Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the India Cements Limited Q2 FY 2026 earnings conference call. 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 conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Atul Daga, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the earnings call of India Cements Limited for the quarter ended September 25. I realize it is a Saturday, and for those who are attending the call, a sincere thanks for taking time out on your weekend. Let me straight jump into the nitty-gritty. Firstly, demand. I think it is very important to note that we have sold more than 31 million tons of cement this quarter when rain gods have been in full fury almost till almost a few days ago. On ground, things are looking up, looking better for premium cement all the more. We will talk about it in a bit. India Cements Limited is a very large company. We operate almost 75 physical locations, 400-plus RMC plants.
In that phase of rapid growth, the sales volumes growth will be a little complex to understand for three or four quarters. If we were to look at our sales volumes without UltraTech Cement Limited and Kesoram Industries Limited in the base for the last year, because we were not managing them, we have grown 22.3%. Without considering UltraTech Cement in our base for the last quarter, we have recorded a growth of 9.6%. With both UltraTech Cement and Kesoram Industries Limited cement assets in the base, we have grown about 6.8%. UltraTech Cement has already declared its results yesterday with a growth of 6%. Most important points to note is India Cements Limited as a brand. The brand has grown about 13.2% this quarter YOY. That is a real hard number.
Rural markets are also delivering a growth of 13%, and we believe that the industry will achieve a growth of around 10% in the rural markets. We have been rapidly converting UltraTech Cement and Kesoram Industries Limited brands into India Cements Limited with a sharp focus on improving the quality of the product manufactured at the acquired plant locations. The results are quite exciting. As I mentioned, India Cements Limited as a brand has grown 13.2% thanks to the rapid conversion of output generated from the acquired assets. Let's talk about GST. GST, while there's no impact on profitability, an important benefit of GST too is the reduction in clean energy sales levied on call. We believe this will be in the long-term interest of India Cements Limited. We balance our fuel portfolio with a mix of coal and petcoke. The strategy has always helped manage our risk.
This quarter, with slightly higher coal consumption, the ratio is skewed in favor of coal at about 48% and petcoke being about 44%. This quarter, our fuel costs are higher than last quarter, increasing to INR 1.80 per Kcal as compared to INR 1.78 per Kcal. It's a mix of coal and petcoke, essentially, and timing. The next few quarters will be a mix of our existing high-performance assets of 166.76 million tons and the acquired assets, which are ramping up rapidly, namely Kesoram cement assets 10.75 million tons and India Cements 14.75 million tons. Our existing operating assets, 166.76 million tons of capacity, have delivered and have built up a metric ton of 966. India Cements reported its performance yesterday, delivering INR 386 per metric ton, and Kesoram assets this quarter were at INR 755.
For your reference, India Cements' brand conversion has already happened 31%, and Kesoram has already converted 55% at the end of this quarter. This will clearly give you a perspective of how the overall average numbers will pan out when full brand conversion has been completed. We are expecting to complete the brand transition for these acquired assets not later than June 2026. There have been some specific cost items, one-off, slightly higher, which have had a dampening effect on our performance. First one, maintenance costs. You will be shocked to know that we operate almost 56 kilns across the country in India Cements' balance sheet. If you were to take into account Kesoram's kilns also, a total number of 65 kilns are being operated by us.
In India Cements, out of the 56 kilns, we had 617 kiln days shut down as compared to 207 kiln days last quarter or 511 kiln days last year for the same period. This is one of the reasons why our fixed costs are slightly higher. When we do an internal calculation, it's about an impact of INR 100 per ton. Second one was the advertising cost. During this quarter, our advertising efforts had been taken up. We spent INR 50 crores higher than the last quarter, resulting in an impact of about INR 15 per ton. Third item was staff costs, which were, again, slightly higher in this quarter, and all employees obviously enjoy this quarter because the increments and the annual bonus payments are made in the July-September period. Quarter-on-quarter additional costs of INR 94 crores were incurred, but you don't have to worry.
This impact will come down next quarter by INR 30, 35 crores. The per ton impact is roughly INR 25 per ton. Operating leverage impact due to lower QOQ sales volume is close to INR 70 per ton. If I count all these items, then there is a delta impact of anywhere around INR 200 per ton. That doesn't mean that these costs will not exist in the next quarter. There will be some element of cost, but not such a high impact. Capex. Our expansion plans are going on full swing, and we will complete or exit this financial year with 200 million tons of capacity under our belt.
