Thank you, Danish. Good evening, everyone.

On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you all to the Q4 FY '26 earnings call of Shree Cement Limited. From the management, we have with us Mr.

Neeraj Akhoury, Managing Director; Mr. Ashok Bhandari, Senior Advisor; and Mr.

Subhash Jajoo, Company CFO. Without any further ado, I hand over the floor to the management for their opening comments.

Over to you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, Navin.

Good afternoon and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to the earnings call of Shree Cement Limited for the quarter and year ending March '26.

So 2025-26 was a good year, a good year for us despite the challenges posed during the Middle East conflict in March. In March '26 quarter, on a sequential basis, domestic cement sales volume increased by about 25% from 8.48 million tonnes to in December '25 to 10.56 million tonnes in March '26, while year-on-year growth was at 11%.

Total volume, including clinker sales, also jumped from by about 9.4% from 9.84 million tonnes to 10.77 million tonnes, while increasing 23.2% on quarter-on-quarter basis. Realization were at were at ₹4,725 as against ₹4,652 in December '25, registering an increase of 1.6% during the quarter.

Operating EBITDA also increased by 34% from ₹902 crore to ₹1,212 crore. EBITDA per tonne increased from ₹1,032 to ₹1,125 in March '26.

Capacity utilization during the quarter stood at 66% as compared to 56% during December 2025. For the full year, sales volume, including Shree Cement East, increased by 2.2% from 35.6 million tonnes to 36.4 million tonnes.

Our strategy, which we took for the full year, helped in increasing our realization from ₹4,569 per tonne last year to ₹4,732 per tonne in 2025-26, registering an increase of 3.6%. Total operating EBITDA increased by 11% from ₹3,814 crore to ₹4,222 crore, excluding a one-time impact of ₹80 crore.

EBITDA per tonne stood at ₹1,161 as against ₹1,071 last year. Our other company, Union Cement, performance has also improved significantly during the year 2025-26 on back of robust demand and continuously improving pricing scenario.

Sales volume were up by 18% from 38.61 lakh tonnes to 45.65 lakh tonnes. Revenue was up by 39% during the year from AED 624 million to AED 870 million.

Since last two months, due to the tension prevailing in the Middle East, sales have slowed down, but with ceasefire, situation is gradually coming back to normal. We believe once peace is restored, demand would bounce back due to the reconstruction work.

The Union Cement continued with its impressive quarterly performance, and total volume increased on a yearly basis from 10.72 lakh tonnes to 11.65 lakh tonnes, recording a growth of 9% on quarter-on-quarter basis. Sales revenue was up by 18% from AED 210 million to AED 247 million on on a quarterly basis.

During the quarter, the company commissioned its integrated project of 3.65 million tonnes clinker capacity and 3.5 million tonnes cement capacity at Kodla, Karnataka. With this, the company's installed cement production capacity in India, including its wholly owned subsidiaries, increased to 69.3 million tonnes, strengthening its position as India's third largest cement group.

The work on setting up a cement mill of 2.5 million tonnes in Union Cement, UAE is progressing well and is scheduled to be commissioned by September '26. To further expand our capacity, the company is setting up an integrated cement plant with clinker capacity of 0.95 million tonnes and cement capacity of 0.99 million tonnes in the state of Meghalaya.

During the quarter, company also incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary with the purpose to establish and operate cement blending, storage, and packing facilities in Mauritius. The company continues to actively and strategically pursue multiple expansion opportunities, currently at various stages of pre-project development, to accelerate capacity build-up and firmly positioned to achieve its growth milestones.

The company is rapidly expanding its RMC business with 26 operational plants at the end of 2025-26. During the month of March '26, company has inaugurated 10 new RMC plants which are currently under commissioning.

With the commissioning of these plants, total RMC plant count will increase to 36 plants, significantly strengthening the company's operational footprint at the start of financial year '27. The company continues to focus on sustainability initiatives.

Key highlights of the same are as follows: The company's share of green electricity in total its electricity consumption stood at 61% in Q4 '26, up from 59% on Q4 '25, including its wholly owned subsidiaries in India, to be one of the highest in Indian and most probably global cement industry. The company is consistently ramping up its green power generation capacity, which currently stands at 666.5 MW, including in its wholly owned subsidiaries in India.

