Thank you, Darwin. Good evening, everyone.

On behalf of PhillipCapital India Private Limited, we welcome you to the Q1 FY27 call of JK Cement Limited. On the call, we have with us Mr.

Ajay Kumar Saraogi, Deputy Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Prashant Seth, President (Business Information and Investor Relations) at JK Cement.

I would like to mention on behalf of JK Cement and its management that certain statements that may be made or discussed on today's conference call may be forward-looking statements related to future developments and statements which are based on current management expectations. These statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other important factors which may cause actual developments and results to differ materially from the statements made.

JK Cement Limited and the management of the company assumes no obligation to publicly update or alter these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise. I will now hand over the floor to the management of JK Cement for their opening remarks, which will be followed by Q&A.

Thank you, and over to you, Saraogi sir.

Thank you, Vaibhav. Good evening, and welcome to Q1 call for April-June quarter.

The Board of Directors met on 18th of July to review the performance of the company for the quarter April to June. The major highlights are as under.

During this quarter, we saw good growth in the grey business, year-on-year 19% growth in volumes. Even though vis-a-vis previous quarter it was marginally lower by 2%.

Also, if we see the white business, year-on-year there is a growth of 11% in volumes, marginally lower by 5% Q-on-Q. The combined growth in volumes was 18% year-on-year and marginal 3% down quarter-on-quarter.

As a result of this, the net sale during this quarter was higher by 23% year-on-year at ₹3,786 crores as compared to ₹3,068 crores. Also it was higher by 5% on quarter-on-quarter, which was mainly on account of the product mix and some price improvement.

The EBITDA during this quarter was ₹639 crores. This is the standalone position, vis-a-vis ₹673 crores in the previous year and 670 in the previous quarter.

The EBITDA margins was 16.9% in this quarter, previous quarter 18.5%, and previous year 21.9%. The profit before tax was ₹423 crores as compared to 460 in the previous quarter and 498 in the previous year.

After taxes, the profit after tax was ₹291 crores as compared to 345 and 333 in the previous year. The per ton EBITDA for the quarter was ₹982 a ton as compared to ₹1,229 previous year and ₹1,012 in the previous quarter.

On the consolidated front, the net sale year-on-year grew at 22% at ₹3,962 crores as compared to ₹3,242 crores, and on quarter-on-quarter it was up by 4%. The comparative EBITDA for the consolidated is ₹648 crores for this quarter, 683 in the previous quarter, and 688 in previous year.

The profit before tax was ₹406 crores as compared to ₹444 crores in the previous quarter and 489 previous year. The EPS in this quarter was ₹35.90 paise as compared to ₹43.10 paise in the previous quarter and ₹41.90 paise in the previous year.

If you see the work on the projects, the greenfield project at Jaisalmer is progressing well, and we are confident that it will get commissioned within the targeted timeframe of first half of FY28. Even the grinding unit at Bhatinda is progressing well.

We have acquired the land for the second split grinding location in Punjab, and we are working out to start the work at that site as soon as possible. We had also taken up an expansion of the wall putty in Rajasthan, and the work is almost on the verge of completion, and we expect that in Q2 this year this will get commissioned.

As far as the debt profile as on 30th June, the gross debt stood at ₹5,551 crores as compared to ₹5,136 crores as on 31st March. The cash balance as on 30th June is ₹1,686 crores compared to 1,765.

The net debt is higher at ₹3,864 as on 30th June compared to 3,370 as on 31st March. If we look at the net debt to EBITDA as on 30th June, the same is at 1.69, and net debt to equity is 0.53.

These are the major highlights. If you have any other questions, we'll be pleased to address the same.

Thank you.

Hello, sir. Congrats on a good set of numbers.

I have a couple of questions. Firstly, volume growth was very strong.

Could you help me understand how much of this would be from new plant commissioning with respect to East and some color on how regions are doing, how North is doing, how Central India is doing?

