Birla Corporation Ltd (NSE: BIRLACORPN) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Jan. 31, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Sandip Ghose — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Aditya Saraogi — Group Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Rajesh Ravi — Analyst
Shravan Shah — Analyst
Pathanjali Srinivasan — Analyst
Harshal Mehta — Analyst
Prateek Kumar — Analyst
Raghav Maheshwari — Analyst
Saket Kapoor — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen. Good day and welcome. The Birilla Corp. Q3FY26 earnings conference call hosted by ACDFC Securities Ltd. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode. And there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajesh Kumar Ravi from ACDSC securities. Thank you. And over to you, sir.
Rajesh Ravi — Analyst
Thank you. Rayo. Good evening everyone. On behalf of HDFC Securities, I welcome all of you to the Q3 9 months FY26 earnings call of Birla Corporation Limited from the Birla Corp. We are hosting Mr. Sandeep Ghosh, M.D. cEO, Mr. Aditya Sarogi Group CFO. And along with other senior members of the team.
I now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks which will be followed by Q and A. Over to you, Sandeep sir.
Sandip Ghose — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Very good afternoon everyone. And since we are speaking for the first time in a new year, although late, but a happy new year to all of you. Thank you so much for joining in such large numbers on a Saturday afternoon. I understand that all of you will be in a rush to go back home for the weekend. Because tomorrow in a way is also a working day for you with the budget. So we will try to keep the call short and not stretch it further. This quarter has been a quarter, as we all know of mixed results, mixed outcome, mixed expectations or contrary to expectations and etc.
So it’s a bit of a mixed sentiments when we are speaking here. What I’d like to emphasize before I think the figures are before you, the press releases before you. A couple of points is what I would like to emphasize before handing it over to my colleagues who are present here. Mr. Adit Sarogi, our CFO group CFO. I have Nitin Soni, he is a deputy treasurer. Mr. Manoj Mehta, company secretary and compliance officer. Mr. Kalidas Pramanik, who is our Chief Marketing Officer. You would have noted Mr. Pramanik’s appointment has been extended by two more years.
He was otherwise due to retire as per age and rules this quarter. But the board has extended him for two more years. And Mr. Raghat Prushti, our CMOP chief of manufacturing and projects. So we are, all of us are here. So they will take on the questions. I also have Mr. Sandeep Asrani who is my head chief of staff of the MD’s office. So they will take specific questions. I would like to emphasize on two things. Birla Corporation, you would have noticed and those who are following the company. For a long time we have always tried to stay on course of a strategy irrespective of market fluctuations or changes in the market.
Because we believe we have a certain proven strategy which has worked for us and that is working for also our stakeholders. So we try to remain as steady on course on that strategy. And what is that strategy? At the cost of reputation we have limited capacity. So we want to use maximize our capacity utilization over there. We want to focus primarily on the trade segment and that is B2C. We want to also focus on blended cement which is environment friendly cement. And we will, given our situation, we will focus continuously on cost reduction, increasing efficiencies including lead distance.
Our go to market strategy, distribution and building of brands and building of brands will get translated both not just by our volume of our premium products but also overall improving the net realization. We are a company because we have limited or clinker limited this thing. We always measure our sales not in terms of realization. For us in fact, realization comes very secondary. What we look at is clinker realization per ton of clinker, where am I getting the maximum realization? And therefore this is a function of product mix. Geomics, that is in terms of distance and product mix would of course imply, you know, the premium product versus popular product, but not necessarily premium product may not give you the maximum clinker realization in all markets.
If we are able to sell more of popular product, if we don’t want to vacate a market which is close to our factory etc. Where there is a demand for popular product because that will give us a higher clinical realization. So we look at this very carefully and we have found that this gives us dividend in terms of results in any situation. So therefore you will find that in the last quarter when we analyze volumes we see not only many, not only many of our peers, but also the very large players, the volume leaders. They focused a great deal on non trade or infra sales.