All the company's manufacturing locations are zero liquid discharge, treating, recycling, and reusing 100% of wastewater generated from its operations. These efforts, aided by a good rainfall, have enabled the company to maintain its water positivity index to more than 8 times in 2025-26.

The company continues to get AAA-rated by leading rating agencies of India. Last year, we also got our long-term foreign currency rating done by CARE Edge Global.

The rating given was BBB+, which is stable. Considering the strong cash position, the board of directors of the company have recommended a final dividend of ₹70 per share in addition to the interim dividend of ₹80 per share for the year 2025-26 declared in October '25.

The total dividend for the year stands at ₹150 per share, representing a 36% increase over the over the ₹110 per share dividend paid in 2024-25. The final dividend shall be subject to approval of members in the next annual general meeting.

India's macroeconomic environment remains resilient, supported by steady domestic demand and continued policy focus on infrastructure-led growth. Union Budget 2026-27 has reinforced this momentum through a sustained thrust on public capital expenditure, with investment in roads, railways, and urban infrastructure expected to drive construction activity and cement demand.

Favorable employment conditions, stable inflation, and supportive fiscal and GST rationalization measures further strengthen sector's fundamentals. Against this backdrop, the cement industry remains well-positioned to benefit from healthy demand growth in the medium term.

However, the geopolitical conflict in Middle East and forecast of moderate monsoon conditions may act as headwinds for the sector and may impact its growth momentum in the short term. With this, I would now open the floor for the Q&A.

I have with me Mr. Ashok Bhandari, Mr.

Subhash Jajoo, Mr. K.K.

Jain, and Mr. H.S.

Khandelwal to take you through the Q&A session. Thank you, everybody, and again, warm welcome to Shree Cement's quarter four webcast.

Navin, before we start the Q&A, can I make a point, please?

Good evening, everybody. I would like you to recall two specific public communication we had made.

One was at the end of June '25 quarter when Mr. Bangur had gone on television saying that he expects the growth for Shree Cement in last financial year between 2% to 3%.

We have delivered 2.2%. The second attention I would like to draw is towards the last quarter's concall where unfortunately Mr.

Akhoury could not attend, where I had said that we have moved to a more stable pricing platform, narrowing the gap between the topmost player and us by almost ₹20 a bag, ₹15 to ₹20 a bag. Now we will be chasing volumes.

We have delivered on both these accounts, which explains our ethos of delivery and not proclamation. Now I open the floor for any questions you have.

Hi, sir. Good afternoon, good evening, and congrats on strong volumes and decent, healthy margin performance, continued margin performance.

Sir, my question pertains to what next in terms of capex and the large cash surplus which is further increasing owing to your strong internal accrual generation?

Ravi Bhandari here. As far as capex is concerned, as on date, as Mr.

Akhoury has already informed you, we are pursuing three distinct places. One is we will be increasing our RMC plants during 2026-27.

Number two, we are earnestly working on railway sidings. Number three, the Meghalaya expansion for which orders have already been placed.

However, the total capex estimation for the year 2026-27 is approximately ₹1,500 crore, and it should take its own course. We expect to close the year with about 50 to 55 RMC plants, railway sidings, and preliminary work on Meghalaya cement.

Any thought on your long-term, next two-three-year expansion plans because this Meghalaya would be a smaller capex?

Look, my dear friend, we are on record saying that we should reach 80 million tonnes by 2029. Then, please understand, it's a dynamic situation.

We have slowed down the capex because even in the last concall of one of our competitors, they have also slowed their aggression. We will ride the wave as it is.

We intend to reach 80 million tonnes by '29, but let us see.

Understood, sir. Great.

On the cash surplus, you have increased the dividend payout, that is a good move. Anything further, because we are now close to ₹9,000 crore-odd surplus cash?

No,

no, no. We are ₹6,700 plus, yeah, ₹8,400 crore roughly.

You are correct. We will keep on finding the ways to reward the shareholders as well as if the situation improves, we can expedite our capital expenditure program by front-ending it.

You will appreciate that in last 15 years or so, we have not borrowed. We have generally funded all our capex through our internal accruals, and we intend to do the same.

