ACC Ltd (ACC) Q3 FY22 Earnings Call Transcript

ACC Ltd  (NSE: ACC) Q3 FY22 Earnings Concall dated Feb. 14, 2022

Corporate Participants:

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Neeraj Akhoury — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Analysts:

Krupal Maniar — ICICI Securities — Analyst

Navin Sahadeo — Edelweiss — Analyst

Sumangal Nevatia — Kotak Securities — Analyst

Ashish Jain — Macquarie — Analyst

Ritesh Shah — Investec — Analyst

Raashi Chopra — Citigroup Global Markets India — Analyst

Amit Murarka — Axis Capital — Analyst

Satyadeep Jain — Ambit Capital — Analyst

Pinakin Parekh — Analyst — Analyst

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Sanjaya Satapathy — Ampersand — Analyst

Kamlesh Bagmar — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst 

Presentation:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the ACC Limited Earnings Conference Call hosted by ICICI Securities. This is to remind you that the discussion on today’s call may include certain forward-looking statements and must be therefore viewed in conjunction with the risk that the Company faces. The Company assumes no responsibility to publicly amend, modify or revise any forward-looking statements on the basement of any subsequent development, information or events or otherwise. Please note that the duration of the call is for one hour. [Operator Instructions] And there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. [Operator Instructions]

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Krupal Maniar from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you.

Krupal Maniar — ICICI Securities — Analyst

Thanks, Mike. Good afternoon and a warm welcome to everyone. On behalf of ICICI Securities, we welcome you to the earnings call of ACC Limited. On the call we have with us Mr. Neeraj Akhoury, CEO India LafargeHolcim; Mr. Sridhar Balakrishnan, MD and CEO of ACC; and Mr. Yatin Malhotra, CFO of the Company.

At this point of time, I will hand over the floor to the management, which will be followed by interactive Q&A session. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning. Welcome to all of you to today’s investor call. We’ll move to Slide number 5. Our vision is basically to continue to be a blue chip Company with the best performance benchmarks, strong brands, and leading in innovation and sustainability. We have played and will continue to play a significant role in nation building.

On to Slide 6, we have a strong belief that we need to leave the world a better place as compared to what we have inherited. ESG is at the heart of everything that we do. This flows right from our parent Holcim. ESG is a part of our culture, which permeates across all levels of the organization. Moving on to Slide 7, the awards listed are a testimony to what we have achieved across the spectrum of the business.

Moving on to strategic priorities, we quickly go on to Slide number 10, which is basically accelerating growth, which is basically an update on the capacity expansion. Our expansion in Sindri is fully operational and it was commissioned in a record time of nine months. Our expansion in Tikaria is also very near completion and it’s way ahead of schedule. Our integrated unit in Ametha is also progressing well and is on track to start producing clinker and cement by September, October of this year. Even our project in Salai Banwa is moving way ahead of schedule.

Moving on to Slide number 11, the other aspect of growth is fundamentally portfolio. We are constantly innovating to satisfy customer needs. We are also working strongly to develop sustainable products. Our premium product growth has actually been robust. It’s close to 20% this year. And even the contribution of premium products to the overall trade sales has gone up by at least a couple of percentage points this year. With respect to sustainability, we had launched ECOPact this year during I think around February March this year, and it’s already started delivering about 15% of our concrete business. ACC in India is deeply committed towards developing and driving businesses of sustainable products going forward.

Coming to Slide number 12, we believe that concrete is poised for high growth. ACC is well poised to capitalize on the same. With respect to value-added products, it’s really done well this year. ECOPact has also done well and has scaled up really well. We are focusing on developing other products to manage the consumer needs and to really drive the sustainability agenda of Holcim and ACC in India. In terms of products and solutions, Slide number 13, it’s showing promise. We have doubled the turnover in FY22. We believe that this vertical has potential for strong growth going forward and we believe that it will become a significant vertical for us in times to come.

Going on to Slide number 14, we will continue to invest behind building ACC as the most durable and sustainable building material company in India. You have already seen some of the initiatives that we’ve taken, whether it’s Leave Behind No Waste, whether it’s leveraging cricket for really driving the saliency of the brands, whether it’s the premiumization agenda or whether it’s developing green products like ECOPact. As far as sustainability is concerned, Slide number 16, we are the first Company in India to sign up for the Net Zero Pledge. All our action plans have been validated by SBTI. We have also been recognized as being industry leaders in the area of sustainability and innovation.

Going on to Slide number 18, this has actually been an excellent initiative taken by Holcim in India in terms of clearing up the reverse from plastic and leveraging them as alternative fuels in our kilns. Currently this initiative has been fructified in Agra. Next on the line is Sundernagar and HP in Himachal Pradesh, which is going to be on the River Beas. We are also in the process of talking to various other state governments to really expand this initiative across.

In terms of Slide 19, we’ve already discussed this. This again has been an excellent initiative in terms of managing waste, plastic waste, especially from stadiums where cricket matches have been held. We have basically cleared almost two tons per day in one of the matches in the India-New Zealand test series. And again, this basically is again used as alternative fuels in our kilns.

Moving on to Slide 20, we are very, very clear that we need to leave the world a greener place. So the entire power is going to move to a — we’re going to be moving a significant component of our power mix to a clean and green mix. Our current existing is by 2022, we believe that 16% of our power needs will be met through clean and green, which is fundamentally WHRS and renewables, which is likely to go up to over 40% by 2025. We’ve also leveraged our global brand Holcim Geocycle to really increase the alternate fuels. The TSR percentage also is about 7% today and we intend to take it up to about 15% by 2025. Even in terms of waste consumed, we’ve consumed about 11 million tons of waste this year and we are planning to increase it by 50% over the next three years.

