Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Birla Corp Q3 FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by HDFC Securities Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajesh Kumar Ravi from HDFC Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
I thank you, Rayo. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of HDFC Securities, I welcome all of you to the Q3 nine-month FY 2026 earnings call for Birla Corporation Limited. From the Birla Corp, we are hosting Mr. Sandip Ghose, MD & CEO, Mr. Aditya Saraogi, Group CFO, and along with other senior members of the team. I now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks, which will be followed by Q&A. Over to you, Sandip sir.
Very good afternoon, everyone. Since we are speaking for the first time in the new year, although late, but a Happy New Year to all of you. Thank you so much for joining in such large numbers on a Saturday afternoon. I understand that all of you will be in a rush to go back home for the weekend because tomorrow, in a way, is also a working day for you with the budget. So we will try to keep the call short and not stretch it further. This quarter has been a quarter, as we all know, of mixed results, mixed outcome, mixed expectations or contrary to expectations, et cetera. So it is a bit of mixed sentiments when we are speaking here. What I would like to emphasize, I think the figures are before you, the press release is before you.
Only a couple of points is what I would like to emphasize before handing it over to my colleagues who are present here. Mr. Aditya Saraogi, our Group CFO. I have [Nitesh Soni] . He is our Deputy Treasurer. Mr. Manoj Mehta, our Company Secretary and Compliance Officer. Mr. Kalidas Pramanik, who is our Chief Marketing Officer. You would have noted Mr. Pramanik's appointment has been extended by two more years. He was otherwise due to retire as per age and rules this quarter, but the board has extended him for two more years. Mr. Rajat Prusty, our CMOP, Chief of Manufacturing and Projects. So all of us are here, so they will take on the questions. I also have Mr. Sandeep Asrani, who is my Chief of Staff of the MD's office. So they will take specific questions. I would like to emphasize on two things.
Birla Corporation, you would have noticed, and those who are following the company for a long time, we have always tried to stay on course of a strategy irrespective of market fluctuations or changes in the market, because we believe we have a certain proven strategy which has worked for us and that is working for also our stakeholders. We try to remain as steady or on course on that strategy. What is that strategy? At the cost of reputation. We have limited capacity, so we want to maximize our capacity utilization over there. We want to focus primarily on the trade segment, and that is B2C. We want to also focus on blended cement, which is environment-friendly cement. Given our situation, we will focus continuously on cost reduction, increasing efficiencies, including lead distance, our go-to-market strategy, distribution, and building of brands.
Building of brands will get translated both not just by our volume of our premium products, but also overall improving the net realization. We are a company because we have limited clinker, limited distance. We always measure our sales not in terms of realization. For us, in fact, realization comes very secondary. What we look at is clinker realization. For a ton of clinker, where am I getting the maximum realization? Therefore, this is a function of product mix, geo mix, that is in terms of distance, and product mix would, of course, imply the premium product versus popular product, but not necessarily premium product may not give you the maximum clinker realization in all markets.
If we are able to sell more of popular product, if we don't want to vacate a market which is close to our factory, et cetera, where there is a demand for popular product because that will give us a higher clinker realization. We look at this very carefully and we have found that this gives us dividend in terms of results in any situation. Therefore, you'll find that in the last quarter, when we analyze volumes, we see not only many of our peers, but also the very large players, the volume leaders, they focus a great deal on non-trade or infra sales. Some people have gone up to sell almost 50% of their volumes during that quarter and certain months in non-trade sales. Whereas we consciously stuck to our strategy of focusing on trade and blended cement.
As a result, our percentage of trade sales has grown during this quarter, in terms of proportion. Percentage of blended cement has grown, and our percentage of premium cement has also grown. If you see our results, it is a function of this strategy. I'm not going to comment as to whether you see our results, in what light, whether it's favorable or how do you see it, but whatever we have delivered, we have been able to deliver because of this strategy. Our capacity utilization also, we have kept at our peak, including our Mukutban plant, which was a matter of concern for many of you for a long time. Mukutban plant is performing absolutely beautifully and happy to share it, if I may, because today, in this month, we have made the highest ever dispatch from Mukutban over there.
So that ramping up, which has been done, about which many people were skeptical, many people had raised doubts, and we have been able to do that. And most importantly, we have been able to do that over there in that market with a large share of premium products and even in the high category of OPC 53, wherever it is relevant, because in that market, we have been able to sell that. So that has been our strategy and that has really been what you are seeing in terms of results. So this is primarily the point which I would like to emphasize. There is, in terms of logistics, we have reduced lead distance. In fact, our lead distance is today-
328 km.