Understood, sir. Second, if I look at console minus standalone just for clarification, would that give the UAE performance or this would also include your East subsidiary's performance, console minus standalone EBITDA?

No,

listen. Console has two components.

One is Shree Cement East Limited, and one is UCC, which is Union Cement in UAE. Now Shree Cement East Limited will be the engine for further capacity expansion in India.

UCC, as Mr. Akhoury has already pointed out, is on track to add another 2.3 million tonnes of capacity by September '26.

I think it should keep us in good stead.

Great. Given that a growth engine will be the Eastern subsidiary, should we not be looking the company at a console level rather than a standalone level,

and hence

request to be, yeah?

Indeed, I take your point, and we had been looking at this possibility. Maybe next quarter onwards, we will talk of console only.

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

Meanwhile, you may share the operating numbers as you usually share. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity. Good evening to the management.

Sir, my first question pertains to the freight cost, which appears to have increased by ₹80 per tonne kind of a number on both YoY and sequential basis. Any reason for the same, sir?

Now what has happened is that the lead distance has increased by about 12 km over last quarter. We are seized of the fact, and we are working towards reducing this and maybe bring it back to sub-440 km tonne.

You see, basically, it is completely dependent on the demand-supply scenario of each region. We are working on it, and we should be able to bring it under our control.

Yeah. Sir, the second question is that in the last concall, we mentioned about the depreciation guidance of around ₹1,600 to ₹1,700 crore.

Are we sticking to the same number for FY '27, or is there some upward revision?

Yes, we are sticking to that.

Sure, sir. Thank you.

These were my questions. I'll join back the queue.

Our

Hi. Good evening, and thanks for the opportunity.

On the strong volume growth delivery in Q4, which is 11% YoY on cement level is what I see. Going ahead, how do we see it?

Full year is obviously at 2%, but Q4 is pretty high. Going ahead, should we expect full year run rate to also now be at similar levels?

Basically, the guidance we have been maintaining is 1% over the average industry growth rate. However, we expect to reach about 40 million tonnes in this year.

2026-27, we should be around 40 million tonnes. Of course, there are a lot of macroeconomic factors which are beyond our control.

Hopefully, things will do well.

Just to clarify, 40 is cement including clinker or only cement?

Look, my dear friend, clinker is not our choice. We would not like to sell clinker because we are losing the value-add opportunity.

Clinker is basically for various small, small reasons. It's not a meaningful volume at all.

Please do not look at clinker volumes at all. Look at cement, and 40, what I am saying is maybe including 200,000, 300,000 tonnes of clinker, otherwise it should be cement only.

Sure, understood. Generally on this West Asia crisis, while we know that there is cost inflation that everyone is facing, what are the mitigation measures?

I believe now coal probably is cheaper than petcoke. Are you switching into coal more than petcoke or what are the mitigation measures, basically?

My dear friend, it's a dynamic exercise for us. We keep on evaluating the techno-commercial viability of various kind of fuel mix.

As on date, yes, you are right. Coal is becoming cheaper than petcoke, but then petcoke prices also cooled down by more than $10 a ton.

We are not concerned with what fuel we are using. We are concerned with landed cost per kilocalorie on air-dried basis at our plant.

We are constantly on that. Indeed, yes, the fuel cost, which is standing at about ₹1.60 per kilocalorie as on date, will move up maybe by 10% or something for this quarter.

Then, yes, this is our business to keep on maintaining our sustainability and profitability. You may also note that in spite of whatever results whosoever has declared, our EBITDA per tonne of cement for the year 2025-26 is by far the highest in the peer group.

Right, right. Congratulations on that.

Just lastly, if I may, could you provide region-wise capacity utilizations for you?

Look, my dear friend, all these details, I'm now asking Mr. Jajoo and Mr.

K.K. Jain to fill you up with these details.

I don't have these details in front of me. They must be having it.

Mr. Jajoo, can you answer, please?

Yes. For this quarter, for North, the utilization is 70%, for East, it is 60%, for South, it is 61%.

As company as a whole, the utilization is 66%. As compared to December, the number was 56% for the company as a whole.

From 56%, we have increased it to 66%.