Yes, the major volume growth is as a result of the expansion which we have done in Central India, including the grinding unit in Bihar. The major volume growth is driven by that.

We continue as far as the existing markets of North and South are concerned. We continue to grow as per the market because in any case we do not have extra volume over there.

Got it, sir. We would have gained market share, right, this quarter based on what our volume growth we have done?

Is that correct?

We have gained certain market share definitely in Central India in major of the regions, and we have been able to maintain the market share in the all other regions in North and in the Southern regions.

Got it, sir. Sir, and I have two more questions.

One is on cost. There has been a very sharp increase in terms of fuel cost, diesel cost, and all of that.

Could you give some color on how much this would go up for us in the next quarter from the current quarter numbers?

See, the cost should go up by about, say, ₹150 in Q2 as compared to Q1. One, see, some fuel cost increase would be there.

There has also been some packaging cost which was higher in Q1 that will go down in Q2. Overall, with diesel and everything we expect that the cost should go up by ₹150 a ton.

Q1 had a timing difference. We had taken up the maintenance or preponement of some of the maintenance.

That in Q2 the maintenance would be lower what we had earlier projected.

Got it, sir. Okay.

Sir, and just one last question, sir. With respect to our expansion, I think we are trying for 40 million in FY28 and 50 million in FY30.

Just a confirmation here that there are no plans or anything that we are trying to reschedule or push away a bit because a lot of competition has been talking about taking a step back with respect to capacity expansion. I'm assuming that we're not planning anything like that.

Would that be a fair understanding?

As of now we have no plans. We are on schedule.

Once the 40 million is already in progress, and immediately we are already working out on the next phase of expansion. At an appropriate time keeping our target for 2030, we'll be going to the board for their approval.

Got it, sir. Thank you so much.

Good set of numbers, sir. Congrats once again.

Thank you very much, sir. Sir, my first question is can you kindly give us some color on pricing, where are pricing today versus your June quarter average?

Monsoon is traditionally a quarter where prices generally fall very sharply Q-on-Q, but this time there's a context of higher energy prices. How do you see prices in your key markets?

As of now, there's no major variation. I think if we look at an average of Q1, the prices would be more or less same because some of the price increase took in between in Q1.

Keeping that in view, I think the prices are more or less same, flat as of now. We expect that this time in the monsoon because of the cost pressures because of the geopolitical situation, we should not be seeing any price drop in spite of being some low volumes because of the seasonality.

Got it, sir. Sir, second question, just coming back to your very strong volume growth in the first quarter, which you attributed to the new capacity in Bihar and market share gains.

How should we look for the remainder of the year if industry environment remains the same? Do you expect this volume growth of around 16, 17% to be sustained and market share gains to continue through the year?

We have already, we plan we are expecting, closer to 22.5 to 23 million in this quarter in this year. We are working towards that and so we will have a double definitely a good double-digit growth in this fiscal, but I I mean may not be that, we sustain if the demand continues.

Presently, the demand is also supportive, and if support in demand continues and we would we growing. Again, see today we have some restriction in terms of capacity availability of capacity in the North and South.

Had today if we had that capacity, we could have grown even far more. Because the growth engine the growth opportunities presently with us are only in the Central India.

Got it, sir. Lastly, sir, you mentioned the 2030 timeline for the next phase of 50 million ton target.

Should we expect the company to take those expansions to the board this year, or do you see here and the spending to start FY28 second half?

See, it's a bit too premature now to give a date of going to the board, because we already have a large capex ongoing. Normally, we are ready, we are doing our base working.

Definitely as the project is nearing completion and looking to the overall business environment situations, because uncertain geopolitical situations are there. If that situation really aggravates and has some impact, it's very difficult to say anything now at this point of time.

Otherwise, we are not feeling that any postponement or any delays in our plans.

Got it, sir. Thank you very much, sir.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Yeah.

Sir,

thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my first question was on your white segment.