Some people have gone up to sell almost 50% of their volumes during that quarter and certain months in non trade sales. Whereas we consciously stuck to our strategy of focusing on trade and blended cement. As a result, our percentage of trade sales has grown during this quarter in terms of proportion, percentage of blended cement has grown and our percentage of premium cement has also grown. So if you see our results, it is a function of this strategy. I’m not going to comment as to whether you see our results in what light, whether it’s favorable or how do you see it with your.
But whatever we have delivered, we have been able to deliver because of this strategy. Our capacity utilization also we have kept at at our peak and including our Mukudban plant which was a matter of concern for many of you for a long time. Mukudban plant has now, you know, is performing absolutely beautifully in his thing and happy to share it if I may because today we have come in this month we have made the highest ever dispatch from Mukutbut over there. So that is that ramping up which has been done about which many people were skeptical.
Many people had raised doubts and we have been able to do that and most importantly we have been able to do that over there in that market with a large share of premium products and even in the high category of OPC 53 which wherever it’s relevant because in that market we have been able to sell that. So that has been our strategy and that has really been what you are going what you are seeing in terms of results. So this is primarily the point which I would like to emphasize there is in terms of logistics.
There is, we have, you know, reduced lead distance. In fact our lead distance is today 328km which if you all know is better than many large players who have a higher proportion of grinding units for themselves. Our grinding unit to main plant ratio, integrated plant ratio is lower than many people. But despite that our lead distance is actually lower than many of them and we have been able to further reduce that. We have had one. Specifically we have had a couple of handicaps against which we worked and I’d be upfront in stating that we do not have a grinding unit in Bihar.
So during the period of Bihar elections as we all know, rail movement in Bihar was hugely impaired because the railways allocated trains for passenger movement in preference to goods movement. So we not having a grinding unit there, we were handicapped. But at the same time while the handicap has not bothered us so much because the growth which came in Bihar we see that the growth has been primarily on the non trade sector and in non trade. Khalif, how much has been the growth in December we have seen 100% growth in Bihar. Bihar is almost 99% Bihar, almost 99% growth we have seen as per our estimate has grown in non trade.
So we did not participate in that. Whatever material we took there, we sold it in trade. And so we are not unhappy about that in UP area. There we have not only maintained our realization, we have been able to improve our realization. Despite the fact that many of our again our peer group and competition focused heavily into non trade people. As we have seen and you know better, they have sold almost 50% of their volumes in non trade. They have their own reasons. Some of them have got newer plants and they had to do capacity utilization because of incentives which they get from the state.
But we stayed again because we believe in our brand. We believe in the long term, you know, benefits of having our brands. And therefore we do not want to veer from the strategy and dilute our equity in the market. We hold on to that. And as a result, during this period how we have been able to increase our realization higher than others is because our premium prices we held steady volumes. Percentage volume of premium went up. Our premium volume which has gone up to what? 60%. What is the number? 63% it has gone up to now.
If you see the gap between premium and our popular is one thing. But actually because due to this whole aberration in the market and huge pressure on non trade. The general popular segment prices went down further. As a result, the delta of our premium brand vis a vis the delta of vis a vis the popular brand. Generally in the market which operate at point in time about 30 rupees. Generally that even in some places it went up to 40 rupees premium. As you all know, and this is published information or information open domain. The trade and non trade prices during this period sometimes has gone up to upwards of 60 rupees to our estimates.
We have seen in the market even 80 rupees difference. And that is where, you know, it required a lot of resolve, a lot of determination for us not to get swayed. Stay with the strategy. And we think therefore, you know, that spared us results. We had certain where we got affected in terms of bottom line. Apart from the exceptional item which everybody has had to put for the labor code. We did have some continuing problems in. In some of our plants. A couple of them were more to do with environment, industrial relations sort of problem and you know, external factors.
And in our own plant we have had again we had some breakdowns in one of our plants over there. Due to which in Madhya Pradesh, due to which some of our volume disruptions, patches Got constrained. So that’s taken. We had to take a hit on that account. But in terms of as I said in sales strategy, marketing strategy, I am personally very vindicated. At the end of incidentally I finished three years of my stint as managing director. I too was supposed to retire on the 31st of December but I have. The management is extended, the board has extended my tenure so I’m still here.