Going on to Slide 21, in terms of CSR, I think we’ve continued to partner with the community in areas of livelihood and education and wash. Wash and hygiene as an area has really gained a lot more saliency during COVID times. Moving on to Slide 22, as discussed, this is going to be a clear focus area for us. In terms of water positivity, we intend moving from levels of about 1.1 times water positivity to 5 times by 2030. We are also looking at reducing the quality of water consumed per ton of cement manufactured. Moving on to Slide 23, ESG is going to be the heart — at the heart of everything that we do. We have made significant progress across all parameters as far as ESG is concerned.

Now our CFO, Yatin Malhotra will take you through the next section. Yatin, over to you.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Sridhar. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome once again for joining this investor call. We are on the investor deck that we have released, we are on Slide number 24. I’ll take you through the delivering superior performance section. I move to Slide 25, I think very clearly we’ve identified people as one of the foremost pillars of delivering strong performance. Over the years, we have been able to create a strong team and we continue to invest in the best practices around talent management, whether it is about growth, whether it’s about learning, including opportunities with our parent Holcim, trade — talent exchange program with Ambuja, sufficient planning etc. We are committed as a team to diversity, not only gender, but also ethnic diversity and we take pride in the culture of transparency, trust and integrity along with delivering superior performance for the organization.

I move to Slide 26 and here we talk about the second pillar, which we believe very strongly in and that is all about digitalization. We believe it is the biggest enabler of performance and also in future would be the biggest differentiator of performance between companies. We continue to work effectively on all the three value scenes of the business, which is manufacturing and where we continue to expand the Plant of Tomorrow journey that we’ve embarked on basically to drive productivity and safety across our plants.

The second pillar where we are doing extensive work on digitalization is logistics and sourcing trying to become nimble in the way we approach the market. We have various tools for efficiencies both in terms of cost and processes. And we have got digitalization initiatives around commercial, where basically the intent is to be more seamlessly connected to the customers and better consumer experience is what we are trying to chase.

And moving to Slide 27, where we talk about our core flagship project. We have spoken about this in the past also. This is about Project Parvat, which is all about delivering cost efficiencies. We have been running this project, as I said for the last two years, and it has given strong returns for the organization, again across the value stream in terms of whether it is about fuel cost optimization through sourcing or flexibility or reducing utilization or whether it’s about RMX optimization. It is about network optimization risk factors. One big input that we’ve had is the MSA that we enjoy with Ambuja that allows a lot of leverage in terms of cost and also in terms of commercial excellence, in terms of revenue management and discount optimization, etc. And at the core, as I said, digitalization is the foundation on which a lot of these initiatives rest on.

And then I move to Slide 28, which basically summarizes how the year 2021 was for us with the sales of almost 29 million tons, which is a growth of 13% versus last year. RMX, we sold 2.81 million cubic meters, a growth of 24%. A top-line of INR15,814 crores, a growth of 17%. EBITDA, almost INR3,000 crores, a growth of 27% versus last year. At EBIT margin levels, we were ahead of 15%, 15.2%, an expansion of 250 basis points even in a very, very tough year. And the profit after-tax number of INR1,863 crores, a growth of 30% versus last year.

Now I’ll move to the next section of our presentation, which is the Economy & Sector Update. If I move to Slide number 30, it just sort of gives a snapshot of the global sustainability trends. Well, slowly and steadily we see sustainability and decarbonization to be the buzzwords across industries, across world, whether it is driven by what consumers tell us or whether it is driven by what the regulators tell us, what investors messages we get or whether simply basis the right governance standards that we need to have. This is a direction that we are very clearly embarking on, Sridhar spoke about it.

Moving to Slide number 31, a quick glance on the overall macro-economy outlook. The GDP, we saw last year — fiscal year 2022 was 9.2%, and give or take, very clearly the GDP growth can be expected in the range of 7% to 8% in the years to come for the growth market like India. Inflation has been hovering around 5% and I think with government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation, I think the fiscal deficit also would be by and large under decent check.

And if we move to Slide 32, which talks about our view on the sectoral outlook, which will — the key influences of the demand in cement. Clearly with government initiative on capex and infra, infrastructure segment would lead the overall demand followed very, very closely by housing and industrial, housing with a lot of money being invested in the Housing for All schemes and also with an expected good rabi crop outlook, the housing demand is likely to be good in the coming quarters. And even if you look at the industrial and commercial sector propelled by what the government is doing in the overall infra and capex, I think the industrial and commercial demand should follow suit sooner rather than later.

And now I move to the last section of our investor deck, which is the performance review. If we look at Slide number 34, Q4 was a tough quarter. The volume went down 3%. The net sales went up 2%, thanks to the price increase. EBITDA at INR556 crore was minus 3% and overall PAT at INR281 crore was minus 40%. We need to keep in account that last year Q4, we had a one-time gain in our tax expense line item.

Slide 35, I’ll skip, we have discussed that earlier. We go to Slide number 36. So if we look at a full-year level, net sales we spoke growth of 17%, EBITDA up 27%, operating EBIT is up 40% versus last year, and we clocked an EPS of INR99.2 per share, which is again a growth of 30% versus last year. Moving to Slide 37, which talks about the performance of the cement business in a per ton basis. And if you look at the full-year 2021, the overall — if you look at the EBITDA from INR875 to a ton, we are around about INR1,000, we are INR988 to a ton. So we have added INR113 to a ton as EBITDA despite a very, very tough year that has passed by. The next slides talk about every single line item of sales and costs and not dwell deeper into that, I think we can look at the slides and we can move on from that.

So that pretty much brings us to the end of the investor deck that we had put out. And now we are open for questions. Krupal, over to you.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] We have the first question from the line of Navin Sahadeo from Edelweiss. Please go ahead.

