Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q2 FY 2027 earnings conference call hosted by Nuvoco Vistas Corporation Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen- only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Bishnu Sharma, Head of Investor Relations from Nuvoco. Thank you, and over to you. Thank you, Assisi. Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome to the Nuvoco Vistas earnings conference call for the quarter ended September 30th, 2026. Before we begin, just wanted to state what we have achieved over the past decade. This year we have completed 10 years in the cement business. What began in 2014 with a single manufacturing operation at Nimbol, with a 2.3 million tons of cement capacity, has evolved into a diversified building materials company spanning cement, ready-mix concrete, and modern building materials. October 2016 marked a defining inflection point with the completion of the acquisition of Lafarge. This was followed by the acquisition of Emami Cement in 2020 during the COVID-19 period, which also opened a new phase of growth. The growth agenda was further strengthened with the acquisition of Vadraj Cement Limited. Today, Nuvoco has a diversified manufacturing presence across the East, North, and West and is well-positioned to reach 35 million tons of cement capacity by FY 2028, representing nearly 15 x growth over the past decade. This journey reflects the commitment of our teams and continued trust on our customers, channel partners, and shareholders. Looking ahead, the journey continues, and we have multiple options for growth, including expansion at Gulbarga and in the North. At the same time, we continue to build up strategic limestone resources, which will give us the raw material security to support sustained growth over the long term. Before we open the floor for questions, I'd like to take you through the key developments of the quarter and how the business performed. Let me begin with the operating environment, which was challenging. The Middle East conflict, which towards the end of Q1 and the beginning of Q2 appeared to be settling, escalated once again. This led to a sharp jump in the input prices, including the petcoke, coal, granules, gypsum, et cetera. Petcoke prices, in particular, surpassed the previous peaks we witnessed between March and April. The pressure was not limited to the global front. Domestically, intense and erratic rainfall, especially in the East, brought thermal coal inventories at several power plants across the country to critical levels. As a result, coal supply was prioritized for the power sector. A consequence of this was also reduced rail availability, which disrupted the supply chain and also led to the surge in domestic prices of e-auction coal. A brief trend of this is also being presented in our investor presentation. On the demand side, all India cement demand grew during the quarter, but regional trends varied. The monsoon disrupted construction activity, particularly in the East, while regions with relatively lower rainfall saw better demand. On the other hand, prices did not improve in line with expectations. In short, it was a challenging quarter. Despite these macro challenges, the company delivered a resilient performance. Volume grew by 9% YoY, revenue grew by approximately 14%, and EBITDA grew by 11% on a YoY basis. Our strategic levers of Premix and Geomix supported this performance. Premix reached a historic high of 45%, whereas trade mix remained at 75%. On the project progress on Vadraj Cement Limited, the 2 million tons grinding unit at Limla Cement Plant in Surat was commissioned during the quarter. The addition not only strengthens Nuvoco's manufacturing and distribution presence in Western India but will enable the company to release much needed capacity at Rajasthan plant for the Northern market. At Kutch, project activities are progressing as planned with phased operationalization planned from Q3 FY 2027. The construction of bulk cement terminal at Viramgam Sachana, which will be equipped with a dedicated rail siding is also on track. It will serve as a strategic distribution hub to deepen Nuvoco's presence and expand its reach across the Gujarat market. During the quarter, the company also executed agreement with CleanMax for a 46.4 MW of wind solar hybrid renewable energy project in Rajasthan. Once operational, the project is expected to generate approximately 100 million units of renewable electricity annually and deliver long-term cost certainty by reducing dependence on conventional power sources, thereby strengthening the company's energy mix and improving long-term cost efficiency across Rajasthan. As we enter the upcoming quarters, we expect demand to remain healthy as monsoon conditions have receded in most regions. The company remains focused on delivering growth, and we will continue to be watchful of the geopolitical developments. With that, I'd like to open the floor for questions. Operator, please go ahead. Thank you very much. We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We will take our first question