Projects like Wedawan Port, Amravati, development around the new Navi Mumbai airport, data centers coming up in the country, urban real estate, Google committing INR 15 billion to build its AI hub in Andhra Pradesh—all such mega projects are very positive for the cement industry for consistent growth demand. GST too will definitely boost demand for premium cement because some people will be able to buy their aspirational brands due to a reduction in the cost of purchase. You would have also seen our next phase of growth. I have mentioned it in the past. After completing our consolidation in the southern markets in fiscal 2025, we have focused our guns on North India and West India.
With an intent to further strengthen our position in these markets, we are embarking on the next phase of our growth with 22.8 million tons of incremental capacity, which is a mix of largely brownfield and some greenfield expansions. Out of this 22.8 million tons, 18 million tons is focused on the northern markets and 4.8 million tons for the western markets. A very important point for you to note is we will always be fully invested in clinker. At the end of this expansion, we will be reaching 148 million tons of clinker capacity with a clinker conversion factor reaching close to 1.6x. This expansion also will be funded largely by internal accruals. There might be some temporary borrowings that will be done, but by the time we complete our expansion, we will be again less than 0.7x net debt to EBITDA. Cables and wires business.
The business is on track to launch production in Q3 fiscal 2026. Land and buildings have been secured. Long lead machinery items have been placed. We expect delivery to start from January 2026, and the plant should get commissioned in time for Q3 production launch. Key managerial people have also started onboarding. I touched upon ICL and Kesoram assets. We, as I mentioned, India Cements' brand transition has been completed to 31% of their sales as UltraTech, and it will cross the 40% mark by December quarter and then further up, thereby helping us realize the benefits of synergy in the books of India Cements on a very rapid pace. As a post-balance sheet event in India Cements, we have exited the coal assets held in Indonesia, and the cash flows that will be realized from the sale of these assets will help reduce their debt.
Another important point to highlight about India Cements is the Capex program of INR 1,592 crores, which has been initiated for debottlenecking of a small capacity, 21 megawatt renewable energy, 21 MW of WHRS, 192 MW of renewable energy, and other efficiency improvement programs. Over and above that, we are expanding the capacity at Chennai and Rajasthan plants with 2.4 million tons at a cost of INR 422 crores. These are high-performing markets, and the investment will yield an IRR of upwards of 20%. We acquired India Cements with a capacity of 14.45 million tons. Within no time, there was a debottlenecking done, and further brownfield expansions that I just mentioned will take us to a capacity of 17.55 million tons. We will be able to fund these investments with internal accruals and a mix of debt.
However, by the time we complete the expansion, which is January, or by the time the expansions are fully operational, the ICL assets will start generating EBITDA per ton of 1,000 and a net debt to EBITDA of around 0.5x. Kesoram assets have also streamlined, and a Capex of around INR 500 crores is in progress for WHRS and other efficiency improvements. The brand transition program, as I mentioned earlier, has already been completed to about 55% of its output, and we shall complete the rest of the program by the end of June 2026. Another important point which I must leave with you is our retail footprint. We have a presence with almost 5,000 stores in the country.
These retail stores, what we call the UBS stores, sold 21% of our total sales this quarter and also support the dreams of many individual home builders to procure other materials required for building a house. RMC is another important aspect of our business. We have crossed almost 400 plants in the country. Today, RMC has become about 4% of cement volumes for us. For some of you, the desert is the most important in terms of EBITDA per ton, but at India Cements, this quarter has been a wholesome meal. Thank you. Before taking questions, we wish you all a very happy Diwali. Over to you for questions, please.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Again, to register for a question, please press star and then one. Our first question comes from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity and wishing you a very happy Diwali. Just on this expansion plan that you've announced, after this, I just wanted to know how much more scope is there given that this is just focused on North and West, and I'm guessing there is scope even in East, South, those markets as well. What is the additional scope for brownfield expansion that exists in the portfolio?