Navin Sahadeo — Edelweiss — Analyst

Hello?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Hi.

Navin Sahadeo — Edelweiss — Analyst

Yeah, yeah. So, thank you, first of all, for the opportunity and thank you for running us through the presentation slide by slide. Sridhar, my first question was about the first slide of your presentation, it starts with saying, change the story and also followed by the two cement join — two cement giants joining hands to produce their strongest product yet Bubbles.

So my — so two parts of this question, one, this Bubbles, do you see it as a CSR sort of an opportunity or can we see some meaningful contribution to the P&L as in from the bottom-line perspective as well? And second is when we say two cement joining — two cement giants coming together, ACC and Ambuja, of course, so are we looking at more products in the cement space or building solutions together to make this entire MSA far more stronger than what it is being thought of or it has been communicated as of now? Thanks.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Hi, I think that’s a good question. First of all, I think as I’ve said earlier, ESG forms the heart of everything that we do. We have a genuine intent to actually leave the world a better place as compared to what it was when we inherited it, that was the reason why we went ahead with this initiative of actually cleaning up the Mantola Canal in Agra. So the intent is not commercial. The intent is purely from an environmental standpoint to leave — to actually get rid of the plastic waste. It’s incidental that the plastic waste collected from a disposal standpoint is used as an alternative fuels in our kiln, but that’s not the primary objective. The primary objectives of this intervention is fundamentally to clear our water bodies of plastic waste.

Navin Sahadeo — Edelweiss — Analyst

So second question?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Can we see more products coming together?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, yes. So the entire intent right now is to develop products, which are more sustainable and greener. Proof of concept, you’ve already seen ECOPact, which has scaled up from zero to about 15% of our volumes within a year. We will accelerate not only ECOPact, but some of the other sustainable and green products both in the cement and concrete space.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Just to add here that most of this new initiatives are also coming to us from — due to our relations with our Group Holcim. So when you talk about Bubbles, this is what we have bought from the other countries of Holcim into India. And we will continue to bring in new technologies as has been used in other countries, which can also help our own country to battle some of these topics, including in R&D, we will continue to work very closely with the group to bring in world-class products into India.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

ECOPact is a classic example of a global brand which is basically being leveraged in India.

Navin Sahadeo — Edelweiss — Analyst

Appreciate. I just wanted to get more color, as you said, it’s incidental that like this plastic waste could be used as form of an AFR. So the current percentage of AFR, just trying to understand what commercial benefit that we can get from this CSR initiative?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

So too early to comment on this one. Basically, the idea is to expand this initiative across various other river bodies purely from the context of cleaning these river bodies of waste. So as I’ve said earlier, the next one is Sundernagar in Himachal and we’re also exploring some of the other states.

Answering the question in terms of TSR, independent of this initiative, currently the TSR percentage is about 7% and we intend to take it up to about 15% by 2025 in the next three years. This will be a part of that, but the primary driver is not — in this specific example is not commercial, it’s more in terms of cleaning up waste.

Navin Sahadeo — Edelweiss — Analyst

Okay, okay. Then, sir — thank you for this. Then, my second question was about, again, the ESG aspect. And here I just wanted to understand on this waste heat recovery front, because every other company, the intensity of waste heat capacity per ton of cement, per million ton of cement is way too high, like some of the companies with 45 million ton, 46 million ton cement capacities have waste heat capacities running 230 odd megawatt, whereas we had almost 35 million ton of capacity, only 7 megawatt, as we speak. Of course, I’m aware that we are pursuing waste heat at some of the locations, including the new Ametha. But it will be really helpful to understand what’s the like outlook here in a milestone fashion that in three years, can it be go to 100 megawatts [Phonetic]? What is the latent opportunity? Can we have a total of 150 megawatts [Phonetic], 200 megawatts [Phonetic], some number-specific things will really help? Thanks.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, yeah, good question. See, currently, we’re at 7 megawatts, our immediate milestone for 2022 is about 45 megawatts, and by 2025, we intend doubling it. So we should be anywhere in the range of 85 megawatts to 90 megawatts of WHRS by 2025.

Navin Sahadeo — Edelweiss — Analyst

And what would be the latent opportunity as in on the current total capacity, how much can be if we take this overall?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

I — so — yeah. So this will be roughly — of the total power consumed, this will be 90 megawatt would roughly be about 25% of the total power consumed by 2025.

Navin Sahadeo — Edelweiss — Analyst

Right, right. Thank you for this. I’ll join back in queue. Thanks.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Sumangal Nevatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Sumangal Nevatia — Kotak Securities — Analyst

Yeah, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for arranging this call, and, I mean, such calls are very useful for the overall investor community. So it would be a very humble request if we can have such calls more often like every quarter like most other companies do. Moving on to my question, first question is on Project Parvat, is it possible to quantify some of the benefits that we have already realized? And also in the coming years, what sort of benefit are yet to be realized, and also if we should bifurcate into Q heads, it will be very helpful?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. So, hi, Sumangal, this is Yatin. Firstly to your point of the quarterly call, last year we said that we will continue with these annual investor calls. We take your input in terms of quarterly calls. Regarding Parvat, Sumangal, I think I mentioned that it is a flagship project that we run in the organization. This is the war cry against which the entire organization come together. Across the value stream, across all functions, we run this. In terms of value, we had earlier given an estimate that roughly INR200 [Phonetic] to a ton, this was roughly a year, year and a half back, we gave that estimate.

What we have already — we started journey in 2019, in the last two years, the total efficiencies that we have been able to flow into the P&L is upwards of INR300 to a ton. Having said that, a lot of projects are still underway. And if you were to take — there is no outer limit of a number, but yes, definitely in few more semesters to come another INR100 to a ton to INR150 to a ton is something that we’re looking at. But this is, again as I said, there is no full stop in this journey, so we will see as it comes.

