Thank you, Palak. Good evening, everyone.

On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you all to the Q1 FY27 earnings call of Shree Cement. From the management, we have with us Mr.

Ashok Bhandari, Mr. Subhash Jajoo, Mr.

S. H.

Khandelwal, and Mr. K.

K. Jain.

Without any further ado, I hand over the floor to Mr. Ashok Bhandari for his opening comments.

Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Navin. Good evening, everybody.

Before we start the actual Q&A, I just want to make two specific points. Point number one is that I had been pointing out to you guys that the time has probably come when we should look at consolidated numbers instead of standalone.

This quarter, almost 10% of the turnover has been contributed by my overseas subsidiaries and a 100% subsidiary in India. The standalone number is about 88-89% only.

All these are cement businesses, we would like to request everybody to start looking at the consolidated results and not standalone results. Going forward, I sincerely believe that due to doubling of capacity at Ras Al Khaimah in UAE, which should be on stream by third quarter 26-27, and increasing penetration into eastern market, the Shree Cement East performance should also improve.

Going forward in not too distant future, probably the standalone Shree Cement should constitute about 75 to 80% of total revenue, and the other constituents will have 20 to 25% of revenue. To have a more transparent and clearer picture on how we are faring in our grey cement business, it is better to look at consolidated numbers.

This is point number one. The second point is that you have to appreciate what kind of hardships we had to face because of the Middle East war.

Three things happened. Number one, the petcoke which were contracted for could not reach us, which had to make us shift the fuel from petcoke to coal.

The percentage of petcoke reduced from 54 to 9, whereas coal increased to 74 from 26. Now, the other point is that the contracted gypsum quantity out of Oman could not reach us.

Now, both had a similar effect. They both adversely affected the cost of production of the company.

If the Omani gypsum was not available, we had to procure it more expensive gypsum of lower quantity within domestically. If petcoke was not available, then we had to go for lower quality coal, which was available at a more expensive cost.

Because of these two factors, two things happened. The raw material per se went up because the gypsum prices went up.

Number two, because of lower quality of coal, our conversion factor, means clinker to cement ratio, changed, which increased the component of clinker in my cement. This is because high ash content coal, when physically and chemically reacts with the liquefied calcium oxide, the absorption of ash increases in clinker.

If the clinker has more in situ ash, then I get limited on my conversion factor and I have to reduce the quantum of pozzolanic or other cementitious material. Ipso facto, this both resulted into higher cost of production and also affected my trade sales.

Because if my conversion factor is going low, that means I am producing more OPC. The biggest market for OPC is non-trade sales.

On one hand, I had a cost push. On other hand, I had a more quantity to sell in ordinary non-trade section.

Both resulted into slightly lower realization and relatively higher cost of production. However, let me tell you this in no way indicates what we intend to do in future.

We intend to go back to our old philosophy of keep on increasing the conversion factor, optimizing the cost, and keep on pushing trade sales. Number one.

Number two, which you have to also bear in mind, that the cement which will be produced and the embedded fuel cost has almost peaked out in our case. The lower cost contracted petcoke had not reached, which has started reaching now.

It was substituted by higher cost. Instead of guiding 1.82 per kilocalorie cost, we almost touched 1.95.

I feel, barring anything untoward happening in the Gulf War, the fuel price have almost peaked out. The PVC prices have started coming down.

My packing cost has already started reducing. Though I had in last con call said that my cost will peak out in Q2 because of these factors, I think we have almost peaked out in Q1.

If anything untoward doesn't happen in Middle East, this cost should more or less stabilize or rather go down because raw material cost should also come down. Having said this, now I am opening the floor for question-answer.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Good evening. Am I audible?

You are

Great, sir. Yeah.

Thanks for an opening presentation, quite enlightening. Sir, first on the housekeeping numbers, what was the fuel cost for Q1, blended and trade share mix?

The fuel mix you already mentioned. What was the clinker factor and also cement realization?

[Hindi phrase?] , is there in my opening statement.

I have said that my fuel cost for the quarter was 1.95 per kilocalorie. I have said that I had to push more of non-trade sales because the conversion factor had come down.