Otherwise I would not have been probably addressing this conference for you. So at the end of three years the journey which we had embarked on at the beginning of 2023, I personally feel vindicated and I say this with some degree of, you know, modest satisfaction. Thank you very much. I will now pass it on to my colleagues to do a quick wrap up and then open up for question. Anything you want to add? We can open it for questions and as I said everybody is in a hurry. We have had our board meetings in the morning. All of that we are also taking tired so we will not stretch the call too much. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on the touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask questions please press star and 1. The first question is from Shravan Shah from Dholat Capital. Please go ahead.
Shravan Shah
Hi sir. Thank you sir I have couple of questions but I understand that you normally don’t allow but request you to allow me first a couple of data points which will be helpful to everybody. Mukundban volume for this quarter. CC ratio Capex for nine month net date incentive for third quarter.
Sandip Ghose
Yeah, we’ll respond to those.
Aditya Saraogi
Volume was 6.3 lakhs. 6.3 reactance was the volume. I don’t have the exact CC ratio. It will be in the future of 0.6162. 0.6 9.6 huh?
Shravan Shah
Yeah. Console level CC ratio would be 1.53.
Aditya Saraogi
1.6 actually.
Shravan Shah
1.6. Okay, got it.
Aditya Saraogi
Approximately in that phase.
Sandip Ghose
1.58.
Aditya Saraogi
1.58.
Shravan Shah
Okay, got it.
Aditya Saraogi
Effects for 9 months was around 300 crores.
Shravan Shah
Okay.
Aditya Saraogi
and what else? Net debt incentive.
Aditya Saraogi
Incentives in this quarter we have booked about 8 crores .
Sandip Ghose
Incentive as you realize is obviously lower because of the GST correction.
Aditya Saraogi
Yeah, yeah.
Shravan Shah
Yeah.
Aditya Saraogi
2550 crores 5.
Shravan Shah
and Kel cost?
Aditya Saraogi
1.47.
Shravan Shah
1.47 yeah. So now considering it’s a good to see that in terms of our both trade and premium volume growth there is a decent growth of 8% and 15% plus it is only the non trade which has actually impacted the overall here. So now given that what we understand is non trade prices have kind of gone up. If you can also quantify what we hear is 15, 20 odd rupees. So in that scenario now we will still continue with our strategy and how do we now see in terms of the volume growth going forward for this quarter and maybe going forward given the, the capacity that we will be adding maybe by end of this March, 1.4 million ton. So and the race will be coming in the FY27 and 28 and 29. So just trying to understand how one can look at the volume growth going forward.
Sandip Ghose
Saket, first of all, Shravan first of all. Yes. You know Saketa is always top of mind because he is always in the questions. He sends questions before the conference, after the conference. So sorry for.
Shravan Shah
I thought, I thought I will be in your mind.
Sandip Ghose
No, of course you are on my mind now. Top of mind because each one is in a different way. Now the point is Shravan, we on non trade, I will tell you it might sound strange to you. We don’t even look at non trade prices. We don’t look at non trade prices because ideally we will not try to sell a single ton. When we sell in non trade. If we have to sell something then we see whether it makes sense for us to sell it or not. So whether non trade has gone by 10 rupees, 15 rupees is not of concern to us until we are unable to sell the trade volumes.
So that is where our focus, that is where our sales teams focus is. And we kind of, if they come, somebody comes to me with a non trade proposal, we consider it to be, you know, people hesitate because people will think that we think they are not able to sell trade. That’s why they are coming to us with non trade. So our strategy is not going to change on trade, non trade and because it can only change if there are situations so dramatically change happens that by which non trade prices go higher than trade or realization in non trade is higher than trade which we don’t see happening at least in a foreseeable period given our capacity constraints, given that we operate almost 100% or sometimes 100% plus capacity in some places.
Non trade is not at all of concern to us. Rest of it is we are looking at overall growth. I suppose 4 to 5% in line with what industry has done in this quarter. Although there is a surge in demand but it is not upsurge or it is not like you have a very very buoyant situation this quarter. We are looking at in this quarter but with greater interest volume we know will come again. Our situation is slightly different because we are already selling enough. Our focus is to see where the prices are. We hope the prices will improve. And in that context we sometimes look at a non trade to see if non trade is improving. We hope the trade prices will also go up. So that’s broadly the strategy. Thank you.
