Thank you so much. Good evening, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Once again, a very warm welcome to yet another call on a Saturday evening for UltraTech for the third quarter results of '26. Before I begin, let me assure you we will not make this as a habit of spoiling your Saturdays, but this Saturday is worth spending time.

Let me get on to the main core topic for discussion, which I have in mind today: demand. That is the most important aspect for our business.

Everything else becomes secondary and falls in line. As we see the progress, government's focus on infrastructure is translating into a robust pipeline of new projects nationwide with several marquee investments announced across every region, translating into solid demand.

You must have all read about it in the media at different points in time, but let me put a perspective together in one place region by region. In the north, Punjab is taking extensive road development initiatives, spending about ₹16,000 crores in its markets.

New corridors have been announced in Delhi Metro for about ₹12,000 crores. Uttar Pradesh is developing 1,575 km metro network across major cities.

Of course, that goes till 2047. It's a long-horizon, multi-city infrastructure pipeline, indicating sustained demand and significant opportunity for cement.

Highway projects, continued investment in road connectivity and logistics corridors across the state, like the four-lane greenfield highway project between a place called Barabanki and Mustafabad. Let's go to West India.

Maharashtra is seeing a significant pipeline of large transport and mobility projects, signaling strong multiyear demand for cement and construction materials. Megaprojects like the Uttan-Virar Sea Link, about ₹58,000 crores, Mumbai Metro expansions, Pune Metro multiple lines, and road concretization in Mumbai, Centre's clearance of Pune-Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar Expressway highway spanning 245 km, a particular focus on improving connectivity for rural communities, nearly 350 km of state highways, 2,577 km of rural roads, slum rehabilitation initiatives, all of these are going to boost urban cement demand.

Expressways and ring roads, Nashik, Vadhavan, Bhandara, Gadchiroli, etc. add to further boost for demand.

Gujarat's nine high-speed corridors covering about 800 km are fast-tracking connectivity and will add further. Cabinet has approved two major highway projects worth ₹20,000 crore plus, Nashik-Solapur and one more, signaling continued momentum in India's integrated high-speed connectivity push under the PM Gati Shakti.

Stepping down into South India, Bangalore is undergoing a major mobility transformation with the metro network set to expand from 96 km to 175 km by the end of December '27. Karnataka government has unveiled an urban infrastructure program, which will have longest 40 km twin tunnel, a 41 km double-decker metro, 110 km elevated corridors.

Centre has approved ₹10,000 crore expansion of four key highways measuring about 273 km, which will improve connectivity across Telangana. New Mangalore Port has announced capacity expansion to handle 100 million tonnes by 2047.

We can't forget the eastern corridor. West Bengal has its own challenges, but is planning largest road initiatives, about ₹8,487 crore program, 15,000 km of rural roads, 5,019 km of urban roads.

All this just goes to say that India is developing very fast. Bihar is rolling out three major Ganga road projects worth ₹17,000 crores: Digha-Sherpur, Bihta-Koilwar, 35 km; Munger, 42; Sultanganj-Bhagalpur, 41.

I'm not advocating or speaking on behalf of NHAI, but this is what the story is surfacing. Chhattisgarh: Centre has approved 774 km roads covering 2,000 plus kilometers under the PMGSY-IV.

The state has already completed 8,753 roads, and bridges are also under the same phase. Major rail expansion across Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, MP reflect the scale and diversity of investments underway.

To give you a perspective, roads and highways require approximately 350 to 900 km 900 tonnes per kilometer. With thousands of kilometers under construction or planned across all regions, this is going to be huge.

Elevated metro requires 11,000 metric tonnes per kilometer. Underground metro requires anywhere between 17,000 to 19,000 metric tonnes per kilometer.

Railways, 9,200 metric tonnes of cement. Ports and airports go up to 50 kg per square meter.

Housing, if I were to look at, low-income housing programs, affordable housing, and rural connectivity projects sustain steady demand. With a strong project pipeline, demand for cement will remain very continuous and as strong as possible.

Infrastructure is seeing the next big wave of growth. What does that imply?

More jobs, more demand for housing and social infrastructure, i.e., schools, hospitals, commercial complexes, offices, et al. We are present across the country.