328 km which as you all know, is better than many large players who have a higher proportion of grinding units for themselves. Our grinding unit to main plant ratio, integrated plant ratio is lower than many people. But despite that, our lead distance is actually lower than many of them, and we have been able to further reduce that. Specifically, we have had couple of handicaps against which we worked, and I would be upfront in stating that we do not have a grinding unit in Bihar. So during the period of Bihar elections, as we all know, rail movement in Bihar was hugely impaired because the railways allocated trains for passenger movement in preference to goods movement. So we not having a grinding unit there, we were handicapped.
But at the same time, the handicap has not bothered us so much because the growth which came in Bihar, we see that the growth has been primarily on the non-trade sector. And in non-trade, Kalid, how much has been the growth in December we have seen, 100% growth in Bihar?
That is almost 99%.
Bihar, almost 99% growth we have seen. As per our estimates, it has grown in non-trade. We did not participate in that. Whatever material we took there, we sold it in trade, and we are not unhappy about that. In U.P. area, there we have not only maintained our realization, we have been able to improve our realization despite the fact that many of our, again, our peer group and competition focused heavily into non-trade. Some people, as we have seen and you know better, they have sold almost 50% of their volumes in non-trade. They have their own reasons. Some of them have got newer plants and they had to do capacity utilization because of incentives which they get from the state. But we stayed again, because we believe in our brand.
We believe in the long-term benefits of having our brands, and therefore, we do not want to veer from that strategy and dilute our equity in the market. We hold on to that, and as a result during this period, how we have been able to increase our realization higher than others is because our premium prices we held steady. Percentage volume of premium went up. Our premium volume, which has gone up to what? 60%? Kalid, what is the number?
Yes.
Huh?
63%.
63% it has gone up to. Now, if you see the gap between premium and our popular is one thing, but actually, due to this whole aberration in the market and huge pressure on non-trade, the general popular segment prices went down further. As a result, the delta of our premium brand vis-à-vis the popular brand generally in the market, which operate at point in times about INR 30, generally that even in some places it went up to INR 40 premium. As you all know, and this is published information or information in open domain, the trade and the non-trade prices during this period sometimes has gone up to upwards of INR 60 to, our estimates we have seen in the market, even INR 80 difference.
That is where it required a lot of resolve, a lot of determination for us not to get swayed, stay with the strategy, and we think therefore that has paid us result. Where we got affected in terms of our bottom line, apart from the exceptional item, which everybody has had to put for the labor court. We did have some continuing problems in some of our plants. A couple of them were more to do with industrial relation sort of problem and external factors. In our own plant, again, we had some breakdowns in one of our plants over there in Madhya Pradesh, due to which some of our volume dispatches got constrained. So we had to take a hit on that account.
But in terms of, as I said, in sales strategy, marketing strategy, I am personally very vindicated at the end of. Incidentally, I finished three years of my stint as Managing Director. I, too, was supposed to retire on 31st December, but the management has extended, the board has extended my tenure, so I am still here. Otherwise, I would not have been probably addressing this conference for you. So at the end of three years, the journey which we had embarked on at the beginning of 2023, I personally feel vindicated, and I say this with some degree of modest satisfaction. Thank you very much. I will now pass it on to my colleagues to do a quick wrap-up and then open up for questions. Anything you want to add?
We can open it for questions.
We can open it for questions, and as I said, everybody is in a hurry. We have had our board meetings in the morning, all of that. We are also tired, so we will not stretch the call too much. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask questions, please press star and one. The first question is from Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you. Sir, I have a couple of questions, but I understand that you normally don't allow, but I request you to allow me. First, a couple of data points which will be helpful to everybody. Mukutban volume for this quarter, CC Ratio, CapEx for nine months, net debt, incentive for third quarter.
Yeah, we'll respond to those.
Mukutban volume was 6.3 lakh tonnes. 6.3 lakh tonnes was the volume. I don't have the exact CC Ratio. It will be in the region of 0.6.
0.62.
0.61, 0.6.
Yeah. At a console level, Cash Conversion Ratio would be 1.53?
1.6, actually.
1.6. Okay, got it.
Actually, approximately we are in that range.
1.58.
