Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to JSW Cement Q1 FY26 Results Conference Call, hosted by JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions once the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Dharmesh Shah from JM Financial Institutional Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good morning, everyone. On behalf of JM Financial, we welcome you to the JSW Cement Q1 FY26 Results Conference Call. I will now hand over the floor to the management for their opening remarks, which will be followed by interactive Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Dharmesh. Good morning, all. And I would like to warmly welcome you to the first quarterly earnings call of JSW Cement as a listed company. We uploaded our results and press release yesterday and addressed the presentation earlier today. And I hope all of you have had the chance to review these materials. With this, I will hand over the call to Mr. Nilesh Narwekar, CEO, for his opening remarks, which will be followed by some commentary from Mr. Narinder Singh , CFO, before we open up for questions. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Kunal. First, a few comments on the industry context. The RBI maintained its GDP growth projection for FY26 at 6.5%, stable versus last year. Inflation has been on a declining trend and enabled by RBI to front-load the rate cuts. We believe that the healthy monsoon, together with the central government's spending on infrastructure, which has been front-loaded in Q1 FY26 compared to FY25, will be positive on demand for the cement sector. Moreover, the Prime Minister has recently announced that major GST reforms will be implemented in April, lowering of rates is expected to create a positive economic change. Despite the geopolitical events, such as climate disruptions, continuing to pose concerns, the cement industry will be relatively unaffected by this. Cement demand in India is expected to grow at 6.5%-7.5% in FY26.
The outlook for all the consuming segments in our regions of operation is positive in the medium term. Let me list a few highlights for this quarter. The total sale volume increased by 7.8% YoY, much faster than the industry growth in our regions. We believe it was in the range of about 3%. We have outputs from the industry volume growth in Q1, and this remains our key moving forward for the full year and the next quarter. Our Q1 volume at 3.31 million tons was up to Q1 performance level. Going into the main products, cement volume sold was 1.85 million tons, increased 10% YoY. GGBS volume sold was 1.3 million tons, increased by 5% YoY. Within cement, trade mix has remained broadly stable at 52%, and the share of premium sales within trade stood at 57%. Revenue of INR 1,560 crore increased by 8% YoY.
Operating EBITDA for the quarter was INR 323 crore, improved by 39% YoY, and was the best-ever Q1 performance, driven by better realization and cost-reduction initiatives. We have a number of cost-saving and revenue enhancement levers that we've been working on, including carbon and fuel cost reduction by improving the RE and alternate fuel usage, lead distance optimization, and introduction of premium products. These initiatives total to around INR 400/ton to be realized over the next two years. We will update you on these in the subsequent quarters. In terms of some of our key operational highlights, our clinker utilization stood at 87%, and grinding utilization was at 62% for Q1 FY26. Our clinker-to-cement factor lowest in the industry is at 51%. With respect to our two main products, cement and GGBS, cement realization for quarter one was INR 4,894 per ton, a substantial increase both YoY and QoQ basis.
GGBS realization for Q1 was INR 3,715 / ton, flat on a QoQ basis. Our main distance was 283 km in Q1 FY26, and we're aiming to reduce this further over the course of the year. In terms of capacity expansion, we're aiming to increase grinding capacity to 41.85 million metric tons per annum, with clinker of 13.04 million tons per annum. With this, we're aiming to complete the first phase of 33.85 million tons per annum of grinding and 9.74 million tons per annum clinkerization by calendar year 2028, as outlined in our presentation. Ongoing projects state the Sambalpur grinding unit is nearly ready and will be commissioned this month. The Nagaur integrated unit is on track for commissioning and commercial operations this fiscal. Land acquisition is near complete for the Punjab grinding units. Factory approvals are under process, and public hearing has been completed.