Got it. Thanks a lot.

I'll just come back in the queue for more questions.

Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Sir, with your competitor also sort of going slow on expansion, do you think there's a chance that demand might be sort of impacted in the oncoming year?

What are your thoughts on demand, specifically for say the next 12 months?

Let us let us understand, my friend. Before the new series of GDP came into play, the demand was 1.3x the GDP growth rate.

Now once the GDP series got the constituents of GDP got reconstituted, the demand has come to around 1 to 1.1 times GDP growth rate. Now there are the the bedrock of growth, economic growth, is steel and cement.

If India needs to grow at 7%, steel and cement should grow at least in tandem with that, if not more. We expect this year 6.5% to be the the GDP growth rate.

We should do about 7.1%, 7.2% cement demand growth rate. As I have said, that should be the industry average.

We should grow at about 8% to 8.5%, but you can never say. Let us see how the GDP moves.

It's still early days.

Thanks for your thoughts on this, sir. Just another question, sir.

We've seen a fair amount of cost inflation, as you rightly pointed out. I just wanted to check, what are the prices looking like this quarter?

Have we been able to mostly pass those on to the customers, or do you think we need more price hikes to sort of...?

No, no, listen. The fundamental principle of any business is yeh dil maange more.

Let us be very clear that whatever we can pass on on a sustainable basis to the market after absorbing our cost push, we should be all right. We will aim to increase the profitability.

Let us see how it pans out. In any case, if the war in Middle East gets over in next 2 months, the fuel prices are bound to come down.

It is a completely dynamic situation as on date.

Got it, sir. Any chance you could provide us some color on the hikes which have been taken, say for example in the past month or so?

About ₹25 a bag.

This is across regions or...?

I don't have that kind of a breakup,

but

South is okay, and this you can of course ask Mr. Kamlesh Jain or Mr.

Subhash Jajoo to send you a mail separately on this.

Got it, sir. Just one last bookkeeping question.

The sales figure that was mentioned, that includes volume sales from our wholly owned subsidiary as well?

Subsidiary only in India,

Shree Cement East. Correct.

It does. 11%

is the sales from the Indian operations.

That 10.77 number is including Shree Cement East. Right.

Got it. Yes, overall.

Yes.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Sir, my first bookkeeping question is that what is the net cash balance as of March '26?

We are at about 6,400 ₹6,700 crore in investments and ₹1,700 crore cash and bank, yes.

Got it. My second question is, sir, on capacity expansion.

So 69 million tonnes capacity as of March '26, and overall annual full year utilizations would be in early 60s. Now that 80 million tonne target by FY '29, given the utilization levels that are there, can we expect this to get pushed out by a couple of years?

I can't say, it's too early to comment. We have slowed down.

I have given a guidance of ₹1,500 crore only of capex in this year. Let us see how the situation plays.

Got it. Sir, this value over volume, and now we are focusing on volumes, is it fair to say that between volumes and price and EBITDA margins while you're chasing volumes, EBITDA per tonne is also something you will keep on focusing on and not let it go down much?

Look, my dear friend, let us understand. Q2 and Q3 of last financial year, we suffered to pull up our prices.

We did not aggressively sell. Once the prices have established to a level where the delta between the top players and us has reduced significantly, we don't intend to give up that advantage.

We would like to have now our fair and proper market share. That doesn't mean we'll go into a price war and push volumes.

Profitability is the prime focus. Volume and price, price always the market gives, volume is what we are capable to produce.

This is the situation. Now how it will put pressure on EBITDA, we have never in our history given any guidance on EBITDA per tonne.

We have never given you any guidance on sale price per tonne because it is not in control of any commodity manufacturer, leave aside cement. It is a completely macro-driven equation, and we would not like to hazard a guess.

We can say what our costs are. We can say what our aspirational volumes are, and balance let whatever will happen to everybody will happen to us as well.

Got it. This is very clear.

Thank you very much, sir.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, couple of questions. First is if you could, sir, put some details on the Northeast expansion, specifically around limestone sourcing, if we have won a mine, what is the auction premium what we have paid, and any indicative timelines on the expansion that we have indicated?

We have gone by the laws of local government in Meghalaya, the state laws, where the state government allocates the mines. What we have got is three blocks.

