On behalf of ICICI Securities -- hello? Yeah.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone.

On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome you all to the Q3 FY26 earnings call of Shree Cement Limited. Today we have with us Mr.

Ashok Bhandari, Senior Advisor of Shree Cement, Mr. Subhash Jajoo, CFO, Mr.

S.S. Khandelwal, Company Secretary, and Mr.

K.K. Jain, who is Head, Finance and Accounts.

Without any further ado, I hand over the call to the management for their opening comments. Over to you, sir.

I had been following the practice of not making an opening statement because it unnecessarily repeats all the numbers which are already in your hands. To utilize the time --

Good evening, everybody. This is Ashok Bhandari.

As per my past practice, I shall not be making an opening statement as all the numbers are with you in the form of results. We may start the Q&A to use the time more efficiently.

Thank you. Hello?

Yeah.

Yes, please.

Hi. Thank you for taking my question.

A couple of questions. First, given you are prioritizing absolute earnings, your volumes have lagged the overall industry to some extent.

Now, in fact, your operating rates would be more like mid-50 utilizations. Now how should we think about your capacity expansion plans and target of 80 million ton from the next two years perspective?

How should we look at your volumes from the next two years perspective? That's my first question.

Thank you.

Mr. Gupta, thank you for your question.

Now please understand that since October '24, I had been maintaining that we'll be concentrating for value over volumes. That was with a purpose.

The purpose was very simple. We had a large divergence between our sales price and sales price of competitors like UltraTech.

If you will notice, by restraining our volumes, we have narrowed the gap from about ₹30 a bag to about ₹15 a bag. Now naturally, if you want to maintain discipline on pricing and narrow down the gap, you had to take the pain of sacrificing volumes.

That is what we did. I am very happy to report that the December growth, though aided by additional demand, over November, volume-wise November we sold about 27 million tons, December we sold 33 million tons -- sorry, 2.7 million and 3.3 million tons, and January is more or less in line with December '25.

We expect the same momentum to continue with a much higher realization, and it should automatically improve our capacity utilization. On the other hand, the capacity utilization will further be augmented by our concentrating more and more on RMC plants, which shall give me a better geographical reach, a more logistical cost optimization, and increase the volumes as well.

Now coming to your second question of our declared capacity of 80 by '29, '29 is still far off. We are still sitting in '26.

We shall get back to you in due course.

Got it. Two follow-ups.

One, given you have narrowed the gap from ₹30 to ₹15, is it fair to say that you would continue to focus on reducing this further? My second question is what would be the absolute revenues of the RMC business, and how much cement your RMC would be using internally?

Thank you.

My dear friend, your first question is infructuous. You are saying that will you keep on reducing the gap.

It is obvious. I'll keep on increasing my profits.

That is one part. The increase in profit mainly in cement is because of top line.

The cost is more or less the same for the industry except in few factors. Point number two, as on date we have 19 RMC plants.

We intend to take it to 45 within next 6 to 8 months. Means you can easily assume by September '26, the number of plants will increase to 45 from 19.

We started RMC about 2 years back, and in 3 3 1/2 years, we will be achieving 45 plants, whereas leading players in RMC like UltraTech has over last 25 years set up only 100 plants. We are in track.

It is very difficult for me because much depends on how the demand scenario emerges. Certainly, all my RMC plants will be using my cement, and it will aid the cement quantity and capacity utilization.

Thank you. Just what would be the revenues from RMC as of now, and what share of how much cement is --

One second, I'll ask Mr. K.K.

Jain to give the answer.

It is ₹71 crore for the quarter.

₹71 crore, right. For the quarter, we did ₹71 crore, my friend, on 19 plants.

Got it. How much captive consumption of cement is going into RMC?

44 45% is the captive consumption for RMC plant for the quarter.

Got it. Thank you.

Wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, sir. Sir, in the September quarter the sales volume was 7.9 million tons.

