BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian tyremaker CEAT Ltd on Wednesday posted a third-quarter profit, compared with a year-earlier loss, as domestic demand surged, but missed analysts’ estimates on higher costs.
Consolidated net profit stood at 353.9 million rupees ($4.34 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of 200.1 million rupees a year earlier when the company witnessed muted demand and higher raw material costs.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 530 million rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
CEAT’s revenue from operations rose 13% to 27.27 billion rupees.
Growth was mostly led by domestic demand, Anant Goenka, managing director, CEAT said, adding that the export segment was impacted by macro economic conditions.
The Mumbai-based company said it undertook further price increase of about 0.5% during the reported quarter in select products in replacement segment.
Total expenses rose 9.4% to 26.73 billion rupees, of which cost of materials constituted 16.5 billion rupees.
The Indian auto sector is witnessing mixed demand trend with passenger car sales rising, but two-wheeler sales seeing a decline.
“We remain cautious about international markets that are getting impacted by recessionary trends,” Goenka said.
With the correction in commodity costs, the margin outlook is positive for the next quarter, the company said.
($1 = 81.56 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya and Meenakshi Maidas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)