We have not completed all the three blocks, but the first block where we have done our detailing, we believe that we are talking about roughly about 600 million tonnes of limestone. Yeah.

Right.

Um... Sir,

the premium that we have paid and if we have secured any incentives for this project along with the timelines?

Mines are not auctioned. They are allocated, yeah?

Allocated. Okay.

Sir, incentives?

No, we have not yet received any confirmed paper, document from the government of Meghalaya on incentives to be given, yeah? We have approached them, but we have not got any confirmation from that.

This project is to our estimate strongly viable even without incentives.

Sir, how should we look at the capex number? It looks very high, ₹1,800 crore.

Is it because of the region or is it something different?

No, my dear friend, Bhandari here. The ₹1,800 crore capex apparently looks very high.

Then, as Mr. Akhoury just pointed out, we have three blocks.

We have prospected one block, which gives 600 million tonnes. Ultimately, we intend to reach 4, 4.5 million tonnes of capacity there.

Then once you start looking at setting up that kind of a capacity, we are starting with 0.95 million tonnes of clinker and 1 million tonnes of cement. We have to create the necessary infrastructure, acquire the land, draw the power lines according to our ultimate plan.

A lot of brownfield expansion expenditure gets front-ended, and that is why this figure is looking so high.

Perfect, sir. This helps.

Sir, my second question is on the cost levers. Any variables that you would like to highlight say over next 2-3 years wherein we can actually improvise on the cost?

Probably if you can touch upon any targets on WHRS, second is RE, third is clinker factor, and fourth is railway. I think when I met you last time, you had indicated the railway volumes we look to double it over next few years.

Some numbers over here also would help, sir. Thank you so much.

No, no company runs out of arguments by which it can better its performance. Shree, of course, has many strong arguments where we can further work on our efficiencies and improve the performance.

Last time we spoke about railway projects. We have railway, we have AFR, we have RE renewable power.

All this are part of how do you improve your cost position, and that is what we are working on. On railway, we are working on at least three, four different touching different, different sites on the railway.

At this moment, it will be not fair for us to disclose a number, but be rest assured that all those arguments we are using very strongly to further improve our cost position.

Sir, sorry. Thanks for that.

Any numbers that you would like to qualify for WHRS and RE given we're already doing so well, do we have further room to improvise?

WHRS, all our kilns for today and for in future will be linked with WHRS, yeah? Even currently, all the kilns that we are commissioning are having WHRS facilities, yeah?

For RE, very deliberately I'm not giving you a number today. Maybe by next call, we should be in a better position to give you, yeah?

Solar energy, we are strong. You have seen that we're already at 61%, yeah?

Wherever there is an opportunity, where they will continue to invest in renewable energy, solar included, to make sure that we take advantage of this to further better our performance, yeah?

To supplement Mr. Akhoury's statement, we are also quite aggressively exploring the possibility of a viable Battery Energy Storage System, BESS.

We have started experimenting on a few things. If that succeeds, then there will be a huge potential of setting up further RE capacity, especially in solar.

Perfect. Sir, clinker factor, what it is right now and do we have any aspiration on these numbers say two years out?

I'm giving the line to Mr. K.K.

Jain. He will give you the numbers.

Yeah.

For the current quarter, the clinker factor is 64.8% against 63.9% December '25 and 64 in March '25.

Sir, any target for this two years out?

That is dependent on what kind of market we are addressing to. There are some markets they are still on different kind of blends.

Let Mr. Akhoury explain you further.

For each product, we will be fully optimizing our clinker factor. Now the future will depend on the product mix, yeah?

Product mix will depend on the kind of segment that we will continue to cater to. If it is OPC, then of course results in a lower clinker factor, and if it's PPC, it's a better clinker factor.

For now, I think our clinker factor is in line with the best-in-class in the industry, to my mind, yeah, except people who use slag.

I will stick my neck out and say that probably we have the best clinker factor.

Perfect, sir. This is very helpful.

Thank you so much, all the very best, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Just on the cost, sir, what has been the cost movement in this quarter, cost of production versus the last quarter?

Raashi, let me address this upfront. As I said, our per kilocalorie landed cost last quarter was at ₹1.60.

