India's Ambuja Cements flags demand slowdown and high fuel costs as Q2 risks (updated)

Ambuja Cements

28/07/2026 10:05

Rewrites throughout
July 28 (Reuters) - India's Ambuja Cements ABUJ.NS posted about 37% fall in quarterly profit on Tuesday, its first decline in three quarters, and said rising fuel costs and seasonally weak demand during the monsoon season could further pressure profitability.
Monsoon-related disruptions are expected to slow construction activity and cement demand in the second quarter, while higher petcoke and freight costs continue to squeeze margins in an intensely competitive market that limits producers' ability to raise prices.
"The impact of peak fuel cost inflation is expected to coincide with the seasonally weaker Q2, potentially impacting industry profitability in the near term," the company said. 
Shares of India's No. 2 cement maker by capacity ended down 1.18% after the results.
Profit after tax fell to 5.04 billion rupees ($52.59 million) for the quarter ended June 30 from 7.97 billion rupees a year earlier, hurt by lower volumes and higher costs linked to the Middle East conflict.
Analysts also said that while cheaper fuel inventories helped cushion the first-quarter impact, elevated fuel and freight costs are likely to erode margins further in the coming months.
Although producers raised prices in April to offset higher input costs, strong competition forced partial rollbacks, limiting the benefit. 
The Adani Group-owned Ambuja Cements reported sales volumes of 17.1 million metric tons in the first quarter, down from 18.4 million tons a year ago. 
Operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) per ton contracted to 931 rupees per metric tons from 1,069 rupees from a year ago.
Since acquiring Ambuja Cements from Holcim in 2022, Adani Group has worked to improve efficiency and expand capacity as it seeks to narrow the gap with market leader UltraTech Cement ULTC.NS, which posted a 17% rise in quarterly profit last week.      

 (Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Eileen Soreng)
 ((UrviManoj.Dugar@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9558725583;))