from the line of Navin Sahadeo from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity. I had two questions, but more on the cost front. I am referring to your slide number 11, wherein we are highlighting petcoke prices going up to almost $187. More importantly, the premiums in Coal India across all the subsidiaries more than doubling or going much higher in some cases. My first question is, what was our average fuel cost in Q2? I believe in Q1 we were given a number of INR 1.52. Against that, what was the cost in Q2? At the current spot rates, which we are all worried about, which is $187, and the premiums on long, what will that transpire to on spot basis? I understand inventory comes with a lag, but just to get an impact on an upper end of the spectrum. Okay. Thanks. I guess, first of all, again, just want to proudly inform the 10th anniversary of Nuvoco. Literally for the company. From a single plant, we are now 12 plants and two more in offing. I think we are committed to growing this business and contributing to the growth of the country's infrastructure and housing requirements in the many decades going forward. We are singularly poised to be a significant player in this category in the coming years. Coming to the questions. You had asked what has been our fuel cost from Q1 to Q2. When we did the Q1 earnings call, I had mentioned our fuel cost in Q1 came at INR 1.52 per million kCal, translating to INR 1,005 per ton as energy cost for the company. What has happened in Q2 is this INR 1.52 then creeped all the way up to INR 1.59, and we came at an energy cost of INR 1,080 per ton, technically close to about INR 80 increase in power and fuel cost for the company in Q2 over Q1. As we mentioned in the investor presentation about the petcoke prices as we speak and also what could be the petcoke prices going forward. Currently, petcoke spot prices available at $190, and the current view is, going forward, it may even cross $200 per ton. If you have to translate the $180 and $187 and excess of $200 per ton, the rupees per million kCal will, at $180, and the fuel mix which Nuvoco uses is blended. Whatever fuel we use, AFR, domestic coal, open market coal, and petcoke. Our rupees per million kCal fuel cost in Q3 will come to INR 1.8 as against INR 1.59 in Q2. So there will be an increase of INR 0.21 per million kCal in the fuel which will come in Q3 versus Q2, and that would translate to approximately INR 70 - INR 80 increase in energy cost in Q3 versus Q2. As we speak, we also have to cover fuel for Q4. But one of the good things which our teams have done is we have gone ahead and we have been continuously buying petcoke in the last few months and as we speak as well, so that we have adequate petcoke coverage for the company in Q3 at this rate of INR 1.8. Otherwise, if we had to buy at $187 or $180, this $180 will already cross about INR 2.50. If petcoke prices were to go to $215, the cost will go to INR 3 per million kCal. It will be a phenomenal increase. But we are in a pretty comfortable position. All this quarter we have petcoke and rest of the fuel which will come to only INR 1.8, then increase of about INR 78 per ton. Whatever fuel which we are booking for Q4, again, we have coverage for the months of January until middle of February. The high-cost petcoke will come and hit us sometime in March. So the full impact of the $200 per ton petcoke will come and hit only in March next year. So we are adequately covered for this three months and also a month and a half in Q4. So to sum up, Q1 rupees per million kCal was INR 1.52. Q2 it came at INR 1.59. Delta energy cost about INR 90. Q3 it will come at INR 1.8. Delta energy cost will be INR 70 - INR 80 more than Q2. Yeah. Thank you. Just a clarification that this INR 1.8 that you are mentioning for Q3 also factors in the surge in premiums for Coal India coal and all of that, right? Yeah. Look, Coal India has also come up with auctions for domestic coal. The curve which is shown is the auction rates which are currently trending. An auction came up for 5 lakh tons about two weeks ago, and that was the price which we had indicated. However, we are doing many spot buyings and inventory coverage and also some of the linkage coals which we have, which was a little bit of a challenge to procure in Q2 because of the reasons of power plant needs for coal. Things are slightly easing in the Eastern front and a couple of the coal mines which we have linkage coal, we expect to get coal from early part of November onwards. All this put together, doing conservative local coal and managing the petcoke and domestic coal mix, as well as judicious use of AFR, INR 1.8 is the number which we will get in Q3 versus Q2. Thank you. Thank you. Navin, I request you to join back the queue, please. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that management is able to answer queries from all participants in the queue, kindly restrict your questions to two at a time. We will take our next question from the line of Pinakin from HSBC. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you very much. Sir, just continuing from the first question. The energy cost will be around INR 70 - INR 80 per ton higher Q1 Q2, but you should have benefits of higher volumes operating, deleverage, maybe some cost deflation in packaging. Overall, how do you see cost trend in Q3 versus Q2? Okay. I think I will just give you a complete picture because I cannot give a piecemeal, because number of such questions will come. I will try and answer the entire cost questions that can come in one bucket. First of all, with the cost line in Q2 versus Q1, came up with the following negative number. One is adverse numbers, which I mean. Power and fuel cost was expensive in Q2 or Q1 by close to about INR 90. Raw material, which constitutes fly ash, gypsum, clink, slag, as well as in our case, because of shutdowns in Northern kilns as well as kilns in Risda, we also had to do some open market purchase of clinker. That came as a negative of about INR 60. Packing bags in Q2 versus Q1, it increased in granule prices early part, came at about INR 10. Net-net, we have cost inflation versus Q2 versus Q1, close to about INR 180, INR 190. In comparison to that, in Q2, I first talk about the cost line. Power and fuel will come with a delta INR 70 - INR 80 more than Q2. Raw material, I think all our shutdowns are done and then rake availability has also improved in the last two weeks, and hence the raw material costs in Q3 versus Q2 will be negligible, about INR 10. That should not be a major stuff unless and until we have to get some imported mineral gypsum from Oman. That could be only, other than that, I think slag and fly ash, there could be small market fluctuation. Maybe INR 10 is what I am kind of looking at. The one thing which will come slightly, again, cascading effect in Q3 versus Q2 is packing bags. With volumes coming in and with LPP bags consumption going up and also granule prices in the market have got upward revised twice or rise in the last one month. Here I am looking at an INR 20 increase in per ton of cement through packing bags stuff. In Q2, we had a busy season surcharge waiver that will come back in Q3. That should be a INR -10. Net-net, I am looking at a cost inflation of Q3 versus Q2, about INR 100 - INR 120. How do we plan to kind of offset all of it? Because most important thing is while I will say what are the cost stuff, but as you mentioned, the fixed cost leverage, which was the case in Q2, will become almost zeroed or a positive in Q3 because our volumes will increase when compared to Q2, and we get some benefit of fixed cost. But the most important thing is the agenda of price increase, which we are embarked on. Our price increase, our realization increase will be based on three levers, which was the case in Q2, which was the case in Q1, and it is going to be the case in Q3 as well. The first thing I want to inform the call is we have taken a price increase somewhat after September 15th, where north trade prices went up by about INR 20, INR 20-25 more in North. Trade had correction of INR 5 - INR 7 in the North markets in the second half of September. But in October, we already have an INR 20 price increase in North trade in North and North trade in East, and also another INR 20 price increase in trade prices in East. So the average INR 20 price increase should totally defray the cost increase, and we will have a delta benefit in realization in Q3 versus Q2. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Siddharth Mehrotra from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, given the fact that our Surat plant is now operational, could you just tell us what is the capacity utilization level of this plant right now, and what sort of run rate do we anticipate, maybe say one or two quarters down the line? It's a little bit premature for me to say capacity utilization of Surat because the baby has started walking. While we're very proud that we commissioned the plant in Q2, in September the volume started getting into the market. As we speak, yesterday was a milestone day for us where we churned out 3,500 tons of cement in one single day with the highest ever production at a capacity of close to about 5,500 tons per day. We have done 3,600 yesterday, so obviously all of it will go to the market. As I mentioned in my previous call, our target is in Q4 of this year, we will get into 2 million ton annualized volume in Gujarat. We are currently about 1.5 million ton annualized. So excess volume will be available in the market in Q4. Since Kutch grinding will not be available in Q4, all the incremental 0.5 million annualized volume will come from Surat grinding unit only in Gujarat. So I'm looking at close to about 50%-60% capacity utilization in Q4 of this year. Next year it will reach about 70% capacity utilization. Sir, just to clarify two questions. 