Shravan Shah
Yeah. Lastly sir, Capex now for full year last time we said 800 odd corrode so and possible for next year how much one can look at because both our expansions roughly 4,400 crore is the announced Capex. So if you can help us better.
Sandip Ghose
You know us better. We don’t we look at at the present. That is what we think matters. We never talk of the guidance.
Aditya Saraogi
So for the next year we will give the guidance in the next call. Okay.
Sandip Ghose
Okay.
Shravan Shah
So in fourth quarter how much Capex or more.
Sandip Ghose
We already said that you were not Paying attention.
Aditya Saraogi
less than the earlier. Okay.
Shravan Shah
Okay. Okay. Thank you sir. And all the best.
Sandip Ghose
Thank you very much. Thanks so much. Have a nice weekend. Now part.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Patanjali Srinivasan from Sundaram Mutual fund. Please go ahead.
Pathanjali Srinivasan
Hi sir. How are you sir? Thank you for the opportunity.
Sandip Ghose
Thank you. Always a pleasure.
Pathanjali Srinivasan
General doubts I have like your unit cost of production has gone down quite a bit compared to the last year. So there some of your initiatives seem to have been working. There is just one doubt I have though is that our share of premium has gone up. Our share of trade has gone up. But our profitability is not reflecting that part. Because our cost reduction quarter on quarter is about 200 rupees from 24 to 25. But EBITDA has gone up by 160 rupees. So what am I missing here?
Sandip Ghose
Essentially the pricing issue is what you’re missing. Because Central region etc. Prices have been depressed. Only area where price was slightly decent was north. And that is about less than one third of our volumes. And Maharashtra also prices were. Are not there. So that’s the only thing you are missing. So despite our increasing, you know, proportion of blended etc. We couldn’t. We obviously couldn’t make up for loss in realization. And we have said that you know in some cases, some part we’ve also Lost a little bit in volumes because of issues. So that is what has happened. But aren’t you happy overall with our, you know, the what realization and the premiumization and our focus on blended?
Pathanjali Srinivasan
So your journey has definitely been very encouraging because you’ve grown more on trade and you’ve increased share of premium. But I’m just trying to see the. If it comes through in numbers then I’ll be much happier. So that’s.
Sandip Ghose
That’s my coming through, boss. I think the one error you people make is we still, and we are not at all shy about that. We still have a popular component in our sale. We are premium as our definition is much, much higher than anybody else who is talking of premiumization now certainly in the our category, but we operate in popular segment and that we would continue to do. We don’t want to vacate that segment space. We have got heritage brands there, strong brands, legacy brands over there. And we, as I was explaining earlier, we find in clinker realization some places we get very good clinker realization in our popular brands.
We don’t want to vacate that. So we will continue to look at that. And so therefore in a combined way the problem arises if you were to just simply see us as a premium company and compare us with others. But again the people who are selling premium, I don’t want to take names who were earlier at a certain level. You will see from the results you’ll get an idea of how the even the B2C market has moved during this quarter.
Pathanjali Srinivasan
This quarter I’m quite happy with your earnings number, sir. Only thing is the volume. You mentioned that there was some bit of challenge in one of the plants. Is there any possibility, can you quantify how much impact in volume terms we would have had because of that? Like how many?
Sandip Ghose
We would not like that because the combination of lot of things. I told you one plant there was a little bit of technical problem. Another place we had some sort of an IR problem and another place it was more of logistics related issues, not logistics issues but all that. So it’s a combination and this is part of the game. So I don’t want to separately spell it out.
Pathanjali Srinivasan
Got it sir. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Harshal Mehta from Amstech. Please go ahead.