What would be the comparable sales volume in the December quarter?

8.7.

That would imply a roughly 7% decline in blended realizations, which seems to be higher than what the peers have reported. What would be driving this decline in realizations, sir?

No. You have to do your maths correctly.

Please understand that my per-ton realization has gone up. The blended realization, I don't know how you are calculating.

If you want, we'll give you a detailed calculation sheet. Mr.

Jajoo, CFO of the company, will send you a mail, or you can send him a mail asking precise question. I think you are mistaken somewhere.

Got it, sir. We were just basically dividing net revenues by --

That is the point. You have to be slightly careful, my friend.

You write a mail to Mr. Jajoo, and Mr.

Jajoo will give you the reply.

Sir, what would be the comparable Q-on-Q change in pricing for the company?

One second. December '24 realization -- he's talking of what side?

Yeah. December '24, it was 4,652.

December '25 -- September 20 five -- and December '24 is 4,554. I don't have the September '25 numbers.

Got it. Sir, any color on the capex for next year at this point of time?

How much will the company be spending?

As I've said, we will be adding about 26 to 30 RMC plants, and the capex expected is about ₹500 cr in FY26.

Sure. Sir, my last question.

It looks on a per-ton basis there is a decline in power and fuel costs.

Obviously, because there are two reasons. One is that my per kilocalorie cost is lowest in the industry, sitting at 1.56, and my renewable energy has kept on increasing, and it has crossed almost 60 it has reached almost 61%.

Okay. This trend should continue, right?

This trend, why it should not improve, my friend? You see, as far as the per kilocalorie cost is concerned, you have to understand that it is the function of international coal prices or petcoke prices.

I cannot take a call there. What I can say is over the 40-year existence of this company, we have always been the lowest-price procurer of fuel, and that is why my fuel cost is lower.

My renewable energy portfolio has kept on increasing. We are having the highest renewable portfolio today, and we have reached almost 61%, and we are trying to add 2 or 3% more.

As far as Kodla, the new unit, which is due to be commissioned by March, I'll be having a waste heat recovery system there, which will add into my renewable or alternative energy, the energy cost should logically come down if the coal and petcoke prices do not go up.

Got it. That's very clear.

Thank you very much, sir.

Yeah.

Hello.

Yes, Rajesh.

Am I audible?

Yes, you are.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Good evening. Sir, just few housekeeping questions.

What were the trade and blended cement share in this quarter and lead distance?

I will give the line to Mr. Subhash Jajoo.

He will give you the answer.

The lead distance for the quarter is 446 km. Trade sale is 65%.

What else you want?

Blended cement.

Blended is also 65%.

Okay. If I look your fuel cost sequentially, this has come down by around 10 paise.

There is a ₹50 per ton saving and your green power mix remains similar. How is the power cost per ton at a company level?

Power

cost per unit. Average power, blended.

Yeah, 1 second. 1 second.

Means bought out and renewable and waste heat recovery and everything?

Yeah. Yes.

I may not be having that data immediately. I will send you --

We will get back to you, Rajesh, on this.

Sure, sir. Certainly.

The realization for the quarter you mentioned was 4,625, right, grey cement?

4,652, I think. Yes.

4,652.

Which is almost 3%, 4% decline quarter-on-quarter. So

That is what I was trying to figure out. Earlier somebody had asked the similar question.

No, on a blended basis, because you don't disclose the power revenues, that is why the blended number, yeah.

Oh, Ravi sahab, 2 minute meri baat suno. What I am saying is that you write a mail to us.

We will reconcile the numbers and get back to you.

Understood. Just wanted to understand, you mentioned that you'll be focused more on bridging the gap and getting a better price and realization.

At least on the volume, what sort of growth one should build in for this year, because earlier you were looking at 37 to 38 million ton for this year, which seems there could be a slip of 1 to 1 to 2 million ton on the volumes. So

I already explained what was the rationale.