Just to tell you about our RMC network, RMC network is about 163 cities, which we are already covering and rapidly expanding. UltraTech is so sweetly positioned to meet the demand like nobody else.

We are witnessing growth, unprecedented growth, in new areas, new avenues like data centers, GCC, renewable energy projects. You name it, and things are happening.

As somebody just said, India has arrived. It's the market with a population of over 1.4 billion people, youngest working class, and an opportunity across the land bank for development.

At UltraTech, we are fully geared up to capture these opportunities. Our approach remains rooted in disciplined execution, advancing our next phase of capacity expansion while ensuring every investment is backed by rigorous cost control and operational efficiency.

In our fourth phase of expansion, large part of orders have already been placed. Work has already commenced, and we will be on time.

Importantly, we are funding all our growth through internal accruals, maintaining a prudent balance sheet and a healthy leverage profile. This, combined with our pan-India network and deepening retail footprint, positions us to capture incremental demand at a very rapid pace while safeguarding our margins.

You would have seen our leverage position this quarter end. On a consolidated basis, we are at 1.08x net debt to EBITDA.

I believe and I'm very confident that we will breach the mark of 1x and be in 0.8, 0.9x net debt to EBITDA by the end of this fiscal year. Integration of recent acquisitions is progressing very well with rapid brand transition.

Kesoram and India Cements are ahead of their initial plans with brand conversion at Kesoram having reached 69% in December '25. Today, if we speak, it must have crossed further.

India Cements has already crossed 58% at the end of December '25. For both these assets, we have begun our cost improvement capex program, which will result in benefits and will start reflecting in the P&L of January-March '27.

At Kesoram, we have already spent ₹263 crores out of the commitment of about ₹382 crores. At India Cements, we have committed already ₹601 crores and spent ₹144 crores on the program.

Talking about capex, the other initiative, cable and wires, is progressing as per plan. About ₹500 crores worth of orders have already been placed.

We have spent ₹197 crores. 30% of the planned team is already on board.

Civil work has started, and we are on schedule to see the launch of our product in the October-December '26 quarter, as was committed earlier. Talking about our efficiency improvement program, we continue to deliver solid and measurable results.

In fact, now I am very confident that we should be doing better than what we had committed. We shall give an exact quantification, financial impact with our annual results for the year.

However, you would have noticed the lead distance has dropped to 363 km. The clinker conversion factor is improved to 1.49.

The most important factor, I believe, for us is to have a strong demand pipeline. You will notice that January-March quarter, God willing, we will operate at more than 90% of our existing installed capacity, clearly demonstrating growth in the trade markets as well as non-trade markets.

If the demand is good, everything else falls in line. Ultimately, it is about the bottom line.

Where it comes from doesn't really matter. Quite often, everybody is focused on cement prices, which had remained subdued post GST change.

Last week of September, October, November saw some softening prices, but with growing demand, we are witnessing improvement in prices in all segments across the country. There has been cost increases in the cost of petcoke and coal.

New labor code will have its own impact, rupee depreciation. All these will have an impact on the cement industry.

Obviously, there is reason to pass on these cost escalations into prices. We are very confident of a very bright future for the next quarter and after that quarter and after that and after that.

That doesn't mean I'm restricting myself to FY27, but the story is far longer. As India embarks on the next decade of development, UltraTech is proud to play a pivotal role in building the nation's future.

We remain confident that our strategic initiatives in building capacities across the country in critical market locations, coupled with sector's positive outlook, we will continue to deliver growth faster than the industry. We welcome all of you to participate in our journey.

Don't miss the bus. Thank you, and over to you for questions.

Hi. Good evening.

Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations, Mr.

Daga, firstly for a great result. I don't think anyone expected both volume and margin beat, actually, which is quite heartening to see.

Just on pricing, wanted to get a sense from you, there is a lot of industry capacity addition that is going to come through this year. What do you think industry's stance will be in this kind of a high-expansion scenario?

The reason I talked about all the demand footprint and new initiatives, I think cement will easily get absorbed. If the demand remains strong, we will not see any problem in prices.

Okay. Okay.

Understood. Just also on India Cements, in Q3, I see that the EBITDA per tonne was about ₹400.

You had earlier guided for a ₹1,000 exit in Q4 '27. Most of this improvement will be through cost or will there also be some pricing required to achieve that ₹1,000?