Sumangal Nevatia — Kotak Securities — Analyst

I understand. Thanks, Yatin. But is it possible to share some heads under where this remaining INR150, INR200 could come in from?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

So, again, Sumangal, there is no single line item that would bring a big chunk of run rate. Whether we start about — talk about our plants starting from reduction of clinker factor to fuel flexibility to sourcing to higher TSR to a better raw mix — raw material mix, geo mix optimization, MSA, so we have put a number in front of us. We are chasing that number. It is broken into many, many smaller pieces. Every piece is a project that is being run in the Company and that is the way we’re driving, Sumangal.

Sumangal Nevatia — Kotak Securities — Analyst

Understood, understood, that’s very helpful. Second question is, on Slide 12, on the RMC business, is it, I mean, we’ve written that we have aggressive growth plans there and also plan to scale up some global products. Is it possible to share, I mean, what is the existing performance and what are our growth plans over the coming years?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So currently we have close to 80 plants. Because of COVID, in the last two years, we went a little — our intent was to be a little careful in terms of expanding plants. Now that hopefully we are — the pandemic has passed us, the intent is to basically double the number of plants over the next three years.

So we strongly believe that concrete is poised for high growth. And our strategic intent is to make sure that ACC becomes the concrete company of India, which means doubling of plants in three years improving profitability and a dramatic increase in the contribution of green products to the overall mix. So clear that this is going to be a growth engine for us in the next three years. So as I’ve said, we will be more than doubling the plants over the next three years. And in terms of profile of cities, so we were earlier present in the top 15 cities, the idea is now to expand it to the next 50 [Phonetic] cities in the country.

Sumangal Nevatia — Kotak Securities — Analyst

Understood. And what sort of investments and return do we look into this business?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

So, Sumangal, this is Yatin again. Investment, unlike cement plant, RMX is not a very high capital intensive plant for us. So the returns typically are high. It’s more about in terms of ability to drive demand and be present to make the right supplies. So it’s a high return business for us, and as we expand, it should have more positive contribution in terms of the returns that we generate for our shareholders.

Sumangal Nevatia — Kotak Securities — Analyst

Okay, understood. I have a couple of more questions regarding the quarter, but I’ll join the back — join back the queue. Thank you so much.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Sumangal.

Operator

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Ashish Jain from Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Ashish Jain — Macquarie — Analyst

Hi, sir. Good afternoon and thanks for the opportunity.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Hi.

Ashish Jain — Macquarie — Analyst

Sir, my first question is on ESG like, if I look at ACC on carbon side, we are already the most efficient player in India and we have fairly aggressive target of reducing emissions.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, yeah.

Ashish Jain — Macquarie — Analyst

So I want to understand what is the roadmap to achieve that, and what is the contribution or the support we’re getting from the parent on this front?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Okay. No, so I think we’ve clearly, as I said, not only have we signed up for the Net Zero Pledge, but we also have milestones till 2030 clearly listed out. So very clearly listed out across various elements. So, for example, we have an intent of reducing the — it is broken up across elements as far as these various scopes are concerned. And we are basically leveraging the parent company very well, whether it’s in terms of developing green products, whether it’s in terms of looking at alternative ways of reducing clinker, whether it’s in terms of leveraging our global brand Geocycle to dramatically increase the contribution of TSR or alternate fuels to the mix.

So we are looking at — we have clear milestones across, and we are — as I’ve just given you some examples, we are also looking at leveraging Holcim across the entire value chain to really bring down the carbon-dioxide emission, whether it’s products, whether it’s technology in plants or whether it’s leveraging Geocycle as a brand to increase the usage of waste in our kilns.

Ashish Jain — Macquarie — Analyst

So sir, are like some of these technologies like readily available with Holcim or do you think each plant, each country will be very different on this journey?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

So it’s — see, in some cases, it could be plug and play, some cases, we pick the basic concept and adapt and modify to local conditions. Yeah.

Ashish Jain — Macquarie — Analyst

Sir. My second question is on the premium product thing, like if we see in the last two, three years, pretty much most of the large players have started talking about premium product and all. So I had two questions there. One, can you just help me understand how are we differentiating us versus others if that is relevant? And secondly, what is the market feedback on this is like is the consumer cognizant of it, and is it translating into better realization, better profitability or is it more of just gaining market share kind of a strategy there?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Okay, good question. I think the first part is, I’ll give you the numbers. So premium product has grown by close to 20% last year, which is significantly higher than the growth of base cement. Second is even if I were to look at the contribution of premium products to the overall mix, it’s gone up from levels of approximately 25% of trade sales to over 27%. So that clearly tells you how the performance of premium products is in the market. This is clearly — this is actually being driven by us.

We would like to believe that in terms of percentage contribution of premium products, ACC would be amongst the relatively higher better placed companies. As far as commercials are concerned, there is a significant difference between the EBITDA per ton of premium products and base products. Yatin, would you like to comment on the numbers? Yeah, no. So there is, there is a commercial, one is obviously, when you’re looking at premium products, you’re also looking at addressing specific consumer needs, but also there is a significant positive influence as you keep selling more premium products.

Ashish Jain — Macquarie — Analyst

Okay, okay, got it. Sir, but can you just quantify in terms of pricing, maybe EBITDA, you may not want to comment, but from pricing point of view, is…

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

It will be — it will be about anywhere between INR30 to INR50 a bag higher than base cement, ballpark.

Ashish Jain — Macquarie — Analyst

And this is finding fair acceptance with consumers and all?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, yes, it is.

Ashish Jain — Macquarie — Analyst

Okay, fair sir. Thank you so much for your help.

Operator

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec. Please go ahead.

