In the past six months, price has risen by over 36 per cent year-to-date to Rs 6,350 per tonne following higher crude oil prices. Pet coke forms 30-40 per cent of power and fuel cost of cement companies. This should further impact the earnings of cement companies in the coming quarters.
Of the total cement demand in the country, nearly 40 per cent is from rural housing and 20 per cent from urban housing. The scarcity of cash due to demonetisation has delayed construction activities. The slowdown in the housing sector is expected to impact the cement sector.
An analyst with a leading domestic brokerage said, ‘Builders in urban areas are facing a cash crunch. Due to withdrawal of high currency notes, a large part of unaccounted money would not go into real estate and this would result in fall in real estate prices.