Textile machinery manufacturer Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW) saw its total income from operations and net profit decline during the third quarter of this financial year compared to the same period last year.
While the total income from operations, for the quarter ended December 31, 2012, was Rs. 393.30 crore as against Rs. 530.71 crore for the same period last year, the net profit for the third quarter of this fiscal was Rs. 20.36 crore as against Rs. 39.65 crore for the same period last year.
R. Rajendran, Director (Finance) of LMW, told The Hindu on Monday that the results reflected the overall situation of the textile industry.
Though there were signs of improvement during recent months, it would take time for the spinning mills to decide on investments.
Capacity utilisation for the textile machinery division of the company was just about 65 per cent now. It had remained low for the last nine months and the company expected to end the financial year with a nearly 15 per cent drop in revenue compared to last year.
Though it had received orders worth Rs. 485 crore, during the last nine months, the existing orders that were planned for execution or implemented were just 30 per cent of that amount.
“The rest is inactive. We produce only when there are firm orders for delivery as the machines are tailor-made,” he said. The machine tool division of LMW also saw slowdown in off-take.