1.58.
Okay, got it.
CapEx for nine months was around INR 300 crores.
Okay.
What else?
Net debt, incentive.
Incentive, in this quarter, we have booked about INR 8 crores.
Incentive, as you realized, is obviously lower because of the GST correction.
Yeah. Yeah. Our net debt stands at INR 2,560 crores.
Right. And CapEx cost?
INR 1.47.
INR 1.47. Sir, now considering it is good to see that in terms of our both trade and premium volume growth, there is a decent growth of 8% and 15% +. It is only the non-trade which has actually impacted the overall year. Now, given that what we understand is non-trade prices have kind of gone up, if you can also quantify. What we hear is INR 15-INR 20 odd . So in that scenario, now we will still continue with our strategy. How do we now see in terms of the volume growth going forward for this quarter and maybe going forward, given the capacity that we will be adding Kundanganj maybe by end of this March, 1.4 million ton. The rest will be coming in FY 2027 and 2028 and 2029. Just trying to understand how one can look at the volume growth going forward.
Shravan, first of all, yes, Shravan, you know Saket is always top of mind because he is always raising the questions. He sends questions before the conference, after the conference, so sorry for.
I thought I will be in your mind.
No, of course, you are on my mind, now top of mind because each one is in a different way. The point is, Shravan, on non-trade, I will tell you, it might sound strange to you, we don't even look at non-trade prices. We don't look at non-trade prices because ideally we will not try to sell a single ton. When we sell in non-trade, if we have to sell something, then we see whether it makes sense for us to sell it or not. So whether non-trade has gone up by INR 10, INR 15, is not of concern to us until we are unable to sell the trade volumes. So that is where our focus, that is where our sales team's focus is.
If somebody comes to me with a non-trade proposal, we consider it to be, people hesitate because people will think that we think they're not able to sell trade, that's why they're coming to us with non-trade. So our strategy is not going to change on trade, non-trade. Because it can only change if there a situation so dramatically happens that by which non-trade prices go higher than trade or realization in non-trade is higher than trade, which we don't see happening, at least in a foreseeable period. Given our capacity constraints, given that we operate almost 100% or sometimes 100% + capacity in some places, non-trade is not at all of concern to us. Rest of it is, we are looking at overall growth, I suppose 4%-5%, in line with what industry has done.
In this quarter, although there is a surge in demand, but it is not an upsurge or it is not like you have a very buoyant situation in this quarter. We are looking at in this quarter with greater interest. Volume we know will come. Again, our situation is slightly different because we are already selling enough. Our focus is to see where the prices are. We hope the prices will improve. In that context, we sometimes look at non-trade to see if non-trade is improving. We hope the trade prices will also go up. So that's broadly the strategies, Shravan. Thank you.
Yeah. Lastly, sir, CapEx now for full year, last time we said INR 800 odd crore. So when possible for next year, how much one can look at? Because both our expansions, roughly INR 4,400 crore is the announced CapEx. So if you can help us broadly how-
You know us better. We look at the present. That is what we think matters. We never talk of the future.
Sir, year-to-year basis, we give a guidance. For the next year, we will give a guidance in the next call. Okay?
Okay. In fourth quarter, how much CapEx, sir, more?
We already said that.
You were not paying attention.
It will be less than the earlier guidance I gave you.
Okay. Thank you, sir, and all the best.
Thank you very much. Thanks so much. Have a nice weekend. [inaudible].
Thank you. Next question is from Pathanjali Srinivasan from Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Pathanjali.
Hi, sir. How are you, sir? Thank you for the opportunity, sir.
Thank you. Always a pleasure.
General doubts I have, like your unit cost of production has gone down quite a bit compared to the last year. So some of your initiatives seem to have been working. There is just one doubt I have, though, is that our share of premium has gone up, our share of trade has gone up, but our profitability is not reflecting that part because our cost reduction quarter-on-quarter is about INR 200 from 24 to 25, but EBITDA has gone up by INR 160. So what am I missing here?
Essentially, the pricing issue is what you are missing. Because central region, et cetera, prices have been depressed. Only area where price was slightly decent was north, and that is about less than 1/3 of our volumes. And Maharashtra also prices were not there. So that's the only thing you are missing. So despite our increasing proportion of blended, et cetera, we obviously couldn't make up for-
Loss in realization.