One second. Amit, it was Q4 '27, not '26?

No, no, '27 only. I meant '27 only, one year down the line,

yeah. What will happen is the brand conversion, which has already taken place, actually, had the brand conversion not taken place, the performance would have been not where it is today.

Balance, almost 40% or 45% of brand conversion has to be completed. Prices are going up in the southern markets as well.

Further, as I called out, the capex program has begun for efficiency improvement. We have to have all the players playing the match in a positive manner: prices, efficiency improvement, and capacity utilization.

All of them will deliver as planned.

All understood. Lastly, just if you could give the CC ratio for the quarter?

Sorry, what?

The cement-clinker ratio, what was it in the quarter?

1.49. Clinker-cement ratio, no?

1.49. This quarter, 1.49.

Okay. That's all from me.

Thank you and all the best.

Yeah.

Sir, thank you for taking my questions. I echo Amit's views that these are good numbers.

On a lighter note, your opening remarks sounded a lot like the budget speech. Sir, I don't see the capacity addition plant-by-plant guidance for Q4 and for the next two years.

Just the numbers around how much capacity would be added in Q4, how much in FY27 and FY28, that'll be helpful.

We should have approximately 8 to 8 to 9 million tonnes more coming in this quarter. The balance, I think 16 12 12 million tonnes in fiscal '27, and then balance remaining will be in '28.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

I'm very much,

Pulkit, I'm very well-entrenched in the private sector, not emulating anybody, all right?

Sure, sure. Thanks.

All right.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

Congratulations on a great set of numbers, sir. I must start by saying that the information and details that you gave on the projects is much better than most of the department who are actually working on those projects, I must say.

My first question is you have covered most of the demand aspect, and in a lot of detail. Just wanted to shift the focus on rural demand.

How has rural demand recovered in third quarter? How are you seeing in the fourth quarter?

What are your expectations for the year ahead? Just related to that, any expectation from the budget for the cement sector or anything?

The last question first. I won't comment on that.

That's the easiest answer. Rural demand, I think simple way to look at rural demand is look at our trade ratios.

If our trade ratios remain strong, rural demand is equally buoyant. We are not witnessing any depression in rural demand.

Q4 also will be solid is what my expectation is.

Understood, sir. Thank you so much for this.

Sir, on the cost savings front, UltraTech has given a target of ₹300 to ₹350 per tonne over next couple of years. I understand it's very difficult to tell the details quarter by quarter, but if you can give us the sense, how much of this has been realized and how much of that will be coming in the coming quarters?

Also, apart from the freight and fuel, any other measure that you have? Wait,

I'll forget your questions. Wait, let me address this question first.

You are asking two things in the same question. First, you are saying it is difficult to quantify, and then you are saying quantify.

Please have mercy. No, it's very difficult, and it's not logical, Jashandeep, because July-September quarter will be weak, costs can go up.

January-March will show extraordinarily high delivery, it is best to see the results on an annual basis. Now, to give you directions on how things are moving, and we had given our program with item details and with the targets.

I recall we had mentioned with the base of 400 km of lead, a 25 km lead reduction, which would have taken us to 375 km. We have already reached 363 km.

It's not only the lead distance which helps. There is a lot of other initiatives which the team is taking, which helps to take efficiency improvement.

Similarly, we had taken a target of clinker conversion factor of 1.54. We are moving on that direction, and at 1.54, we have reached 1.59 1.54, we have reached 1.49.

You can do your own math, but it'll be best that we do this math at the end of the year. All I can say is we are moving and in line with the target set.

Last year full year, on those quantified, measurable targets, we had delivered ₹86 per tonne. My guess is we should be crossing a ₹100 mark on those efficiency improvement programs in this financial year.

Jhawar-ji, you want to add?

Yeah. I think Atul has already explained because it's not item-wise.

See, we have moved from clinker conversion from 1.45 to 1.49, and we are still away from our target, actually. If you talk about the renewal energy, our renewal energy has gone to almost 41% kind of thing, and it is further likely to go to 60% going forward, actually.

I can say fundamentally we are by and large on track because quarter to quarter, yes, in quarter in one quarter, because of the cyclical nature of the industry, we may be up and down. Year as a whole, I think we are very much on the right track.