Amit, hi. We are now stitching our program to reach about 24 million- 25 million tons, which will get completed by fiscal 2029. There is definitely scope for 20 million- 25 million tons more. I'm talking about beyond 2029, 2030, 2031, and in those times, there will be further possibilities. There will be possibilities of greenfield clinker-based units also since we continuously keep acquiring mining rights, and land acquisition is an ongoing process. It's not only brownfield, but we'll also have greenfield expansions depending upon the market appetite, which we believe will be very high.
Understood. While you spelled out the other expenses, the reasons for the other expenses jump, even raw material has moved up. Is there some one-off event in that, or is that more like?
There's no one-off. There must be some, you know, purchase price impact. Other than that, there's no one-off.
Right. Out of the 200 per ton, which you summed up under various items, how much of it will go away essentially in Q3? If you could just give some number on that.
Maintenance will come down. At least ballpark 100 will come down.
Right. Right. Just lastly, on the fuel cost, we have seen petcoke move up while you have only 44%. Will net fuel cost go up given that there's coal compensation as a positive benefit as well?
No, we'll have a bigger benefit because India Cements Limited consumes a higher amount of coal as compared to the rest of the industry. That will also be a benefit to us. It seems it is always possible that the flavor of petcoke starts going down and coal is becoming more important.
Sure. On a net basis, basically, fuel costs may not go up too much for you.
No, it will not go up. All the spot purchases is the only thing which could move up or down, but in our overall scheme of things, we will not have any inflation in fuel costs.
Great. Great. Wishing you a happy Diwali again. I'll just come back in the next week. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Indrajit Agarwal from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Two questions. First, congratulations on such low CapEx per ton on the next leg of expansion. Now, keeping that in mind and the cost-saving initiatives across the industry, how do you see the pricing environment or the intensity of taking prices up in the medium term among the players panning out?
Thank you, Inderjeet, for noticing that. As far as efficiency improvement program is concerned, I think India Cements Limited is the only company which has demonstrated item-by-item actual delivery of efficiency improvement. Capex cost, I don't know whether anybody else can deliver this kind of an efficiency in Capex cost. It remains to be seen. Third point you mentioned about pricing. Pricing is not detrimented by Capex cost or efficiency improvement pricing. I will repeat again, it's always demand. If demand is good, there is always an opportunity for improvement in prices. If there are cost inflation pressures on, let's say, just now when we discussed about fuel costs, in case fuel costs go through the roof or any other costs go through the roof, if the industry, if we can't absorb it, it will get definitely passed on. Pricing decisions will not be taken because of lower Capex cost.
Sure. That's helpful. Secondly, on industry demand, on your best estimate, how was the demand in the second quarter? Do you think the earlier guidance of 6 %- 7% industry growth for the full year is achievable?
I think so, yes. It is definitely happening. My confidence is going up higher if I look at my own volume growth. As far as industry growth is concerned, it has to be somewhere around 4.5% - 5% for this quarter.
Sure. Thank you so much. Happy Diwali on that.
Thank you. Happy Diwali to you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Pinar Kumparik from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, sir, and happy Diwali to everyone on the call. My first question is on the commissioning timeline for the expansions. It says FY 2028 onwards. Will it get bunched up in FY 2028, or will it be spread over 2028, 2029, 2030?
Not bunched up. It would be mostly evenly spread out. We will come out with a detailed schedule in the next quarter, but it's not getting bunched up.
Sure. Secondly, just more granular color on how does the company see demand between government Capex and individual home buyers? From a pricing point of view, for the trade segment, we need the individual home buyer segment demand to pick up. As per you, where do you see stronger demand over the second half of the year?
I think the rural markets, as I talked about it, we have seen about 13% growth in rural markets, which is a very positive point. The IHB segment will continue to drive demand. We are seeing continuous announcements of new intra-projects, which will help the overall demand sentiment. Jamal Ji, would you like to add something?
Yeah. Very good afternoon to all of you. I think Atul has said rightly that the housing sector would be the key driver for the growth, particularly the rural housing. The demand has been good, and with the good monsoon this year and the revision in the MSP price and kind of thing, I think rural India is likely to do very well. On the urban side, obviously, with the change in the income tax rates, personal income tax rates, opening of interest, there are good green shoots, and the urban demand is also likely to move further.