Number three, you have asked about realization. I will give it to Mr.

Jain, who will give you exact realization number of trade and non-trade. Number four, you have said that what is the mix of trade and non-trade.

That also Mr. Jain can give you.

Over

to you, Mr. Jain.

Yes,

and clinker sir. The sales realization is 4919 per MT against

in Indian rupee,

4,919 against the 4,854 last June 25.

This is Indian operation only.

4,884.

Yeah.

Okay. What was the clinker factor, sir?

The clinker conversion is 1.50 for current quarter against the 1.58 of the corresponding quarter.

Okay.

And

52%

is the trade against 71 in June 25. And 60% blend ratio against the 70% of June 25.

Understood. Okay.

Sir, you mentioned that the fuel mix were expensive when you moved to thermal coal or you purchased through India. When you normalize this basis your procurement, which is now coming into Q2, how should the blended fuel cost look for Q2 assuming if the things remain steady where they are?

Bhandari

Bhandari here, Rajeshji. Hi, sir.

I had told you that our fuel cost has almost peaked out, barring nothing untoward happening in Middle East. We are looking at 1.95 today.

It may hardly go up by 2-3 paisa, but that doesn't materially change the cost equation.

Understood. This is with the petcoke which was to be received from Gulf region?

Which was contracted for. Of course, if anything drastic happens in Middle East, it may the equation may change completely.

At

present, we don't feel that there will be material increase. The one point, Rajesh, you have to understand is, in spite of all these challenges, quarter on year-on-year volume growth is standing at staggering 17% plus.

Right. This was my next question, yeah.

Yes, and that was the next question, sir. What is the outlook on the volume now?

No, it's not the focus on volume or anything. We are never volume focused, we are profit focused.

We have never changed our focus. You will never find us changing our focus.

It's because of 17% growth already, and please understand, you have to appreciate this very clearly. I had guided in March con call that we should do 40 million tons in 26-27.

We have already done from Indian operation about 10.4-10.5 in Q1. We are on track to do 9 to 9.5 in Q2.

By HY 26-27, HY1 26-27, we should be at about 19.5 to 20 million tons. You also have to remember that if you look at the general sales mix of the industry, 48% of the quantity gets sold in first six months and 52% in next six months.

God's blessing, if we can do 20 million tons, then you can do your own calculation and see that we can go up from 40 to maybe 40.5 or 41. I'm not guiding that, I'm still sticking to my guidance of 40 million tons.

I'm saying that as on date, the things as they stand today, we should reach 40 million tons and we should deliver a healthier profit Q2 onwards.

Great, sir. Sir, just continuing on this realization which you mentioned, 4919 for June quarter, and which was 4752.

Despite selling higher volumes in non-trade, you were able to see a decent improvement in realization by around ₹160. Is this understanding correct?

Yes, your understanding if the number says so. What you have to understand here that this is again you are just looking at standalone.

If you look at the console, I request all analysts to please pay heed to this advice. Henceforth, we will be talking of console volumes, console EBITDA.

We'll not be talking about which constitute what, where it has come from. Grey cement business total Shree Cement, including its subsidiaries, will be delivering a number and an EBITDA, total EBITDA.

That's it.

Can we have the console volumes, yeah?

If you look at the consolidated, the volume stands at 114.5 for the quarter.

Okay.

The operational EBITDA without other income, repeat, without other income, stands at 1272. The corresponding numbers June 25, the volume was 99.6, console, huh?

Remember these are console numbers. Operational EBITDA was 1384 1333, and operational EBITDA per ton was 1339, whereas this quarter we have done 1 1 1 1, four times one.

Though we have taken the beating on EBITDA per ton, but I explained you that this was majorly because of our shift from petcoke to coal, which we were forced to, and lack of availability of Omani gypsum, which had cascading effect on raw material cost, conversion factor. Conversion factor change has compounded the effect on raw material cost out of recosting.

Increase in non-trade sales has had some depressing effect on my premium sales.

Great, sir. Could you also share March 26 console volume, sir?

26 console 26 console?

