India Cements promoters increase share pledge as co finds itself in a tight spot

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₹375 per bag, as per a recent report by ICICI Securities. This, even as input costs in terms of energy saw an uptick during this period. In May 2022, Adani spent $10.5 billion to buy Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC Ltd from Switzerland's Holcim, becoming the country’s second-largest cement manufacturer, behind Aditya Birla’s Ultratech.

After completing the buyout in September, the Ahmedabad-headquartered conglomerate exited the Cement Manufacturers’ Association, which was followed by rising price competition in the sector. This hurt the profitability of smaller cement manufacturers like India Cements, which faced a double whammy of lower prices for cement they made and a fall in volumes hurting their unit economics. India Cements has an installed capacity of 15.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) versus 143.8 mtpa of market leader UltraTech, and over 70 mtpa of the Ambuja-ACC combine under the Adani Group.

“The selling price of cement was lower during the quarter under review due to severe competition caused by supply overhang," India Cements told investors in a press release dated 7 August last year. “Our volume was low because of working capital constraints, we could not sell, for example, we had planned 11 lakh tonnes. (But) we did less than 7 lakh tonnes," Srinivasan told analysts in a post-earnings call on 1 February this year.