Loss in realization. We have said that in some cases, some part, we have also lost a little bit in volumes because of issues. That is what has happened. Aren't you happy overall with our realization and the premiumization and our focus on blended?
Sir, your journey has definitely been very encouraging because you have grown more on trade and you have increased share of premium. I am just trying to see if it comes through in numbers, then I will be much happier. That is my-
It is coming through, boss. I think the one error you people make is, and we are not at all shy about that, we still have a popular component in our sale. Our premium as our definition is much, much higher than anybody else who is talking of premiumization now, certainly in our category. We operate in popular segment and that we would continue to do. We don't want to vacate that space. We have got heritage brands there, strong brands, legacy brands over there, and as I was explaining earlier, we find in clinker realization, some places we get very good clinker realization in our popular brands. We don't want to vacate that. We will continue to look at that. Therefore, in a combined way, the problem arises if you were to just simply see us as a premium company and compare us with others.
But again, the people who are selling premium, I don't want to take names, who were earlier at a certain level. From the results, you will get an idea of how even the B2C market has moved during this quarter.
Sir, this quarter, I am quite happy with your earnings number, sir. Only thing is the volume. You mentioned that there was some bit of challenge in one of the plants. Is there any possibility, can you quantify how much impact in volume terms you would have had because of that? Like how much-
We would not like that because a combination of lot of things. As I told you, one plant, there was a little bit of technical problem. Another place, we had some sort of an IR problem. Another place, it was more of a logistic related issues, not logistics issues. All that. It is a combination, and this is part of the game, so I don't want to separately spell it out.
Got it, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from Harshal Mehta, from AMSEC. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Two quick questions from my end. Firstly, on pricing. What you mentioned that competition is intense and price increase might be limited going ahead. Is this across all our operating regions or is mainly with the central region? That was one. When do we expect this competitive intensity to ease out? Also, if you can just help with how our cement prices versus the average of Q3 across all our regions in both trade and non-trade. So that was on pricing. Secondly, on market share. This quarter, like you said, we have lost market share, and that's particularly on the non-trade side as prices remain weak. What gives you the confidence that we will again be able to regain our lost market share as prices recover? Yeah.
See, first of all, let me start with the market share. I do not see the relevance of market share in terms of non-trade. We are not in that space at all. We look at our market share in the trade segment and the B2C segment. There, we do not think we have lost market share. In fact, we would have improved market share in certain places by a couple of basis points. That is what we focus on. Because our concerns are very different. Some people have set up new capacity. They are operating at a very low CU. I am operating at 100% capacity utilization level. Somebody who is operating at 55%, 60%. They will sell non-trade because if they have set up also units where basis of incentive, they would like to sell more and get it.
As a result, that is why you have seen how non-trade prices strengthened in the last quarter. So we are not in that game, and we are not even worried about. As I said, I will be very happy if my market share in non-trade is zero and I am selling everything in trade. So that is not the game which we are in, and we are looking at purely on market share. Therefore I was seeing some of the commentaries of other analysts who have written about market share loss, et cetera. Sorry, we do not see market share in that view. We think the relevance of market share is essentially in the B2C. I come from an FMCG background, therefore for me, that is what makes sense. You never look at industrial sales, et cetera, and think of market share there. So that is the point.
Spot prices, I don't think that will be indicative to say in any specific market. We believe that in terms of what we call our premium category, we are not only at par, some places we may be a couple of between INR 2 - INR 5 higher than the top brand in that category. By premium, our definition is frankly, we say the A category players. The second player in the A category, our belief is their pricing position is diluted significantly in most key markets. There is one player with whom we kind of compare and from them we are either at par or as I said, couple of rupees higher. In some markets, maybe even INR 5 higher. When you come to the popular segment, that is the B category segment.
We firmly believe from the general B category status, our prices are at least INR 10 higher than the B category players where we have our heritage brands or legacy brands I am talking about. Heritage and legacy, to spell it out for you, is Samrat in central zone. In the north zone, it is Chetak. These are our heritage brands. We sell some amount of those brands in the Maharashtra region, but that is where it is not a heritage brand. That is the popular brands I am not considering there. In Maharashtra, our focus is purely on Perfect Plus. We are a small player in the east, that is West Bengal, and there Unique Plus has done extremely well. We sell in a very limited geography close to our We don't want to spread thin. We don't have those volumes.