March 26, huh.

March 26 console was 119.4.

Okay. For full year was around

One second. One second.

You please hear me out. There is a dip from 119 119.4 to 114.5 on consolidated, isn't it?

This dip is majorly because of practically no sales in May and June April and May in UAE because of war. Please understand that UAE we are doubling.

We are going to touch 7 million tons by Q3 FY26-27. This number will keep on increasing, my friends.

That is what I'm requesting everybody to start looking Shree from consolidated angle and not from standalone angle.

Yes, sir. This is great.

This will make it more comparable and this also enhances the overall profitability numbers for Shree.

Fine, friend.

Great, sir. I'll come back in queue.

Yeah.

Yeah. Hi, good evening and thanks for the opportunity.

Just a question on the non-trade. While you said that because of the issues in availability of gypsum and petcoke, there was impact on fuel cost.

Mr. Murarka, let me tell you one thing, please.

Gypsum has no role to play in shift from trade to non-trade. It is only that weaker quality of coal affects my clinker quality, which affects my conversion factor, and that affects my trade sales.

My non-trade sale I had to increase because my conversion factor was lower and I had to go into the non-trade segment. Please be very clear.

Gypsum has no role to play in trade or non-trade. Gypsum has a role to play in affecting my raw fuel cost.

Sir, could you repeat that again? That's what my confusion was, why you had to shift to non-trade because of this.

You mentioned that the clinker is something you said.

Hello, I could not get you. What have you said?

One second.

No, could you please repeat why you had shift to non-trade because of the West Asia crisis?

No, I explained you, my friend. Petcoke has very low ash.

It has hardly 1% ash. Coal or fuel, solid fuel chemically and physically reacts with the limestone throughput.

If I have very low quantity of ash in my fuel, the ash absorption in clinker will also be very low. If I am using a 20% ash content coal, the ash absorption in clinker increases.

That means in the in situ or within the molecule of clinker, because of low quality coal, more ash is there, I cannot dilute the clinker by adding more and more pozzolanic material. I have to use less and less pozzolanic material.

That means more gypsum is to be consumed. Now gypsum itself became expensive.

Clinker is 2/3 of the cost of production. If that component has come down from 1.58 to 1.50, please understand it will have its own cascading effect.

That is why and if I'm having a lower conversion factor, I will have to look at primarily OPC buyers. If I'm looking at OPC buyers, then non-trade is the only segment where I can sell.

This is all one quarter delta. This is all the effect in this quarter.

I don't think this is a very unique situation which we had faced. I don't think this will repeat in future, provided nothing explodes in Middle East.

Sure, got it. On a more sustainable basis, what is the trade/non-trade mix that you would like to have then?

I would like to go back to 70% and 30% non-trade, yaar. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Sure.

All the history of this company proves that we have been champions in trade sales. It is only because of this typical problem of low quality coal to be consumed because of Middle East war that I had to reduce my conversion factor, which stunted my growth in trade sales and I had to necessarily address non-trade market.

Am I correct?

Got it. Just also RMC performance if you could share in the quarter?

RMC [Hindi phrase?] .

We have 26 operational plants. We had 19 at the beginning of the year.

We have added eight plants in this quarter. We intend to react another 10 plants in next quarter.

Please, RMC as on date is almost a profit neutral game. As we learn the business, as we start pushing more volumes, the operating efficiency itself should bring the EBITDA of this business to at about 5% levels.

As on date, RMC is not meaningfully contributing to my bottom line.

Got it. Sure, that's it.

I'll come back in the queue.

Hi, sir. Just first question on this 17-odd-percent volume growth.

Kunal, Kunal,

Kunal, I'm sorry, I can't hear you properly.

Using handset. Yeah.

Just the first question on the India operations and the 17% volume growth. Could you just help with how would this growth be looking across our regions, basically primarily between North, East, and South?

Also some understanding on the regional utilization as well during 1Q?

I am giving the line to Mr. Subhash Jajoo.

He has all the numbers. He'll please share.

Hi, good afternoon, Kunal. First coming to your question on capacity utilization.