We're progressing on the other projects well in terms of land acquisition, and we're getting permissions as well. Let me quickly spend a moment on sustainability. We have seen our green credentials. We have the lowest CO2 emission intensity among all cement companies in India and globally. I'm pleased to announce that our Scope 1, Scope 2 CO2 emission intensity was 277 kg / ton as compared to Q1 FY26, the lowest in this sector by far. Let me hand over to Narinder Singh, CFO, for his comments.
Thank you, Nilesh. Good morning. I'd like to add some points on the financial performance, cost levers, and balance sheet. In terms of our financial performance, revenue was INR 1,560 crore. That's an increase of 7.8% year-on-year. Operating EBITDA improved substantially to INR 322.7 crore, which equates to INR 974/ ton in Q1 2026. This is a substantial increase both on YoY and Q-on-Q basis. Our EBITDA margin was 20.7% in the first quarter 2026, which was a jump of 4.6%. This was the same quarter last year. In terms of the major cost elements, raw material and power and fuel. As you are aware, we source clinker in the West region from our JV entity at Fujairah. This is not consolidated as of now in our books. So it would be more useful to look at our raw material and power and fuel per ton.
These costs were broadly stable on YoY and Q-on-Q basis. We had some additional raw material cost in Q1 2026 due to shutdown of JSW Steel blast furnace at Dolvi . We had to secure some slag from third parties. This additional cost is not expected going forward. In terms of our fuel, our fuel cost, which is per Mcal, for the quarter was INR 1.55 per Mcal. Recent sales of petcoke was $105 per ton CFR. Our fuel cost for the rest of the year is expected to be around INR 1.4 per Mcal. Our PBT before exceptional items was INR 164 crore, a substantial improvement over last year. Moreover, the performance of our JV at Fujairah has substantially improved YoY, and the numbers for the rest of the year are going to be very elevated.
I would draw your attention to the fair value expense arising from the financial instrument that is the CCPS, designated as FVTPL, of INR 1,466 crore in this quarter. We have included a slide on this in the presentation, but let me reiterate that this is non-cash expense representing fair valuation of the CCPS liability. The CCPS liability will convert into equity in Q2. We would therefore urge the investor community to focus on adjusted PAT, which is nothing but adding back of the fair value adjustment, and we have highlighted this metric of adjusted PAT in our prospectus as well. Adjusted PAT for the quarter stands at INR 100 crore. In terms of the balance sheet, net debt is at INR 4,566 crore at the end of the quarter. In Q2, we will be repaying INR 520 crore of debt from the IPO proceeds.
Net debt to EBITDA in the trailing 12 months stood at 4.32x. We incurred a CapEx of INR 456 crore in Q1, and for the full year, including the Q1 numbers, our total CapEx is expected to be around INR 2,000 crore. The target is to improve the net debt- to- EBITDA ratio by end of the year, and as we communicated at the time of IPO, our target is to have leverage ratio between 2 x- 2.5x times in the next few years. Average cost of debt currently is 8.29%. We will now be happy to address your questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their phone or 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 a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good morning, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, yes. You are audible, Rajesh. Please go ahead.
Okay. Yeah. Thanks for this opportunity, and congrats on this group of key members. My first question pertains to this fair value through P&L. You see, in the past three years, there have been a couple of around INR 140 crore expenditures which have been through P&L to other entities. So those numbers also relate to the CCPS only?
Yes.
Okay. These were all non-cash, right?
Those were non-cash. And if you added up over the total numbers, what we have recognized over the last three years since the CCPS was issued, the number would stand at about INR 1,740 crore-something, INR 1,743 crore roughly.
Including Q1, you say?
Including?
Q1, I think?
Yes. Including everything, including the Q1 P&L.
Understood. And second on the debt, do you also have any tax benefits when we are booking as an expense?
We are a MAT company. The benefit of this accrues to us. On one hand, we have a net cash, sorry, non-cash expense of this [INR 1,466 crore] in the current year. On the other hand, we save cash as we will not be required to pay any MAT. That number would be roughly about INR 147 crore-INR 150 crore.
Which is lowering your tax incidence in the P&L?