That has done well and gives us excellent clinker realization because it is a slag cement. We are able to do that. To reveal a secret, I will tell you, initially people had laughed at me when I had said in some of these conference calls that we may find it profitable if we have excess clinker in Mukutban to bring it all the way to Durgapur. We are actually finding that is true even now. Okay. That is partly because our clinker cost in Mukutban is very competitive, one of the best in the industry. So that is broadly the position how I will answer your question. May not have satisfied you totally, but that is all I can reveal at the moment.
Sir, thank you. That was very helpful. Just on a competitive intensity, you can just help me here, like when do you expect that to even out?
Come again.
Competitive pressure.
Just on the competitive intensity, when do you expect that to even out?
Competitive intensity. See, competitive intensity for us, the only area of competitive intensity issue is in central. But central, again, the competitive intensity, there are two parts to it. We were concerned about how the competition is going to take us on in terms of the trade segment. We are finding for whatever reason, the people whom we are expecting, they seem to be more concerned about their volumes and the volumes they are trying to get from non-trade. We thought they will probably try to get it by deep discounting in the trade segment, but they seem to probably find it better to sell non-trade, or they have not been able to penetrate the trade market or create their own distribution network so well. Acceptance of their brands in those places in the trade network is probably not as good.
They are not getting similar amount of traction, so they find it much easier to sell in non-trade. That per se is not affecting us. Really the point of reckoning is I told you without naming them, some of the A category brands and we try to be over there and go on consolidating our share over there. In terms of competitive intensity, in the north we are a very small player. We have got just 6% or 7% market share there. So competitive intensity does not affect us in that way except for the price levels in the market. Similarly, in the east. In Maharashtra, there again, overall if you see, competitive intensity doesn't affect us that much except in our core market of Vidarbha and Khandesh, that area.
Their competitive intensity, and there has been some changes which have happened over there recent times due to some consolidation factors. Brands have changed hands. Even existing brands have tried to do some kind of rationalization. They are trying to do brand rationalization, et cetera. Those have changed the dynamics in those markets, but that has actually worked to our advantage.
Thanks for the detailed answers and all the best.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question is from Prateek Kumar from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hello. Yeah. Good evening, sir. I have a question here. Next round of expansion, what are the timelines you are looking at for the next round of clinker expansion in your central region?
Essentially, we are looking at, first of all, we have already said the Kundanganj Line three will come on stream in this quarter itself. Then we are looking at the Maihar Line two. Essentially, that will be FY 2028, is when we are looking at it. In parallel with that, we come up our first two grinding units.
Gaya.
In Gaya and Prayagraj. That will take our total capacity to 24.2 million tons by FY 2028. By FY 2029, we are trying to take this capacity up to 27.6 million tons.
Okay. Sorry, what is the 2028 to 2029 bridge of cumulative ton?
Sorry?
What is the bridge from 24.2 to 27.6? What are the additions there?
Here, we will be doubling the capacity at, the clinker capacity at Maihar. Together with that, we will put up a steel grinding unit in Gaya and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. In phase II, we will have a further expansion of 1.4 million tons. In phase I, we will put 1.4 million tons, and again in phase II also we will put another 1.4 million tons in Gaya in Bihar. Together with that, in northern part or west part or western U.P., maybe Aligarh or somewhere close by, we intend to put up a 2 million ton grinding unit. This is broadly the state of 24.2 and 27.6.
That is the visibility we have, and then we will see. As you know that
There might be some switching in terms of the location of grinding unit, and this is broadly the-
Broadly the thing. We are trying to consolidate our limestone holdings. As you would well have seen in terms of our mines acquisition, et cetera. So that's where our focus lies.
Sorry, just clarity on clinker. Clinker and expansion of these all grinding units is in FY 2029, not FY 2028. That's what you said?
No. By 2028, the increase in capacity will be 4.2 million tons. By FY 2029, we'll have another 3.4 million tons. So at the end of FY 2028, the capacity will increase from 20 to 24.2, and by FY 2029, it will increase from 24.2 to 27.6.
Sure. One other question is on, your recently some mine in Rajasthan got canceled or delayed. Can you elaborate on that? That was my last question.
We are examining that. That has happened, but we are examining the decision. We do not want to comment on it just now.
We are looking at various options, including the legal options.
Yeah. If we have to pursue a legal option, we will see because we do not see clearly any justification for. Because this was not that we are the only bidders who got it. There are multiple bidders who after bidding they have got. Because we got that, we did not bid for some of the other mines which had come up in the neighborhood. So we do not think it has been a very equitable decision. We are examining options, as Saraogi said, and you will probably have an answer in the coming few weeks.