Thanks, Jashandeep.

Thank you, sir. Just one last if I can squeeze in.

Any impact of increasing input cost you're seeing in fourth quarter?

You tell me where the dollar will be in fourth quarter. That is one.

It's very difficult. I think we are managing our middle line very well.

You would have seen our fuel costs have remained at 1.8 per kcal in this quarter. I don't expect the cost to go up.

Raw material costs are already matured. These are the two big cost items.

Maintenance costs, which spikes typically in July-September, will be normal maintenance costs in January-March quarter.

Understood, sir. Thank you so much.

I'll join back the queue.

Thank you.

Thank you. Again, sorry to echo again, very good set of numbers.

You talked about cost inflation and improved demand will support cement prices from here on. Now, it looks like infra demand is coming back, which would drive a low-pricing non-trade segment higher.

Does that mean that even if cement prices move up, realization may remain under pressure over the next year or so? Any color on this will be very helpful.

Firstly, Rahul, I like the echo that you talked about. Always good to hear good performance from as many people.

Coming to your question, even if infra demand is going, non-trade prices will also harden. I don't see any reason why there should be any problem.

In fact, if you go back two or three quarters, the gap between non-trade and trade prices had narrowed dramatically. Rahul, are you there?

Hello?

Yeah. No, this is very helpful.

Thank you so much. I don't have any other questions.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Sir, again, many congratulations, very good numbers.

We understand that demand and pricing both have improved in January, but to go back to what happened in the December quarter, now we understand that in the last two years, there have been multiple acquisitions done in Southern India by you and other industry players. Expectations of Southern India pricing seeing more stability with upward bias, but somehow that has not taken place.

What, in your view, needs to change in industry dynamics in South for pricing to be more stable with upward bias?

More demand. I think demand is opening up, and I stand by my statement: South will be new North.

That doesn't mean North is going away anywhere. North is stronger and stronger.

South is witnessing large institutional demand: the Amaravati city project, which is going at a breakneck pace, the IT complexes which are coming up, data centers which are coming up, which are so cementitious in nature, highways, etc. that you talked about.

The young population in these IT hubs will demand more housing and more social infrastructure. I'm not talking about one quarter, Pinakin, but we as strategic players, are looking at a long-term stability and reliability of the sector.

Got it, sir. Just to follow up, in your view, and given what the position UltraTech is at, if finally the institutional demand, as you highlighted, starts coming up in a big way in Southern India, can 2026 see a break in terms of South India's historically volatile cement pricing, or do you see this is something evolving more over the next two, three years?

I think '26 will be a fabulous year.

Got it. Thank you very much, sir.

Thanks, Pinakin.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Good numbers. Congratulations.

Sir, three questions. One is, would you be able to spell out industry demand growth for Q3 and nine months?

That's the first one.

Don't hold me to it, but we would expect anywhere between 9% to 10% All India demand.

Sir, would this be for Q3?

I was talking about Q3.

Q3. Yeah.

Sir, for nine months?

Oh, nine months. Math has to be done.

2.5 + 5... For the year as a whole must be about 7.5% kind of thing.

6.5% to 7% nine months.

Sure. Sir, my second question is basically if you could provide some details around sourcing of fly ash and slag?

What are the sort of nature of contracts that we have on tenure, and how is the pricing, is it trending?

One is there's enough new supply coming up. Power plant capacities are going up, steel plants are coming up, and we have a mix of long-term, short-term, domestic, and import sourcing.

Fully secured.

Sir, putting this demand aside, if we had to improve our clinker factor, is there any limiting factor?

No, none whatsoever.

Okay. Sir, when you say imports, it means imports for both fly ash as well as slag?

No, slag.

Only slag. That's helpful.

Sir, third question on India Cements. Anything on non-core asset sale, that's one.

Any thoughts on merger, basically simplifying the structure, any timelines around that, that would be useful. Thank you.

Non-core, there are land parcels. Essentially, we just sold off the coal mining company in Indonesia.

The moneys have been realized, and that's how you see the debts remaining under control. There are a couple of big land parcels which we are discussing with potential buyers.

I would expect further generation of up to 500 crores minimum, which we should be able to get. We are now getting into exploring the legal options in terms of there's an ED case which is attached to the company.

