Stockrabit · Analysts
Questions across 9 calls

Puneet Dalmia

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Dalmia Bharat Limited

Dalmia Bharat Limited CC-Jan26.pdf · 2026-01-21
I think our view is that East is one of the lowest per capita consumption regions in the country. And the headroom for growth here is quite high. A lot of the Eastern economy is determined by mining and natural resources. And I think the government is quite focused on unlocking some of these resources and converting them into GDP growth. Also, a lot of infrastructure is being built. So, my personal view is that also given the fact that now to get re -elected, you have to show good development and you have to meet the aspirations of the Indian demographic, which is largely a very young population. So, my belief is that East should definitely be slightly above the national average. And I think 7% to 8% growth in East should be quite easily possible. But again, as I said, there will be blips along the way. This is like, , a large part of Indian consumption is the CAPEX business, whether it is housing or infrastructure. The repair business is quite low in India because India is still being built. And therefore, sometimes CAPEX gets postponed sometimes. But over a slightly longer period, it's more easier to predict quarter-on-quarter, there could be blips. But over a 3 to 5 year period, it evens out. And I think that East should grow in high single digits quite comfortably. Second point is, if I look at pricing, the pricing in East India and South also declined more than the adjustment for GST post 22 nd September. I expect this to come back. And even in Jan uary itself, we are seeing some corrections, although they are still minor and not very meaningful. But I see some upward corrections in January. And this is usually a strong quarter in terms of demand also. So, I think given the fact that there has been excessive correction in prices, and the demand is strong, I expect some price uptick this quarter. But again, as I said, it's hard to say. And long term, I think prices will get driven by consolidation. I think barriers to entry in this business are rising. And higher consolidation will mean higher prices over the medium to long term. That's all. Thank you.
Look, the all-India capacity utilization of the sector is around 70%. I thi nk we will see and reasonable capacity expansion in the pipeline. Our belief is that capacity growth will be around 5%-6% per annum. So, when demand growth, we think maybe 7% -8% per annum. So, really, we don't expect material increase in capacity utilization of the sector over the next few years. Of course, there are regional differences. This is the national average. I believe that the overcapacity in this sector is here to stay, at least for the next foreseeable future . So, what happens is that when new c apacity gets commissioned, at that time there are sometimes there's a volatility in prices. But I think, new projects are viable and acquisitions are viable at the price at which recent transactions have happened at EBITDA, which is much above the current level. So, I believe that there is assuming rational behavior in the sector. My personal view i s that pricing is going to move up over the medium term. And I remain cautious in the short term, but reasonably optimistic in the medium to long term. My position has not changed, but again, as entrepreneurs, we are mostly optimistic. So, I think you shou ld look at the long-term trends in the sector and discount what I want to say if you want to. But I think we are investing behind the growth in India and our deep conviction that there is entry barriers are rising due to limestone auctions and due to not easy to commission new projects. And it's not even easy to integrate acquisitions and turn them around quickly. So, it's a skill which requires a lot of hard work and a lot of focus and a lot of disciplined execution. So, in our view that entry barriers are rising and I think consolidation will yield good results in the long term. And I think the GST thing again is a very big shift. It's almost 10% difference than what it was, consumers are used to paying a higher price and then what is it then what the spot prices are. And in the medium term, at least the prices should easily bounce back to what consumers are used to paying for a period of time. So, over a 2-3 year period, I think that's easily possible. So, I think I remain optimistic.
Dalmia Bharat Limited CC-Oct25.pdf · 2025-10-17
I think Northeast has already started trial run..
I think, again, as I said, every quarter, there w ill be regional mix. Ther e will also be segment mix, which will impact. I think directionally, we are heading in the right direction. And I think we will not be able to comment quarter-to-quarter because there are lots of variables which are at play in every micro market. But directionally, you will see that after 5 quarters of 3-digit EBITDA, Q1 of this year and Q2 of this year is four digit. And I think consistently, we think we are improving our price positioning in every market. And I think we are on the right track.
