The performance of 3,292 companies in Q1 FY19 over the last year (Q1 FY18) reveals an improvement, with net sales registering a double-digit growth during the quarter over Q1 FY18 performance.

GST has scored a few goals – subsuming multiple taxes and a common rate structure – over the last one year. But for achieving simplification and reaping its full efficiency, it has a long way to go.

India has miles to go in terms of cement consumption and there is enough headroom for strong cement demand.

The demand growth trend picked up steam in FY18. Expectations are rife that FY19 will consolidate these gains and result in higher capacity utilisation, if not pricing power.

Cement is never used as cement alone but is always converted to a value-added product in practice.

The notion of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) was introduced by the United States of America’s Army War College to describe the multilateral world, which resulted from the end of Cold War post 1989.

If the exit quarter of FY 18 is an indication of things to come, we are going to have a bumper FY 19 for the cement industry this year. In fact, the last quarter was so good in terms of demand, that it pulled the yearly growth number to an impressive 6 per cent as against a dismal minus 1 per cent in the previous year.

The Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) second-stage forecast of ‘normal’ South-West monsoon (June-September 2018), augurs well for cement demand in rural areas.

It is our job to monitor the cement market and to try to decode the signals emanating from the environment in order to project an outlook for consumption growth.