Two assets of the company are also attached. There's a property in Hyderabad and some financial securities which are attached.

We are seeking legal opinion what will be the implications of that case, and then only we'll take a decision further.

Sure. Sir, just a follow-up over here.

I think just correct me if I'm wrong, for India Cements, you had indicated 144 crores spent out of 601 crores. Are those numbers right?

Correct.

Okay. Sir, when you say non-core asset sales, incrementally it's 500, and what has been realized so far?

Close to 200 or 250 crores. Close to 200, 250 crores.

I'll give you exact number. That's very easy number, but 200 to 250 crores.

Take a look at right from the beginning, Ankit. If I can't give it on that call, you can reach out to Ankit later.

Yup. This is helpful.

Thank you so much. All the very best.

Thank you.

Hi, thank you. Just one clarification question on the capex, Mr.

Daga. You mentioned, I think, 12 million tonne next year and balance in '28.

Just wanted to clarify the phase 22 million tonne that you've announced, all of that is likely to get commissioned in FY28, given you've already placed orders?

Yes, please.

Okay. As of now you're not expecting anything to spill over into FY29?

No, '29 is too far.

Okay.

I would look at best a delay by a quarter, some project we can prepone and some project could push over to the next quarter, at best.

Okay. Maybe in the next one, is it possible to, historically used to have this quarterly or projection for when we expect capacities to commission for the next one that you have, since you already have placed orders?

Sure, we'll send it.

On the power cost, I see your captive power cost has been declining each quarter. Just what is driving that?

Thermal power

and green power. No,

that is the average cost of power. Captive thermal power, which has gone from 7.1 to 6.5, look, fuel efficiency is the only reason which I could think of, nothing more.

May be from the coal mix.

Fuel efficiency, essentially. Nothing specific.

Okay. Thank you.

Hi, sir. Good evening.

Sir, my first question is, all the demand drivers...

My first question to you, Ashish, how were my numbers?

Numbers are fantastic, sir. A lot of people have spoken about it, sir.

I thought I'll skip that and go to something else.

No, numbers are fantastic, sir, no doubt about that.

Sir, given most of the drivers you spoke about are all infra-led demand, right? Can we see a change in mix, moving from PPC to OPC?

Do you think that will happen in the next three, four years in the industry?

In fact, what we could see is infra demand converting to non-OPC also. There's a strong advocacy happening, and there is a gradual conversion.

You will know that most of the institutional players do the conversion or mixing at the project site. Instead of they doing it, some of them have started adopting and accepting the product from the cement manufacturers.

Look, RMC, it's about 3% of our total volumes of cement and growing rapidly. Where is it getting consumed?

Large portion goes to institutional markets. Bulk cement is going up significantly, which will help the infra institutional market, gives us better margins.

Price remaining the same, margins improve. That's very important.

Sir, sorry, but in fact, that was the context of my question, that if on-site blending is going up, does it mean that industry supply...

No, it's going down.

Oh, okay. Because of RMC, I see.

Got it.

That is what I talked about advocacy, and there is a conversion happening. Slowly it's happening.

Right. Sir.

Hello? Are you there?

Thank you. I think he lost the connection.

Take the next person, please.

Hi, thanks for the opportunity. I have two questions.

Sir, first, can you highlight what is the spot petcoke price versus the consumption levels in 3Q?

$118, $117.

$118, $119. Ranging in that trend.

Sure, this is helpful. Second, in 3Q versus, let's say, 3% kind of price decline sequentially, how would you split it between trade and non-trade?

Was non-trade drop much sharper?

Non-trade was sharper.

Sure. Thank you.

That's all from me.

Yeah.

Thank you. Just to continue on the pricing question, where are we on pricing versus 3Q at the moment?

I think we are roughly ₹3 to ₹4 on a naked cement realization basis up. If naked cement realization is up ₹3 to ₹4, prices are up ex-factory around ₹6 to ₹8.

Correct? Are you there?

Yeah. Yeah.

I know what I'm trying to get to is that you also made a comment, of course, on demand, but on that, we'll be able to pass on the higher cost impact in the form of better pricing.

Is this the... What's happening is I am sold out.

What do I do? Obviously, if I'm in a sold-out position, I have to service my highest-paying customer.

Understood. Fair enough.