For north it is 66%, for east it is 60%, and for south it is 57%. Overall, it is 62%, which was almost the same.

Obviously, this is at an expanded base because a lot of capacities have also come up. Now on your question on which region saw the maximum growth as compared to last year.

South since the new plant has come in, our growth was more in 50 sales increased from 11 lakh tons to almost 16.9 lakh tons. In north, there was a growth of 20%.

These two regions saw the highest growth. East was almost flat as compared to last year.

Kunal, I would like to add one more thing. The increase in south capacity utilization and highest growth is a factor of our selling more in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat and not only South.

South feeds West India market. We had been able to push our sales in Maharashtra and Gujarat majorly.

Understood. This is helpful.

Just a follow-up here, this is an observation. Given that the East utilization, we have a lot of room there and we're looking at flat volumes, is it that the industry Eastern market was flat or you've chosen sort of not to

No, no, no, no, no. You for comparison sake, you look at Nuvoco results.

You look at the conversion factor of Nuvoco. They had a conversion factor of 1.7.

They could do that because they had better quality coal and they had better accessibility to slag. If I reach 1.7, I will beat Nuvoco hands down.

I had a problem with my coal quality, I had to keep my conversion factor constrained, and that is why I could not grow in East that much. I have, in the beginning of the call, stated that on a consolidated basis, Shree will gradually reduce from today 88-89 Shree standalone will gradually reduce from 88-89 to 75%.

That means Shree Cement East volumes and UAE volumes will go up substantially. Now this is a five-year plan, give or take 5% here or there.

Please understand that the East is typically a trade market. Trade, you can push more of higher conversion factor cement, and this time, because of the coal quality, I could not increase the conversion factor.

It is not that the slag is not available or fly ash is not available. It is only constrained by my own processing disabilities due to low-quality coal.

Understood. This is very helpful, sir.

Just to close the loop on the cost bit, as you mentioned, most of the impact has been absorbed during 1Q. Is it fair to assume that 2Q which is broadly looking at operating deleverage, that which should be seasonal and most of the West Asia crisis, the impact would be over, given the situation remains status quo?

That is what I said, my friend, that if nothing drastic happens in Middle East, you should be able to look at, except for the quantitative variation which is seasonal, you should see better profitability. Because my cost, which was likely to peak out in Q2 in fuel, has almost peaked out.

I am saying again the word almost. Don't take it that if I have 5 paisa increase in fuel cost next quarter, you will say, "Sir, aap to bole same tha."

No. We expect as on date, the fuel cost should not shoot up, provided calm prevails in Middle East and in the minds of our great US President Mr.

Donald Trump.

Understood, sir. This is very helpful and all the best.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, sir. Sir, my first question is while second quarter is seasonal quarter, if the external environment does not change, the energy prices, petcoke prices are wherever they are, should the second half operating cost be lower than the first half operating cost?

My dear friend, we anticipate so. Then we, as you may be aware, we never give any EBITDA projections or anything because it is not in our hand.

It is market related. Today, as we are sitting on 31st July, I can share with you that we have sold 3.1 million tons in this month.

The demand is okay. Our plants are operating okay.

The fuel cost has not substantially increased. If calm remains in Middle East, it should not substantially increase.

The gypsum cost should come down. The conversion factor should increase because of larger quantity of petcoke being used, which all should result into better profitability.

Got it, sir.

Why wait up to HY2? Look at Q2 only, which is just 3 months away.

Got it, sir. Sir, my second question is, you mentioned that whatever happened in the trade versus non-trade, will the situation normalize in the second quarter of trade shares going back to your historical averages or you see that happening gradually in the second half?

Hopefully, yes.

Hopefully, yes. As you normalize and sell more in the trade segment versus 1Q, that should have a positive impact on pricing and EBITDA profitability, right?

That is a logical conclusion. Got it, sir.

Lastly, sir, how prices today versus the June quarter averages in your key markets? Arrey bhai,

today means we are not even ended our month, yaar. How do I give you that number?

We have given you the number for June quarter 26 vis-a-vis June quarter 25. You are asking what is the average as on 31st July?