Yes, because MAT is a MAT Credit going forward.
I was just wanting to understand. Yeah.
The face of P&L doesn't reflect. Definitely, there is a cash saving.
Okay. Okay. Great. And can you explain on your operating performance? I see you have given earlier realizations for the three corresponding quarters. Was there any purpose to do the GGBS realization for the full of Q3? Same for cement and oil. Would you like to like numbers?
Here, just a second. Just a few months for the full year FY25. Yeah. So for cement, it is INR 4,518 /ton. For GGBS, it is INR 8,772, INR 3,773 /ton. That is for the full year FY25.
So why have you seen a slight drop in the GGBS realization over FY25?
Yeah. So as you are aware, I mean, this FY25 number is for the full year, right? And through the year, when prices and demand dropped, the prices came under significant stress and the GGBS demand reduced. So we had to cut the GGBS prices marginally to kind of catch up on the volumes. And therefore, quarter four, quarter three is when we actually corrected for it. And what happened at that time, GGBS mixes for the RMC using GGBS mixes started to become more comparable as compared to the RMC mixes which are done without just using the fly-ash route . And post- FY25, post quarter four of FY25 and quarter one, we have consciously not increased the prices despite the cement prices having gone up. That's primarily being done because we want to drive adoption and penetration of GGBS in the market that we are operating in.
Understood. Understood.
The [audio distortion], I'm just to complete this question and move on. Just the future share on the future numbers here. Full cement business alone, right? Logistics , RM power, employee, and other resources?
So the rest of the expenses are combined.
Combined.
Oh. All the costs line items? Logistics?
All expenses.
Sorry, can't hear you.
All expenses are at entry level.
Okay. I mean, RM and power also?
Yes.
That's right.
Understood. I'll come back into the queue.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Gaurav Nagori from Avendus Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity . Two questions. First one on GGBS segment specifically. Is it possible to quantify the margins or, let's say, the EBITDA pattern that you have done in the GGBS segment? That's question number one. Second, what is the incentive that you accrued in this quarter? And are you eligible for any incentives from the upcoming North plant or Odisha unit? These are the two questions for me.
On GGBS, we are not giving a breakup. Consider it as one segment, cement and GGBS. We are not giving a breakup of cement and GGBS. So on the incentive, Narinder?
Yes. So answering the second question, second part of the question, we have recognized incentive of INR 6.70 crore in this quarter. Going forward, we will continue to recognize a similar number.
Okay.
For the existing operations. As far as our investments in North is concerned, in Nagaur, as per the Rajasthan incentive scheme, there is a capital subsidy of 25% of investment. And this is subject to limits totaling to about INR 650 crore. Now, this is as per the policy. Our application, however, will be on the line as has been offered to the other cement companies, which you all are probably aware. So that number is going to be much higher than the number that I just stated, which is about INR 650 crore as per the policy. Now, coming to Punjab, where we are going to make an investment over the next two years, one and a half years, 75% of the state GST for the next seven years post-commissioning is limited to 100% of the FCI, fixed capital investment. That is the number.
We expect about INR 375 crore-INR 400 crore via this incentive. We are making investments in MP and UP, our central operations that we are going to do. MP scheme, there is an investment promotion assistance for 20% of the value of building and plant and machinery payable equally over seven years. At the time of acquisition of the mine from SMPL, we had an incentive offered for about INR 200 crore, which we are reapplying, and there is a possibility of getting a larger amount because the investment size will be substantially higher. UP scheme, we all know, is very attractive. 100% of net SGST is reimbursed for 12 years, up to 300% of the eligible capital investment. That is in East UP, and any investment made in Central UP is eligible for 200% of the capital investment. This is over seven years. Currently, these are the schemes.
These are the states where we are making investments, and these are the schemes.
In the Odisha one, the upcoming Sambalpur uni t?
No. So, Odisha, no. We won't be getting.