We expect to creep up to ₹1.76 or ₹1.80, and Jajoo will share the exact calculation with you. Then please understand that we are trying to keep on increasing our thermal efficiency.

We used 733 kcal in this quarter vis-a-vis 70 741 in previous quarter. We are continuously trying to decrease this.

If we decrease this, then the quantum throughput also falls, isn't it?

Got it. Sir, besides the power and fuel cost, you would have also witnessed some increase in packaging cost.

On a cumulative basis, what kind of cost increase are we talking about?

You should roughly take about ₹150 a ton. That is about 7 and a 7 and a half.

Yes, Mr. Jain?

Yeah.

There's some increase in the packing cost in the quarter. The impact is the March, and if we see the quarter figure, then it is increased by ₹20 per ton.

Now going forward, it would be around say ₹100 per ton, there will be increased. Sir,

on a total cost basis, just going back to the fourth quarter, you've had an increase in the power cost, you've had an increase in freight as well as in packaging. On a blended cement, cost of production would have gone up by how much during the fourth quarter sequentially?

Increase in cost

should be around say ₹150 to ₹200 per ton, including packing and the raw material cost as well as this power fuel and all.

This is in the fourth quarter?

No, no, in in the coming quarter. In the fourth quarter, almost there is no there's In the fourth quarter, almost there is a say the impact of is around say ₹20 to ₹30 in the fourth quarter

compared

to December.

Total cost increase is ₹20, ₹30 versus the third quarter.

Correct.

Okay. Just what was the percentage of blended cement and trade cement during the quarter?

It's 64%. 64% was the trade sale.

You wanted the trade sale, right, not blended cement?

Blended is around 60 Blended is 62%.

Blended is 62 and trade is 64.

Correct.

Thank you.

Yes, I'm done. Thank you.

Good evening, sir, and thanks for taking my question. I'm sorry if you've answered this question earlier, but just wanted to get what was our kcal cost in Q4?

Come back again, please.

Sir, what was our kcal cost in Q4 FY '26?

Sir, 1.6.

₹1.60 per kilocalorie landed at our plant.

Sure. Just one more question.

What would have been our fuel mix in Q4?

For Q4, petcoke was 54%, coal was 32%, and alternative fuel was 14%.

Sure, sir. Thanks and all the best.

Good evening, sir. My question is on your pricing gap closing with large peer.

You talked about closing ₹20 gap. Is this similar across regions, and is this a stabilized level or since you said there's always scope to improve, but how is this different across regions?

Now

let us understand, Prateek, ₹15 to ₹20 is the delta decrease across region. We intend to compress it further.

Then demand plays a major role in pushing the price rises. Let us see how the demand pans out.

Sure. This pricing gap reduction has happened over past three quarters, right, since when your volumes

flattened off and fell off? Yes, it has been a continuous exercise.

Till third quarter, we had restricted our volumes to have the price gain. Fourth quarter, we have done all right.

The pricing is fine, the volumes are good, and we intend to remain like that.

Sure. Other question is on your RMC business revenue for Q4 and full year and EBITDA for Q4 and full year?

RMC revenue is ₹90 crore, and the volume is 1.99 lakh mq. Keep in mind, sir,

RMC is at a very nascent stage. It just started, yeah?

We are a very new 26-plant company now going to 36. I think we will take a few more quarters and maybe some years before we are able to report RMC independently, yeah, as a business line.

Go ahead.

This revenue was ₹90 crore for Q4 and for full year, what was the number?

It is ₹246 crore.

Sure. Thank you.

These were my questions.

Sir, thank you for taking my question. Just one question.

You spoke about packaging cost increase of ₹20 already done and another maybe ₹80 to ₹100 in Q1, and there's another ₹150 to ₹200 of fuel cost increase. Sir, would that be it?

I'm just trying to understand what is the kind of inventory of fuel that we have right now at the plants, and does it fully reflect in Q1 or Q2 will see further inflation in that?

No, wait a minute. As far as Q2 is concerned, we cannot comment.

Can you tell me when the war will be over? Hear me out, please.

Hear me out. At the moment, we are saying that our per kilocalorie cost in Q4 was 1.60, which is likely to go up by 10% to 12% in Q1.

