UltraTech Cement Q4 net up 15 pct on cost controls

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - UltraTech Cement Ltd (ULTC.NS) reported a forecast-beating 15 percent rise in net profit for the January-March quarter as India's largest cement maker kept a lid on rising costs.

Increasing input and energy costs have put pressure on margins at cement companies while demand remains a concern in an economy where growth has almost halved to below 5 percent in the past two years.

"Optimisation of fuel mix and other initiatives helped in maintaining costs almost at the previous year levels," UltraTech, part of the $40 billion Aditya Birla Group, said in a statement to the stock exchange on Wednesday.

UltraTech also said it had earmarked 100 billion rupees to set up grinding units, cement terminals and other capital expenditures as part of its current round of expansions.

The company reported a net profit of 8.4 billion rupees ($138 million) for the quarter ended March 31, beating market estimates of 6.5 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net sales rose 9 percent to 58.3 billion rupees.

Consolidation in the Indian cement industry has been rife over the last few quarters with debt-laden companies like Jaiprakash Associates (JAIA.NS) selling assets to deleverage their balance sheet, and analysts expect this trend to continue in the coming quarters.

UltraTech, which bought Jaiprakash's 4.8 million tonne cement plant for $38 billion late last year, plans to increase its production capacity to 70 million tonnes by 2015 from about 57 million tonnes at present. ($1 = 60.8850 Indian Rupees)

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Tommy Wilkes & Subhranshu Sahu)