Thank you. Thanks for answering.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Kunal Shah from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. So, just first, moderate your talk from the GGBS side. Now, how could we have a 5% volume growth in 1Q, especially given the productive activeness of the RMC level would have gone up post 1Q cement price hikes while GGBS realization was flat-ish? And any guidance for FY26 as a whole for GGBS volume growth?
Yeah, sure. As I mentioned earlier, the cement prices moved up, the price levels moved up primarily in the South around the third week of April and after that, and that's when the GGBS mixes start to become more attractive. Basically, for an RMC player who has a specific mix design being played out for any of his construction activity or any of the infrastructure projects, once the mix becomes more profitable, they have to undergo the entire process of getting the revised mix design approved, which takes anywhere between 28 days to 34 -4 0 days, which is what came in. And hence, the switchover after the price increase, which made the GGBS mix attractive, hence the volume growth we see on GGBS sales is 5%. Now, in the West, there was a slightly different story, which is the other market that we sell GGBS.
It's the onset of early monsoon , which kind of slowed down the volume. So that's on the 5% GGBS aspect. And the outlook for GGBS, we expect it to fundamentally follow the growing at a fairly healthy clip. And we expect the numbers to stack up in favor and we will continue to deliver what we've committed in our plans, which is.
Understood. And this is helpful, sir. And one more bit on this. So when we looked in the cement side, that growth is a strong outperformance versus what the industry cement growth was. Could you just help me some of the participation with respect to are we gaining share and which region is sort of delivering a bigger outperformance here?
Yeah. So the market in the South is where we've been able to build in growth. So I think the context here has to be viewed in light of the fact that when the prices started to dip, there's a lot of markets that we had to withdraw from as well. So in light of that, once the prices stabilized, we've identified specific geographies that will remain to be fundamentally competitive going ahead. The South is the place where we've increased our presence and the share has gone up, followed with the W est and then probably with the East.
Understood. No quantification you're giving today, right? The region quantification.
No. We're not giving a particular key or a segment price break-up.
Understood. No, sir, this is extremely helpful. I'll follow up in a few.
Thank you, Kunal.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Harsh Mittal from Emkay Global Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Hey, hi. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Sir, firstly, congratulations on the commissioning as well as on the success of quarter one. My first question is to your slide number 11 of the investor presentation. It says that we'll be reaching around the capacity of 34 million tons in CY 2028. Any sense of capacity milestones for this year, 2027, and CapEx cash outflow by 2027? This is the first question.
Sure. In terms of our first, let me take the FY26, what are we going to achieve? As I had mentioned in my opening remarks, a million tons of grinding capacity at Sambalpur is coming up this month. By this fiscal, we'll be commissioning the integrated unit at Nagaur, which is 2.5 million of grinding and 3.5 million of clinkerization [audio distortion] . That will be the addition that will happen in FY26. In addition to this, Talwandi, the additional one million ton that's going to come up at Nagaur is going to be towards April 2027. Thereafter, Talwandi Sabo is coming towards June 2027. Then we are talking about Vijayanagar of 2 million grinding capacity, which will be, and 4 million Dolvi, which will be calendar year 2028.
Right. So sir, what would be the cash output in FY27, given that we have already added on INR 2,000 crore in FY26?
Yeah. Another 2,000 odd is what we intend to spend in FY27.
Question is that, sir, is that there has been we are going to see a.
Harish, there is a lot of background noise. Could you please move to a quieter area?
Yes.
Is it okay now?
Yes.
Go ahead, please.
Yeah. So my second question is that we are likely to see a GST rate cut on cement from 28% to 18%, right? Assuming if it happens, what should be the impact on the incentive pool which the industry or particularly which we receive from the state government? How should one look at this, sir?