If I look at more from an annual perspective, FY24, '25 were fairly muted for this segment. Last year, there was a good 11% growth, and in Q1 I observe a very healthy, I think, almost 28, 29% kind of a growth, and that too it is coupled with reasonable realization increase as well of almost about 4% Q-o-Q.

I would just request what is driving first of all this kind of a volume growth, and how is the pricing also the company is able to pass it on? Is it fair to say that the competitive intensity, which earlier was there, has reduced?

How should one look at this segment incrementally overall?

Navin, what has happened in the white business, this geopolitical situation on the white business per se had some positive impact for the company. In terms of, a lot of volume was coming from UAE, the imports which were coming from UAE, that did not come here.

As a result, we had that opportunity for extra volumes in case of white cement and putty. Because the white cement availability was limited, we could do some extra volume.

Having said so, the competitiveness in the white business will continue. I would say that we have got a positive impact in the first quarter, may get something also in the second quarter.

As things would normalize, the competitiveness on putty and all will continue to be there.

Understood. My second question then was on your RMC business.

I think last year we exited with about five plants. What is the outlook there, how much revenues did we clock in this particular quarter, and for the full year how should one look at overall RMC revenues and profitability?

As we see, we have a plan to have about 100 RMC plants by FY28, 50 by FY27. As we speak, we have 17 plants operative now.

The top line would be anything between ₹35 to ₹40 crores for Q1. I think by this year end, we should be touching a base of about definitely maybe ₹100 crores quarterly.

This quarter is ₹35 crores, which should be as things get up by exit of maybe ₹100 crores per quarter.

Great. Just to clarify, sir, the cost related to RMC, would that be largely under the raw material cost consumed, right?

Yeah.

Okay. That's it from my side, sir.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of results. Sir, just wanted to understand on a structural basis, we have some coal blocks which we plan to operationalize.

Could you tell us more about the timing, what sort of output do we expect from them, what sort of cost savings do we expect from them, and perhaps if we even plan to sell some of this coal externally?

We have two coal blocks, and out of which the larger coal block, which is at Mahan, where, because we had made a good progress. I think we should be able to by end of FY28 have some coal starting coming from FY end of FY28 from this coal block, one of the coal blocks, and definitely following maybe one year later from the other coal blocks.

We have option to sell the fuel also. We will evaluate as we go what should be our plan and strategy for sale of coal.

As regards the saving, yes, there would be substantial saving. There are two things: one, our dress exposure will reduce substantially, because if not that with like of current geopolitical situation.

If you have for the domestic fuel, which is the cheapest fuel as of now, you had access to more quantity, we could have used more domestic fuel. Especially for the North plants and Central, we are still using domestic fuel, which we use against our linkages as well as from the open market.

I think the fuel from the coal block, our own coal block, which be much cheaper than what is available in the market.

Understood, sir. Secondly, sir, just on the paint segment, since it's been some time since we've sort of been in this segment, what would you say how've your learnings been, what has the market evolution been like, and what are the long-term plans we have in this sector, how much do we plan to scale, what are our aspirations?

Basically, your thoughts on this segment and how we plan to be positioned within it, sir.

See, our entry and a limited allocation to paint business, because putty was already there on the paint counter. We were losing our customers because to survive on one product, it was becoming difficult.

That is why we entered the paint business. Having said so, since our priority is on the core business, the board did not approve.

We limited our expenditure to ₹600 crores. We have been growing this business in last 3 years.

Last year we did about ₹380 crores. We are expecting over ₹500 crores net top line.

We expect to be break-even in third year of operations. Definitely, I would say that it is helping our putty business.

When we are showing a good growth in the putty volumes, I do not know whether that growth would have been there if we had not entered into the paint business. It's very difficult to say this is the extra volume we got because of the paint, but definitely it has helped.

That cannot be ruled out, and I think this will help in the medium term or long term. Again, our commitment is and our capital is reserved for the core business.

We will try to develop this business on the earnings of the business going forward.

Got it, sir. For this quarter, what would be the revenue and EBITDA losses for paint?

