Adani Cement eyes measured growth, defers ambitious FY28 targets

Mumbai: Adani Cement, the country’s second biggest manufacturer of the primary building material, would focus on ramping up utilisation and rationalising its existing capacities while calibrating its capital expenditure, the company’s senior management said on Monday. “Maybe, the target plan of FY28, it could move a year or two. On a safer side I would say FY30,” said the chief executive officer, Vinod Bahety.

Cement offtake is typically linked to real GDP growth, and often runs at a function of about 1.2 times to the long period growth average. Companies typically begin stepping up capacities when utilisation crosses the 80% threshold consistently.

The Adani Group had forayed in the Indian cement space in 2022 with the largest-ever acquisition in the materials space, bringing on board around 70 million tonnes of capacity after it purchased Ambuja Cements and ACC, the latter being the oldest manufacturer of the commodity in the subcontinent. It had earlier forecast doubling capacity to 140 million tonne by FY28, and late last year, raised this target to 155 million tonne.

“What matters is how you are able to ramp up volume from overall existing assets, and I have substantial headroom. Even if I hit 120 million tonnes by the end of 27, it will give me a good leverage of the overall market opportunity,” Bahety said. The company currently has a production capacity of 109 million tonne.