of key raw materials such as clinker in the international market.
It reported a negative EPS (earnings per share) of Tk 2.15 for the October-December period from the positive EPS of Tk 1.09 recorded in the same period a year earlier, said the company in a filing with the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Monday.
“The company’s earnings entered the negative zone due to rising raw material cost in the global market,” Aramit Cement Company Secretary Syed Kamruzzaman told The Business Post.
He particularly mentioned that the Russia-Ukraine crisis had disrupted the global supply chain, pushing up the prices of raw materials.
The war rubbed salt to the wounds caused by the Covid-19, he added.
The vast network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world is badly tangled, and the cost of shipping is skyrocketing. More than two weeks into the war, the disruption to global supply chains is getting worse, making it more expensive for companies to ship goods where they’re needed.
Aramit Cement, a sister concern of Aramit Group, imports clinker, the key ingredient of cement manufacturing, from Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Japan.
The clinker price has recently increased 51 percent to $68 from $45 a year ago. Adding more to the woe, the Chittagong Port Authority has imposed an extra charge of $7 for unloading goods, according to Kamruzzaman.
Earlier, goods were directly unloaded in the port, but now lighter ships carry the goods from the mother vessels to the port. The lengthy process hiked the unloading cost at the port, the company secretary explained.
Listed in 1998, Aramit Cement’s share declined 1.6 per cent to Tk 33.40 on Tuesday, extending its losing streak for the second straight session.
The company has a plant at Kalurghat Heavy Industrial Estate, Chattogram. Established as a public limited company in 1995, the company has more than Tk 50 crore in capital. With the addition of new production units launched in January 2017, the total yearly production capacity is 612,000 metric tonnes.
Since 2005, Aramit Cement’s Portland Slag Cement and Ordinary Portland Cement are being exported to the Indian states of Tripura and Meghalaya.