Ritesh Shah — Investec — Analyst

Yeah, hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Couple of questions. Sir, first is, how should one look at the Company’s incremental capital allocation and the growth optionality? I think the parent is quite — basically, if I look at the commentary from Holcim, they are quite clear on delivering growth bolt-on acquisitions, as well as things on the solutions and products side. Sir, how should one look at the Indian entity specifically, we have brand, we have cash on the books, but when it comes to growth and capital allocation, sir, how should we understand it?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, Ritesh, so this is Yatin and I’ll try to answer the question. Well, capital allocation for us, I think pretty much that tone, tonality is similar to what you see our parent Holcim is saying. Growth is the area for us — area of focus for us in all our actions. We — yes, we do have a decent amount of cash on our balance sheet and you see us expanding significantly. Now, the Ametha project is underway, hopefully, it will see the light say sooner rather than later. We have more capex plans in the pipeline, capital allocation, the capital is being kept for those — pursuing those growth plans. Bolt-on acquisition and opportunities in the market is something that is always on our mind, we keep our ears and eyes open.

I would not want to comment anything more than that. But trust me that growing and expanding is the core thing that we chase day in, day out. And along with that the capital is not only for growth. We spoke about ESG. Sridhar has spoken enough about it. We are putting money behind what we believe is right. We are putting money behind efficiency projects that we are driving across the organization and that also add to the overall Parvat journey. So capital for us, I think we need to do all the right things for business capacity, ESG and efficiency, all three of them.

Ritesh Shah — Investec — Analyst

Sir, just to take this forward, but how should one look at it beyond the announced projects? You indicated the focus is on growth, but the balance sheet is too sweet to actually basically to make something out of it. Or if I have to put it the other way around, there have been recent amendments on MMDR, which indicates that if you have a historical view and if you don’t put it to use, it is something which will actually be taken back by the government. So when we come across such situations, what is our philosophy on the growth like give back the lease back to the state government or go ahead and expand?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

No, so we are clear that we want to expand. If you’ve seen the proof of concept in the last two years is basically whether you look at expansion in Sindri, Tikaria, Ametha or WHRS or Salai Banwa, so there is very — we are very, very clear that wherever we have limestone deposits, we intend expanding and we are also actively scouting and scouring certain geographies for more limestone deposits in order to grow. So our parent company clearly believes that India is a growth story and they are committed to investing in India to grow, whether it’s by virtue of capacity, whether it’s by virtue of investment in ESG, whether it’s by virtue of investment in RMX, whether it’s in virtue of investment in brands.

Ritesh Shah — Investec — Analyst

Okay. Sir, my second question is on limestone. Just wanted to understand from a sustainability point of view, what percentage of our leases could actually potentially face expiry by 2030? And the recent win that we had at Kannur, how does it fit on overall scheme of things? To my limited understanding, I think we had certain limestone issue at Madukkarai lease, is this something which has an offsetting variable to that? How should one look into this aspect of limestone and sustainability?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

So, first of all, there is — first of all, if I were to look at it, Kannur is a independent thing. It just basically secures limestone for Wadi for a few decades to come. So that’s a completely independent thing and we’ve basically been declared as successful bidders for the same. So as far as the other plants are concerned, we don’t see a limestone issue so as to say per se across the plants. Madukkarai is a completely different issue. Yatin, would you like to comment on Madukkarai?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. So Ritesh, Madukkarai limestone, Madukkarai, we took that impairment last year Q4 basically on account of the process that we were following and the economics of the entire clinkering process that we had at that location. It was not a question more of limestone, it was more about the economics of running the clinkering unit, and considering the entire supply-demand situation in that part of India, that was the decision that we took.

Ritesh Shah — Investec — Analyst

And sir, on lease expiry by 2030 at a Company level, how do we see that?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

We do not see that as a stress. We do not foresee any issue in that.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Issue there.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

I think we — all our integrated units are fully covered for the limestone availability for quite a long time, that is not a headache for us.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Yeah.

Ritesh Shah — Investec — Analyst

Sure sir. Thank you so much. I’ll join back the queue.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Raashi Chopra from Citigroup Global Markets India. Please go ahead.

Raashi Chopra — Citigroup Global Markets India — Analyst

Thank you. Most questions have been answered. Just on cost inflation, not from an efficiency standpoint, but more from a coal point of [Technical Issues].

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Sorry, you voice is breaking.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Your voice is…

Operator

Ms. Raashi, we cannot hear you. Could you come closer to the mic, please? Raashi, we are still not able to hear you.

Raashi Chopra — Citigroup Global Markets India — Analyst

Can you hear me now?

Operator

It’s a little much better. Could you come closer to the mic?

Raashi Chopra — Citigroup Global Markets India — Analyst

Sure. So this is the best I can, if you can hear me?

Operator

Can the management hear Ms. Raashi?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, you — I think you can — yeah, madam, please ask us your question, I hope we are able to hear it, yeah.

Raashi Chopra — Citigroup Global Markets India — Analyst

Thank you. Just on cost inflation from a coal pet-coke standpoint, where do you think the next quarter or Jan to March quarter going to settle and the following quarters going to settle for you specifically?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

It’s — Raashi, this is one question we wouldn’t like to speculate on that because you are aware of the volatility in the overall fuel space. So really I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess or give any guiding statements or any forecast as far as fuel prices are concerned. I think from a strategic standpoint, we are very clear that we will not speculate and we will do back-to-back buying, and so that we are in a position to capitalize on any opportunity that may come up. And second thing is that we have invested in ensuring that our plants are flexible in terms of the kind of fuel that they can basically use. So these are the two aspects that we’re looking at as far as fuel is concerned, but very difficult to forecast or predict which way it will go.

Raashi Chopra — Citigroup Global Markets India — Analyst

Got it. Okay, thank you. That’s it. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.