Harshal Mehta
Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Two quick questions of mine. Firstly on pricing. So what you mentioned that competition is intense and price increase might be limited going ahead. So is this across all our operating regions or is mainly to do with the central region that Was one. And when do we expect this competitive intensity to ease out? Also if you can just help with how our sports cement prices versus the average of Q3 across all our regions in both trade and non trade. So that was on pricing and secondly on market share. So in this quarter like you said, we appear to have lost market share and that is particularly on the non trade side as prices remain weak. So what gives us the confidence that we will again be able to regain our lost market share as prices recover? Yeah.
Sandip Ghose
See first of all let me start with the market share. I don’t see the relevance of market share in terms of non trade. We are not in that space at all. We look at our market share in the trade segment, in the B2C segment and there we don’t think we have lost market share. In fact we would have improved market share in certain places, you know, by a couple of basis points. And that is what we focus on because our concerns are very different. Some people have set up newer capacity, they’re operating at a very low CU.
I’m operating at 100% CU capacity utilization level. Somebody who is operating at 55, 60% they will sell non trade because if they have set up also units where basis of incentive they would like to sell more and get it as a result. That’s why you have seen how non trade prices shrank in the last quarter. So we are not in that game and we are not even worried about. As I said, I’ll be very happy. My market share in non trade is zero and I’m selling everything in trade. So it’s not. So that’s not a game which we are in and we are looking at purely on market share.
So therefore I was seeing some of the commentaries of other analysts who have written about market share loss, etc. Sorry, we don’t see market share in that view. We think the relevance of market share is essentially in the B2C and I come from an FMCG background. Therefore for me that’s what makes sense. You never look at industrial sales etc. And think of market share there. So that’s the point. Spot prices. I don’t think that will be indicative to say in any specific market. We believe that our in terms of our, what we call our premium category we are not only at par some places we may be a couple of between two to five rupees higher than the top brand in that category.
By premium our definition is frankly we say the A category players. The second player in the category, our belief is their pricing Position is diluted significantly in most key markets. So there is one player with whom we kind of compare and from them we are either at par or as I said, couple of rupees higher in some market, maybe even five rupees higher. When you come to the popular segment, that’s the B category segment. We firmly believe from the general B category status our prices are at least 10 rupees higher than the B category players in the in where we have our, you know, heritage brands or legacy brands.
I’m talking about heritage and legacy. To be spelled it out for you is Samrat in central zone. In the north zone it is Chetak. These are our heritage brands. We sell some amount of those brands in the Maharashtra region. But that’s where it is not a heritage brand. That’s a popular brand. So I’m not considering there. In Maharashtra our focus is purely on perfect plus. We are a small player in the east, that West Bengal and they’re unique plus has done extremely well. We sell in a very limited geography close to our. We don’t want to spread thin.
We don’t have those volumes. That has done well and gives us excellent clinker realization because it’s a slag cement and we are able to do that. To reveal a secret, I’ll tell you we initially people had laughed at me when I had said in some of these conference calls that we may find it profitable if we have excess clinker in Mukudban to bring it all the way to Zurgapur. We are actually finding that is true even now. And that’s partly because our clinker cost in Mukudban is very, very competitive. One of the best in the industry. So that’s broadly the position. How I will answer your question may not have satisfied you totally. But that’s all I can reveal at the moment.
Harshal Mehta
Thanks. Just on the competitive room, just help me like when do you expect that to ease out?
Sandip Ghose
Come again.
Harshal Mehta
When you expect that to ease out.
Sandip Ghose
Competitive intensity. See competitive intensity. For us the only area of competitive intensity issue is in central. But central again the competitive intensity, there are two parts to it. We were concerned about how the competition is going to take us on in terms of the trade segment we are finding for whatever reason or the people who we are expecting, they seem to be more concerned about their volumes and the volumes they are trying to get from non trade. We thought they will probably try to get it by deep discounting in the trade segment. But they seem to probably find it better to sell non trade or they have not been able to penetrate the trade market or create their own distribution network.
So well acceptance of the brand and their brands in those places in the trade network is probably not as good. So they. They’re not getting similar amount of traction. So they find it much easier to sell in non trade. So that per se is not affecting us. Our. Really the point of reckoning is I told you without naming them some of the A category brands and we tried to be over there and go on consolidating our share over there in terms of competitive intensity. In the north we are a very small player. We put just 6 or 7% market share there.