0.5 MTPA run rate in 4Q from the Surat plant. Did I hear that correctly? Yeah. Okay. But our capacity is 2 MTPA. So 0.5 MTPA implies almost 100% utilization. No, the plant can run, but I have to sell it in the market as well. It is kind of a dual phenomena because I will have to introduce my product in Western Maharashtra, which will happen. And anyways, I would have mentioned about this going forward as well. Clinker will come from Kutch only by end of Q3. So till such time I will have to get clinker from rest of India into that plant. It becomes an expensive proposition. So we really have to, we are not kind of going aggressive in the market, but once Kutch unit starts manufacturing, that is when availability of clinker will be there and we will go. When I say 0.5, it is incremental 0.5 over already 1.5 which I am selling in Gujarat. And even that 1.5 which I am selling in Gujarat. Will also come from Kutch. Rest of all the capacity which gets released from my Rajasthan plant will be there to fuel my growth in North India. So the season will peak in Q3 and Q4 in North India. If I had not had Surat, there would have been sold out condition then. Hence, my entire sale would have got impacted based on capacity non-availability. So I will have a capacity release of close to about 1 million tons of cement in North from Q4 onwards. So that volume will be used to sell in North. So it has to be looked at in both ways. How much incremental sale I get in North and how much incremental sale I get out of Surat in Gujarat. Overall, we are looking at, as a company, from the current run rate of 1.5 million annualized ton per annualized volume, we will go to 2 million tons in Q4 this year. Understood, sir. Secondly, sir, on our East debottlenecking projects, it seems that it is not the primary focus for us at least this year. Could you maybe tell us what sort of timelines you are looking at in terms of different projects? Yeah. One of the things which should have covered later in the Q&A. In the previous call and the call before, I had mentioned that our CapEx spend for this year would be close to about INR 900 odd crore and then the year next will be about INR 900 odd crore, considering the bulk of the money is going to go into Kutch rebuilding. What we have realized is our project teams in Gujarat are doing a fantastic job in bringing up the asset. I am kind of front-ending some of the expenditure for Kutch, Surat, and Viramgam bulk terminal this year itself. In H1 of this year, as against the original plan of about INR 450, INR 460 crore of CapEx spend, we have gone ahead and spent about INR 780 crore. The balance five months put together, we are looking at a INR 1,200 crore CapEx in the company, out of which INR 1,000 crore will be for Vadraj, INR 50 crore for Viramgam and balance for the running operations. It will be front-ending the CapEx and the balance CapEx for Vadraj will happen next year to complete the project. In this bargain, we took a conscious call to slightly delay the East expansion from Q3, Q4 FY 2027 to Q1, Q2 FY 2028. It is just timing and the sequencing issue. However, very much it is there. Right now in FY 2028 H1, I do not need any additional capacity East to feed the market. Hence we have taken a conscious call to prioritize Vadraj first and slightly move the East by six to eight months just to manage the cash flow and the bandwidth for the company to focus on Vadraj Cement, because that is going to be a big-ticket agenda for the company since we invested quite a bit of money to acquire the company and rebuild the factories. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. This year as you said the INR 1,200 crore CapEx will be there. Next year, FY 2028, will it be a kind of INR 650 crore-INR 700 crore kind of a CapEx? No. Let me just give the details. FY 2027 H1, we ended up spending INR 780 crore and balance five months we will do about INR 420 crore and FY 2027 full year we will spend INR 1,200 crore. Next year we are looking at INR 800 crore- INR 900 crore as a CapEx outlay, which includes about INR 800 crore for Kutch, Surat, and Sachana, east debottlenecking, as well as the CapEx for the existing plant. So I'm looking at INR 1,200 crore this year, anywhere between INR 800 crore -INR 900 crore next year. Net- net two years put together, we're looking at range of INR 2,000 crore to INR 2,100 crore. Okay. Got it. Second, sir, you have clearly articulated in terms of the INR 100 -INR 120 kind of a QoQ increase in cost in our third quarter. In terms of the pricing, INR 20 odd kind of a price increase likely to be there in the third quarter. Net-net, we are looking at INR 70, INR 80, if the prices remains the same and the cost remains the same, a kind of a QoQ improvement in the profitability. Yeah, I will answer it. I will just restate what I said. One is the cost numbers which I indicated, by and large, we are fairly close to the actual numbers that will happen because we have adequate fuel stocks, and rest of the contracts are all lined up. This is a kind of cost inflation I am looking at Q3. We are well into October 20, and this is a kind of outlook I have for the balance two months. Price increases which we have taken in October 1st, as well as the late September price increase in some markets, and early October and mid-October price increases in each market. This kind of numbers, I am assuming will stick because