Star Cement hosted conference call on February 06, 2025. In the conference call the company was represented by Mr Dilip Kumar Agarwal –Chief Commercial and Corporate Affairs Officer and Mr Manoj Agarwal-CFO.

Key takeaways of the call

Q3FY2025

Clinker production stood at 6.42 lac tonnes in Q3FY2025 as against 7.37 lac tonnes in Q3FY2024

Cement Production stood at 10.82 lac tonnes in Q3FY2025 as against 9.81 lac tonnes in Q3FY2024.

Cement sales of 10.61 lac tonnes in Q3FY2025 as against 9.70 lac tonnes in Q3FY2024.

Cliker sales was at 0.07 lac tones in Q3FY2025.

Geography wise North East sales stood at 8.30 lac tones in Q3FY2025 as against 7.32 lac tonnes in Q3FY2024. Outside North East cement stood at 2.31 lac tonnes in Q3FY2025 as against 2.38 lac tonnes.

Assam contribution in the overall North east sales stood at 55%.

With respect to blend 11% was OPC and the rest was PPC.

Revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 719 cr in Q3FY2025 as against Rs 651 cr in Q3FY2024.

PBIDT stood at Rs 107 crore in Q3FY2025 as against Rs 153 crore in Q3FY2024.

PAT stood at Rs 9 crore in 32Fy2025 as against Rs 74 crore in Q3FY2024. Decline in profit was due  to increase in depreciation on account of capitalization of new 2 MT capacity at Guwahati and clinker unit in Meghalaya.

Per ton EBITDA stood at Rs 1000/ton as against Rs 1576 /ton in Q3FY2024.

Trade mix for the quarter stood at 81% and the balance was non trade.

Lead distance for the quarter was 222 kms .

Premium mix stood at 12% in Q3Fy2025 of the trade sales.

Fuel mix: FSA coal contributed 60%; 20% was contributed by bio mass and 20% was Nagaland coal.

Fuel cost for Q3FY2025 stood at Rs 1.5per K cal .

Incentives: The company has received incentives of Rs 43 crore in Q3 and expect to receive incentives in the range of Rs 50-60 crore in Q4FY2025. It depends on volumes.

Other expenses: Other expenses increased due to maintenance shutdown of plant which resulted in  increase in cost by Rs 10 crore. Also, the new plant took time to stabilize as a result the company had to purchase clinker from outside. The company purchased clinker to the tune of Rs 30 crore from outside in Q3FY2025.

Capacity utilization: Silguri capacity utilization was low at 45% in Q3FY2025.

9MFY2025

Revenue for 9MFY2025 stood at Rs 2111 crore as against Rs 1997 crore in 9MFY2024.

PBIDT stood at Rs 321 crore in 9MFY2025 as against Rs 395 crore in 9MFY2024.

PAT stood at Rs 46 crore as against Rs 207 crore in 9MFY2024

EBITDA per ton stood at Rs 1005/ton as against Rs 1304/ton in 9MFY2024.

CAPEX:

The company expects Silchar plant to be commissioned in FY2026 and Jorhat plant in FY2027.

The company expects the WHRS plant to be commissioned in Q4FY2025 and AC block plant is in advance stages and expects the same to be completed in Q4FY2025.

The company has incurred CAPEX of Rs 440 crore in 9M FY2025 and plans to incur another Rs 200-250 crore CAPEX in Q4FY2025.

The company plans incur CAPEX of Rs 600 cr in FY2026 and Rs 300-400 crore in FY2027 towards Silchar and Jorhat plants.

The company is committed to Rajasthan capacity expansion.

Debt: Gross debt stood at Rs 420 crore and net debt at Rs 200 crore as on Dec 31,2024.

Outlook:

The operations in line 3 of new clinker facility are stabilized. The company expects capacity utilization in the range of 70-75% in the new clinker facility in Q4FY2025

The company expects EBITDA of Rs 225-230 crore in Q4FY2025.

The company expects volume growth in the range of 7-8% for the full financial year FY2025 and 10% for Q4FY2025.

Prices are more or less stable in both north east and outside northeast markets and the company expects prices to improve from here.

Price difference between trade and non trade is around Rs 25-30 per bag and the company expects this to increase marginally due  to increase in non trade volumes.

The company expects government to spend around Rs 1 lac crore towards infrastructure in North East which should help in good demand for cement.