Arrey bhai, fine. We are quite advanced in our digitization, but unfortunately, I don't have the grip on that number.

You can send a mail to Jajoo or Mr. Jain subsequently and we'll reply to this.

Got it, sir. Thank you very much.

Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, just wanted to check, out of our around 200-odd-crore EBITDA which was not in the standalone entity, what was the share of UAE?

Because you said the share of UAE went down drastically this quarter due to the war.

Come back again, please.

Sir, out of the total EBITDA which is there in consolidated but not in standalone statements, which is around 200-odd crores, what proportion is from UAE?

I would not like to go into that kind of details for various reasons. Then, it is out of UAE only.

You can do your calculations whatever you want to do. I will not go into specific number game.

You are interested in grey cement business EBITDA, we have given you grey cement consolidated business EBITDA. We have given you grey cement consolidated quantity.

You figure it out, my friend.

Sir, just let me put it another way. Basically, what is the number sitting in Indian operations which is not there in our standalone statements?

My dear friend, I know how to catch the nose both ways, straight and roundabout. You're not going to get this answer from me.

Sir. No worries.

Sir, just a question, sir, on the freight cost. Sir, I noticed that they are lower quarter-on-quarter despite this diesel price hike.

Sir, any comments on this?

Lower

freight cost?

Freight, sir,

freight cost. Lower freight cost, sir.

You do your math again. It's not lower.

Sir. Just a final bookkeeping question.

Sir, what would be our depreciation and tax rate for this year?

2,400 to 2,500 crore is the depreciation number. Tax rate would be about 25, 30%?

30%. Sir.

Thank you.

Hi. Thank you for taking my question.

Just continuing on the previous question, in the last quarter, you highlighted that the UAE business reported 47 AED per ton of EBITDA. What would be that number in this quarter?

I'm not going to share it. Then,

sir, it's a request that please disclose the number for a expanding UAE business as well.

I have understood your request. I am just, with folded hands, saying that I will not disclose this number.

Got it. Thank you so much.

We had not disclosed 47 AED as EBITDA last quarter as well. Last quarter, we had only discussed standalone.

This is the first time we are talking about consolidated results.

Sir, you had reported 247 AED of revenues. What would be that number this quarter?

247

My dear friend, 247 AED is what? What is that number?

The revenue for the UAE business. What would be the similar revenues for the first quarter?

I am again saying, I have given you the quantity. I'm not going to give you the numbers.

Thank you so much.

Bye.

Chadha Sahab, where were you all these days?

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, my first question is largely on the demand front. Will it be possible to give some regional trend, what you're seeing in different regions both for the industry and Shree Cement?

Jajoo just shared how we fared in Q1.

No, no, sir. For second quarter.

20% incremental demand in East. How much for South?

South was significantly better because of new opening.

South, you see, we had started new plant, plus we could penetrate the West India market. He has given you those.

Nevertheless, pan-India, the industry is expected to grow at about 7 to 8%. We hope to catch up with 10%.

35.4 is what we did last year, and I have guided about 40 this year.

Understood, sir. I was actually looking forward to second quarter, this month how you've seen given the impact of How can I look forward?

From Bombay, you can't look up to Calcutta, travel 2,000 kilometers.

Definitely, sir. Sir, my second question is largely on capex, if you can share the capex guidance for FY27-28 and also on the Northeast front.

You see, total capex I had guided Q4 about 1,500 crore. In Q1, we have done 456 crore.

I maintain my guidance at about 1,500 crore for the year.

Understood, sir. Thank you so much.

For Northeast, sir, although you will be commissioning that plant in FY29, end of FY28.

Q4

Q4 28. Yes, Q4 FY28.

Just wanted to understand how the economics will be or margins will be when we compare it to our Eastern assets?

I think you have misread one number. You are getting guided by 18,000 1,800 crore for 1 million ton plant.

Correct?

You're

saying ₹18,000 per ton capex cost, how the viability will come up. Please understand that we have enough limestone in that region to go up to 4 to 5 million tons.

We are creating the infrastructure for 4 to 5 million ton of final capacity. It is not that the first million ton is going to eat up entire capital.