For the paints, the revenue was around ₹125 crores, and it was break-even.

We've already achieved break-even this quarter. That's good to know, sir.

Understood, sir. Just sir one clarification.

The entire paints business, sir, is it carried out through JK Maxx, which is our wholly owned subsidiary, or is there a component which is also sitting within the standalone?

No, what we are doing is that the JK Cement platform, the putty platform, is being used, because you can't have two platforms to sell paint, the customers being common. The putty platform is being used, and JK Cement charges service charges as a platform charges from paint company, otherwise the paint business.

It does appear, we have two brands, the Acro brand and the Maxx brand. The Maxx brand sale also shows in the top line of the standalone results.

Overall we do analyze what is that top line of paint and what is the EBITDA of the paint.

Sir, basically this ₹125 crore, this is sitting in standalone entity. Is that understanding correct?

Most of it, but partly is also in the Acro brand is a direct sale from the subsidiary.

Sir. Most of this is in the standalone.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Hi. On the cost increase guidance that you had mentioned earlier of ₹150 per ton for second quarter, just wanted to clarify, because we have a higher maintenance in the current quarter, is this 150 adjusting for the benefit that next quarter would have that lower sort of maintenance expense, or

See, the second quarter would have a similar maintenance cost, maybe marginally lower. The second quarter would have, see we have done some of our major maintenance has been done, but few kilns maintenance is still pending, which will be taken up in the second quarter.

There will not be any further increase Q-on-Q in terms of maintenance cost. The impact will only be shown in terms of the fuel cost and the other cost which is where the price and the diesel cost which is having an impact.

This 150 will be like a variable cost. It is not linked to the maintenance.

Okay. Okay.

In any case, there would be some sort of operating deleverage impact also, right, because

Yeah. That will be there.

The operating deleverage definitely be there. That impact would be there also.

Over and above this thing. Okay.

Just a second question on the RMC revenue. You mentioned ₹35 to ₹40 crores recorded in first quarter.

Can you just share what was it in the fourth quarter?

Fourth quarter, this number was very low, around ₹5 crores.

Okay. Okay.

Understood. Then just one last question on the thermal substitution rate and the green power mix.

You have a target of 35% in FY30, but last couple of years, it has been in that 11 to 12% rate. Similarly also on the green power mix, you have a 75% target for FY30.

Just wanted to get a sense on the timing of when this increase might be reflected.

For green power, I think it will definitely be able to achieve that. We could have had a higher number, but because of certain delays in the approvals being for the group power housing from the state levels, there were certain delays, so that has resulted in some lower solar power.

Green power, we are working out on other green power projects. We are hopeful that we have to get another 20, 25%.

We should be able to, from maybe next year, about 4, 5% annually, and we should be able to reach that number. As far as thermal substitution is concerned, that target is given, but we have to rework out on those because of the changes in the fuel mix.

When it was done, the expansions which has been done had not been considered. It was based on the existing capacities.

We are working out on that, and based on the revised number, with the fuel mix, because of the locations, we will work out on that. Hello?

Hello.

Okay.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, would it be possible for you to provide some color on regional utilization levels and profitability for us?

No, sorry. We do not share the regional profitability and the numbers.

Sir, even utilization levels?

No.

Sir, how would We have already

given that major growth is related to Central India. In the North and South, we have grown as per the market.

Beyond that, we are not sharing.

Sir, you did indicate that we have run out of capacity in two regions. Would it be fair to assume that we are closer to 90% plus utilization level in those regions?

Effective capacity, yes, we can say 85, 90% definitely.

Okay. Sir, from an understanding standpoint, how different will be the fuel cost across regions, because you indicated that if you get more of linkage, the better it is.

I would presume that is the case more for Eastern India, wherein the petcoke component will be significantly lower. I

in case of Central India, we are consuming only the domestic fuel. We are not using any petcoke or imported fuel for Central India.