Dalmia Bharat Limited CC-Jul25.pdf · 2025-07-23
I think the story is not same across all states. There are, as I said in my earlier remarks in the last earnings call, that our priority is to balance volume growth and profit m argins in each market. And I think that strategy is paying off great dividends. We have improved our price positioning in many markets. We have improved realization growth better than what the industry has done with respect to the rebounding of the prices. And we think that we will continue with this strategy, where we will improve the quality of sales, and we will ensure that we achieve profitable volume growth in the coming quarters. So, I think overall, I'm absolutely delighted with the progress. Our brand is getting stronger. Our distribution is getting deeper and our sales productivity is improving. I think the same approach will be done on a granular basis, market by market in the coming quarters.
It's a seasonality effect. It's nothing unusual this year.
Dalmia Bharat Limited CC-Mar25.pdf · 2025-04-24
I think quarter to quarter things change a little bit. But if I look at the whole year , our growth has been 6% as against the industry growth rate of 4% to 5%.
Sumangal, I have said this earlier also. I think we will focus on capacity creation where we think our utilizations are higher and we will balance profitability and volume growth as we go forward. Market by market the situation is very different, and we will take a balanced view in every market depending upon what our immediate objectives are and what our long-term objectives are. So, I think there is no sense in creating capacity where you already have unsold capacity. I think we are very clear about that. We will create capacity where we think we have a cost- competitive position and we have a better cost structure to serve the market and we have a more reliable service that we can provide to our customers. So, I think given all of this you will see a very balanced approach in terms of capacity creation and a very balanced approach in terms of profitability and volume growth.
Dalmia Bharat Limited CC-Dec24.pdf · 2025-01-22
I think as we said that the market growth has been in low single digit in our view. And if we look at this quarter, the sales volume from Dalmia plants has been around 3.7%. We are serving some of the central markets, but we are not serving all markets fro m Dalmia plants. And I also think that if I look at the 9 -month performance, our growth is ahead of the industry growth. So I think overall, there has been a macro slowdown. And that macro slowdown has definitely impacted overall growth for every company. However, I think on a 9-month basis, our growth has been faster than the industry.
I think we don't give our clinker utilization numbers. We share our cement volume numbers and our CC ratio keeps changing, depending upon what's the demand in the market and what product mix we sell.
Dalmia Bharat Limited CC-Sep24.pdf · 2024-10-21
We have already said that we have laid a strong foundation to grow at 1.5x industry growth, and I think we stick to that guide.
I think long term, we want to maintain our cost leadership. We want to invest in our brand. We want to deepen our distribution. And we want to improve our service. So these things will be a continuous journey throughout no matter what happens because it will just improve our ability to service our customers and add value to their businesses. So I would just say that there will be times when industry prioritizes market share over margins. And there will be times when industry will prioritize margins over market share. This happens in every industry. Our industry is no exception. And I think this is the time to improve our efficiencies and just stay very, very focused on execution andinvest in brand and distribution. So I think that's just going to be our strategy market by market and put our heads down and continue to execute well. That's it.
Dalmia Bharat Limited CC-Jun24.pdf · 2024-07-19
Look we are very committed to our long-term roadmap of 100 million ton plus by 2031 and we are doing very detailed work on this, and we will give a very clear -cut timeline along with the locations of where we are going to expand after 12 months.
I think I have already said that we have scope for Brownfield expansion in a few of our plants. And we have mines in Central India as well as in North India which means in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. We are preparing a full blueprint. We will come back to you with a very specific timeline along with all locations after 12 months.
Dalmia Bharat Limited CC-Dec23.pdf · 2024-01-25
I think we would have gained market share in most of our markets.
Also just to add to what Rajiv is saying . We still don't have full control of the manufacturing operations. So the cost structure of these plants is also quite high. And I think to bring them to the Dalmia cost structure, it can be done only once we complete the acquisition. So we are working with a high cost facility, but it is helping us establish ourselves in the market ahead of the deal.