The March sales statistics, vis-a-vis the February figures, were upbeat for the leading cement companies including ACC, Ambuja Cement, and Aditya Birla group's UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries.

Specifically speaking, the March sales at ACC and Aditya Birla group soared 15 percent compared to February sales; while the Ambuja Cement sales increased 4 percent. To keep up with the demand, the production of these companies also increased - while Aditya Birla's production jumped 16 percent; ACC production was up by 14 percent and Ambuja Cement by 8 percent.

So far as cement dispatches in March are concerned, the Aditya Birla group outperformed the Swiss cement giant Holcim - which has a majority stake in both ACC and Ambuja Cements - in the domestic operation. The March cement dispatch figures for the Birla group showed a four times more growth in comparison to the Holcim figures.

However, despite the encouraging March statistics for cement companies - which analysts say are largely due to the upped demand from government-sponsored infrastructure programme - the long-term scenario still looks pretty doubtful, with a big consumer like the real estate sector being nowhere near resurgence yet!

The Ambuja Cement Managing Director, A. L. Kapur, said: "So far both the demand and realizations are good but I do not know how it will be tomorrow."