Amit Murarka — Axis Capital — Analyst

Yeah, hi, good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity. So my question was more on the global strategy of 2025, which the parent has announced a few months back. So in that like, there’s a focus to [Technical Issues] the sustainable solutions business and as in the solutions product business and actually the cement as a piece of the business is actually targeted of kind of become relatively smaller.

So firstly, what are the kind of opportunities do you think you have to kind of launch these products which the parent has recently gotten into like roofing solutions and all? And secondly, in terms of the cement expansion, so this focus on cutting down on CO2 footprint plus like making cement in the overall pie smaller, could it impede newer investments in India for, like for you?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Okay. So, first of all, I think as far as India is concerned, we see a huge headroom for growth in cement, as well as ready-mix concrete, because unlike the developed world or countries like China, India is highly under-indexed as far as per capita consumption of cement is concerned. So very clearly you will see investments will happen both in cement, as well as RMX going forward. You will see — the proof of concept is the kind of expansion plans that we basically embarked on. Second as far as products and solutions are concerned, as of now, we’re focusing on waterproofing solutions, clusters and add mixtures. So I think it’s each market is very unique and this entire building material market is fairly localized.

So if at all — if there are any learnings of products that can be picked up from the global markets and brought to India, we surely will do it, but currently we are focusing on these three verticals. It’s a very small vertical for us today, but the intent is to invest this and make it meaningful. But to answer your question, cement and RMX will continue to be a dominant part of ACC’s portfolio in the foreseeable future.

Amit Murarka — Axis Capital — Analyst

Sure, sir, got it. But also my related question was that, like because the parent is focused on like reducing the CO2 footprint, and cement, as you know is still seen as a polluting industry. So could in that context, even though I agree, there is potential for growth in India, but could it like prove us difficult for expansions?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

No, so even within cement, there is a lot that needs to be done to reduce the carbon-dioxide footprint, foot for emissions, whether it’s in terms of the products that we have, whether it’s in terms of the technology that we use in plants, whether it’s in terms of the alternate fuels that we use, whether it’s in terms of the waste that we use in our plants, whether it’s in terms of the footprint that we optimize to reduce the time that vehicles spend on the road. So even within cement, without getting — without comparing cement, concrete and products and solutions, even within cement, we believe that there is a lot that can be done and that will be done to basically reduce the carbon-dioxide footprint going forward.

Amit Murarka — Axis Capital — Analyst

So you don’t think it will at least be difficult to get approvals at the parent level for these expansions then?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

No, no, not at all.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

So, Amit, the group is committed to grow in India. Cement is going to be the engine of growth for India, so there is no — that’s not even an iota of doubt on that.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

Amit Murarka — Axis Capital — Analyst

Sure, sure. Thank you. And lastly on the new grinding unit, which you are planning, like what could be the rough timeline for that?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Which one?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Amit, which grinding unit?

Amit Murarka — Axis Capital — Analyst

The UP grinding.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Sometime around Q1, Q2 next year, we should see that plant really firing actually.

Amit Murarka — Axis Capital — Analyst

Okay, sure. Thank you. That’s all. Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.

Satyadeep Jain — Ambit Capital — Analyst

Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity. Couple of questions, one on capital allocation, follow-up to previous questions. When you look at growth beyond Ametha, do you have brownfield optionality across the portfolio or the next phase of growth beyond Ametha would also be largely greenfield?

And partly it is to tie-up with the huge auction premium of 190% that ACC has paid for Nawalgarh and given the high ROCE target of 10%-plus that Holcim actually talked about in the Capital Markets Day, what is the thinking there in some of these high premium acquisitions, is it — does the management believe that certain things will play out and these acquisitions will ultimately generate the return above the high growth rate that Holcim has? So that’s the first question. I’ll come to the second after that.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

So let me answer the first question about capital allocation and what the future periods could look like, right now, we are processing a lot of options in terms of the expansion plan and there would be a combination of green and brown, we would not want to comment on that. As Sridhar mentioned, securing limestone reserves or and putting our current limestone reserves to use is the key priority, and surely, Ametha is just a start. Moving to your second point about the premium that we have paid, I — maybe I would request Sridhar to comment on that.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

So we believe that it’s of strategic importance to us, and I don’t think there are too many limestone deposits left in that area. So given the strategic importance and — limestone is a scarce commodity, we all know that. So given the fact that we — it’s of strategic importance and there is certainly going to be a supply constraint of limestone there, we feel that that’s a strategic choice to make and which is why we have stated our intent of making that choice.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

And just to add, this is Yatin, again, from a commercial perspective, we are pretty clear that even with this premium, obviously, we are in the business of creating return for our shareholders and we will not let go of that agenda.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

Satyadeep Jain — Ambit Capital — Analyst

Okay, sir, thank you. Secondly, on the MSA, the Company’s share in Rajasthan before this Nawalgarh actually comes up in two years is extremely low, Ambuja’s share is significantly higher. Is management looking at increasing share in some of these markets where the current share is low? And if that happens, how does the MSA work? Would Ambuja get compensated in some other markets, if ACC markets some products in Rajasthan? That’s the second question.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

So specifically on Rajasthan, I think we have — between ACC and Ambuja, we have three units. We have Lakheri for ACC, we have Rabriyawas for Ambuja, and we have Marwar Mundwa, which has just got commissioned a few months back. The idea is to basically leverage all the three plants to maximize capacity utilization and minimize logistics costs for both the OpCos, and that is going to be the guiding principle of MSA between both the OpCos wherever we operate.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. And just — again, just to add, this is Yatin again, there is nothing that needs to be compensated in MSA and the whole design of MSA is incremental margins to both the companies. So it is only after the absorption by one company that is offered to the other company. Hence the mechanics of the MSA operations are very clear that it is incremental to both.