The petcoke or imported coal, I mean the US coal imported coal had also become cheaper when, we had this geopolitical and sudden spurt in the petcoke prices and its availability. All petcoke and imported fuel is being used in the North plants and in the South plant.

Actually in South plant, we only use petcoke and alternate fuel. We are not even using Indian coal there.

The Indian coal is also not very viable. In the South plant, it is only petcoke and alternate fuel.

In the North plants, we do get certain, Indian coal, which is because road movement is not economical to get by road. Whatever we can get by rail, the Indian coal, we get for the North plants, and balance we use petcoke and alternate fuel.

Perfect. Sir, just last question.

How should we look at power and fuel cost and packaging cost into the next quarter?

Packaging cost should be more flat or marginally lower in Q2 vis-a-vis Q1. Fuel cost, we should definitely see an increase of around ₹75 to ₹100.

We talked about 100 ₹150 increase. It may have about ₹100 towards fuel cost and ₹50 for other increases, diesel related.

Perfect.

Perfect, sir. Thank you so much, sir, for the answers.

Thank you.

Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

I have a couple of questions. What was the exit utilization of Panna line 2 in the quarter 1 FY27?

Ha. No,

actually see, Panna for the complete plant as a whole we can give the utilization, because we do not see separately the clinker or the cement dispatches for line 1 or line 2.

No issues, sir. You can give it cumulative.

Panna overall utilization is above 65%.

Okay. Sir, what was the incentive income which was accrued in this quarter?

Incentive income was around ₹50 crores.

Okay. Sir, last question: what was the maintenance cost which we incurred in this quarter?

Maintenance cost we incurred around ₹50-60 crores of the extra maintenance in this quarter. Okay.

This is what we will also spend in quarter 2 as well, am I

right? It may be marginally lower.

Sure, sir. These were my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Good evening, sir. My couple of questions.

Firstly on RMC revenue of ₹35 to ₹40 crore this quarter, are the related costs, which is in RM cost, is it also similar cost, or segment is in EBITDA loss for the quarter?

Marginal, see as we are ramping up, the capacities are coming up, no significant loss. Some marginal loss is definitely there.

I think, see, as the plant setup the initial cost, some of the costs are maybe appearing also, some fixed cost is also there. We do monitor, but RMC will stabilize over a period of time as we set up the plant, because each plant takes to get into a break-even situation, about 3 months' time.

Is this the first time we have reported RMC revenues for the quarterly basis we are discussing?

It's part of the top line. A separate number it was because earlier we had about five plants exit March, it was just insignificant.

Now we have 15 plants going to 50 by end of this year and 100 year after?

Yeah. This is our plan, and hopefully we should be able to achieve that.

Other question is on fuel cost, which was reported at 1.53. How should we look at this cost in Q2, and is that expected to be peak cost in the current fuel environment?

Q2, it will peak out. Definitely what we are looking at that it should go up by, say, around ₹100 per ton in Q2.

What would be this on a fuel kcal basis, 1.53 what we have for last quarter, Q1?

It could be, we have to see, but I think it will depend on a mix. Could be around 1.75 or something, closer to that, because domestic fuel is less, but still, during monsoon it is a bit higher because of excess moisture.

Okay. Irrespective, it is going to be peak cost, and we should see decline thereafter?

Yes.

Sure. These are my questions.

Thank you.

Hello, am I audible?

Rajesh. You are audible.

Hi, sir. Good evening.

First question pertains to sir the paint business. After three quarters of ₹100 crores each, we have seen a sharp jump to ₹125 crore.

Could you explain this jump and what is the target for full year? When you mention break-even, you meant it at EBITDA level in Q1?

Yes. It's all break-even when we talk it is only at EBITDA level.

Okay.

We said that the target for FY27 is anything between ₹500 to ₹550 crores. That is the target for FY27.

Okay. In the RMC segment, you said you exited with five plants March, and now it has crossed around 17.

