A shovel sits in a tub of freshly mixed cement at a residential construction site. (Photographer: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg)
While local restrictions to contain a deadlier second wave of Covid-19 caused the demand for cement to shrink, commodity inflation-driven higher prices are likely to aid earnings in a seasonally weak quarter.Cement volumes are estimated to decline by about 20% in the three months ended June compared with a normalised sequential decline of about 10%, ICICI Securities wrote in its first-quarter preview.And demand may shrink even more g...