This mine was towards expansion at the Raisen plant or just extension of life of the business in general?
No, no expansion.
New plant.
Expansion, new plant.
New plant.
In Jaisalmer.
Jaisalmer.
Sure. Okay. That was my question. Thank you.
Fine.
Thank you. The next question is from Raghav Maheshwari of Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Just one thing. What is the timeline we are looking for Kundanganj Line two commissioning? Earlier, I think you guided for this quarter end.
We remain. We said that, Raghav.
Within this quarter.
Within this quarter, Kundanganj Line three. We said that earlier, you probably missed it, that we will be doing it this quarter. Thank you.
And sir, just one thing on realization side, what is my reading? Firstly, congratulations, a great set of trade percentage in the premium product side. But sir, just wanted to understand one thing. Despite being a highest trade channel and highest one of a premium product mix into our category of overall sale, our EBITDA per tonne is still lower in the terms of a B category size of player. Is it despite our base product price is a very low realization or our premium product is realigned with the base price or base product price of some-
We don't align
What is
We don't align our premium product price with the base product. We peg it with the market. In fact, that is our clear distinction. There is no one, our sales team, nobody speaks of our base product plus x or premium minus x, et cetera. That is not there. It's a function of couple of things. You will realize our cost, we've got certain disparities. We've got legacy plants, we've got new plants. New plants, the costs are very competitive. Legacy plants, the costs are much higher.
The average cost changes and some of the legacy and the new plants may not be as proximate to the market. To be very clear, say Satna is much closer to U.P. Maihar, though the costs are much better, Maihar is further down. There is an additional component we have to. Those are the cost elements which come in. Then when you look at it overall, it's a weighted average. In the weighted average situation, it's a known fact, again, other competitors have also commented, central region price has been the most challenged or tight as opposed to what north has been. Our presence in north is less.
Even whatever presence we have, our northern plant, all of you know that because of a certain reason, our costs are high, so we would not be making that kind of margin which some others would be making newer plants. Some of them, in terms of their thing, when you are talking of, I do not know who you meant in terms of B category players. Some of the players who I would think you are talking about, they have got very new plants located in places, so their cost of production would be lower. They also have advantage of incentive, which we do not have today. So they are even selling OPC at an incentive. Okay. And getting incentive on OPC, so that is the reason why INR 60, INR 80 price difference came up. Because they could undercut prices because they had an incentive package in those states.
Those are all kind of factors, but we know we have limitations in our EBITDA, and we are working consciously to that on multiple fronts to see how do we take our EBITDA to the level which we had earlier indicated the guidance which we had given. But due to circumstances beyond our control, there has been a slide even from you will see last quarter of previous fiscal to now, and for reasons all of us know. That is how the market and everything has moved. But we are working therefore, on every front. We know we have a limitation in size, limitation in capacity. So we will have to squeeze the lemon from all directions, which we are doing. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Saket Kapoor from Kapoor & Company. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hi, Saket.
[Non-English content], sir.
[Non-English content].
Thank you for the opportunity.
Yeah.
Sir, in the earlier press releases also, we have mentioned about our foray into the RMC business and its contribution to rise going ahead. What is currently the thought process? Sir, you have mentioned about pricing for the central market and the northern market. How were prices behaved in the eastern market? I think some capacity additions have happened there also.
You are sitting in Kolkata, Saket. We are a very small player here. You should tell me about the pricing in eastern market and what is happening. You have a better sense of the market. We are a very small player. We have a very good clinker realization here, because we have a good brand, small brand, but a good brand. We sell in a limited geography.
We mostly sell PSC.
Huh?
We mostly sell PSC, slag cement.
Slag cement, mostly. Slag cement, and that too in the proximity of our plant. So that is fine. We do not even think of the big players because they are far too big for us in this region. Whether you talk of Dalmia, UltraTech, Adani, we are just a drop in the ocean for them. So we float as the market goes and try to maximize our realization. So that is as far as the east is concerned. I do not know what more to add in terms of central and north. That we have already covered. On RMC, as we have said, it is still not a big ticket item for us. We are making steady progress. I think today we are focusing on areas. We are trying to clearly see brand synergies and our market presence. So, so far we are progressing only in U.P.
