ASSETS PERFORMANCE OF THE SELECT CEMENT COMPANIES IN TAMILNADU

Indian cement industry is the second largest cement industry in the world. The paper attempts to examine the performance and management of assets of the select cement companies in Tamilnadu with the support of Trend analysis. Data employed in this study are all secondary in nature which is frequently inspected by Institute of Charted Accountants of India and Security Exchange Board of India. . The pooled data collection is to assess the impact of regulation on performance of asset of cement companies in Tamil Nadu over the time horizon viz., 1996-97 to 2005-06 . The variables used in this study are Land, plant, stock, cash and debtors. The authors have chosen four cement companies in Tamilnadu and using a statistical technique as Trend analysis with the aid of Minitab software version 15. On an analysis it is found that cement plants taken first study have procured land not only for plant construction but also mining lands keeping the future expansion/new plant on a long term basis. It is natural for Tamil Nadu cement factories to hold higher inventory of limestone because of various factors involved in mining operation and location of the mining land from the factory. As found in the Trend Analysis the cement plants had changed their marketing policy from “Cash and Carry” to credit sales. This change in policy of offering credit to large consumers is a major cause for higher debtors balance in the recent years. The cement plants in Tamil Nadu in their efforts to increase their market share started offering credit to the consumers especially for real estate builders which has resulted in low cash balance. It is expected that change in cement customer mix will result in a comfortable cash balance in future. It is found that so many small cement industries have been closed because of improper cash management. This has resulted in cash crunch in Cash Trend Analysis. The consumption of cement by government increases, this trend may be expected to decline.