Q2, we are not in a position to comment. There are no cargoes available, floating cargoes available, and the Strait of Hormuz is playing its own spoilsport.

It is very difficult. It's extremely dynamic situation.

Is PVC. Now PVC granules are vanishing or having a calamitous price rise.

The indication as on date, you can take ₹100 per ton of packing cost rise, and balance as Mr. Jain has explained to you, within the quarter at varied time depending on the weighted average cost of consumption which we use or which most companies use, the incremental negative impact of such cost rise will be incrementally reflected in our results.

Also remember that the industry as a whole is suffering on these two accounts, and there is a conscious effort by all players to try and have a price rise which should mitigate this cost increase.

Sir, I fully appreciate that. The reason I'm asking this question is some of your peers have highlighted that they maintain between 60 to 75 days' worth of fuel inventory,

which means this increase... One second, I'm sorry

to interrupt.

Please understand that they talk of 60 to 75, we have never gone below 90.

Sir, in which case the fuel cost should hit us in the second quarter, right? I'm a little confused.

Sorry, help me understand this.

I said that people are saying they carry 60 to 75 days of inventory. I say our coal inventory doesn't go below 90 days.

Sir, if the war started end of Feb, early March, then it is not before the last month of this quarter that increased cost should hit you, right? Right now we should be operating with old cost inventory.

No,

no. No, my dear friend.

You are slightly mistaken. The charge is on weighted average cost, not on procurement cost or historical cost.

The weighted average cost with every shipment keeps on increasing if the fuel price is rising. Yes, the major impact will come in the third month, but then every month you will have some incremental effect.

Precisely, sir. In which case, whatever is getting ordered today, the second quarter impact of cost will be much higher.

That's what I'm trying to assess. No,

you are assuming that the same pricing will sustain, that the war will keep on going, that all shipment chaos will be there. I'm not in a position to hazard that guess at the moment.

Fair point, sir. Sir, point well taken.

Thank you.

Would like to clarify one thing that there will be say cost impact of ₹150 to ₹200 in the second quarter as compared to the March March '26. This is in totality, including the packing bag cost

and

in June quarter. Not separately for the coal and for the packing bag.

This is cumulative cost

put together all.

Very clear, sir. Thank you.

Hi. Good afternoon, good evening, sir.

Firstly, congratulations on good set of results. Sir, my question is on the current situation in the Northern market for the fly ash-related, because due to the continue huge capex is going into the next for the FY '27 and '28 into the Northern market, how will you see the fly ash availability in the North, and is it the sufficient fly ash available because we are expecting there is no major new power plants coming, how is the fly ash situation especially into the...?

Raga, main samjha nahi, bhai. Main nahi samjha aap kya poochh rahe ho.

Aap ye poochh rahe ho ki kitna fly ash available hai aur fly ash constraint hoga kya? Aap ye poochh rahe ho kya?

Yes, sir.

Haan, to bhai aisa hai kyunki aapka assumption ye hai ki fly ash is the only cementitious material which we can use, jo ki galat hai. There are various other cementitious material which can go into PPC, and we are keeping on scouting for all such alternatives.

To kyunki thermal capacity nahi aa rahi hai isliye fly ash nahi aayega, isliye fly ash constraint ban jayega, zara soch different hai.

Got it, sir. What kind of generally we use for other material other than fly ash for the PPC?

Are bhai

suno yaar, Calcutta aao koi din baith ke gap marenge tab sab samjhayenge. Sir.

Thank you.

Just a follow-up question, sir, on the operating numbers. While most of them are already answered, what was the lead distance that you mentioned in Q4?

I think it was 459 km.

455 km, okay.

What is the exact number? 457.

457, sorry,

not... This you're looking to go back to 440 in subsequent quarters?

Yes,

and maybe

even lower.

Understood. Yeah.

Sir, lastly on the cement price hike across market in your operating markets, this ₹150 to ₹200 cost inflation that you're seeing for Q1, are they fully covered in the price increases which you have taken in the month of April?

Nahi, nahi. Aisa nahi hai, bhai.

Dekho, abhi ye zara sa aap samjho. Abhi tak jo price increase liya hai, wo anticipated cost increase up to June hai.