Coming on the infra side, I think, as Atul said, the infra is now likely to fire on all fronts, right from the road, rail, aviation, and the port side, because in the recent few months or the few days there are a lot of announcements in terms of building new highways, widening of the highways, and the metro port. If the Sagarmala project picks up, then further it will add to the boost to the demand. On the commercial side, I think that's likely to be the good story with the GCC. Recently, a few days back, there is an announcement on the big data center.
Google.
By Google. I think we believe, hopefully, demand side do.
Pinar Kum, it's not about a quarter. I think if you are looking at a longer term, and we had put out one chart on how we see the long-term growth also, it's 7%, 8% CAGR growth. I'm very confident that this is going to happen in the country. Just imagine if you were to delve a little bit more in Google's investments of INR 15 billion over a period of five years. It's not just a data center, but there'll be employees and their housing and the related schools, hospitals, blah, blah, blah. Everything will be coming up. This is one-off. Wedawan Port, 76,000-crew project, 300 million-ton cargo handling capability. The project will go on for five, six years, or even more. That will change the fortunes of the entire Western market.
Got it. Got it. This is very helpful, sir. Thank you very much. Happy Diwali to everyone.
Happy Diwali to you.
Happy Diwali.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Sumangal Nivatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, everyone. Firstly, I appreciate all the detailing on the expansion plans and also a lot more disclosures in the regular quarterly presentation. Thanks for that. My first question is on the North market. You shared in the presentation that the last couple of years, the peak utilization has been approaching 90%. Any thoughts on how we are looking at over the next four to five years, given a lot of peers, JK, Dalmia, JSW, all focusing on North in the next leg of expansion? Any analysis which you can share on our estimates? How is the future? Is there a risk of an oversupply situation gradually building in North given the supply?
No, Sumangal, no, I don't think so. I think the more important from India Cements Limited's point of view is we have always grown better than the rest of the industry at a pace higher than the industry. We are confident that our capacity share, which today stands at 28%, will go up to 32%, 33%, and there's no stopping us there. India Cements Limited will continue to gain market share. India Cements Limited does not see any risk in being able to sell more volumes of cement.
Yeah. To further add upon, I think also it is an overall function if you talk about the capacity utilization where your plants are located, actually. Once we'll share you the more details in the next quarterly discussions, actually. Based on our footprint and the location, I think India Cements Limited would stand out in terms of.
I didn't want to say it, Sumangal, but deserts are deserts and cities are cities.
Understood.
We can discuss later offline, yeah.
Okay. On the green power mix, we've reached 42%. Over the next couple of years, where do we settle at?
If you have a thumb.
Sorry. Go ahead, please.
Yeah, just want to understand incrementally any thumb rule we can kind of use as to what cost saving every % increase or something like that to estimate the cost saving?
We will reach about 65% of green power by the end of our current phase of growth. I've already started disclosing my cost mix. When you are reaching 65%, thermal power will come down. You can do an estimation from there.
Okay. Okay. Just one last thing. In the opening remarks, you alluded to some sort of a premiumization benefit out of GST. Can you explain what's the thought there?
Everybody has an aspiration, not only for cement, for any other asset. If that particular product comes within my striking distance, which I was not wanting, which I was deferring or not going that path, if that asset is within my striking distance, I would definitely want to use that asset. Let's talk about cement. Cement, when a person is building his house, which is once in a lifetime, if that person was not able to buy UltraTech as a premium product, roughly INR 30 impact has happened favorably in the hands of the end consumer. The affordability was INR 360. The two is that the person who was wanting to buy at INR 360 either will switch down to INR 330 for a category B brand or might be incentivized to buy a premium brand at INR 360. That's premiumization.
Okay. Okay. Understood. All right. Thanks a lot, sir. Diwali greetings to everyone on the call. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Greetings. I'll ask a couple of questions. Firstly, again, on premium cement, how do you think the premium segment pricing can pan out over the next 12 months versus the regular product for yourself or for market?
It again depends upon demand. Prateek, if demand is robust and there's a cost pressure also, then obviously there's an opportunity to push it into prices.
Where do you envisage your 33% premium mix going to over the next 12 - 18 months?
What?
Sorry?
Premium products. Any data point, guys?
