On the segmental front, revenue from Plywood and Allied products, which accounted for over 54% of the company's gross sales, rose by 9.9%YoY to Rs 495.40 crore during the period under review.

While the revenue from Laminate and Allied products increased by 7.57% YoY to Rs 176.12 crore, the revenue from Median Density Fire Board improved by 23.02% YoY to Rs 156.76 crore in Q2 FY23.

Particle Board revenue was 47.32 crore (up 24.06%YoY), revenue from Container Freight Station Services stood at Rs 17.86 crore (down 1.44% YoY) and revenue from Others was Rs 16.38 crore (down 2.9% YoY) in the second quarter.

During the quarter total expense increased by 19.9% YoY to Rs 808.50 crore, due to higher raw material costs (up 13.4% YoY), higher other expenses (up 33.6% YoY), higher purchase cost of traded goods (up 32.4% YoY) and higher employee expenses (up 14.3% YoY).

Profit before tax declined 17.28% to Rs 120.46 crore in Q2 FY23 as compared to Rs 145.63 crore in Q2 FY22.

At the meeting held today, the company's board has approved a proposal for setting up a new unit in the state of Tamil Nadu for manufacturing of Particle Board.

The existing capacity of the company for Particle Board production is 75,000 CBM per annum and the capacity utilization level of the same was 100% in Q2 FY23.

The company proposes to add a capacity of 3,60,000 CBM per year with the new plant. The proposed capacity will be added by Q4 of FY 2024-25.

The investment required for setting up the said unit is Rs 550 crore and the project will be financed from internal accruals.

The company has cited increasing demand, limited capacity of the existing plant, proximity to principal source of raw material and availability of man-power as the reasons for setting up the new aforementioned capacity.

The board of Century Plyboards has also decided to dispose off the company's investments in its non-material subsidiary, Centuryply Myanmar (CPML) due to disruption in operations resulting out of adverse political developments.

The gross total turnover of CPML for the year ended 31 March 2022 was Rs 30.76 crore, which constitutes only 1.02% of the consolidated turnover of the company. The net worth of CMPL as on 31 March 2022 was Rs 45.08 crore, which constitutes only 2.89% of the consolidated net worth of the company.

The company plans to dispose of its entire shareholding at an estimated valuation of Rs 10 crore to any prospective buyer, not related to the promoter/ promoter group/group companies. The agreement for sale has not yet been entered and the sale is expected to be completed within the next three months.

Century Plyboards (India) makes plywood, laminate sheets, fiberboard, marine wood, MDF boards, sunmica and veneer wood products.

The scrip rose 3.48% to end at Rs 607.30 on the BSE today.