Ambuja Cements, ACC, and Sanghi Industries
Q4 FY 24 Earnings Conference Call'
May 02, 2024
MANAGEMENT
MR. AJAY KAPUR
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
MR. VINOD BAHETY
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
MR. DEEPAK BALWANI - HEAD INVESTOR RELATIONS
MODERATOR
MR. VAIBHAV AGARWAL - PHILLIPCAPITAL INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED
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Ambuja Cements Ltd., ACC Ltd., Sanghi Industries Ltd.
May 02, 2024
Moderator:Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Earnings Conference Call for the quarter and year ended 31st March 2024 of Ambuja Cements Limited, ACC Limited, and Sanghi Industries Limited. hosted by PhillipCapital India Private 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 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 now hand the conference over to Mr. Vaibhav Agarwal from PhillipCapital India Private Limited. Thank you and over to you sir.
Vaibhav Agarwal: Thank you Michelle, good afternoon everyone. On behalf of PhillipCapital India Private Limited. We welcome you to the earnings call for the quarter and full year ended 31st March 2024 for Ambuja Cement Limited and its listed subsidiaries ACC Limited and Sanghi Industries Limited. I would like to mention on behalf of Ambuja Cement and its subsidiaries that certain statements that may be made or discussed on this conference call may be forward looking statements related to future developments and which are based on current management expectations. These statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors which may cause actual developments and results to differ materially from the statements made. Ambuja Cement and its subsidiaries assume no obligation to publicly update or alter these forward looking statements whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise.
I will now hand over the call to Mr. Deepak Balwani, Head Investor Relations at Adani Group's Cement business. Thank you and over to you Deepak.
Deepak Balwani:Thank you Vaibhav. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you very much for taking out time to join Adani Cement quarter four FY24 Earnings Call. On behalf of Adani Cement, a very warm welcome to all of you. On this side we have Mr. Ajay Kapur, Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Vinod Bahety, Chief Financial Officer. Before I hand over the call to Mr. Ajay Kapur for his opening remarks, requesting you all to kindly limit your questions to a maximum of two and then re-enter the question queue. Over to you Ajayji.
Ajay Kapur:Thank you Deepak. Good afternoon to all of you. I extend a warm welcome to each of you for joining us in our quarter 4 and FY24 Earnings Call of Adani Group's Cement business for Ambuja, ACC and Sanghi. We continue to strengthen our position as a market leader in the cement industry. Our strong operational and financial performance are testament to our business model's flexibility and solid foundation. Adani Cement is becoming stronger over time with an intense commitment towards capacity expansion through both organic and inorganic routes along with efficiency improvement initiatives.
Adani Cement's current market share is about 14% plus with an internal target to hit 20% by FY28. To begin with, I would like to share some of the head level highlights before diving into the specifics. In April 24, Ambuja Cement successfully completed the acquisition of state-of-the-art 1.5 million ton grinding unit at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. This will help strengthening our market share in southern markets. We have increased our capacity by 17% since acquisition through organic and inorganic growth translating to 11.4 million tons. 142 million tons of new
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Ambuja Cements Ltd., ACC Ltd., Sanghi Industries Ltd.
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limestone reserves secured in Q4 FY24, total reserves reaching 7.8 billion tons. In FY24, Ambuja and ACC both achieved all time highest annualized PAT.
In Q4 FY24, Ambuja achieved the highest ever clinker and cement sales over the last 20 quarters. Capacity growth from the current 78.9 million tons to 140 million tons will be met through both internal accruals and opening cash flows. We will continue to remain debt free. 4 million tons of clinkering and 4.8 million tons of cement capacity is expected to commence by Q4 FY25. The promoters have fully subscribed to the warrants program in the company by further infusing INR8,339 crores in April 24, thereby infusing a total amount of INR20,000 crores. Promoters have further increased their stake in the company by 3.6% to 70.3%.
With strong balance sheet and cash position, this further strengthens and accelerates our growth journey. The consolidated quarterly Y-o-Y performance, we reported a revenue of INR8,894 crores, a jump of 12%. This is driven by a strong focus on our micro-market management strategy, expansion of dealer network, blended cement as a mix of total sales maintained at 86%, premium products as a percentage of trade sales increased to 24%.
Operational cost for the quarter is at INR4,345 per ton, shows a decline of 9%. This is driven by 13% decline in energy cost, owing to better fuel management, which resulted in reduction of kill-in-fuel cost by 17% to INR1.84 from INR2.21 per 1000 kcal. The transportation cost declined by 8% at INR1,280 per ton on account of footprint optimization, secondary lead distance reduced by 4 km to 48, the direct dispatch to customers has been maintained at 54%. Other expenses were marginally reduced at INR699 per ton.