No, I don't have a number immediately, Pratek. Take it offline. I don't want to give an ad hoc answer. We can discuss on Monday. I'll share some more highlights.
Sure. You have reported like-for-like growth of 7% for the overall cement operations. How would that reflect in region-wise? Also, your total 71% capacity utilization for the first half, how would that be region-wise?
If I look at regional capacity utilization, North and in fact, South are in the 70s, and Central, East, and West is in the high 60s, and Central and East is low 60s.
What about the volume growth region-wise?
Volume growth region-wise, I think the capacity utilization should be a good barometer for you. I don't have immediately the regional growth numbers.
Sure. No problem. Last question on your expansion into northern markets. While some of the capacity appears to be in Central, you are allocating all those capacity to North regionally.
Yeah, I know. I was expecting somebody to ask this question. For us, we split UP and MP into UP East, UP West, and MP East and MP West. The western parts of MP and UP are more North-centric because let's take off Vikram Cement, which is in Madhya Pradesh and are away, and you're into Rajasthan. That is part of our Rajasthan or northern market as compared to calling it a Central market. Similarly, Dhar is very suitable for servicing northern markets. Dadri, which is sitting in Delhi, is in UP, but it serves northern markets. That is why we look at UP West and MP West in our internal scheme of things as northern markets. These wise, even if you want to classify them as Central areas, the output or their distribution is in the northern markets.
Sure. Makes sense. That's it from my side. Wish you happy Diwali. Thank you.
Happy Diwali, Prateek.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rashi from Citi. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Just a quick question on Kesoram. The bid up per ton that you've given is at INR 755, and I understand the first quarter was about INR 1,000. This entire decline, barring the realization, has got to do with all these maintenance.
Yeah, maintenance shutdowns, maintenance, that's it.
Was there any offsetting impact with the improvement in the rebranding to India Cements?
Obviously, because I have at least INR 15 -INR 20 delta on pricing between UltraTech and Kesoram old brands. They're in advantage.
Okay. I'm just trying to understand how you think about Kesoram going forward from here.
My sense is December, I should be back to INR 1,000. Once we are completing our brand transition in Kesoram, it should be operating at that level because, again, the Kesoram asset, services-wise, it's in South, but services Mumbai market. The 9 million-ton plant, Sedam plant, is closer to the Maharashtra market, so it should enjoy the profitability of the western markets. Once WHRS and everything is implemented, it'll be crossing INR 1,000, INR 1,100, INR 1,200 mark by the end of June 2026.
Got it. Just a bookkeeping question for you. India bid up per ton, which was about INR 1,230 in Q1, should roughly, is it working out about INR 900 in this quarter on a blended basis?
966.
India, all in, as in including Kesoram and India Cements?
That's including India Cements. That includes India Cements also. India Cements is INR 386 a ton.
966 includes India Cements?
I think you would look at 914 if that is a number you are looking at.
Got it. From pricing versus spot pricing versus what you had in the second quarter, is it largely stable?
Pricing as in cement prices, coal prices?
Cement, cement prices.
You're asking about cement bag prices. No, prices are stable.
You'll see an improvement in the cost of the INR 100 reversal that you're talking about, offset by higher petcoke prices going forward?
As I also mentioned, our fuel prices are not going up because we will also have the advantage of coal sales getting knocked off. The maximum benefit, without a doubt, will be to India Cements Limited.
Got it. Okay. Thank you. Happy Diwali.
Thank you. Happy Diwali to you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Pathanjali Srinivasan from Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Congratulations on a good set of numbers. Firstly, I'd like to thank you for giving such a good presentation with this very good amount of transparency in reporting in terms of numbers with organic and inorganic. It really gives us a good amount of confidence in what you're doing. My RMC questions. First question is, this pricing action post-GST, is there any kind of a window or timeline for which we're not allowed to increase prices?
No, there is nothing like that. Prices will go up if there is pressure on cost, if there is a huge amount of demand, or if there's a shortage of material, then prices go up. There's no prescription around that.
Okay, sir. Just on a quarter-on-quarter, we have seen a small fall in prices in terms of realization. What are the reasons where you would say the impact of this is more?
Central was higher. One second. NCR. I would say quarter-on-quarter, 3A.
Central.
Central was the most impacted.
