UltraTech Cement532538Quarterly results

Q2 FY27 call: net profit up 21%, capacity reaches 204.7 million tons

UltraTech Cement held its Q2 FY27 earnings call on 19 October 2026.

By ScoutQuest · Tue 27 Oct 2026, 2:33 PM IST · 3 min read

Net Profit Growth: Net profit up 21% year-on-year
Sales Volume Growth: Sales volume up 13.8%, ahead of industry growth of closer to 10%
Capacity Utilisation: 71% vs 66% a year earlier

The earnings call is where management explains the quarter just gone and what it expects next. UltraTech's message: volumes and profit grew even as fuel costs rose, and prices have moved up since the quarter ended.

Key outcomes from the quarter

Net profit rose 21% year-on-year, even with higher input costs.
Sales volume grew 13.8%, ahead of the industry, which management estimated would grow closer to 10%.
Capacity utilisation was 71%, higher than a year earlier on a higher base.
Other fixed costs per ton were lower than last year: absolute fixed costs grew at a much slower pace than volumes, which management described as operating leverage working as intended.
Fuel cost per bag moved up to INR51.5 per bag from INR45 a bag, a year-on-year increase management attributed to the West Asia conflict and higher fuel rates.
4.6 million tons of cement capacity was commissioned in September, taking domestic cement capacity to 204.7 million tons. This includes a greenfield plant in Andhra Pradesh and debottlenecking at other units.
Renewable power and waste heat recovery capacity were also added during the quarter, and the share of power needs met from non-fossil fuel sources continues to rise.

Prices

Average pan-India trade prices for the quarter were broadly in line with the previous quarter; a soft August pulled the quarterly average slightly lower.
Prices turned firmly upwards in the second half of September, with trade and non-trade prices both rising, and October saw further increases.
Management said the full benefit of these increases should show up in Q3 earnings rather than immediately, as festive weeks can slow the absorption of higher prices.
Regionally, the South showed the strongest momentum in prices, volumes and utilisation; the East saw rain-related disruption followed by a catch-up from early October.

Demand

Individual homebuilder demand, the backbone of retail cement demand, kept buying through the quarter helped by fewer rain-affected days.
Central government capex was strong through July, though road construction was weak; new project awards have since picked up.
Management said a weak monsoon can hurt farm incomes and, with a lag, rural housing, but non-crop activities now make up a large part of the rural economy and the preceding good monsoon years act as a cushion.
Urban housing, infrastructure and private capex are expected to keep growing strongly, with activity typically picking up after the festive season.

Costs

Pet coke prices have risen sharply; the company has reduced its dependence on pet coke since the last quarter.
Coal India is prioritising the power sector, tightening domestic coal availability for industry, and industrial diesel prices are at an all-time high, affecting mining and transport costs.
Management said these cost pressures are here for some more time, that no direct impact on cement demand has been seen so far, and that the indirect risks watched are higher inflation, tighter monetary conditions and less fiscal room.

Guidance and outlook

Full benefit of the recent price increases is expected to reflect in Q3 earnings.
Management expects further price improvement over the next couple of months.
Demand momentum is expected to strengthen from mid-November, once the festive season and monsoon are fully over.
The company expects to grow stronger than the industry, supported by capacity additions and market reach; one greenfield cement capacity in the South was commissioned during the quarter.
The stated response to cost pressure is price discipline, a richer product mix with premium products, and cost work across fuel sourcing, power and logistics.

How to read this

These are management's own comments on the quarter and its expectations; the price outlook is commentary, not a commitment.
The two things to track are whether the price increases hold through the festive period, and how fuel and diesel costs move, since both feed directly into margins.

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