With the improvements mentioned on the revenue and cost front, the EBITDA grew by 37% at INR1,699 crores. EBITDA per ton grew by 17% at INR1,026 and the margin expanded by 3.5% to 19.1%. The Master Supply Agreement volume stood at 3.4 million tons against 2.4 million tons, an increase of 42%. You have to further look at the Master Supply Agreements which the companies have entered with Sanghi and for the quarter, Sanghi to Ambuja was 4.2 lakh tons and Sanghi to ACC was 2.5 and that itself is additional volume gain which has come in from these MSAs.
As on 31st March 2014, the consolidated cash and cash equivalent stood at INR15,999 crores. With the warrants money of INR8,339 received in April, our total cash and cash equivalent currently is at INR24,338 crores. Now looking at the full year FY24 Y-o-Y performance, revenue up 7% at INR33,160 crores. EBITDA up 73% at INR6,400 crores. EBITDA per ton grew by 60% at INR1,081. EBITDA margin expanded by 7.4% to 19.3%. Tax expenses in FY24 is higher mainly for reversal of tax provision of INR150 crores in FY23 for 80IC benefit.
In the best interest of time, I will not discuss the standalone financial performance of the listed companies separately as they are available on the stock exchanges. I will share with you the progress we have made on our announced long term strategic plan. For doubling the capacity of grinding facilities to 140 million tons by FY28, we are targeting 35 new grinding units.
With acquisition of 1.5 million of Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, our grinding capacity now stands at 78.9 million tons. Another 3 units are mapped to the upcoming clinker facility at Bhattapara in
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Chhattisgarh of 4 million tons. These include 1 unit each in Sankarel and Farakka in Bengal and Warisaliganj in Bihar.
Another 2 grinding units are mapped to Chandrapur clinker unit of Maratha Cement of 4 million tons. These include 1 unit at Jalgaon and 1 unit at Amravati in Maharashtra. Both of them would be 2 million each. Other grinding units which are being set up are at Salai Banwa in Uttar Pradesh, Sindhari, Marwar in Rajasthan and Mundra in Gujarat. All these units are expected to get commissioned by the end of FY26. Additionally, we would also be setting up grinding units at Hoshiarpur in Punjab and Pune in Maharashtra to be commissioned by FY27.
For the new facilities of 4 million ton clinker at Bhattapara, 67% of the civil work is now complete and receipt of major equipment has also commenced. Expected completion is by Q4 FY25. For its corresponding grinding units at Sankarel and Farakka in Bengal, 52% civil work and 40% respective for both the units have been respectively done.
Expected completion of these units is by Q3 FY25. For the new facility of 4 million ton clinker line at Maratha in Chandrapur, contract has been awarded on EPC vendor, project execution work started. Expected completion is by Q2 FY26. These kiln lines will have 42 MW of waste heat recovery and provision for utilizing 30% alternate fuels in the kilns. We have placed orders on EPC basis for 2.4 million ton grinding units at Salai Banwa and 1.6 million ton grinding unit at Sindhri. Project execution work at both the sites has started.
Out of the total capex, all our kilns will be brownfield and the grinding units will be a mix of greenfield 53% and brownfield 47%. Now, I will share with you some of the key initiatives being taken for becoming a cost leader in the cement business. Securing major raw materials at cost competitive prices and efficiency and productivity improvement capex will further help in cost optimization by 8% to 10%.
First, let me discuss the steps we have taken to lower our energy cost. Our waste heat recovery capacity at the time of takeover was 40 MW in September '22, which we are now targeting to increase to 186 MW by March '25. Currently, the WHRS capacity is at 134 MW. We have earlier announced our investments of 1000 MW in RE, which is expected to get commissioned by FY '26 and would ensure that 60% of our power requirement would be met through green power. This would help in reducing the power cost by INR90 per ton by FY '28.
First phase of 200 MW is getting commissioned at Khavda in Q1 FY '25. As previously explained, to meet our requirements, we aim to have captive coal supplies. As a result, we are bidding for coal mines in the auctions being conducted by the government. Besides the 1.2- million-ton captive mine at Gare Palma in Ambuja, we have won and bid for 2-million-ton coal mine in Dahegaon Gowari in Maharashtra and another mine of 2 million ton at Lama Tola in Madhya Pradesh. These three mines together would cater to about 50% of our current requirement. A high share of coal from captive mines and opportunity to buy imported pet coke will further lower our fuel cost.
