Mumbai: If the production and sales figures of cement companies for January are anything to go by, the industry could see a healthy demand, led by the realty and infrastructure sectors, in the next two months of the current fiscal.

According to official data, all major cement companies witnessed growth in their sales, from 1% to 38%, in January vis-à-vis the same month last year.

“We expect a healthy demand to continue and prices would remain stable for some time,” said Shree Cement managing director HM Bangur whose company saw its sales rise 22.4% to 8.82 mt in January.

JK Lakshmi Cement has recorded a 38% growth in sales to 5.06 lakh tonne in January. The rise was, however, lower for the large companies. India’s largest cement maker ACC has experienced a marginal 1% increase in sales to 1.91 mt in January, while the third-largest Ambuja Cement has recorded a 7.5% rise to 1.75 mt.

“Cement companies in India have witnessed strong volume growth in the first half of the current fiscal on the back of increased government spending on housing, roads, ports and power stations and the momentum continues,” said an analyst, who did not wish to be named.

“Demand and subsequently, production, of cement are picking up but there could be pressure on profit-margins due to increase in inputs and logistics costs,” said Vinod Juneja, managing director of Binani Cement.