Right, understood. So

Again Mr. Ravi, please hear me out fully.

Number one, the demand in October and November was low, that you know.

Right.

Which I had no control. December the demand picked up.

We have picked up more. January the trend is similar to December.

We don't find any letup in February and March because the Central Government budget has to be spent by 31st March. I don't think there'll be any letup in volumes.

I can easily and with great deal of confidence say that within this quarter we will do 9 to 9.5 million tons. In total, yes, I will not be growing at 7 to 8%.

Then that was a function of low demand. What to do?

Right.

Going forward, I am confident that we should do. You see, today the RBI Governor has pointed out to a 7.4% GDP growth rate for '26-'27 in his MPC.

I had been maintaining that cement generally grows at 1 to 1.1 times national GDP. Next year I expect the demand to be around 7.5

to 8%. Great, sir.

Lastly, if you could share the UAE performance, which you did in last quarter?

It is getting better by the day.

Okay. Possible to share the volume, revenue, EBITDA number?

I don't have the UAE numbers with me at the moment. We'll share it with you.

Okay. Great, sir.

That's all for now. I'll come back in queue.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

A couple of questions. First,

I'm sorry, I missed your name.

Indrajit Agarwal from CLSA.

Haan, bolo bhai.

Sir, first on pricing, can you indicate how the trends have been so far in January and heading into February both

As I said, the December pricing was much better, and the same trend is continuing. We don't see any letup in demand because of the Central Government compulsion of exhausting the budget within this quarter.

If demand is good, then pricing will remain good. As a matter of fact, as we have been focusing and we had been achieving convergence in or reducing the delta between our price and the UltraTech price, I expect the same trend to maintain, maybe at a slower pace, because I'll be doing volumes now also.

Sir, secondly, do you think that from now on we will continue to grow ahead of industry or largely in line with industry at least?

Let us see. If I want to push volume, then I have to sacrifice price, isn't it?

Both don't go hand in hand. It is a calculated equilibrium game which we have to play.

As the scenario emerges, we'll keep on updating you. As on date, I expect no letup in demand and no letup in pricing.

Sure. Thank you.

That's all from my side.

Oh, Chadha sahab, why are you troubling me?

Thanks so much, sir, for the opportunity. I won't trouble you much, sir, just a couple of quick questions.

Firstly, sir, Shree Cement has been operating in multiple regions. I wanted to understand a basic understanding of how all the regions are performing, not necessarily from Shree's perspective, but from industry perspective and from Shree's --

1 second. 1 second.

Can we be at divergence with the industry region-wise? We'll be in line with the industry only.

Exactly how much Shree has sold in each region of its capacity, the number I am asking Mr. K.K.

Jain to share with you, that in this region, say Shree's capacity is 100, then region-wise how much we have sold in this quarter. That should be roughly the line of operation of all pan-India cement companies.

Regional companies ki to it's not comparable. I am asking Mr.

Jain to give you the reply.

Yes. In north region, the sale is 50 53 lakh ton, 5.3 million sorry, lakh ton, and east 23, and south 11.

In percentage term, it is 61% in north, east 26%, and south 13%.

Thank you so much, sir. This is a very valuable information.

I was also looking from January and going ahead, which region you are seeing uptick coming in volume demand?

What is the date today, my friend? It is 6th of February.

What is the date today? January onwards.

January numbers come to me.

Sir. I'll maybe, once they're out, I'll reach out.

Second question was, sir, Yes. I understand on per-kilocalorific value, Shree Cement has been the lowest and will continue to be the lowest.

With petcoke international prices going on, what kind of impact will be on the cost for fourth quarter? Any sense you can give us?

Please understand that nothing stops me from changing from coal to petcoke or petcoke to coal. I have multi-fuel burners.

This is a constant exercise which my purchase people do, that which mix gives them the best landed fuel cost. I am not at all concerned with international prices.