Besides this, within the group, we are also working on other options and I believe with that, in the next 12 months' time, we should be able to secure 80% to 90% of our coal through our own
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captive sources. Driven by better fuel management and structural initiatives undertaken, our power and fuel costs have decreased by 13% to INR1,219 per ton in Q4 FY '24 from INR1,404 per ton in Q4 last year. These initiatives include an increase in share of AFR and WHRS.
The share of AFR in fuel mix has improved to 10.6% from 8.7%. Share of WHRS in power mix has increased to 13.5% from 9%. The second cost item is the freight and forwarding costs. There are three focus areas for cost reduction here. Reduction in lead distance, warehouse footprint optimization and railroad mix optimization. We are targeting to reduce the average primary road lead distance to about 100 km. Primary lead distance in the current quarter was 276 km versus 271 and secondary lead 48 versus 52.
So, you can see though marginal but improvements. To further optimize our costs in logistics, we have ordered 11 GPWIS rakes of which 8 have been delivered and the rest are expected to be delivered by the end of Q1 FY '25. These rakes will enable cost efficient clinker movement from the mother plants. In addition to these, we have also ordered 26 DCFC rakes for safe and cost-effective transportation of fly ash from thermal power plants to our facilities. We expect 10 rakes to be delivered in the current financial year.
Because of these initiatives, our logistics cost has been reduced by 8% to INR1,280 per ton in Q4 FY '24 from INR1,389 in the same quarter last year. To secure our limestone supplies, we have won bids for 15 new mines with total reserves reaching 7.8 billion tons. On ESG, we are committed to net zero by 2050 for Ambuja and ACC. With near-term targets validated by SBTi, 60% of power sourced will be from green power by FY '28 which will help us to reduce carbon footprint.
Ambuja is 11 times water positive, establishing leadership in water governance. Reached an impressive 8x plastic negativity for Ambuja through co-processing of plastic waste in cement kilns. Ambuja and ACC put together used more than 21 million tons of waste derived resources in FY '24, embracing circular economy.
We have pledged to plant 8.3 million trees by 2030. Ambuja and ACC created societal values for more than 4.6 million people by contributing to fields like healthcare, education, employment and sustainable livelihood. We are optimising the infrastructure at Sanghi that would enable efficient transportation of cement and clinker from the plant to the jetty through mechanised conveyor belts.
Now looking at the industry outlook, the government's push for affordable housing, increased budgetary allocation to infrastructure and construction, the shift to green energy, demand supply dynamics and greater consolidation all indicate a positive outlook for the Indian cement industry. We expect higher utilisation over the next five years since demand is expected to grow at a rate of 8% to 9% faster than the capacity expansion rate. In conclusion, as I mentioned this earlier at multiple occasions, Adani cement will benefit from accelerated growth, lower cost and group synergies, all of which will contribute to lead the market and achieve sustainable performance in the near future.
So with this, before going for Q&A, I will request Vinod to also give some opening insights.
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Ambuja Cements Ltd., ACC Ltd., Sanghi Industries Ltd. | |
May 02, 2024 | |
Vinod Bahety: | Thank you Ajayji. Good afternoon friends, wonderful to again connect with all of you on another |
fulfilling quarter with lots of good actions on the business as well as the balance sheet which | |
Ajayji has well highlighted. Most importantly, the completion of the warrant programme | |
wherein we also received INR 8400 crores in April. This year, we have reported the highest ever | |
PAT in the history of Ambuja at INR4738 crores. We have also touched net worth of closer to | |
INR 51,000 crores and if I add the money of warrants in April, it is closer to INR60,000-odd | |
crores. We have also achieved the highest cash position so far and as of now say almost | |
INR24,000-odd crores. | |
In terms of fixed assets, my balance sheet is again very strong and including CWIP, I am almost | |
at say INR 27,000 crores. Now with this healthy balance sheet supported by all the improvement | |
in the KPIs, we have already targeted to achieve almost INR530 a ton further reduction for which | |
we are investing and target to achieve by FY'28. So we are fully geared up well on growth and | |
supported by all the enablers which I have highlighted in my investor deck as well. FY '25, I | |
will be exiting with capacity of almost 86 million tons. In '26, we should achieve 100, 120 in | |