So competitive intensity does not affect us in that way except for the price levels in the market. Similarly in the east in Maharashtra there again overall if you see competitive intensity doesn’t affect us that much except in our core market of Vidarva and and Khandesh that area their competitive intensity. And there has been some changes which have happened over there recent times due to some consolidation factors. Brands have changed hands. Even existing brands have tried to do some kind of rationalization. They’re trying to do brand rational. So those have changed the dynamics in those markets. But that has actually worked to our advantage.
Harshal Mehta
Thanks for the detailed answers and all the best.
Sandip Ghose
Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Pratik Kumar from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Prateek Kumar
Hello. Yeah, good evening sir. I have a question. Next round of expansion. What are the timelines we are looking at for the next round of clinker expansion in your central region?
Sandip Ghose
Essentially we are looking at. First of all we have already said The Kundankanj line 3 will come on stream in this quarter itself. And then we are looking at line two. Essentially that will be FY28 is when we are looking at it. And in parallel with that we’ll come up our grinding first two grinding units.
Aditya Saraogi
So that will take our total capacity to 24.2 million tons by FY28 and by FY29 we trying to take this capacity up to 27.6 million tons.
Prateek Kumar
Okay, sorry, is the 28 to 29 bridge of 3 million ton.
Aditya Saraogi
Sorry.
Prateek Kumar
What is the bridge from 28? 24.2 to 27.6. What are the additions here?
Aditya Saraogi
So here the will be doubling the capacity at the crinkle capacity and together with that we’ll put up a straight grinding unit in Gaya and Paya garage in Uttar Pradesh. In phase two we will have a further expansion of 1.4 million ton. In phase one we’ll put 1.4 million ton. And phase two also we’ll put another 1.4 million ton in Daya in Bihar. And together the guy can northern part to west part to western up maybe earlier or somewhere close by being time to put about 2 million ton. This is broadly restricted of 24.2 and 27.3.
Sandip Ghose
That’s the visibility we have. And then we will see as you know that
Aditya Saraogi
There might be some putting in terms of the location of grand but this is probably the broadly.
Sandip Ghose
The thing and we are trying to consolidate our limestone holdings. So what you’ll have seen in terms of our mines acquisition etc. So that’s where our focus lies.
Prateek Kumar
So I just clarity on Clinker. So Clinker and expansion of these all grinding units is. Is in FY 29 not FY 28. That’s what you said 28.
Aditya Saraogi
By 28 the increase in capacity will be 4.2 million tonight. And by FY 29 will have another 3.4 million tons. So at the end of FY 28 the capacity to be increased from 20 to 24.2. And by FY 29 it will increase from 24.2 to 27.6.
Prateek Kumar
Sure. One other question is on your recently some mine in Rajasthan got cancelled or delayed. Can you elaborate on that? That was my last question.
Sandip Ghose
We are examining that. You know that has happened but we are examining the decision and we don’t want to comment on it just now.
Aditya Saraogi
We are looking at various options including the legal options.
Sandip Ghose
Yeah, if we have to pursue a legal option we will see because we have. We don’t see clearly any justification for. For. Because this was not that we are the only bidders who got it. There’s multiple bidders who after bidding the Scott we. Because we got that we did not bid for some of the other mines which had come out in the name come up in the neighborhood. So we don’t think it has been a very equitable decision. We are examining options as Mr. Sarogi said and we’ll have. You’ll probably have an answer answer in that in the coming coming few weeks.
Prateek Kumar
And this mine was towards expansion at the rice and plant or just extension of life of the business. Okay, that was my question. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Raghav Maheshwari from Equal Securities. Please go ahead.
Raghav Maheshwari
Hello sir. Just one thing. What is the timeline we are looking for Kundanganj Line two commissioning earlier. I think you guided for this quarter end.
Sandip Ghose
Yes, we said that within this quarter. Within this quarter Line three We said that earlier you probably missed it that we’ll be doing it this quarter. Thank you.