No. See, what you receive is net liability, net SGST tax ratio. That's how the policy is in every state. Now, if it is dropped to, let's say, all other things in the same, from 15% to hypothetically 9%, in absolute terms, the number may drop. The time frame is again fixed. Everyone will be governed by the policy under which they might have invested. So if somebody has a timeline of seven years or nine years, whatever business discharges the net SGST, that is what the GST is going to receive over the balance life of the policy, for which they have been given the permission up to there. So probably there can be a drop in absolute number. But this is assuming all other things are same.
Right. Right. Okay. Sure, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Sanjay Nandi from VT Capital . Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hello, sir. Can you hear me?
Hello?
Yes, please go ahead.
Yeah. So can you just like so not understanding like we are telling you to continue to 2028. So what kind of incentive pattern you would like to maintain going forward?
So 1,150-1,200 is our expected number because keep in mind that we are moving to very attractive geographies, so yeah, that is the number which we hope is doable on a sustainable basis.
Okay. And the next question is that, sir, can you show some numbers on the petcoke transaction? Like we have seen some savings from the Q1 exit of this year. So would you also want to look at $105 or?
Yeah. So our current stocks are going to last till January, December and January mid. And we have stocks at $105. Now, we all know that the prices of petcoke have moved North. What's more to do with the hardening of freight costs. Currently, U.S. petcoke is available at $115 CFR. Yeah. And the bookings that have been done in August and September, probably that book prices will hover around this number for the rest of the year. That's $115 for all bookings that are made now. Domestic prices may undergo a change if consumers move out of petcoke domestic, which we read is the situation currently. There may be slight increase in the domestic petcoke prices, but the number would be difficult to quantify as of now. But yeah, it follows the imported petcoke trend.
Thank you. Very insightful, sir, and sir, my last question is like, could you show some colors on the pricing front? What kind of prices we are setting as of now from for Q1 2026?
Yeah, sure. See, we've broadly seen the price stable hold in an INR 5-INR 10 drop. That's about it across the South. East is holding, West is holding in the market that we've got, and we believe this is how it would probably play out, and specifically, because all of us understand monsoon months is usually muted and there's usually a marginal drop over it, so at the moment, we're seeing the price stable hold. G oing forward with the onset of the festive season kicking in, we expect it to start to improve and log a well for the industry.
Thank you, sir. That's all my question, I'll come back in the queue . Wish you all the best.
The next question comes from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Just wanted to, yeah, you mentioned margin guidance at 1,150-1,200 per ton?
Yes.
Okay. And sir, any numbers for the volumes for this year? What sort of growth you're looking at?
Numbers, we are hopeful to cross 15.5 million for the current year.
Okay.
And the current year should be much higher than the current numbers that we have achieved in the first quarter.
This is what you achieved?
The number that we have achieved per ton in quarter one, we should be improving upon this number for the rest of the quarter.
Okay. And given that the prices are stable, what other levers you're looking at which will drive the margins upward?
We have a lot of focus on cost reduction. We internally have taken a target of reducing our cost under various cost heads, by almost INR 400 over the next year and a half to two years. A substantial chunk of it has already been achieved. When I say substantial, it can be almost about 50% of this number. This is driven by our speed reduction, our improvement in AFR, renewable power, etc. Now, as we move forward during the year, definitely some of these initiatives will kick in and we'll see additional cost savings translating into a higher EBITDA.
You are saying out of 400, 200 is already reflected in the numbers. An additional 200 over the next one to two years is doable.
That's right.
What savings can you quantify under what savings these numbers come as in terms of green power and other efficiency metrics?
It will be renewable power. It will be AFR. It will be logistics. It will be probably the operating leverage, etc. But we'll have more answers in the next quarter on this.
Okay. And sir, GST numbers are similar for both cement and GGBS, GST rates?
No. So, for GST, it is 28%.
For GGBS
For GGBS, it's 5%.
GST 28%.
Sir, just a quick question. With GST, if we do reduction expected to come sometime this month, when monsoon will start to fade in, and in general, there is a price tendency for the industry, which is rise high with demand cycle of over the next three to five months, would there be a case the government reduces the GST and hence cement prices come down, and then when the industry goes ahead to season rise high, there could be a pushback from the government end to stop anything, any such activity ?
