Century Plyboards India Ltd, India’s largest seller of multi-use plywood and decorative veneers in the organised sector, is looking forward to good tidings in the new fiscal as curbs on cheap imports take effect.

The company, which has just completed a two-year long expansion of existing capacities and put up two new plants at an investment of ₹2,000 crore, is hoping to fetch ‘reasonable’ prices for its products with the quality control order in place from March 1.

Medium density fibreboard (MDF) and particle boards — two engineering wood products used in furniture and housing sector — were most hit with cheap imports coming from Nepal, China and Asean countries. More than the volume, the landed price of the imported items, which dictated the domestic prices, kept the local firms under pressure.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has introduced the order, albeit a year after originally planned due to opposition from both manufacturers and users. With the order in place, imports now have to follow BIS norms.

“Poor quality products from Nepal, China now cannot come. They have to take BIS licence and manufacture according to BIS norms and then only material can come to India… Now that import is restricted, we will be able to fix a reasonable price,” Sajjan Bhajanka, chairman of Century Ply, told The Telegraph.

Even with the quality control order now in place for three weeks, it would take two more months before the domestic players can fetch a better price. Anticipating the order, 50,000 cubic metres of MDF and 30,000 cubic metres of particle boards were imported in the run up to March 1.

Due to cheap imports, all domestic manufacturers saw their profitability dip significantly, especially in the MDF and particle boards segments.

Century play

Calcutta-based Century, promoted by Bhajanka and Sanjay Agarwal, is hoping that multiple factors will come into play in FY26.

“The next fiscal should be good,” Bhajanka, who was recently awarded the Padma Shri, said from Century’s headquarters in Taratala.

According to him, the company will reap the benefit of economies of scale with new capacities coming into play. All the product lines — MDF, particle board and PVC — are now in production and in the process of ramping up. A new particle board facility in Chennai will be commissioned in a month and start commercial production in two months. The company has eight plants, including one in Bengal.

“We have completed our capex (except a plywood capacity expansion at Hoshiarpur), gradually our sales will go up and overheads will come down,” he said. Century will also benefit from lower interest and depreciation impact.

The company had earlier set an ambitious target of reaching ₹12,000 crore turnover by 2031. It recorded ₹3,929.8 crore turnover in FY24 and ₹3,337.7 crore in the nine months ended December 31 on a consolidated basis. However, net profit slumped to ₹132.92 crore from ₹246.9 crore in 9MFY23. The double digit sales growth in the sectors Century is present in are likely to take care of the company’s ambitions through the decade.