I am concerned with landed cost of fuel because that is the actual cost to me. This is a constant exercise.

As on date, we are at 1.56 per kilocalorie. It may remain same for January, but it may go up in February and March.

In any case, I don't think it should increase 1.80, which is my peer group fuel cost.

Understood, sir. Thank you for that.

Just one last more of a clarification. If I can understand from your previous answer to the previous question, you are expecting 7% to 8% Y-o-Y growth from the industry and Shree Cement will largely be in line with the industry.

Is my understanding right, sir?

Your understanding is correct with a caveat that we had generally grown better than the industry. Last one year you leave, because that was with the strategy of narrowing the gap between the selling prices, but once we have achieved that, then probably we may grow better than the industry also.

Let the time tell its own story.

Sure, sir. Thank you so much and all the best for the future, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Sir, two questions.

First, in the last concall Q2, you highlighted that investors should look at the Shree Cement from the consol perspective. In last two quarters you have said the UAE volume and this time this is not part of the press release, and also post the call when we try to connect with the CFO sir, Mr.

Jajoo, he's not ready to share the numbers. How one can look at these things?

This is first part. Second, 1

second. Now let me stop you here.

1 second. Do you mean to say that we have not published consolidated numbers?

No, volume. I'm saying the volume.

No, 1 second. Please go through the results.

I don't think you have gone through the results. Please go through the results.

Standalone is there, consolidated is there, and you very well know how to calculate UAE from the two numbers. What are we trying to say?

You try to make simple things difficult at all the times whenever we receive your call.

Sorry, sir. When did I make it difficult?

I'm simply asking. No, no, no.

Let us not let let

let us not argue on this. You ask your second question.

Yeah. Sir, what's our clarification on the MCA investigation that is on under Section 210?

No.

There is no investigation. It is a routine inquiry.

They have asked for information. The information has been shared.

They have not come up with any report, what do I do?

No issues, sir.

Yeah.

Yeah. Sir, road-rail mix for this quarter and fuel mix for this quarter?

Mr. Jajoo will give you.

Road-rail is 88 and 12.

Fuel mix, petcoke and coal and --

It's 76% petcoke, 6% coal, and balance is alternate fuels.

Capex till now how much we have done and for FY --

Till now we have done around ₹1,500 crore. Another ₹400, ₹500 crore is to be done in this quarter.

Hi. Thank you.

Just a first question on the strategy on pricing versus utilization. You've added capacity in north and south in the past few quarters.

How do you look at an ideal utilization given these capacities have been added, but overall volume increase is not there? Is there an ideal utilization you look at when starting an asset to optimize the operating leverage, fixed costs there?

Please appreciate that I had always been maintaining that demand is not in the hand of any cement manufacturer. Demand emanates from overall growth within the economy.

We are not happy with our current capacity utilization. We are taking steps to correct it.

We have corrected it largely to some extent in January. I have also pointed out that we are concentrating on setting up more and more RMC plants, which should give me a fillip in capacity utilization.

At this point of time, specially in this quarter, because this quarter may be the demand may be abnormally high due to pull from the central agencies, we may better answer this question in the first quarter of '26-'27.

Sir, in that context, the focus on utilization, how do we look at the 80 million ton? Would you rather wait to improve utilization, and what's the progress on Jaisalmer, green, environmental --

Generally, your thinking is correct that we are not announcing specific sites and specific plants only because we want the capacity utilization to increase. I had hinted that 80 by '29 may get deferred or may culminate is completely dependent on how the demand turns out in '26-'27.

This is a question for which I don't have a ready answer. I would like to expand.

Please understand that Shree Cement has increased its capacity 110 times from 1985. Means in last 40 years, we have grown 110 times in capacity.

Our growth has not been lagging. Our CAGR for growth is 12 1/2% plus, and we expect to do it better.