Raghav Maheshwari
And sir, just one thing on realization side. What’s my reading? Firstly on the congratulations a great set of a trade percentage and the premium product side. But just wanted to understand one thing. Despite being a highest trade channel and highest one of a premium product mix into the category of overall sell our real EBITDA per ton is still lower in the terms of a B category size of player. Is it despite our base price. Base product price is a very low realization. Or our premium product is a realign with the base price or base product price of some bigger.
Sandip Ghose
We don’t align our premium product price with the base product. We try and peg it with the market. In fact that is our clear this thing there is no one our sales team. Nobody speaks of our base product plus X or premium minus X etc. So that is not there. It’s a function of couple of things. You see we have got a. You will realize our cost. We’ve got certain disparities. We’ve got legacy plants, we’ve got new plants, new plants. The costs are very competitive. Legacy plants, the costs are much higher. So the average cost changes.
And some of the legacy the new plants may not be as proximate to the market. To be very clear, Sapna is much closer to up Myher though the costs are much better. Myher is further down. So it takes. You know there is an additional component we have to. So those that are the cost elements which come in and then when you look at it overall it’s a weighted average. So in the weighted average situation it’s a known fact. Again other competitors have also commented central region price has been the most challenged or tight as opposed to what north has been.
So our presence in north is less. Even whatever presence we have our northern plant, all of you know that because of a certain reason our costs are high. So you would not be making that kind of margin with some others would be making newer plants. And so some of them in terms of their thing when you are talking of. I don’t know who you meant in terms of B category players. Some of the players who have who I would think you are talking about, they have got very very new plants located in places so their cost of production would be lower.
They also have advantage of incentive which we don’t have today. So they are even selling OPC at an incentive. Okay. And getting incentive on OPC. So that’s the reason why 60, 80 rupees price difference came up. Because they could undercut prices because they had an incentive package in those states. So those are all kind of factors. But we know we have limitations in our EBITDA and we are working consciously to that on multiple fronts to see how do we take our EBITDA to the level which we had earlier indicated, the guidance which we had given.
But due to circumstances beyond our control, there has been a slide even from, you’ll see last quarter of previous fiscal to now. And for reasons all of us know that’s how the market and everything has moved. So but we are working therefore on every front. We know we have a limitation in size, limitation in capacity. So we’ll have to squeeze the lemon from all directions, which we are doing. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from Saket Kapoor from Kapoor company Please go ahead.
Saket Kapoor
Hello.
Sandip Ghose
Hi Saket.
Saket Kapoor
Namaskar, sir. And thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Yeah. In the earlier press releases also we have mentioned about our foray into the RMC business and, and its contribution to rise going ahead. So what, what’s correctly the thought process and so you have mentioned about pricing for the central market and the northern market. Our prices behaved in the eastern market because I think some capacity additions have happened there also.
Sandip Ghose
You are sitting in Calcutta. Saket, you should. We are a very small player here. You should tell me about the pricing in eastern market and what is happening. You have a better sense of the market. We are a very small player. We have a very good clinker realization here because we have a good brand, small brand, but a good brand. And we sell in a limited geography. We mostly sell PSC slack cement, mostly flax cement and that too in the proximity of our plants. So that is fine. We really, you know, we don’t even think of the big players because they are far too big for us in this region.
Whether you talk of Dalmia, Ultratech, Adani, we are just a drop in the ocean for them. So we float as the market goes and try to maximize our realization. So that’s as far as east is concerned. I don’t know what more to add in terms of Central and north that, that we’ve already covered and on rmc, as we have said, we are making. It’s still not a big ticket item for us. We are making steady progress. I think today we are focusing on areas, we are trying to clearly see brand synergies and our market presence.
So so far we are progressing only in UP. I think we are on the fifth plant, if I’m not mistaken, in RMC no. 3 to Ho Chukai Varanasi and Varuncy I think is almost done. So it’s a small thing. We are just testing the waters because we know a lot of big people have burned their fingers burned and we don’t have it know some people have the strategy because again they have additional volume. They want to utilize their cement through rmc. We don’t have any such thing. In fact sometimes my RMC business head finds it cheaper to buy other people cement and talk to Mr. Mahapatra Pramanik. Mr. Pramanik is very tight fisted. So he so very often he is able to get OPC and we don’t make OPC if we help it. We don’t want to make opc. They get OPC from outside. So it’s still early days. We are figuring out our strategy and we would like to move cautiously there in the market.
