India’s leading plywood company, Century Plyboards(I) Ltd. announced its results for the second quarter of Financial Year 2017-18, which marked some decline. The net revenue from operations for the Second Quarter, ending September 30, 2017-18 fiscal was Rs 474.55 crore, marking a decline of 4.3 per cent over the corresponding period of the last fiscal (Rs 496.06 crore).
The Profit After Tax for the quarter ending that period was Rs. 40.14 crores; showing a decline of 18.57 percent over the corresponding period of last financial year (Rs. 49.29 crores). The Laminate has performed exceptionally well during the quarter under review, a company release said.
This was the transition quarter post the announcement of GST. The GST rate for Plywood at 28% was against the industry expectation. There was speculation about reduction of GST rates which has led the channel partners to start liquidating their stocks before new GST rates are announced. Raw material constrain for one of the plants was also one of the reasons for the decline, but going forward the raw material availability is going to improve, the release claimed.
Commenting on the company’s performance, Mr. Sajjan Bhajanka, Chairman, said, ‘We have diversified into emerging mass market products such as MDF. The newly commissioned plant is India’s biggest MDF Plant located at Hoshiarpur, Punjab. The plant has unique and dual advantage being near both to raw materials and the land locked MDF market of North India.