Then you must set up capacity not for an idle capital, but for productive capital, which is a function of demand. If the demand doesn't have the necessary leverage, what is the point in setting up capacity and keep on operating at 56, 60%, 62%?

Ideally, we should reach 70% kind of a capacity utilization. Now whether it takes place in 1 year or in 1 1/2 years, time can only tell.

Okay. Perfect.

Thank you, sir. Much.

Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Sorry if I missed this number.

Sir, what is the capex you are expecting for FY 2027?

Look, my major focus is going to be 26 RMC plants, 26 or 30. Per RMC plant, it costs --

Sir, ₹4 to ₹5 crore.

It costs about ₹5 crore, ₹150 crore visibility I have. Balance is completely dependent on how I try to attain.

Like June '26 sorry, March '26 March '26, we'll be completing Kodla plant. We have spent about ₹2,000 crore of capex in this financial year.

Next financial year, I'm giving you a ₹150 crore capex. I am also working on railway sidings, which should be about how many crore per kilometer?

Around ₹150 crore to

₹200 crore total. About ₹200 to ₹250 crore on railway sidings.

So ₹4 to ₹500 crore of capex visibility is clearly there. Balance visibility I'll be able to give you once I start planning my further capacity addition.

You will have to give me one more quarter to give you more clarity on this. However, you may be fully aware that we are completely debt-free and we have about ₹6,000 crore of free cash sitting in our balance sheet.

We are not worried about the quantum of capex we need to spend. We would like to be watchful of the demand and the potential capacity utilization.

Understood, sir. Essentially that means we are planning to put at least two railway sidings, approximately ₹150 to ₹200 crore per siding, as well as the RMC plant.

₹500 crore we have clarity and maybe some additional capex basis whatever your capacities you sort of decide. Is that correct?

Which I'll be able to tell you either in next concall or in the June concall, I don't know. You will have to give us time.

Got it. Second, sir, could you sort of quantify what sort of industry growth was prevalent in 3Q for the industry?

Some ballpark number?

The Q3 you see, it is not comparable. I had a different strategy of operating my plants.

The industry had a different strategy. They are not apple-to-apple comparison.

I was concentrating more on value, less on volume. Obviously, my growth was lower than the industry.

If you want, we can share those numbers or those numbers will be available elsewhere also. You can write a mail either to Mr.

Subhash Jajoo or to me, and we will give you the reply. We have not grown to our fullest potential by design.

Now we'll see how it goes.

Got it, sir. Sir, can I just please get the power mix split, sir, if possible?

634 megawatt was the total green power mix. There could also be additional captive power.

Could you just lay out what are the individual components: solar, WHRS --

Wait a minute. Mr.

Jajoo will give you exact power plant capacities of various kinds.

See, our total power capacity is currently 1,137 megawatt, out of which 503 is thermal power capacity and balance is all green. WHR is 265 megawatt, solar is 314, and wind is 56.

So 634 megawatt of green capacity, 503 of thermal, total 1,137. Understood, sir.

Just one last question, sir, if I could squeeze in. Sir, a couple of your peers have sort of sounded out that there is a very interesting and exciting opportunity in UAE to either sort of increase their stake in subsidiaries there or expand their capacities there in additional grinding units.

Sir, given the fact that you already have a long-standing exposure to that geography --

Let me stop you here, my dear friend. Do you think that if there is a profit opportunity, Shree Cement will let it go a-begging?

If there is potential, if there is real demand perk up, if the operations are profitable or good enough profitable, we'll certainly do whatever is required to be done. We have the largest cement plant in UAE today in our control.

Nothing has changed at least from our perspective in terms of the market opportunity? No,

I would not like to comment on that as yet. I'll comment in March.

Understood, sir. Thanks.

Thanks a lot for your time, sir.

[Hindi speech?]

Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Please do me a favor.

If you meet Amishaben tomorrow, please give my regards to her.

Sure, sir. Now Sir, just wanted to know this employee cost is a little bit higher this quarter.