Okay. When we mention margin profile, what would the margin profile difference be for regular cement versus premium? You're saying that premiumization could be something that could play out. I just wanted to figure out what would be the difference for it.
It is very difficult to do, and it becomes a theoretical calculation because a lot of overhead allocation will be done. If we were to do just the contribution analysis, that is different, but a EBITDA analysis is very theoretical. We don't do that.
Okay. Got it, sir. Sure. The last question is, you had mentioned about like some plants have been dropped in the presentation, and we've also done a little bit of a rejig there. Is this more of a strategic thing, or is there any other reason why we've done this?
Strategic because you know when we had started off on that expansion plan, India Cements was not acquired, and we were doing, let's say, a bulk terminal in Chennai. Now, we have the grinding unit in Chennai. On the contrary, we have decided to increase the capacity of the Chennai grinding unit of India Cements and drop our investment on the bulk terminal in Chennai. Now, because we are dropping the bulk terminal, the corresponding clinker, which was coming up in Tadipatri, which is Andhra Pradesh, which was going to serve this location, we have dropped the grinding capacity in the Tadipatri unit. It is all, what should I say, balancing. No other compulsions.
In West Bengal, we have dropped the grinding unit to, I think, to some 1 million ton. Any specific thing there?
Because, again, that was rebalancing. We dropped Kharagpur, and we have increased our presence in Dankuni. It's, again, locational advantages that we had, you know, net logistics advantage that we could get. That's how we have tried to optimize our Capex.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Happy Diwali.
Happy Diwali to you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sanjeev Kumar Singh from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. Our current CC ratio is around 1.4 times. When we get the clinker capacity addition schedule, we said that it's based on 1.56 times of CC ratio. Should we assume that gradually we want to increase our clinker conversion ratio to around 1.55, 1.56 times over the next few years? If we do that, what will be the cost advantages which we would see?
As I mentioned, we will actually reach 1.59, 1.6 post this expansion, which means a higher amount of blending will take place. In the current expansion program itself, we had said we will reach 1.54. We are focusing on increasing our blending, which helps our sustainability efforts also, and it is cost advantageous as well. Just a housekeeping question. Because of the previous question which was raised, I think there's a small error in my presentation. When we have talked about dropping off three assets, there were a couple of assets which we rebalanced. For example, Dankuni, which was not part of our plan. Instead of Kharagpur, we have gone into Dankuni. Anything else?
Secondly, sir, when there has been a drop in or reduction in green energy sales, we believe that at the same time, there has been some increase in overall GST on coal from 5% to 18%. Considering that, what kind of cost benefit would we see if we're considering both these numbers?
GST increase in coal is input tax credit. It does not impact us. Like when GST on cement has gone down, it does not impact the profitability. Similarly, GST changes in coal do not impact the profitability. However, sales which was not allowed as an input, it's a cost. That going down is directly advantageous.
Okay. Okay. I got it. Thank you, sir. Wish you and your team a very happy Diwali.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hi, Rajesh.
Hi, sir. Good afternoon. Good evening, everyone.
Good evening.
Yeah. My question pertains to this clinker expansion which you are doing. Dalavoi, ICL, you have mentioned, you know, Tamil Nadu, there is a brownfield expansion of 0.4 million ton in India Cements. Is there any clinker expansion also expected at that plant?
That is the clinker capacity going up. No.
Oh, sorry.
That's a grinding capacity. There's no further clinker capacity, but clinker, we have enough available in the region to service it.
Okay. Okay. This 22 million ton, your CapEx cost is less than INR 500 crore per ton. In this, how much is the clinker capacity cumulatively that you're planning to add?
Total about 15.68 million tons. 8.04 are two specific plants, and there are debottleneckings across the regions.
That is great. What would be the total Capex number for the next two years on the ongoing project?
I will have about INR 10,000 crore minimum per year outgo.
Okay. INR 10,000 crore. Lastly, you mentioned earlier in the call, due to this maintenance, higher maintenance and advertisement cost in Q2, on a per ton basis, how much of these costs will get reversed in Q3?
Give or take INR 100 per ton.
I think that's all from my end. Thank you, and wishing the whole team a very happy Diwali.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take this as the last question for today. On behalf of India Cements Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you.