Cement
v1 · draft
Summary
India's cement chain starts at captive limestone mines and pulls in fly ash from power plants, slag from steel mills, and coal and petcoke for the kiln. Integrated plants turn these into clinker and cement, which moves mostly by road to dealers, ready-mix plants and project sites, with bulk movement by rail now starting to grow. Value pools with the large cement makers, which own the limestone, the kilns and the brands, and the industry is consolidating through acquisitions. CRISIL puts India's installed capacity at 668 MT as of March 2025, with utilisation at about 70% in FY25, and expects grinding capacity to rise by 160 to 170 MT between FY26 and FY28, so the question is whether demand from housing and infrastructure keeps pace.
Why now
India is the second-largest cement producer in the world, accounting for more than 8% of global installed capacity, and the industry is entering one of its biggest expansion phases: CRISIL Ratings expects grinding capacity to rise by 160–170mn tonnes between FY25-26 and FY27-28, a 75% jump on the 95MT added in the past three years. At the same time the largest groups are buying rivals, Railways has rewritten cement freight rules to push bulk movement, and cement plants now carry legally binding emission intensity targets under India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme.
Value chain snapshot
| 1 | Limestone & Additives | Limestone mining plus fly ash, slag and gypsum blended into cement. | medium |
| 2 | Kiln Fuel & Power | Coal, petcoke, waste-derived fuels and waste heat recovery power. | low |
| 3 | Plant Equipment & Engineering | Kilns, preheaters, coolers, grinding mills and plant engineering. | medium |
| 4 | Clinker & Cement Making | Integrated plants make clinker. Grinding units turn it into branded cement. | high |
| 5 | Ready-Mix Concrete | Batching plants that turn cement, aggregates and admixtures into concrete delivered to site. | low |
| 6 | Logistics & Dealers | Road, rail and sea freight, forwarding depots, bulk terminals, dealers and branded retail. | medium |
| 7 | Construction & End Use | Individual home builders, real estate, and infrastructure and industrial projects. | medium |
Indian players
- UltraTech Cement (Clinker & Cement Making)
- Ambuja Cements (Clinker & Cement Making)
- ACC (Clinker & Cement Making)
- Shree Cement (Clinker & Cement Making)
- Dalmia Bharat (Clinker & Cement Making)
- JSW Cement (Clinker & Cement Making)
Global reference points
- Fuller Technologies (Plant Equipment & Engineering)
- Loesche (Plant Equipment & Engineering)
Non-obvious insight
New capacity is being built near buyers rather than at the quarry: CRISIL expects about two-thirds of the additional capacity to come from split grinding units placed closer to consumption centres, which cut freight costs and take one to two years to build against three to four for integrated plants.
Core assumption
Housing and infrastructure demand keeps growing fast enough to absorb the wave of new capacity without a lasting fall in utilisation or prices.
Things to watch
- Industry capacity utilisation holding near, or falling well below, the around 70% level CRISIL expects over the three fiscals
- Cement prices per bag and operating margins reported by ICRA through FY27
- Union Budget capital expenditure and rural housing allocations in the next two budgets
Educational research only. Not investment advice. Not a SEBI registered adviser or research analyst. Sources are listed on the full map.