I think this is a very difficult question, which probably will be difficult to answer at this point.
See, Rajesh, again, we'd not want to comment on anything which is hypothetical here. But I mean, if you were to go with historical demand per se, let's say within the last six months, it's moved and that specifically happens. Historically, we've seen less after the monsoons. The price does pick up because the demand picks up.
Right.
That's going to fundamentally rule the way the industry operates.
Okay. Great. Great. Thank you. That's all from my end. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Navin Sahadeo from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir.
Good morning, Navin.
Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity. My first question was on clinker utilization so in FY25, if I have calculated this correctly, cement volumes were close to around 7.5 million tons and at roughly 50% clinker sector, clinker will be more like 3.7 out of the total installed capacity of 6.4, which translates into roughly 58% clinker utilization. My question was, is this first of all correct? Is that the clinker utilization that we have? And how do you then plan to see this spreading over the next one to two years?
No. See, the clinker utilization, I mean, for this quarter is, of course, 87%. And for FY25, it was at 76%. I'm not sure where you've come up with the number.
No. No. So Naveen, today you have calculated probably answered part of the question. See, we have 2.5 million of capacity in Fujairah. And that capacity runs at more than 100%. We bring whatever clinker is required for our Dolvi operations from Fujairah, and the rest is sold domestically or exported. Yeah. So hence, hence the numbers shared by Nilesh that our utilization was much higher than the way you have calculated it.
So the way to look at it is that since it's a JV, it's a 50%-50% JV, I'm assuming. So is it fair to assume that when we calculate JV, looking at 50% of the clinker as our base capacity and then calculate utilization?
No, no, no, no, no. See, we have a financial investor in that entity. So it's a JV by nature, but that entire clinker is available for us. Of course, the profits or the losses are in the ratio of the stakes that we hold. But the entire clinker is available for us.
Of course, it comes at arm's length, right?
It comes at, yeah, because we sell a huge chunk to third parties, and hence, arm's length definitely is being followed.
Fair point. Thanks for the clarification. My second question was, we didn't actually answer in the previous question because even in the initial comments, there was a mention of cost reduction by INR 400, which you also said that as we speak, INR 200/ton is already achieved. So if you could just give us some more color as to the balance INR 200, what are the yearly milestones? Are we looking at more like anything in FY26, FY27, or it could be more long-drawn FY28 kind of a story?
So in FY26, we expect on the renewable power and on the fuel front, we expect close to around INR 65-INR 70 /ton. On the lead, against a target of INR 105, we probably should be able to garner around maybe around INR 45-INR 50 /ton. On the premiumization front, where we forecasted that we'll be getting somewhere between INR 40-INR 50 /ton, where we should probably have maybe around INR 50 /ton. And of course, the operating leverage will fundamentally, depending on the volume, be increased. So this will be the FY26 achievement, and whatever balance will take us to FY27.
Understood. That's helpful. And then just one more question, if I may. The Nagaur unit will be largely an OPC- PPC market. Is that correct? Or do we plan to sell slag cement at this?
No, Navin, your understanding is correct. We can't be moving slag from the South or the West to Nagaur . It's an OPC- PPC .
Understood. Very helpful. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you, Navin.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Nikita Gundaliya from PGIM India Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah. I'm on the line, sir?
Yes, Nikita, please go ahead.
Yes, you're audible, Nikita. Please go ahead.
I have a question. Someone asked, what the question is on working capital? What will be the working capital for this quarter, whether it's CapEx or a project? What are the expectations going forward?
Working capital for this.
Nikita, can you repeat your question, please?
Yeah. What will be the working capital for this quarter? And Q1 FY25?
So the first is just clarifying the working capital for this quarter and for FY25. Is that what the question is?
Yeah. Last quarter and FY25.