Saket Kapoor
Okay. And with Kundankanj line being commercialized for Q4 last year Q4 we did volume of 5.25. And taking into account how the what the strength you have spoken about the uptake in the volume for January also does the 5.25 number looks good. The base looks good. For us to report growth on this Number.
Sandip Ghose
we have talked of 3 to 4% growth. We will do that.
Saket Kapoor
Sir for nine months we have already done that. So I was just looking at this.
Sandip Ghose
Fall also we are not really setting up too much of Kudangan. Capacity will come by juggling around where we are grinding etc. So that is what we’ll do. We are moderate and we are giving up. As you saw we are not running after volumes in non trade etc. 5.5%. Why split hair on that?
Saket Kapoor
And lastly sir on the jute part sir questions.
Sandip Ghose
You can’t go on adding questions.
Saket Kapoor
Okay sir if you allow then I last question on jute and I’ll then.
Sandip Ghose
Impact on the bottom line. Why do you want to take other people’s time on? Thank you for keeping it short.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from Shavan Shah from Dholat Capital. Please go ahead.
Shravan Shah
Hi sir.
Sandip Ghose
Second innings you asked the maximum number of questions and we were most forthright to give you all the answers.
Shravan Shah
Yeah sir, thank you very much sir. It was kind of a data point which is I think relevant for everybody. So they’re only just. Only the data points. So actually after the call we normally don’t get a chance to any any data points. So basic just a historically maybe FY24, 25 or maybe nine months KKL per kg and power units which normally is 65, 66, whatever. So what is the number for us? And KCL per kg which is 720, 730 whatever. So broader. And the power cost of. Why I am asking is just trying to understand the green share. Once it increases further how one can see the. The power cost can. Can come down.
Sandip Ghose
No one does such a granular thing. Okay, we’ll keep it. Thank you Shavan.
Shravan Shah
Okay, thank you.
operator
Next question is from Rajesh Kumar Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Sandip Ghose
I don’t see his name on the queue. Rajesh, your name is not in the queue. How are you coming in from backdoor entry.
Rajesh Ravi
So I just wanted to know this. Capex spread which you talked about. This, my clinker and the other grinding unit. So tentatively, obviously we’ll be taking these CAPEX FY27 onward. So what is the total project cost and how much we have already incurred if any of these projects and any broad ballpark number, how would that be split between two to three years?
Aditya Saraogi
See overall project cost is around 4750 crores including GST. Net of GST it is about 4200 to.
Rajesh Ravi
Okay.
Aditya Saraogi
And we can’t give you realize at this juncture. Maybe in the next conference call you can give you an indication of how much crypto we are going to incur in the next year. And of course you can derive from there.
Rajesh Ravi
Sure, sure. And this fuel cost this quarter has gone up, right? Q3 versus Q2 marginally come down it was around 1.5.
Aditya Saraogi
It has D down to 1.4 whatever.
Rajesh Ravi
Oh 1.47. Okay. And what is the trend you’re looking at in Q4 and what is your fuel mix? Broadly it may increase marginally.
Aditya Saraogi
So at this country we are looking at 1.5 rupees per thousand kilo carry in Q4.
Rajesh Ravi
Okay. And fuel mixer between petcoke linkage and you know, imported coal about 30% is.
Aditya Saraogi
Pet coke and imported coal and 70% is indigenous domestic.
Rajesh Ravi
Yeah, great. That’s all from my end. Over to you.
Sandip Ghose
Thank you very much. So we’ll close it now?
operator
Yes sir, that was the last question. Would you like to give any closing comments?
Sandip Ghose
No, nothing. Thank you very much for joining us on a Saturday afternoon. Let’s all hope for a very good budget tomorrow. And we hope the international markets also are. There is less volatility for various reasons which will help us all to plan our year better. Thank you once again and once more all the best for 2026. Bye.
operator
Thank you. Very much on behalf of HDFC Securities. That concludes the conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your lines.