Is it because of Baloda Bazar?

Read note number three of the results.

I missed that then. No, volume actually I wanted to know how much is the --

Listen, the new labor code has made me provide for all back liabilities, which is amounting to ₹56 crore. We do not show any expense as an exceptional expense because it is all in routine course of business.

We have additionally provided ₹56 crore as required by the law, and we have disclosed this by way of a note in note number three. This is on employee cost.

Now what is the second question?

Volume 2% growth is written. Last year, it was 8.77.

Last year What happened, my dear friend? Last year, what was my realization?

This is this year, what is my realization? I gave you -- Sir,

I have only blended realization.

December '24, my realization was 4,554. Is it correct?

Yes, sir. December '25, my realization is 4,652.

You sell to lose money or you sell to make money? We have deliberately constrained our volumes to decrease the delta between other selling price and my selling price.

We have reduced it by ₹15. Abhi theek hai.

Now we'll see what to do.

No, I understood that, sir. You had explained it pretty well earlier.

2% volume growth is then Is it including clinker?

That I don't remember it offhand.

Because press release is saying 2% volume growth.

I will get back to you. You send a mail to Jajoo, and Jajoo will get back to you with exact numbers.

Sure, sir. Thanks, sir.

Good evening, sir. Am I audible?

How can you not be audible?

Thank you, sir.

You are the host today.

Thank you, sir. Sir, my question was on this value versus volume strategy in the context of market share as well as industry superior profitability.

Like past four quarters as you mentioned in your opening comments, since October '24, the strategy of value over volume was clearly I think rewarding us in terms of significantly higher EBITDA per ton or margins versus the peers. In this quarter, it is a bit of a dampener and also of course the volumes are also some maybe, if I may say, some loss of market share as well.

Navin, slow down. Slow down.

Slow down. Hear me out.

There were two major changes in our sales strategy in last one year. One was that we had made our rebate and discount policy so transparent and non-negotiable and non-discretionary that the favored dealers were getting pissed off.

It took some time for them to realize that this is a non-negotiable policy, and now they have fallen in line. Number two is that end November we have inducted a new President, Marketing, and he has shown good results in last 1 month, 1 1/2 month.

I expect that things should be better in coming times. Now of course, I can say anything.

I cannot but be bullish on cement. I will keep on talking bullish sentiment on cement.

Please understand that demand is not in my hand. If demand is there, you will not find us wanting.

Helpful. Thank you so much.

My second question then was on realizations as so in I think in Q4 in Q3, we have sequentially I think realization drop is about 4-odd percent.

Ye aap log sab All of you are saying this. Unfortunately, I don't have this number.

Par aap log sab keh rahe ho, to maybe this is correct. Maybe there was a drop in realization or whatever.

You ask me a pointed question or you come, you keep on coming to Calcutta. Come one day.

I'll give you good tea. You have nice tea.

I will give you good lunch also if you want. We'll discuss with Redbear.

Right, sir. Then I'll have the discussion over tea.

I think

it is better. Samne baithne se we talk more freely and with all the data.

Sure, sir. Thank you.

Ye to gaya tha na yaar. He must be having -- Sorry.

Yeah.

Sorry, I missed one. I just want to clarify one number.

Did you say fourth quarter run rate to be similar as December and 9 to 9 1/2 million tons volume in fourth quarter?

Yes, I did.

That would imply more or less flattish Y-o-Y number. Is that understanding correct?

Or

maybe 1 or 2% growth. I don't know.

I have not done the maths.

Sure. Thank you so much.

Theek hai.

Good evening, Ashok. Thank you for the -- Haan

Mittal sahab, bolo.

Sir, just one question. Given that our cash levels as on December end is ₹6,000 crore, and we are expecting a healthy cash flows in the coming years with a limited capex, so, sir, can we expect a material upside in the dividend outlay going ahead in coming years?

Harsh-bhai, let

let us understand. Material is a relative definition.