When it was, I'll just give you a number of days. So in inventories, my inventory holding is for 49 days. My trade receivables are 46 days on an average. My payables are 91 days.
Okay, and for Q1 FY25?
Q1, okay, comparatively, if I have to give you. My inventory, which was 57 days, has dropped to 49 in this quarter. My receivables, which were 49, are down to 46. My payables from 95 are down to 91. So you see overall improvement in all the parameters.
Okay. Is there a reason why inventory was so high in last quarter in Q1 FY25?
Which one?
In last quarter, as in Q1 FY25, inventory was 67 versus 49 days in the current quarter. Can you tell me the reason why inventory is so high in the previous quarter?
Because of our whole inventory, primarily coal inventory, and that was the reason.
Okay, so you're, I would say, raw material inventory?
Yeah.
Okay. And my next question was, I think you have already answered it in the question. So GGBS realization fell on year-on-year basis. So from what I understood, this in the South, it is because of the exchange of the identities. And RMCs had to do a change of an exchange, which affected your realization in South. And for the West, it was due to your entry. Is that correct? Or is there anything else you shed some light on for realization, GGBS realization?
No, your understanding is correct, Nikita. It was basically in Q1 , the GGBS mixes made sense because the prices in quarter one of last year, it made sense because the price table was relatively better. With the internal election, the drop in demand, the price tables, and the competitive intensity, the price tables started to drop. And hence, the GGBS mixes became unviable. We had to correct along the way. Therefore, when I compared Q1 FY26 to Q1 FY25, you actually see the same thing playing out because now what's happening is in Q4 FY25, we had to correct for some of the prices to be able to meet the volume. So your understanding is absolutely correct.
Okay, so going forward, you're expecting that this realization that you have said for this quarter or I would say Q4 will be stable going forward, right? You're not expecting any more price cuts in GGBS?
That's a conscious strategy that we've adopted, Nikita, primarily to ensure that we're able to drive the GGBS penetration to markets we're headed . We want the GGBS mixes to be more favorable to the RMC players and the infrastructure players. That's been a conscious strategy going forward. And we're actually seeing those numbers play out in the current.
That's what I said.
Sorry. Sorry, Nikita. Go ahead.
Yeah, yeah. Sorry. That's what I said. So in case there is any change in next going forward, then there is a possibility that we might have to take the prices again. But your conscious strategy would be to keep this Q1 price stable going forward, right?
That's right.
Yeah. And volume as well. So you're going to maintain your GGBS volume guidance as you are given during the quarter cycle, right? Or is there any change? Because Q3 would be a seasonally weak quarter, and currently, we have shown a 5% volume growth in GGBS. So Q3 and Q4 will be a very high volume. We will have to do a very high volume to maintain that earlier guidance. So are you still maintaining your guidance? Or are you changing any GGBS volume guidance?
We're maintaining it, as I mentioned earlier, right? The benefit of the cement price table having moved up has actually translated into our GGBS volume starting to pick up across the geography, which is what is playing out as we speak. We expect to meet the guidance, the numbers that we've communicated here.
Okay. Yeah. Makes sense. Thank you for answering my question.
Thank you, Nikita.
The next question comes from the line of Sumangal Nevatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, sir. And thank you for the congratulations on a successful IPO and great quarter. So my first question is, on the trade mix, now it's quite understandably low due to the GGBS contribution. As we're adding integrated plants, how should we see this going forward? And if you could highlight, I mean, what are we doing to strengthen our retail distribution capability, which I think is slightly, I mean, where there's more efforts required given our expansion plans. That's my first question, sir. Thank you.
Yeah. First thing is the way to read the trade percentages is a part of the cement business. So when I say 50, when we say 52%, which is a number that we've shared, that's a part of the cement volume. GGBS is purely B2B. That's not included in this number, right? Secondly, you need to understand the geographies that we operate in. For example, in the West, we operate in Mumbai MMR. Out here, the trade percentage is really low, at around 20%. Compared to the East, where the trade percentage is higher, and South, it's primarily, what we call, where it's non-trade component also relatively high. We broadly followed that flow across the various geographies. Hence, it comes to 52% of what.