FY27 and finally 140 million tons in FY '28. So that is how the overall narration on the growth | |
as well as the cost factors which we want to achieve relentlessly. We look forward to the Q&A. | |
Thank you. | |
Moderator: | Thank you very much sir. The first question is from the line of Navin Sahdev from ICICI |
Securities. Please go ahead. | |
Navin Sahdev: | Thank you for the opportunity. Two questions. First, of course, is on the capacity expansion plan |
and it is very reassuring every single time that the company has maintained the target of 140 | |
million tons in terms of cement grinding. But honestly, sir as an analyst my fear is about on the | |
clinker expansion front because except for about 8 million tons of clinker that we are already | |
pursuing there is not much announcement on the clinker front. | |
Even the Mundra unit, I'm saying is not yet given a specific date or a milestone or if it has been | |
received or not. So if you could just throw some light as to how the clinker capacities will stack | |
up as you gave the cement capacities that will be far more reassuring and will help us take that | |
into account? | |
Ajay Kapur: | So, Navin, what I have refrained from saying is till I have the EC in my hand, I generally don't |
speak about kiln lines. But let me make it very clear. Three locations, one in West, one in North | |
and one in South, 4 million, 3 kilns we are ready to place orders as soon as we have the EC. And | |
this is not so far in distant future. I'm talking of only a quarter or two at the most. And | |
interestingly, at all the locations the entire land is in our possession, the leases are in our | |
possession. I'm just waiting for the EC. | |
Navin Sahdev: | Understood. This is great. Sir, my second question then was… |
Ajay Kapur: | Basically, what I have told you is 12 million clinker which technically can produce 20 million |
plus cement. | |
Vinod Bahety: | So, just to add to that, Navin our target is to reach almost 76 million tons of clinker by end of |
FY28 sorry 82 million tons of clinker when I look at 140 million tons. And a good part of this | |
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is almost 80% will be brownfield expansions which again is very assuring. And only 20% will | |
be Greenfield, for which also a substantial part of limestone and land is already in possession. | |
So, we have a complete clear outline over this clinker expansion. So, when we say cement it is | |
imbibed that clinker is also parallelly expanding. It's not like we are going to purchase clinker | |
and produce the cement. It is inherently inbuilt over there. | |
Navin Sahdev: | Yes. My second question, sir, then was on the Sanghi. And I'll just have like because there has |
been a fundraise announcement recently with a commitment of INR2,200 crores. So, in terms of | |
basically what is the overall game plan for Sanghi here? Is it growth capex? Also, quickly just | |
want to mention here that we came across recently an environment clearance related document | |
where a company has applied for a 10 million ton clinker and a similar 10 million ton cement at | |
Sanghi. So, just wanted to understand what is the overall game plan for Sanghi? | |
Ajay Kapur: | So, Navin, let me first handle the game plan for Sanghi. Sanghi has a great location. That's the |
reason we invested in that asset. It has a fantastic fitment of footprint within our ecosystem, | |
especially our West-South corridor. Currently, we have two kilns which can produce 6.6 million | |
as per the rated capacity. As I speak to you as you know the kiln needed refurbishment. So, we | |
are doing that. This whole process will be over by H1 of this year. Our plan is to run both the | |
kilns flat out in H2 literally at 100% and I think that is the first game plan at Sanghi. | |
The second game plan at Sanghi is we will be putting up in time to come two more kilns of 4 | |
million each and that will then make it one of the largest single location, lowest cost plants. And | |
of course it will have its own adjoining grinding stations and cement linked bulk grinding units, | |
oblique terminals which Ambuja already has. So, that is in short the game plan. The issue you | |
are talking of 2200 is basically to get the ICD which Ambuja has earlier given to Sanghi, to give | |
it back to us. It is more cost efficient and financially a much better structure. That's the reason | |
we are doing it, in short. |
Vinod Bahety:And just to add, Navin, and good to share with all of you that Sanghi already has been rated now
- The rating has been upgraded from D to AA. And the journey is to become AAA for Sanghi as well like Ambuja and ACC. And therefore, what Ajayji has highlighted that this ICD when I repay from my preference shares that will help us to move into the league of AAA for Sanghi as well. And that was our commitment to the investors of Sanghi in terms of improving the overall balance sheet and financials. We are in this journey.