Let us let me assure you that yes, the dividend payout will be better. It is not my prerogative to say how much better, how much not better, that is up to the wisdom of the board.

I expect the dividend payout for '26-'27 sorry, for '25-'26 to be better than '24-'25. Aisa ek it is not a differential of ₹5 kind of a thing.

We may give you a better one.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir. Sir, on the return metrics for the company, we see that it's currently trending downward predominantly because of lower profitability from incremental capacity --

No, my friend. Sorry, please let me correct you.

The profitability absolute number has gone down because we had by choice taken a value-over-volume path. Please understand.

We have achieved the convergence vis-a-vis say UltraTech on per-bag prices. It is not that the capacity utilization have substantially affected my profitability.

It was my design of lower volumes to better my prices, which had affected the profitability.

Got it. Sir, my question is slightly different.

I understand your point. Sir, now our ROCE or ROEs are trending downwards over a period of time.

Given this trend, what is the primary metric the company prefers to evaluate its long-term performance?

1 second, my dear friend. Let us understand.

If I keep on making profits, my capital employed keeps on going up. If the additional profit I am not distributing or I am not utilizing for capex, then it is giving me a 4 to 5% treasury return.

If you combine everything, you find that the ROCE or the ROE is going down. On the other hand, I'm committed to add on capacity to 80 million tons.

What do I do? I have to bear the pain of rather inefficient cash utilization in the form of treasury till I finalize my plan to have major capex.

For the first time in my career, I think, I have spoken of a ₹400 to ₹500 crore capex visibility in next financial year. We had never done that.

Then the demand scenario is such that I cannot give you a firm commitment on when my capacities will come up. As soon as the capacities come up, the 4% return cash, one cash or the return on cash of 4% will translate into 20%, which will automatically jack up the ROCE and ROE.

You will have to bear with me.

Sure, sir. Thank you.

Thank you so much, sir.

Sir. Good evening, sir.

Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, my question pertains to premium cement.

We have made a very good progress from 15% last year to 22% 18% last year to 22%. Where do we see this number going forward in next year?

Have you read any cement research report which has talked of anything else but premium cement? If everybody is going to make premium cement, then where is the premium, yaar?

Premium cement becomes the normal cement. Number one.

Number two, the brand belongs to the company. The classification of brand also belongs to the company.

There is no standard which defines premium cement. It is your 10 brands.

It is your pen, and it is your pencil, and whatever you want to put, you put as a premium brand and sell it, because there is no yardstick to define what a premium cement is. Please understand, we are at about 21%, 22%.

We have defined our premium brands, and we are sticking to it. We are not changing the mix of my total cement as per my convenience.

At the moment, with the current demand scenario, we are at 21%, 22%, and we expect to maintain the same run rate for this financial year. Next year what will happen, let us see.

Sir, next year, what will be our depreciation cost?

What will be our --

Depreciation.

Depreciation should be about ₹1,600 crore.

₹1,600.

[Hindi

speech?] You said ₹1,600?

Yes, I said 1,600.

Sir. Thank you a lot.

That's all from my --

₹1,600 and ₹1,700, please don't hold me to the number, huh? It will not be as high as it had been.

Right. Sir.

That's all from my side. Thanks a lot.

Hi, sir. Just a follow-up question on the realization which you explained that you have bridged the gap with UltraTech, and I believe that is visible in numbers when I compare yours with the like-to-like numbers of UltraTech.

In last one year, while your competitor has shown a ₹50 decline, your realization has gone up by ₹100. Similarly is the trend for last 2 years, there is a sharp swing upward on your numbers.

However, if I look at the margin front, your margins have been more or less flattish year-on-year, while the competitor has seen a margin upswing both on a year-on-year basis and a 2-year basis. Is it like you have maintained your pricing --

Ravi, 1 second. Fixed cost recovery is completely dependent on capacity utilization.

That you appreciate?