Next year when you would be running at 50 units, 50 plants, any unit economics which we can work with, because incrementally it will have a sizeable contribution in top line and EBITDA level, or at least cost level?

See, RMC is not a very big EBITDA margin business.

Right.

RMC is a requirement either the margin is whether in cement. RMC standalone and as a business it is 4 to 7% EBITDA margins.

Correct.

It is not that, but you have to be in RMC business because certain customers are there. Otherwise you will lose that volume of cement.

Mhm. You cannot address or you will lose that project.

RMC helps one to enter into project. You start with RMC, then there is a cement requirement, there are other building material requirements.

Then you can really address the requirement of the entire project.

Agreed. For full of FY27, what sort of revenue you are looking from the RMC segment?

See, we are just working out. I think as a ballpark number if you see, maybe, we have about ₹250 crores top line in this fiscal from the RMC business as

Sorry, how much? I missed it.

₹250 crores as a top line as we grow the business, to 300. Maybe we can touch 300, but I think a ₹250 crore number is something we have achieved 35 in this quarter.

Q2 every quarter would be better than the previous quarter as we are setting up plants and the plants gets stabilized. This is how we see the numbers going.

From a full-year perspective, you would be EBITDA positive with these numbers, ₹250 crore?

I think so. We should reach to a level of a break-even and the loss is, it's a single digit loss.

Right,

right. It is nothing, it is anything significant.

Understood.

Understood. Sir, on the costing front, Q2 you mentioned around ₹150 increase.

You're factoring in ₹100 increase in fuel cost, and there would be some increase because of the diesel, but you will also have the benefit of railways bulk discount as well as the fall in the packaging cost, which would offset your operating loss, because there would be between Q1 and Q2, there would be an operating loss because of lower volumes. You are factoring in everything in your ₹150 cost increase?

We factor in everything, because again, railways cost is limited only to the North plants where we have facilities. In the Central India or in the South plant, everything is by road.

Understood. Okay.

Okay. In the SAFCO expansion plan, would that be taken up later beyond FY28?

What is that thought process over there? See,

the first thing that we are working on SAFCO, and we are able to utilize the full capacity. We'll see and we get all the approvals.

Thereafter, we will see and go to the board as of now whether it is FY28, we will go or not, it is not very clear. We have a plan.

We will work out with all the approvals. We will see that the existing business starts making profits, and then we will plan next.

Understood. Just one last question on the RMC business.

You mentioned the imports were impacted, and that helped positively for Indian players like Indian white cement producers like JK Cement. What is the scenario in Q2?

Has the volume picked up from UAE units, exports from UAE units or domestic sales in UAE?

Some imports have come in from the competitor. Some clinker and cement has come in.

Still some is yet to come, not the normal quantities as yet. Definitely some quantities have started coming.

We have to see, wait and watch. Understood.

Understood, sir. That's all from my end.

Thank you, and all the best.

Hi. Thank you for taking my question, and congratulation on good set of numbers, sir.

I have a couple of questions. Many questions are answered.

On a console basis, if I see, our raw material costs has increased. Is that the impact of diesel prices, industrial diesel prices, or what is linked to it?

So

On per ton basis.

On per ton in terms of console?

Raw material cost.

Okay. See, again that is a mix.

If you see standalone and consolidated, you are dividing by the same number your dividing factor console includes drymix mortar. The drymix mortar which we do in UAE is part of the raw material cost over there.

Then the dividing factor remains the same, because there is no volume per se of drymix is in a different volume mix, so that volume number is not included. Therefore the per ton will show a higher value.

Is there any higher diesel price also linked to this per ton cost increase?

Not in the overseas. Yes, in Fujairah, the freight costs have increased, because one, we could not dispatch anything.

As such, the sale has only been in the GCC region at Fujairah. As far as drymix is concerned, it's a local-based business.

There is no freight cost impact.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Sir, the plant maintenance shutdown which we have taken into the Q1, is it the primarily plant shutdown or sudden shutdown? No,

no, it is a planned shutdown. It is like some preponement.