Moderator: | Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Rahul Gupta from Morgan Stanley. Please |
go ahead. | |
Rahul Gupta: | Hi, thank you for taking my question. I have two questions. So first question, taking the Sanghi |
game plan forward, based on your comment is it fair to say that you target something like 5 | |
million ton from Sanghi in fiscal 25 and secondly, how should one look at Sanghi profitability | |
from here? | |
Ajay Kapur: | So to answer one question is a simple answer. Yes, 5 million is something minimum we will do, |
number one. As you know, we have done an MSA with Sanghi in the current format and that | |
MSA is in the public domain. | |
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May 02, 2024 | |
For the current year nothing changes there. I think as and when we make a change to that MSA, | |
we will come back to you. The MSA basically you can look at the website. | |
Vinod Bahety: | It is approximate 9% EBITDA margin for Sanghi. |
Ajay Kapur: | It leaves 9% margin for them and rest, since we are selling in our brands of Ambuja and ACC |
that margin is then retained in Ambuja and ACC. | |
Rahul Gupta: | Great, this is very helpful. So my second question is more from the industry perspective. We |
saw industry prioritized volumes at the expense of prices during the fourth quarter. And given | |
you and another large player have talked about cost-saving initiatives over the medium term. | |
Is it fair to say that margins expansion will be led by cost control and cement prices may remain | |
sluggish for longer despite a strong demand outlook? Any color on this will be helpful? | |
Ajay Kapur: | It's a very interesting question, Rahul, and you know why I'm saying it because end of the day |
there are two separate streams. One is the stream on cost and productivity. As you know many | |
of our initiatives post taking over by Adani have been accelerated at 10x the speed. I think the | |
companies were lagging behind in versus worthy competition on waste heat, on some of the | |
other initiatives which needed to be invested. And then growth, of course. So we are clearly | |
focused on being the lowest cost. | |
That's also the Adani DNA. You look at any of our Adani companies in each of the sector we | |
are the lowest cost and highest productivity. And thereby it also renders us highest EBITDA. So | |
that having said, cement industry also is an industry where brand and price and the segments | |
you choose to play have a sizable role. I think Ambuja and ACC are both iconic brands. Both of | |
them are placed at the highest end, as we call it A or A plus pricing. On top, we have within the | |
trade segment in ACC even higher than 30% premium product, but on an average level between | |
both the companies, we are still more than 25% premium products and we are targeting much | |
higher volumes coming from there. That is an area which keeps us a little away from day to day | |
commodity wars. | |
But yes as more capacity comes in and if the sentiment is a little down it can have an impact on | |
pricing. I believe this is going to get improved because I think post elections we'll see a much | |
more robust program. And I believe GDP should be 7% and cement should play 1.2 to 1.3 times. | |
We did an asset check in the last five years and we again proved that cement has again started | |
behaving 1.2 to 1.3 times. So if cement demand is about 8%to 9% irrespective of cost, I don't | |
think cost is something we're going to pass on. It's meant also to help us grow the business. So | |
pricing I think should be stable. It should not go down and it should only improve from here. | |
Moderator: | Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rashi Chopra from Citigroup. Please go ahead. |
Rashi Chopra: | Just on the cost side, you've made a mention in the presentation and today that you're expecting |
the cost to come down by about INR500 by FY28. So is it coming off like this current base? | |
And if yes, how is that broken up amongst the various heads? |
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May 02, 2024 | |
Ajay Kapur: | So Rashi, this is a very interesting question. What I will do is rather than deep diving into there |
may be at least 100 line items to get to that number. I will not go there. It's also not right for me | |
to go there. What we are basically looking at, I'll give you the heads up. One heads up is coal | |
mines which I just mentioned in the opening. I think that's going to be a game changer for us. | |
Number one. | |
Number two, I mentioned about long term procurement of critical raw materials. We are also | |
targeting a sizable percentage coming through long term agreements. We are also investing in | |
railway wagons which help us to streamline day to day vagaries of increasing raw material | |
prices. | |
Once I have secured the source and I also secured the transportation, the cost is more or less | |
stabilised and in raw materials, a large part of transportation cost is the transportation cost. So | |
we are getting a fix over there. The third and a very important area is the power cost. We already | |
mentioned in the beginning about INR100 per ton or I believe it will be plus 100 coming out of | |
our massive programme of investing 10,000 crores in green and waste heat. So today the power | |
cost is about INR6.75 paisa. Over the next 5 years this will come down to about INR4.50 or so. | |
And that itself you can work out is about INR150 a ton purely on cement. When you then bring | |
