UltraTech Cement’s latest quarterly results highlight its growing lead in India’s cement sector amid fierce competition and rapid capacity expansion by industry giants, reshaping the market landscape.
UltraTech Cement’s latest quarterly numbers reinforce just how far India’s biggest cement maker has pulled ahead. The company reported double-digit growth in domestic sales, revenue and profit in the quarter ended 30 June, even as higher fuel costs kept a lid on margins. Business Standard said net profit rose about 17% year on year to ₹2,599.3 crore, while domestic sales volumes increased 13.1% to 39.2 million tonnes. Operating EBITDA per tonne held at ₹1,214, underscoring how scale and execution continue to support earnings. UltraTech also said its domestic grey cement capacity crossed 200 million tonnes a year in April, with global capacity reaching 205.5 million tonnes a year by the end of June.
That performance stands in contrast to Ambuja Cements, which has become the centrepiece of Adani Group’s expanded cement platform. Earlier reporting from CemNet said Ambuja’s profit after tax fell 37% year on year to ₹5.04bn in the period, with volumes dropping from 18.4 million tonnes to 17.1 million tonnes and EBITDA sliding from ₹1,069 a tonne to ₹931. The company’s efforts to raise prices in April were partly rolled back as competition intensified, a sign that the market remains highly contested despite strong underlying demand.
The rivalry between UltraTech and Adani reflects a much broader reshaping of India’s cement industry. Over the past decade, consolidation has dramatically altered the sector’s structure. UltraTech has absorbed businesses including India Cements and Kesoram’s cement operations, while Adani has built out the former Ambuja-ACC base through acquisitions including Sanghi Industries, Penna Cement and Orient Cement. Together, the two groups now control roughly 309 million tonnes of annual capacity, compared with about 126 million tonnes a decade ago, according to CemNet’s analysis. UltraTech alone has more than tripled its domestic capacity in that period.
The expansion wave is not limited to the two giants. Stronger second-tier producers such as Shree Cement, Dalmia Bharat, JK Cement and Nuvoco Vistas are also pressing ahead with investment, creating what may become a self-reinforcing capacity race. ICRA estimated in March that 47 million to 49 million tonnes of capacity would be added in FY26 and another 35 million to 37 million tonnes in FY27, with utilisation forecast to stay near 70% to 72%. That suggests India is not facing an outright overcapacity crisis, especially with production having reached 480.57 million tonnes in 2025, but it does mean that new supply is arriving fast enough to keep pricing power limited. For smaller regional players, that is the most worrying part of the story: they have less room to absorb weak prices, while the largest groups can keep investing, expanding and using their balance sheets to win market share.
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