Preponement. What happens in case of kiln, whenever you see the red spot, you expect that it will come on a particular time, but when you see partial you have to do, then you take that maintenance.

In always a kiln, 1 month variation, 1, 1.5 month variation could always be there. Got it.

Basically, it means if that is on the scheduled time, that volume growth can be more higher for the quarter? No,

no, there is no volume loss on that account, because we were having the huge clinker stock. We have not lost any volume.

This 18% growth would not have been possible if it is because of the forced shutdown.

Got it, sir. Though

because of maintenance, we had purchased some clinker in case of South.

That too a minimal quantity. Got it, sir.

Sir, just last question from the incentive side: when the FY28, when are all the units of Jaisalmer, Bikaner, and the Bhatinda will get operationalized, what are the incentives we are expecting from FY29 onwards at the annualized rate from the FY29? FY29,

what we see today, it's about anything between 225, ₹250 region, because we are taking the input credit. We are not able to take the subsidy, because we are taking the input credit.

FY29 onwards, I think this number should come to the number of about ₹300 crores annually, which we were getting earlier.

Got it, sir. Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thank you.

I thought I will not be allowed to ask a question despite pressing star one 13, 14 minutes before the start of the call. Nevertheless, I will go ahead with my question.

Sir, when we mentioned that we are looking at on a grey front a 22.5 to 23 million ton kind of a volume for this year, that means we are looking at a very, very subdued growth for the next three quarters, maybe a close to a 6, 6.5%. Given already the 6 million ton which on YoY basis if I look at 0.95 million ton, kind of a 1 million ton is incrementally we have done.

Last time we were looking at close to 2.5 million ton incremental volume in FY27. Given the strong number, don't we think we should be at least doing a 3 million ton extra volume in this year and maybe a last time also we said in FY28 we will be doing incremental 3 million?

That number should be inching 3.5 million ton incremental volume. See,

Shravan, if the demand is there, we have the volume, we will definitely do so. We had an annual number.

We are working on that annual number. We revise annual number every quarter, plus or minus.

Our effort is to maximize. We will not leave any stone unturned, and we will not lose our market share in any of the regions.

Major volume as I said is going to come from Central India. To grow, you get all the volumes from Central India, we also have to ensure that we maintain our pricing position and grow profitably.

We cannot be very, very aggressive in getting to a top line even if we have volume. We have to plan out in a very strategic form that the long-term benefit we get in establishing our brand and the market position.

Okay. Got it.

At least definitely will be growing kind of a double-digit

Of course, we will be growing double digit. I'm not saying that we'll be growing single digit and anything.

You have to see that in the South and in the North, we have a limitation. We don't have that volume, the growth will be restricted.

Even if we had an opportunity to grow there, we don't have the volume.

Got it. On the white front at a console level, kind of a double-digit there also is doable for

On a console base in the white, it may not be possible, because in the first quarter in the UAE region, we have lost 50% of the normal volume because of the restrictions. There were no loading available.

Because of the geopolitical situation as of now, in the Middle East, our white cement sale is only restricted to the GCC countries. We are not able to export to any other region, because we are not getting the shipload.

We have everything, but we are not getting.

True, true, sir. Once this 0.6 MTPA putty in Nathdwara will come in this quarter, Q2, despite we losing in the UAE, this quarter at a console level we are already at 11% plus kind of a growth is already there.

That's what I was looking at. Plus 0.6 million ton putty, so that's why I was looking at kind of a double-digit volume growth.

Why we have put up at Nathdwara, to reduce our dependence on toll manufacturing. As a capacity peak demand, we had challenges in this quarter, we had to get a lot of material from the toll manufacturers.

We have to be there the putty. We have a plan that we should be growing that business in double digits year-on-year.

Unless and until we have a capacity, we cannot make that plan.

Got it. Secondly, sir, on the paint front, for this year you have clearly mentioned, but for next year, FY28, on ₹550-odd-crore kind of a revenue base of FY27, how one can look at?