Got that one. Then just again on the capacity, just for India Cements capacity, what would be the number by the end of '26, '27, and '28?

16.8. 17.5.

That full capacity.

One sec, one sec. 17.5 or 16.8?

17.5 mark in FY28. Sir,

I didn't mean India Cements. I meant your Indian capacity, not India Cements.

Indian capacity. Which year?

234.something.

235 by FY28.

235 by fiscal '28

in

India. Indian capacity.

Fiscal '26 should and '27, if you have that number?

'26 should be 198, 199, and then 10 sorry, 12 more million tonnes in

'27.

212. In '27, yeah.

We missed that chart. We'll circulate that chart separately.

Got it. Just on Kesoram, in the second quarter, you had indicated the EBITDA per tonne was ₹755.

What is that number in this quarter?

Would be around 600 bucks this quarter. 600 bucks.

The full rebranding is still maintaining June '26 for Kesoram?

We should be doing it in time, yes. Because we have already crossed the 70% mark for Kesoram as we speak, and India Cements also we have crossed 55% or thereabouts.

Don't remember exact number, but every day is a new high.

Got it. Understood.

Thank you.

Thanks, Raashi.

Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations for a great set of numbers. Sir, just wanted to understand, given the strong volume growth we witnessed this quarter, what is your approximation of UltraTech's market share going for this quarter, and sort of where do you sort of aspire to be, say, two to three years down the line?

I wouldn't know a number on market share, but if you see that we have been growing or our capacity utilization has been higher than the industry, then obviously there is a gain in market share also. There's no published data available to capture that number realistically.

Going forward, I expect to see the same trend. As for aspiration, there's no aspiration.

I think we are looking at how India is growing, where the growth opportunity is, and we will keep growing with India's growth story.

Got it, sir. Just coming back to consolidation, do you think there are additional targets which you would want to sort of look at just from a consolidated point of view so that you have better control on perhaps the industry dynamics as well?

Are there any potential opportunities still under consideration, say, over the next year, 18 months?

It's highly opportunistic. We would love to examine opportunities if they come to the table.

Nothing is in progress, obviously. Sir.

That's it. Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Good evening, sir. My first question is that what has been the clinker capacity additions till date in FY26, and what will be the addition in quarter four, ongoing quarter?

We have added two lines, actually. One

Maihar,

is almost 10,000 tpd, translating

to

almost 3.5 million tonnes per year, and another one more line of 3.5 million tonnes in Rajasthan. It takes...

That's 7 million tonnes of capacity.

Kotputli

and

Maihar.

Sure.

Sir, second question, what is the premium share this quarter? It's not been there in the PPT.

Oh, we missed that. Premium share...

36%.

Yeah. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Pehle to acche numbers ke liye badi-badi badhaiyan.

I wanted to ask, when I was going through the presentation, I found that your EBITDA is up considerably, but your costs, some have gone up, some have gone down, right? Your raw material costs have gone up, and your fuel and logistics costs have gone down.

Now, given that your net realizations are also slightly lower, can one assume that the increase in the EBITDA is almost entirely out of operating leverage? If that is the case, if you are adding 8 and 12 million tonnes capacity the next quarter/next year, respectively, what can we see as a trajectory of and the effect of operating leverage going forward?

Could you just lend some color on that?

Operating leverage obviously will keep on playing a positive impact on efficiency improvement. Second point or the first point that you asked, obviously prices were a dampener on the profitability, but volumes, which gave me operating leverage, and cost management, very efficient and tight cost management.

Of course, you cannot manage all the line items of cost, but the management team's focus always remains on running a very tight P&L, so that's what is reflecting in the performance in the quarter. The third one you asked about the raw material pricing, it's obviously the clinker conversion ratio is improved, the raw material price will definitely increase, but the benefit is you will get partially in the power and fuel side.

We basically should see an increase in EBITDA per tonne over the next 15 months, and is there any...

Definitely, without a doubt.

Would there be a numerical guidance that you would be able to provide in the range or that is...

No, we don't give guidances.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking my question, and congratulations. This is a superb number, I can say, which is beyond market expectations.

Sir, my question is related to employee cost. Is this a one-off for this quarter?

Second question, can I expect a ₹1,100 to ₹1,200 kind of EBITDA per tonne for fourth quarter?