The facility is being created for 4 to 5 million ton. 1 million we are starting to test the market and see how fast we can grow in that market.

There are only two regions in Northeast which can have cement, Assam and Meghalaya. Right?

There is almost a duopoly there, Star and Dalmia. How things shape up where duopolies are there.

Fine. We have never proven ourselves to be running fast enough to acquire $5 EBITDA plants at $110 capex.

We are taking learning steps. We'll take our steps.

Maybe that we should be able to come to 4 to 5 million ton of final capacity. It'll take its own time.

We have to create the facility accordingly.

No, understood, sir. Thank you so much.

It means that subsequent capex will be at lower rate. Just one last question, sir, if I can squeeze in that over the last year, Shree Cement was doing a drive of improving realization until last quarter.

The drive had worked very well. You have reduced the gap to around ₹10 to ₹12 per bag, if I'm not wrong.

Any improvement on that front in this quarter or for this year that you're seeing?

In this quarter, there has been no improvement, but we are at it. This quarter, please understand, Chadha Sahab, I had a lower quality of cement to sell, or I had lower conversion factor.

I was fighting on production front, I was fighting on cost front, I was trying to push sales in non-trade segment. This was not the ideal quarter.

This was a very typical quarter, and we feel, going forward, we should be on track to try and catch up the delta.

No, understood, sir. It makes sense, and I'll soon see you in Kolkata, sir.

Thank you so much.

Please. Pleasure.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, would you like to highlight any specific cost levers that we are working on? Would love to hear from you commentary specifically on freight, rakes, railway siding.

I think that is one.

Now listen. Let me give you an insight.

At 1/7th the fuel cost, you can buy electrical commercial vehicles at 2.5 times capex cost. A 40 lakh commercial vehicle, ICE based, means diesel based, costs us 1 CR for electric, but then the cost of fuel comes to 1/7th.

Now we are working on the viability. We are working on all kinds of adjustments in that.

We are committed to commission about 100 commercial vehicle, ECVs, e-commercial vehicles, in this year. Hopefully, it should keep us in good stead.

Not only this, in our mining activity, where we use a lot of dumpers and dozers and things like that, there is a good possibility of electric vehicles substituting diesel vehicles. We are working on all that.

Those are new cost levers. We are, of course, keeping on looking for renewable energies.

You'll be surprised to know that our renewable energy component to total energy has increased from 61 to 65% in this quarter. We are working on all those levers.

The freight means the lead distance, yes, we are working on it. The railway siding, we have asked under the Gati Shakti scheme.

We have given some contracts, but the railways deliver at their own cost and their own pace. All these are there.

I had repeatedly told all you guys that the focus of Shree is not volume or top line. We are bottom line focused, and we'll do all such things which augments our bottom line.

That

has been the track record of Shree for last 40 years plus.

Correct. Sir, would it be possible for you to quantify how much was the volumes by rail say last year

and where do we Rail was about 11% or 9%?

9%.

9%. Rail, we could do only 9% last year, in this quarter.

Okay. Sir, last quarter, you had indicated that we were exploring BESS as well.

Any progress over here? You had indicated that we could potentially place it at several of our plants.

You mean to say battery energy storage systems?

Yes, sir.

Yes, we have identified a few. We have implemented in a small way, and if it succeeds, we'll go whole hog.

Sir, will it be possible for you to explain

BESS, you have to understand, the biggest bottleneck in using BESS is that if you put in 100 units, you can extract only 85 units. 15% of the total energy stays within the BESS system.

Whatever cost advantage or disadvantage we have, we have to load it with a factor of 85% availability to come to actual cost-benefit analysis. Now these are all theoretical calculations.

That's why we have put in a small system, see how it works, what the viability is, and then we can always multiply that number.

Sure, sir. Sir, just two linked questions.

Sir, I think one of the quarters, you had indicated that we are looking at slag, fly ash as an alternative basically in blended cement. If you could

No, come back again. What fly ash?

Besides fly ash, we were looking at other cementitious material which can actually go into PPC. Any update over here, sir?