Satyadeep Jain — Ambit Capital — Analyst

Okay, thank you, thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Pinakin from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Pinakin Parekh — Analyst — Analyst

Yeah. Thank you very much for the opportunity. I have three questions. First just to dig deep on the capex, so one of the key investor push-backs over the years has been that ACC and to an extent even Ambuja have not really invested in growth and even as the cash keeps on accreting. Now the Ametha project is welcome. But can you give us more concrete numbers in terms of the outlook for capacity addition over the next three years or five years, what kind of growth can we see, what is the volume target in terms of capacity, because many of your peers, in fact, all your peers have given out multi-year capacity addition project timeline?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Okay. The strategic intent is to move from current levels of about 34 million, 35 million to anywhere between 45 million to 50 million over the next two to three years.

Pinakin Parekh — Analyst — Analyst

So, 45 million tons to 50 million tons from the current 34 million tons, right sir, over the next two to three years?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Pinakin Parekh — Analyst — Analyst

So that will mean that more project announcements should come through post the Ametha expansion?

Neeraj Akhoury — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, absolutely. Once it is done, where we do our final evaluation of all the investment opportunities will be coupled with our next wave of expansions.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Expansions, yeah.

Pinakin Parekh — Analyst — Analyst

Thank you very much, sir. Sir, my second question is on costs. Now we obviously appreciate that the commodity price — pricing environment is extremely volatile given what’s happening with energy prices. But if we were to assume that energy prices remain where they are basically, coal, pet-coke and diesel and you have Project Parvat and MAS going on. Do 4Q costs reflect peak or will cost even move higher or will they move lower if — depending on how these variables interact?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Could you please repeat — articulate your question again. Sorry, we missed the last portion of your question.

Pinakin Parekh — Analyst — Analyst

So basically if we assume that pet coal coke and thermal coal prices don’t change for the rest of the year, you will have tailwinds from your Project Parvat. So if we take Q4 cost as a starting point, will cost in CY21 be higher versus 4Q or will it be lower?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

So I would just say this is pretty much — it’s a pretty hypothetical question. I understand your question, but we are not…

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

We really can’t speculate.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

We can’t speculate that which way the year is going to be headed. Yes, we are at the peak of cost, but let us see how it plays out, then we will react to that.

Pinakin Parekh — Analyst — Analyst

Understood. And my last question is on cement prices, sir. Can you give us a sense of what happened in your key markets in Q4 and how prices are in the current quarter? Because obviously it seems that consolidation benefits did not flow through to the industry in terms of cement prices on the ground in the previous quarter. So just trying to understand have things changed or they remain as lackluster?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So difficult to comment on the future, but in terms of what happened last quarter, the price increase was muted and it was grossly insufficient to really mitigate the impact of the fuel price increase. Now this is one area which really cannot speculate on the future, whether it’s the input cost increase or whether it’s the price increase, really difficult to predict as of now. But yes in the last quarter, the pricing increase for us was significantly lower than what the fuel cost inflation was.

Pinakin Parekh — Analyst — Analyst

Thank you very much sir. Thank you for the answers.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We have the next question from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Yeah, hi, sir, good afternoon. Could you please explain the capex or break the capex for the central market expansions and how much of that is pending, and what do you see the capex outflow for this year and next year?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Sorry, so you want the breakup of the capital allocation for the central market project, that’s what you asked?

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Yes, yes. I think the total project cost was INR3,000 crore, how much of that is already spent and how much is pending?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

So, Rajesh, this is a work in progress for us. Yes, it was — we had an estimate of in the ballpark of INR2,800 crores, but you know the world has seen a lot of inflation. There have been some areas for us to attend to. There is a tad bit higher amount that we’re looking at right now, but I would park it at that right now, we are not giving any new number, but we are executing the projects as the fastest speed possible, take it from us.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Okay.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

And what was the second question, Rajesh, if you could come back on that?

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

So how much capex would be spend this year, because what we understand is most of the spending projects would be operational this year itself. So we want to understand how much of the capex is to be executed this year?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

So, again, if you look at our last three-year capex from a level of around INR400 odd crores, we are in the year 2021, we were north of INR1,100 crores, we almost tripled that capex amount. And if you were to pick up the entire essence of what we have been saying investment in capacity, in ESG and efficiency is the core. I would again not hazard a number to be put on the table, but that is our number one priority, Rajesh.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Okay. And the timelines for the three grinding units — two grinding units and the integrated plant?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

So Tikaria has — Tikaria is near about completion. As I said, Ametha, both the integrated unit and grinding unit should be operational by September, October. Salai Banwa should be operational towards the end of Q1 or early Q2 next year.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Okay. And on the Project Parvat, you mentioned that over the last two years versus CY19 to CY21, you have seen INR300 contribution on a per ton basis, right? So that is a margin improvement that would — that is reflected in the numbers. But if I look at CY19 to CY21, margin expansion is close to around INR230. So would that mean that you have faced other cost inflation or pricing pressure whereby excluding the Project Parvat benefits your margin would have contracted?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Rajesh, you are absolutely right. Margin is a sum of many small parts. Parvat is one significant piece, that is not the entirety. So price is another inflation factor, you rightly said, are the inflationary [Phonetic] factors.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Okay. And on the AFR, you said you’re expecting to double it or to around 15% by 2025?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

That’s correct. That’s correct. You got it right.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Okay. And last question on the capex, again, you’re saying that over next three years, you’re targeting total capacity of around 45 million to 50 million. So this is what you’re looking at to be total commissioned capacity over next two to three years?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

That’s correct.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

And which markets would be your focus market over next two to three years?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

See, from a strategic standpoint, given the market attractiveness and what we believe is our right to win, East and Central India will continue to be focus areas for us going forward.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Okay. And these capacities, which are coming up in East and Central market, U.S. [Phonetic] and other companies, do you believe they may have some pressure over next two to three years in terms of realization?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

No, so, okay. So again to answer this question, first is, first of all, at an India level itself, India is highly under-indexed on per capita consumption of cement as compared to rest of the world. But within India, if I look at it, East is the most under-indexed as well as per — as far as per capita consumption of cement is concerned. So that itself we believe gives us huge headroom for growth in the coming times than the Eastern markets. And here we are committed to a long-term play in India. So the short-term blips really don’t matter. We strongly believe that both East and Central are poised for growth given the per capita consumption of cement in these areas being low.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Okay, okay, great, sir. And this would be a mix of both organic and inorganic — sorry brownfield and greenfield expansions Central and East markets?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

That’s correct.