Going forward, as we enter the geographies of North, which is primarily trade dominated, we expect these numbers to start to move up because the trade percentage there is going to be relatively higher, at 60%-65% +. So with that kicking in, we expect the 52% trade percentage of the overall cement business to move up to 55%, thereabouts.
Good point. Also, with respect to our North expansion, in the first year, say, I think FY 2027, what sort of volumes do we expect or utilization do we expect from?
So I mean, once it commissions, we'll come back to you with the actual projection. We expect broadly to be operating at around 55%-60% in year one of operation. And as per guidance, we said by the end of this fiscal, we will have the [audio distortion] . By 2027, by the year end, our utilization run rate will be close to 55%-60%.
I'm going to stop here. Can I squeeze in one more question, or should I join with you?
So, go ahead, Sumangal.
Okay. So I just wanted to know some details on what WHRS and RE capacity is getting added in terms of megawatts, and what is a thumb rule to kind of use in terms of cost saving versus our existing power plants?
Yeah, sure. So in terms of WHR, there is no more WHR capacity that's getting added. All the capacities are added. So it's purely about, yeah, in the existing as Nagaur gets commissioned, that has the WHR embedded as a part of the regular design. So that's been added, right? Now, typically, and let me answer, then I'll come to the first question. In terms of RE capacity, we're adding close to 92 MW of wind. Additionally, we're adding 35 MW of solar across the plant, a total of 127 MW for an existing solar capacity of 27 MW we have, which takes it to 154 MW. Now, the way to look at this is WHR typically comes at a cost of INR 1.10 per unit compared to grid, which varies, but you should probably take around INR 7 -INR 8 per unit.
The renewable power would be somewhere in the range of INR 4.10-INR 4.20 per unit.
Understood. That's very helpful. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Kamlesh Bagmar from Lotus Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the question and for the numbers. Just one question on the part of your GGBS here. So in this quarter, it was around 39 odd percent. So going forward, what level of GGBS mix do we see in our index sales volume?
So for this year, GGBS mix would be broadly at 39%-40% itself, FY26. And going forward, when North comes in, of course, then the percentage changes, but that's already been the case. If we have FY26, we expect it to be 39%-40% range.
As we see capacity additions from JSW Steel, which has been doing significant additions over the years, so do we see it, let's say, at Dolvi and upcoming expansions in Vijayanagar, that also would be largely PBFS? So is GGBS going to go down, but hopefully our share of PBFS, say, blast furnace slag cement, it will also be moving in the same way?
You're right. You're right. So the capacity expansion at Vijayanagar of 2 million and the 4 million at Dolvi is primarily being done to keep step with the capacity expansion that's happening on the JSW Steel front. And if I was to give you a forecast of what my GGBS percentage is going forward, FY27, we expect it broadly around 35%-37%, which will be coming down to the 40% number that I told you, and around 35% to, 30%-35% by FY28. That's primarily because North is in, and that kind of gives us a look to the cement proportion there. And hence, the GGBS percentage goes down. So as an absolute term, the GGBS scale moves up.
Okay. Lastly, does it make a bigger sense to have clinker capacity of Fujairah under our own hold entirely? Because to have a clinker capacity in JV or holding through JV, it doesn't make much sense for the shareholders. So would we be thinking over the coming years to bring it entirely under our own hold?
So Kamlesh, as I mentioned earlier, the other stakeholders in the Fujairah entity are financial investors. Over a period of time, definitely, they will be taking the exit, and this becomes a full subsidiary. So that definitely will happen. Timelines, we'll have to figure out. But yes, that would go into the subsidiary.
Great. Great. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of the question and answer session. On behalf of JM Financial Institutional Securities, we conclude this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect if you like.