Yes.

To catch up on the value terms, I had sacrificed volumes. My fixed cost recovery was less.

My margins dropped. Now if I play intelligently, my fixed cost recovery will improve and my margins will also improve.

Right?

This is the first time in the history of this company that I have reported a more or less equal EBITDA per ton net of labor code expenses vis-a-vis UltraTech. Otherwise, we had always maintained a ₹100 and ₹100 ₹100 to ₹150 delta on plus side.

I expect to catch that up.

Great. That's heartening.

Sir, just on the adjusted for the labor cost, still your employee cost is higher by ₹20 crore quarter-on-quarter, ₹150-odd crore.

My dear friend, what happens if I increase my capacity?

Okay. This is with regard to the new plant, Raipur?

Exactly.

Okay. We should factor in this number as, okay, as a recurring number and accordingly.

Sir, lastly, just on the UAE business, Could you make it a practice in the press release only to share the volume metric and the number in AED? Would that be more useful for us?

I will certainly give a thought to this. Give me one quarter.

Let us see what I can do in next quarter. If I can, I will certainly do that.

Sure, sir. Certainly.

Sir, lastly, could you repeat the capex number for full year and next year, what are you targeting?

This year I'll be doing 2,000 cr. Okay.

I've already completed 1,500. I'll be doing about 500 cr in this quarter, means January, March.

Okay. Next year 1 second.

Next year, I have not formed up my plan on further cement capacity addition. We have frozen the plan the plan to set up about 30 RMC plants.

One RMC plant costs roughly ₹5 to ₹6 crore. Take about ₹200 crore for RMC, ₹200 crore for my railway sidings, and ₹100 ₹100 ₹50 to ₹100 crore routine capex mil jata hai.

I am giving a guidance of next year capex at 500 cr. Okay.

I am putting a caveat that this is only because I have not formed up my plan of adding up further capacity. If that gets fructified, the number will substantially change.

You will have to wait for that.

No, that's clear, sir. That is clear.

There's no capacities which will come on-stream next financial year, at least because no concrete work is going on as per --

I don't think we will go beyond 72 million ton, which we will achieve by March '26.

Okay. Great, sir.

That's all from my end. Thank you.

I'll take the last question, sir. You mentioned that we have narrowed the price gap versus the industry leader from ₹30 to ₹15.

What is then the next milestone? Is it coming at par, or how should one benchmark that at that point of time onwards, we are again start chasing volumes?

Navin, hear me out. I don't have the capacity or capability or even the enthusiasm of saying I will sell at par with UltraTech.

If I say that, you will not believe it. On the other hand, with full confidence I can say that I'll maintain the delta on EBITDA per ton basis vis-a-vis the competition, which I had been doing except in this quarter.

I'd been doing it for 40 years, that you know.

Of course.

This quarter, theek hai, we lost out on volumes. It's all right.

It was a calculated move.

Fair point, sir. On the staff cost, I just wanted to know what would be the normalized cost?

This quarter of course is -- Navin,

you ask this to Jajoo, yaar. I don't know.

Theek hai. Last question to you, sir.

At a broader industry level, do you think non-trade share or non-trade exposure is rising because everybody is chasing those bulk volume, RMC units? Is that a fair thing to observe or --

No, as I told you, my dear friend, this quarter becomes very typical. Non-trade is basically large purchases by infrastructure projects.

This quarter the government has to finish the budget allocated in '25-'26. This quarter you may have a trend where non-trade may be more.

I don't think that is a sustainable trend. We will go back to 75-25 kind of a level.

We are today at 65-35.

Understood. Very clear, sir.

Thank you so much.

Achha, listen.

Yeah.

Is your last question finished?

Yeah. I'm done.

There are no more questions.

Why are you always the last one to shaft me?

Over tea, we'll discuss this.

Thank you. Nitya, you can go ahead and conclude the call, please.

Thank you and bye-bye.