No,

we are still looking around. We still have got something.

We can still use a few things. I would not like to share it for trade reasons.

Yes, we are working at additional cementitious material to increase or improve the conversion factor or bring my cost down.

Okay. Sir, just last one.

Clinker factor, sir, how much was it for the quarter and any aspiration say a year out for that?

We were at 1.58 June 25 quarter. We are in this quarter 1.50.

This is fine, sir. Thank you so much, sir.

Thank you. Really appreciate it.

Hi, thank you. I just wanted a follow-up question on the Northeast on the timeline of FY28.

In the media, we keep seeing all these news around public protests, public hearing protests and all. Just given the logistical challenge

Today morning 8:30, there was a meeting and all approvals are in place. This is as of today morning 8:30 meeting.

All your media reports, you can shelve them.

Okay. Just given the logistical challenge of setting up a plant in Northeast, you

It's never easy to make money, my friend. We don't mind meeting all those challenges.

We have proven. We are the only Guinness Book World Record holder of commissioning a brownfield plant within 14 months.

Please don't doubt our capabilities.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Two questions. You gave the console volumes as well as, of course, the standalone volumes are reported in the press release.

The difference is roughly a million ton. There is, of course, a calculated difference in the console EBITDA and standalone.

Is that on a per ton basis a representative of

You are missing a point. In console, I have two more businesses.

One is Shree Cement East, where there is a grey cement volume. The other is I have an AAC plant.

The third is we operate through a 100% subsidiary a station at Raipur. Itna aasan nahi hai, babu, that you deduct this, you see the volume divided by volume and say, "₹2,500 ton is the AED ₹2,500 ton is the EBITDA at UAE."

No, you can't fathom it like that. I'm not giving you the number.

Then, I am saying that henceforth, please look at consolidated number always.

Sure. Appreciate that.

My second question then was on the RMC. In the previous quarter, I think revenues were about 90 crore, but we are scaling this up.

Full year revenue also were around 240-odd crore. Is it possible to share Q1 RMC

revenue? Come back again.

I'm sorry, I missed the question.

My question was on RMC.

Your voice is cracking, my friend.

Okay. Is it better now, sir?

Otherwise you can send me a mail, I'll answer you,

yaar. Fine, sir.

I'll do that. Thank you.

Hi, sir. Just on the capex comment, I missed on that.

You mentioned that around 500-odd crore was spent in Q1 and the remaining three quarters 1,500 crore, or I misread that

for FY27? Total for the FY is about 1,500 crore.

We have spent 500 in Q1.

Sorry, your voice was not clear, sir. Total is how much?

Total is 1,500. We have spent 450-plus in Q1.

Okay. For next year, what sort of capex one should work with?

Not at the moment. Please give me one more quarter.

I'll get back to you in next one con call.

Sure. Sir, RMC revenues were how much for this quarter and the March quarter?

I'm asking Mr. Jain to answer to it.

RMC revenue is 109 crore for this quarter

against 108 revenue.

March quarter?

109 crore for this quarter, 90 crore for March 26, and 40 crore for June 25.

Okay. This is already operating at what EBITDA margin, sir?

I said there is no EBITDA at the moment in RMC, my friend. I said it right in the beginning.

Let all these plants stabilize.

Understood.

You guys get guided by the huge EBITDA number being reported by one of the peer group companies, where they talk of 474 plants. Now 474 plants is not under their direct ownership.

It is under a franchisee model where they are having 200, 250 plants, balance is franchisee. They just throw a number to you guys.

Nobody looks at the ownership of the 474 plants. [Hindi phrase?]

, yaar. Right, sir.

Now, sir, just one small request, because we would also love to work with the console numbers. If it is possible to share, for the benefit of everyone, the consolidated quarterly volumes for the last since start of FY25.

My dear friend, any detail you want, you will get it from my colleague Mr. Subhash Jajoo.

You can send him a mail. Tell me one thing.

This hair splitting exercise increases my remunerating power to my shareholders, or it does nothing to it?

Sorry, not able to hear you properly, sir.

I am saying that I'll give you all these numbers. These numbers you can have from Mr.