I think we are on the fifth plant, if I am not mistaken, in RMC. No, three
Yes.
Varanasi and Gorakhpur. Varanasi, I think is almost done. It's a small thing. We are just testing the waters because we know a lot of big people have burned their fingers. Some people have the strategy because, again, they have additional volume, they want to utilize their cement through RMC. We don't have any such thing. In fact, sometime my RMC business head finds it cheaper to buy other people's cement than talk to Mr. Pramanik. Mr. Pramanik is very tight-fisted. So very often he's able to get OPC, and we don't make OPC. If we help it, we don't want to make OPC. They get OPC from outside. It's still early days. We are figuring out our strategy, and we would like to move cautiously there in the market.
Okay. And sir, with Kundanganj line being commercialized for Q4, last year Q4 we did volume of 5.25. And taking into account what the strength you have spoken about the uptake in the volume for January also. Does the 5.25 number looks good? The base looks good for us to report growth on this number?
We have talked of 3%-4% growth. We will do that.
Sir, for nine months, we have already done that, so I was just looking at Q4 being-
This was also, we are not really setting up too much. Additional capacity will come by juggling around where we are grinding, et cetera. So that is what we will do. We are moderate and we are giving up. As you saw, we are not running after volumes in non-trade, et cetera. What will happen if instead of 4% or 5%, there is 5.5%? Why split hair on that?
Yes, sir. And lastly, sir, on the jute part-
You cannot add questions. You cannot go on adding questions, Saket.
Okay, sir. If you allow, then last question on jute and I will then-
Whatever had to be said about jute has already been said. You are also sitting in Kolkata. You know the jute market.
A small portion of-
A very tiny portion of our thing. INR 20 million impact on the bottom line. Why do you want to take other people's time on that?
Okay, sir. [Non-English content]
[inaudible] . Thank you for keeping it short.
Thank you. Next question is from Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir.
Shravan, I think you want to have a second innings. You asked the maximum number of questions, and we were most forthright to give you all the answers.
Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Sir, it was kind of for data points, which is I think relevant for everybody. So that only, just only the data points. So actually, after the call, we normally don't get a chance to, any data points. So basic, just historically, maybe FY 2024, FY 2025 or maybe nine months, Kcal per kg and power units, which normally are 65, 66, whatever. So what is the number for us and Kcal per kg, which is 720, 730, whatever. So broader and the power cost. Why I am asking is just trying to understand that green side, once it increases further, how one can see that the power cost can come down.
[Non-English content]
We don't give such granular. No one does.
Such a granular thing. Okay. We'll keep it. Thank you, Shravan.
Okay.
Thank you. Next question is from Rajesh Kumar Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
I do not see your name on the queue. Rajesh, your name is not in the queue. How are you coming in, sir? From backdoor entry?
Sir, just wanted to know on this CapEx spread, which you talked about, this Maihar clinker and the other grinding units. So tentatively, obviously, we will be taking this CapEx FY 2027 onwards. So what is the total project cost and how much we have already incurred, if any, of these projects? And any broad ballpark number, how would that be split between two to three years?
See, overall project cost is around INR 4,750 crores, including GST. Net of GST, it is about INR 4,200 crores.
Okay.
We cannot give you a year-wise split at this juncture. Maybe in the next conference call, we can give you an indication of how much CapEx we are going to incur in the next financial year, using, of course, you can derive from there.
Sure. This fuel cost this quarter has gone up, right? Q3 versus Q2, marginally.
It has come down. It was around INR 1.5. It has come down to INR 1.47.
Oh, INR 1.47. Okay. What is the trend you are looking at in Q4, and what is your fuel mix broadly?
It may increase marginally. So at this juncture, we are looking at INR 1.50 per 1,000 kg through Q4.
Okay. And fuel mixture between petcoke linkage and imported coal?
About 30% is petcoke and imported coal and 70% is indigenous, domestic.
Understood. Yeah. Great, sir. That's all from my end. Over to you, [Non-English content]
Thank you very much. We close it now.
Yes, sir. That was the last question. Would you like to give any closing comments?
No, nothing. Thank you very much for joining us on a Saturday afternoon. Let's all hope for a very good budget tomorrow. We hope the international markets also are. There is less volatility for various reasons, which will help us all to plan our year better. Thank you once again, and once more, all the best for 2026. Bye.
Thank you very much. On behalf of HDFC Securities, that concludes the conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your lines.