it back on per ton it might get adjusted, but purely in production it will be about INR150. | |
Logistics is another area as we improve our footprint in the country and also put up more | |
grinding units 35 of them and constantly focus on going direct. | |
We are using digital in a big way. I think today our company is perhaps the highest GPS enabled | |
in the ecosystem, in the large sector, not just cement. So we have absolute visibility of where | |
our fleet is going. And with that we are able to see 10% to 15% logistics cost optimisation. I | |
believe logistics would be a big number out of this 500 plus. Let's say 40% will come from | |
logistics and other services and about 55 to 60% will come from manufacturing and associated | |
adjacencies which I mentioned. | |
Vinod Bahety: | So Rashi, also if you look at it, like when we took over in somewhere September 2022, our cost |
metrics somewhere like on an overall total cost basis per ton we were at almost INR 5,300 a ton | |
which this quarter, for example, you will see on cement it is INR 4,170 a ton. So we have almost | |
brought it down by 20%. | |
And this journey from INR 4170 to 3,640, INR 530 is a 12.5%. Whatever the idea which Ajayji | |
has given 12.5% is strongly believed we will be able to reach another reduction. So from 20% | |
in the last 15 months, 18 months to another 12.5%. There is a complete clearly outlined roadmap | |
for this. And hence my balance sheet is strong enough to make all those strategic investments | |
which will bring these savings. | |
Ajay Kapur: | So you can calculate I mean this is an answer also for other potential questions. We are at an |
EBITDA per ton of upwards of INR1050 or closer to INR1100. These cost initiatives that we | |
are seeing these are on account of structural changes. So you are straight away looking at a 1500 | |
plus number with the end state. |
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Rashi Chopra: | Got it. Thank you. So just continuing on this, for example, in this quarter as well your fuel cost |
is on a sequential basis, not year-on-year. On a sequential basis, the fuel cost is flattish, but you | |
have seen a decline in the power and fuel cost per ton of cement. So have we seen the benefits | |
of green energy etcetera kind of efficiencies also come in on a sequential basis quarter-on- | |
quarter? | |
Ajay Kapur: | Yes. In fact, I mentioned that in the opening also if you see, our percentage of green energy has |
improved, number one. Our AFR percentage is also shot up by a couple of percentage points. | |
And then efficiencies at the plant have also increased. We had also launched a new kiln in | |
Ametha of ACC. I think it's already running at 100% plus capacity utilization. It's an efficient | |
new plant. All these initiatives are also helping us. And plus we had after taking over we had | |
also introduced many initiatives including putting new coolers, new clinker coolers and | |
equipment. Those are also now showing results in improved efficiency parameters. | |
Vinod Bahety: | But, Rashi, perhaps I just want to clarify to you that when you say flattish, in fact, we have |
reduced our power and fuel on a per-ton basis almost by 10% efficiency. I hope I answered | |
Rashi. | |
Moderator; | Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jeffries. Please go ahead. |
Prateek Kumar: | Yes, good afternoon, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on your detail like on |
cost and capex timelines on a five-year basis. Capex you have talked about also on, like, I think | |
yearly basis. Is it possible to also give out like cost decline estimate on a yearly basis, maybe | |
broad-based, but not very specific? | |
Ajay Kapur: | That played much forward-looking Prateek, but I can only tell you, you can see sequentially |
every quarter we have been. What I gave you, heads-up numbers, wasted capacity, I spelled out | |
in my opening. It is going up this year. So straightaway, you know, wasted is at INR1, INR1.10 | |
paisa. That's going to bring down the cost. I also spelled out in this quarter we are commissioning | |
200 megawatts solar. So it will be available for the nine months or maybe 10 months for this | |
year. | |
You can calculate. That's another cost item. I also mentioned about bringing in additional 10 | |
rakes for fly ash transportation. That will be additional source for saving our cost. And I think | |
by the end of the year we will also be commissioning state-of-the-art new kiln and also three | |
new grinding stations. In addition to the ongoing program of capex, which was launched earlier, | |
I think some of that will also bring in the savings. | |
I think we will still do a very tight management of fuel cost. We won a lot of good auctions in | |
the domestic auctions that were, you know, done, both for kiln fuel and CPP fuel. So a large part | |
of our coal cost is already secured in those auctions. So that gives us a fairly good assessment of | |
our costs going forward. I hope I've answered your question, Prateek. | |
Prateek Kumar: | Yes. And one last question on your capex. So annual capex expectation. So this year we did |
INR4500 crores on organic. I think 2500 on organic. So total 70,000 was in 7,000 in line with | |
your guidance. Does the number remain the same for annual capex guidance? | |
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Ambuja Cements Ltd. published this content on 07 May 2024 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 07 May 2024 06:59:03 UTC.