Sector Update | 27 February 2019
Cement
Cement
Please refer to our report
Constant capacity addition to keep cement utilization under check
…however, clinker utilization to improve substantially
Cement utilization to reach 70%, while clinker utilization to improve to 80%
by FY21
The Indian cement industry should witness a capacity addition of ~77mt over
FY19-21E— translating to a capacity addition of ~26mt each year and registering a
6% CAGR over FY19-21E. But, total clinker addition during the same period is
pegged at just 34mt. As a result, cement utilization is expected to increase 5.5pp
to 70%, while clinker utilization should increase 9.4pp to 80% over FY18-21E.
In the recent limestone bids, ~2,330mt of limestone reserves were auctioned
since 2016; of this, 34% reserves are in the western region. The northern and
the eastern regions each comprised 28-29% of the reserves auctioned.
Apart from the 77mt of additional capacities, dormant plants like Kalyanpur and
Murli should also come on stream over FY19-21. The recent ramp-up of Binani’s
assets and its brownfield capacity augmentation will also be a key monitorable.
Northern region to witness maximum utilization improvement
The eastern region should witness maximum amount of capacity addition, to the
extent of 26mt over FY18-21, followed by the southern region witnessing an
addition of 20mt. The northern region seems to be better placed and should
witness capacity addition of only 6mt over the period as a result of which
cement utilization should improve 14pp to 84%.
~34mt of clinker capacity is expected to get added over FY19-21. The western
region is expected to witness the least clinker addition, followed by the eastern
region. Highest amount of clinker addition is expected in South India.
Increase in low cost brownfield expansion to lead to healthy return ratios
The post-tax ROCE for the top-5 players has decreased from 10% in the 1990’s
to 7% currently as replacement costs increased from USD65/t to USD100/t.
Our analysis suggests that ~66% of the capacity put up over FY15-18 was in the
form of high-cost greenfield expansion (typically entails 45% higher capex and
generates lower ROCE).
We expect ~47% of the entire capacity addition over the next three years to be
in brownfield (constitutes 34% of the capacity added over FY15-18). In order to
achieve a post-tax ROCE of 12%, with replacement cost at INR7,800/t for
greenfield and INR4,300 for brownfield, the required EBITDA/t should be
~INR2,159/t and INR1,187/t, respectively.
Garnering market share remains a priority
The Holcim group — which had been a laggard in capacity addition, has now
started focusing on growth, as is evident from its recent capacity expansion
plan.
Pradnya Ganar - Research analyst
(Pradnya.Ganar@motilaloswal.com); +91 22 6129 1537
Motilal Oswal research is available on www.motilaloswal.com/Institutional-Equities, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Factset and S&P Capital.
27 February 2019
Investors are advised to refer through important disclosures made at the last page of the Research Report.
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