Now this year we will be break-even. Can we start seeing a kind of a 5 7% kind of a EBITDA margin in FY28 on paint front?

Definitely, we are working towards that, and we will come out with a number when we are about to close. Yes, as whatever you said, this is a broad number.

We will be working out on some EBITDA positive, good EBITDA 5, 7% in FY28 definitely from the paint business with the top line also increasing by another ₹150 crores or so. We have to really work out the numbers, and we will definitely work out and share the numbers.

Yeah. Sir, lastly on the capex, if you reiterate the number how much we have done in this and for FY27 and '28?

Yeah. FY27, we have a plan to do around ₹3,500 crores of capex.

In '28 also, it will be around ₹1,200 crores. If we take up the next leg of expansion, that would be additional.

Just one quick bookkeeping question. What was our fuel mix in this quarter?

It was 40% petcoke, 45% Indian coal, balance alternate fuels.

Sir, are we using coal also in the Northern plants? Are we taking steps to sort of just increase the cadence or the salience of coal in our overall mix given the petcoke pricing currently?

We use some portion of Indian coal also in the North. We have also imported some US coal, which is because it's cheaper.

It's a high-calorific imported fuel, so that also we use when we see the economics vis-a-vis the petcoke.

Sir. Has it really changed for us, say for example, over the past one or two quarters when we faced this cost inflation on the petcoke front?

Basically, I want to understand how are we changing the fuel mix. That is the intent of my question.

See, again we had a definite plan up to February. We had a plan what we need to import, and the fuel mix was more or less frozen.

You have to keep on changing and evolving with the change in the scenario of availability of the fuel. As fuel is something with this geopolitical situation is affecting the availability and the pricing.

Unless you have a stable scenario on pricing, you can't have a fixed things. You continuously need to evolve so that your fuel cost is cost-effective.

Understood, sir. Thank you.

Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a great result. My first question was on clinker.

I understand that the nameplate clinker capacity at Panna line 2 is 3.3 million tons, but you had said that it will be debottlenecked to 4 million tons subsequently. By when we are expected to achieve that, one?

Secondly, given the high growth rates that we are seeing, is there any possibility of seeing clinker constraints in the peak quarter, which is Q4 FY27?

When we are working the kiln on a expanded capacity of 4 million for line 2, we have been working on that, and I think we would be able to achieve the same in this fiscal. As of now, we do not foresee any clinker shortage for the volumes in Central India.

Sure.

Also once Jaisalmer is up and running, will the decision for next clinker line be taken post that, or do you think you'll be able to start working beforehand, now that you are at a much bigger base? One clinker line actually make kind of that way restrict your growth rates in the future.

Yeah.

Yes, you are right. We have a much larger base which can support an additional capex, and we are working in light of that.

Since it is a greenfield and a large project, we may not wait till the full-fledged commissioning, but closer to when we see that the commissioning is there in the next few months, we may take a call, because we have to justify to the board, we will look at the total company's balance sheet, the position, everything, take a stock, and then we will be able to decide. Maybe we are in a better position to know some timing by end of this year or maybe in the last quarter of this fiscal.

Sure. In the order of priority, next one will be Muddapur?

Should be as of now.

Okay. That's it from me.

Best of luck. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

Sir, just one thing, sir, from my end. On the call, I missed it.

Did you mention the number for the preponement of expenses from Q2 to Q1, how much was the quantum, by any chance? Have you said that quantum?

I have missed that number.

Maintenance?

The maintenance that you told that from Q2 to Q1 you have preponed.

It was in the range of ₹50 crores.

₹50 crores, yeah. Okay.

Thanks, sir. That's it.

Thank you on behalf of PhillipCapital India Private Limited. We thank the management of JK Cement for the call and also many thanks for the participants joining the call.

Thank you very much, sir. Darwin, you can now conclude the call.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone, for joining the call.

Thank you, sir.