Rajesh Ravi — HDFC Securities — Analyst

Okay, great, sir. Thank you. I’ll come back in queue. All the best.

Operator

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Sanjaya Satapathy from Ampersand. Please go ahead.

Sanjaya Satapathy — Ampersand — Analyst

Sir, most of my questions have been answered. My — again my question relating to market share. So how do you really see your market share shaping up in the near to medium-term? Will it be entirely driven by the capacity or there is something more to it?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

No, so it will be driven by capacity primarily also investing behind the brand to basically gain share.

Sanjaya Satapathy — Ampersand — Analyst

And as far as margin is concerned, and ACC, of course, has done a good job, but is there any significant scope to bring down the margin differential with other leading players?

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

So as I said, our stated intent is to also really be the — to basically be the best as far as performance benchmarks are concerned. We strongly believe that Parvat is a journey and we will continue to look at all elements of the value chain to really bring down the costs. That’s a journey, which is going to continue in full earnest even going forward. We understand there is a gap and the entire intent is to bridge the gap over the coming few years. Yeah.

Operator

Would that be the end of the question, Mr. Satapathy?

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Maybe you can move, Krupal.

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

I think he is offline I guess or has got disconnected, yeah.

Operator

Sure. We’ll move on to the next question, sir. We have the next question from the line of Kamlesh Bagmar from Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead.

Kamlesh Bagmar — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst

Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Mr. Akhoury, I had one question on the part of your capex. So like if we see UltraTech, your leading peer, and if I compare your capex, like say, our capex is even lower than their maintenance capex, like, and we have a two — like even in ACC, we have a large greenfield project, which we are doing. But even like say, ACC this year INR600 [Phonetic] crores we have spent, that is around 5% of the total capex cost, and apart from that like even going forward though, we have guided that in Ambuja, we want to increase the capacity to 50 million ton and even in ACC we are talking about that. But the way other peers are talking — working on their capacity announcement or the giving orders to the equipment supplier, we are nowhere there, sir.

So that is not giving the visibility on the side that how committed we are on the capital expansion side — capacity expansion side, no doubt that under your leadership things have changed tremendously. But on the capacity expansion, honestly, we are not seeing the things on the ground at least on the announcement or real execution side.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

So, Kamlesh, this is Yatin. Before I hand it over to Neeraj to respond, let me first make it very clear, on this call, we are responding to what we are doing in ACC, and Neeraj is there, we are talking about Ambuja also. We will stay clear of commenting on how we look versus others and etc., etc. We have clearly stated, if you look at our performance over the last number of years, I think the proof of concept is already there, significant increases [Phonetic] are happening in our capex and we are committed to do more. I think Sridhar has made some statements clearly indicating significant investment, whether TSR or capacity, etc., etc. And I will now request Neeraj if he want to comment on the other point?

Neeraj Akhoury — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

I think I hear what you were saying, only, I believe Kamlesh, there is also sense of discipline of announcement that ACC and Ambuja have, which is far more robust and far more real than many other announcements that we also hear in the industry. So when we say we’re going to expand, Kamlesh, it will be only after a proper approval process both from the Boards, as well as internal working, yeah.

The start-over part, Kamlesh, I think so far if you see whichever announcements we have made, we have accelerated those projects, which is why you saw Sindri or Tikaria in ACC, Sindri, at least in ACC, I believe and I hope I’m — what I’m saying is right, it’s one of the fastest projects ever executed,yeah. And same I’m sure when we come with the trial production of Tikaria, even looking at the corona year, it was one of the fastest project to be executed, yeah.

There are projects — at least one project which Ambuja has announced, the last announcement where we are waiting for the environment clearance, once we get that — which has been delayed because of Punjab elections and so on and so forth. Once we get that, you will see the actions in the same speed. I assure you to add to this, not only Kamlesh to you, but to everybody in this call that once we have committed the capex to be done, it will be done only after all internal decisions have been taken and all internal clearance is there to execute it at the fastest speed as possible. But I hear you, Kamlesh, I hear you.

Kamlesh Bagmar — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst

Yeah, yeah. Sir, and lastly like just continuing on the capital — capacity expansion only, so like in the near-term or over next one year, which all — how much capacity are we looking to expand? No doubt you have guided your 2025 capacity expansion plan, but at least like say, on the near-term side, like one year is a good…

Sridhar Balakrishnan — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, we clearly stated between Tikaria — between the current projects which are work in progress, we should be close to 40 million tons over the next 14 to 15 months.

Kamlesh Bagmar — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst

Correct, sir. Thanks a lot, sir.

Yatin Malhotra — Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Kamlesh. Krupal, maybe.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Krupal Maniar for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Krupal Maniar — ICICI Securities — Analyst

Thanks, Mike. On behalf of ICICI Securities, we would like to thank the management of ACC Limited for providing us this opportunity to host the call, and I would like to thank all the participants for joining the call. Thanks, thanks everyone.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]