Samajh

rahe ho?

Lekin pricing situation bhi dynamic hai aur demand bhi dynamic hai aur demand affects pricing. To ye sab itna kuch nahi hai aaj ki tarikh mein.

Yes, we are generally covered. Ab adverse movement hoga to bhaiya batayenge agle quarter mein.

Proclaim nahi na

karte hain hum log.

We don't proclaim.

We deliver. Sir, given the steel prices have also shot up significantly and there are across the board inflationary impact on construction material and there have been disruptions even on labor availability, have you seen demand disappointing in the month of April and May so far?

15

April tak to sab kuch theek tha, bhai. Uske baad thoda sa slow down aaya hai.

Abhi dekhte hain, ab May to 6

taareekh hi hui hai, abhi kya baat karein. Great, sir.

That's all from my end. Thank you.

Navin, are we through or you have some questions?

Just last few people are there for the questions. Sir, just two questions from my side.

In the initial comments or maybe to the answer of one of the questions, Akhoury ji said that the incentives for Meghalaya, though we are working with the state, but nothing is promised as yet. Is this a new policy or any change in policy for the state or help me understand this, because other companies which are operating...?

Navin, Navin, Navin, Navin, Navin. Incentive kisse maang sakte hain?

Paise walon se maang sakte hain. State se bada paise wala koi hai nahi.

To hamesha humko to marzi laga ke hi rakhni hai ki bhai incentive de do, incentive de do. Itna cost hai, itna adverse condition se ye sab.

Ab wo sab unka apna ek internal procedure hota hai. Unki ek industrial policy banti hai ya unki jo state investment committee hai usme baat hoti hai.

Us hisaab se humne marzi laga rakhi hai. Abhi tak kuch humko jawab aaya nahi.

Aayega to bata denge ki bhai itna incentive milega.

Understood. Sir, my second question then was about the North region.

I think some time back, Bangur ji in a TV interview had said that they might lose some market share in the North region because of the several I think upcoming capacities. This quarter our volume growth has been definitely much better than the previous quarters.

Also the strategy is very consciously towards focusing on volumes

now that we have reached a price point. Nahi.

Gadbad ho gayi, Navin. Tu ye baat bolega to bahut gadbad ho jayegi.

No, I said that we sacrificed volumes to reach a price point. Once we reached that price point and it became acceptable to all, we sold as much as we could sell.

Hum pehle volume nahi chase kar rahe the kyunki humko price point badhana tha. Ab price point ek jagah aa gaya, humko laga haan theek hai ye price point, to jitna demand hai utna bechte hain aaram se.

Problem kya hai? It is not that we are reinventing the equation value over volume to volume over value, nahi bhai.

Profitability is our main concern. We'll remain focused on profitability.

Ab wo kaise hoga, kya hoga, time will only say, bhai. Itna hum log hoshiyaar hain nahi ki itna lamba tumko sab bata sakein abhi tak.

Lagta hai, Mr. Bangur ne kaha hai to ho sakta hai ki competition pressure badhe.

Aaj ki tarikh mein to sab cost pressure mein hain. Uska cumulative effect kya aayega, main kaise bataun?

Fair point. Helpful.

Thank you.

Navin, are we through? It is already 1 hour here.

Yeah. We are through, sir.

We can conclude that. Danish, can you please go ahead and conclude, please?

Thank you, everybody. Thanks for the call, and thank you for participating.

Be rest assured that despite all the numbers that we have shared, and thank you for wishing us well on this 11% volume growth. Many things will continue to unfold in Shree Cement.

We will continue to sharpen our approach and focus on cost. We will also continue to work on our premium products, as you have seen, they have now crossed 22%, up by about 40% from 15% to 22%, yeah.

1

144% There's a increase in the sale in last two years from 9% to 22% in the premium.

Oh, yeah, from 9% to 22%. We are doing everything possible on using all the levers, be it on the cost or be it on the revenue side, to better our performance in the coming quarters.

Inshallah, whatever is the macroeconomic conditions, will be impacted, but within those conditions, Shree will do its best to deliver some superior results. Thank you, everybody, and have a very good evening.

Bye-bye.