To your second question, we will do much better than what we did this quarter. Don't want to get into any specific number.

And 916 employee cost going up... Why?

Y-o-Y. Y-o-Y, because what happens is our annual increases, compensation increases that take place would reflect.

New plants, of course. New capacity getting added, that is what will reflect in this cost.

What you ideally should compare, if you look at Q2, you will not see dramatic movement.

Okay. Thanks for saying this that fourth quarter will be doing a very good EBITDA per tonne.

That's all from my side, sir. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity and, of course, congratulations on the robust volume growth that you have demonstrated. Two questions.

One is your other operating income, just the difference between the net revenue and net sales that you report. Sequentially, it has increased by almost about 88 crores.

This was also the first quarter wherein the incentives would have likely dropped on a pro-rata basis. In the sense, if earlier we got incentives at 28%, now we get at more like 18% on a base.

I'm just comparing. Is there anything one-off that we got in this particular revenue item?

Navin, what happens is that new incentives kick in, sometimes old incentives get exhausted. Case in point, our Dhar line 1 got exhausted, whatever was the balancing quantum of money left, and Dhar 2 kicked in.

Then also bigger thing and very difficult to show a trend line is volumes moving from the plant to which market. Depending upon the concentration of demand in the local market, the incentives will go up or down.

Helpful. My second question was on India Cements.

Of course, company has done a remarkable performance there on the cost front. This quarter, in particular, the freight cost plunged, significantly, almost 27% plus quarter on quarter on a per-tonne basis.

Wanted to understand, is this the new normal because a higher brand transition has happened, you can sell in a lower lead proximity catchment area, or this is anything one-off? That's my only question.

It's a combination. Obviously, when brand transition gets completed fully, you will see the real benefit.

New footprint.

New footprint will also get captured. This is not a one-off.

Whether it will go down further, difficult for me to say at this juncture. Perhaps we will talk about it in April-June quarter.

Helpful. Thank you so much, sir.

Thank you, and congratulations on strong volume growth. Most of the questions answered, couple of clarifications and questions.

First, nine-month capex, what was the number, and for full year FY26, '27, '28, previously we said 10,000-odd crores, so that guidance remains intact?

7,200

7,200 or 7,000 crores is nine months. Yeah,

2,

2.5 thousand crores will get spend in this quarter, anywhere around 9.5, 10,000 crores.

Got it. Sir, in the next year, FY27, when we say 12 million tonne we want to add, any ballpark idea in terms of 1H FY27, will it be a 5, 6 million tonne that we will be adding?

I'm sorry, what did you say?

In FY27, our plan is to add 12 million tonne capacity, grinding level. In 1H FY27, is it fair 5, 6 million tonne we will be adding?

You want me to tell you what date will we be commissioning and at what hour we will start the cement mill? Give us that flexibility to commission as fast as possible, Shravan.

Don't hang me for exact number or exact period.

No, I'm saying 1H FY27, in the six months... In the first six months of FY27, will it fair to assume 5, 6 million tonne we will be adding?

It may be at least 4 to 5 million. It may be around 4 to 5 million.

4 to 5 million tonne, but it all depends, as Shravan, because there are multiple moving parts, sometimes things get delayed and kind of thing. Yes, I can guess maybe 4 to 5 million tonne.

In terms of the demand for fourth quarter of this quarter, FY26, will it 7% to 9% that we are expecting, and for next four, five years, normally what's we guided in corporate dossier, 7% to 8%, so that number remains intact?

That remains, Shravan.

Then for this quarter, fourth quarter, would it be a 9%, 10% or 7%,

8%? No, I don't think 9%, 10% may be little optimistic, but difficult to say, because the last year base itself was, we know, is a good base.

Yes, all I think it is going to be the robust demand, actually.

Got it. This 1.54 CC ratio target, that is by FY27 we are looking at?

'28 '27, '28, yeah. In the middle of when we complete the previous phase of expansion between '27, '28.

Green share from currently 42% to 60% by FY27 we will be...

So '27 or first half of '28, just giving us a flexibility of some delays.

Okay. Last, the clarification in terms of price, when we say ₹3, ₹4 price hike would have already happened versus third quarter of average, though this is including trade, non-trade put together?

Average, yes.

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

Thank you.