Jajoo. Does it in any way impact my rewarding my shareholders?

My shareholders will get rewarded from console number only.

Henceforth, please start working

on console numbers.

For your analysis,

for your comparative analysis, you want these details, to the extent possible, Mr. Jajoo will share it with you.

You can send him a mail directly.

Correct, sir. That is why I believe this console number is more representative of the company and that is why it is always great to work with a console number.

Lovely.

Lovely, thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity. I have a couple of bookkeeping questions.

First one is the sequential change in the lead distance, and second is the net cash available in the balance sheet as on June 20 June quarter. That's it?

First, on the lead distance, it has come down from 459 to 445. Okay?

Okay. Now

net cash or consolidated cash, what you want? I can give you my investment position, which has increased from 7733 Net, this is net cash.

Look at the investment number here. Doesn't matter.

You take it down, yeah. You take net cash consolidated 7733 was June 25.

It has gone up to 8348 in June 26. Investment number is there somewhere.

Anything else, my friend, Mr. Mittal?

Sir, just wanted to understand from you, given that we have such amount of cash in our balance sheet, has the thought of scouting for any inorganic growth No, no,

no. We are not in the inorganic game at all, my friend.

As I said, we don't have the heart to buy a $5 EBITDA capacity at $110, and then come and have the cheek to say that probably we have taken a wrong decision.

Got it. Thank you.

These were my questions.

We are in this business for last 40 years, my friend. We understand it.

Thank you, sir.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question and many congratulations for one particular thing, that is the capacity utilization which has increased this quarter.

I'm very happy that capacity utilization stands at 61-62%. That was the only concern with me.

How do you see the, sir, pricing is going to pan out going forward?

Pricing?

Yes, sir. Because see, we are ahead of this monsoon quarter.

I have never in my 40

I have never in my 40-year career taken a call on how the selling price will be. Sorry.

It's a market-related activity. I don't take a call.

I don't want to take my investors up the garden path. You do your own estimation and calculation.

I can give you a broad guidance on what the cost will be, provided external environment remains same, which I have given. Price, I don't take a call, my friend.

Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

Yeah. Hi, good evening, sir.

I have just a couple of questions. Firstly, on your

Go ahead. Go ahead.

Go ahead. We are already past 1 hour here.

I have a flight to catch. Tell me.

Just one question then. In quarter two, like you said, all your variable costs have peaked, on our total cost of operations, except for operating leverage, which could be like ₹100 to ₹150, we are not looking at any cost changes quarter on quarter.

I know it's a repetition.

Wait a minute, my friend. I have said that Q1 is a non-comparable, non-standard quarter.

I have said that. Have we ever come down to 9% petcoke use?

It's unimaginable. Please, Q1, you grant us the leeway, where it was extremely difficult for us.

Can you imagine Shree Cement selling maximum in non-trade, whereas last 3 years we have been talking of premiumization, we had been able to reduce the delta between the peer group and us? This is a absolutely abnormal quarter.

Please, give me one more quarter, H1, we'll talk more meaningfully.

Sure, thank you. Just confirming, 1500 crore capex which you said includes your UAE expansion, it's a console capex guidance for your company?

One second, one second, one second, my dear friend. 1,500 crore is India operation.

Thank you very much for pointing it out. UAE expansion is already underway, and it is being funded out of UAE operations only.

We are not remitting anything for UAE. There is enough cash sitting out there.

What is the console capex guidance for the company as you will move to console model now?

I'm very sorry, Prateek. I should have had this number.

I don't have it. I will share it to you as soon as I go back to Calcutta.

Today, I am in Beawar. I should be there by 4th or 5th.

We'll share this, because I just have to look at the UAE data. That's all.

Sure. Thank you, sir.

These were my questions.

Yeah.

Hi, I just want to repeat what I have been saying all this call. Please consider Q1 as an abnormal quarter.

I expect to do better Q2 onwards, if nothing untoward happens on Middle Eastern front. Hopefully, we should regain our supremacy in trade sales.

Let us see how things span out. Thank you very much, and have a great day.