post-Diwali demand will open up and there will be sufficient pull in the market and I am hoping the price corrections which we have done will stay put in the balance two and a half months. If the price corrections stay put and the cost, I am more or less certain it is INR 100 - INR 120, there will be an improvement in the overall profitability. Great. Lastly, sir, on the net debt front, though it has increased to INR 5,600 odd crore. We have slightly up in terms of the CapEx has also increased for this year. How do we see this debt for this year and maybe next year? What is the broader thought there? No, I will very clearly say that as a management and as I have been attending these calls for few years now, our stated position has been we are comfortable anywhere between INR 3,500 -INR 4,000 crore, and our commitment is to find a way to get the net debt about 2x EBITDA. You would recall when we did the Vadraj acquisition, our company's net debt had already reached about INR 3,500, and that is when we made the next big investments, and that is how the overall debt of the company in March went to about INR 4,500 odd crore. As we speak in this September end, we have crossed INR 5,000. Largely, this INR 500 odd crore has happened due to two reasons. One is, I mentioned in my call about the petcoke stocking and the overall cost of petcoke has also increased, and hence it is a value impact as well as the volume impact, which has resulted in a working capital increase of close to about INR 200 crore for the company. In addition to that, CapEx spend, as I mentioned, as against INR 900 crore, as against INR 450 crores in H1, I have entered about spending INR 780 crore. These two combinations have taken my net debt to about INR 5,000. When we come to H2, my working capital release will happen. Number two, my cash flows will increase because of higher volumes and H2 is always collection and because various other schemes run in the market. My overall cash generation will big time improve in H2. With the increase in business activity, cash generation, and CapEx, which I assumed it will be INR 480, will be slightly INR 500, will be less in the next four months, and also the working capital release. Our net debt should be touching in the same range as what it was March last year by end of this year. When I say in the short to medium term, which is four to six quarters, our net debt will always hover between 2x- 2.5 x. Once Vadraj volumes get absorbed in the market and we scale up Vadraj Cement, our net debt numbers will go back to our committed numbers of less than 2 x EBITDA. Thank you. Okay. Next question is from the line of Tejas Pradhan from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, sir. On the cost bit, just a clarification. You mentioned that for third quarter- You all speak on the handset if you can please and not speak on speaker. Is this better? Yeah. This is better. Please. Yeah. On the cost bit, you mentioned that third quarter it would be on a per kCal basis INR 1.8. Is that the same number for the fourth quarter because your current purchases, you said will hit in March, right? Considering that, what would be that per kCal cost number for fourth quarter? That will be a little bit of very long-term guidance and I would refrain from making such a long-term guidance because as I mentioned a few minutes ago, I said January and mid-February, we are already covered with inventory, and the high cost coal will come only in mid-February till March. If I have to stick my neck and say that I am looking at a further increase of about INR 70, INR 80 in Q4 versus Q3 in the worst case scenario. Understood. In the second quarter, was there any additional cost that we should consider for the Surat grinding unit? Volume must not have been significant, right? No. Q2 commissioning happened in the last week of September. Hence, I do not think we should consider any additional cost. But certainly in Q3 there will be some costs of Surat will come, which will be interest charge will come. Depreciation will also come. We are looking at close to about INR 30 crore, INR 40 crore, which will come. But the volumes also come, scale will happen, and we get some of it is going to be below the EBITDA line, some of it will be above the EBITDA line. So net-net, it is not going to dramatically change the overall look and feel of the P&L. Understood. Thanks. Thank you. We will take our next question from the line of Swatika from Nomura. Please go ahead. Hello. Yes, we can hear you. Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is that in the first half is- Can I interrupt you? Do you mind speaking slightly louder? Yeah, sure. Thank you. Is it audible now? Yeah, please go ahead. Yeah. We have seen that the volume growth in the first half has been strong for the industry. Given the varied monsoon trends, how would we see the rural demand shaping up in the upcoming quarters? That is my first question. Also for FY 2022. I am sorry. The question you are asking, what will happen to demand in H2 this year, you are asking, I guess. How do you see the demand trends for rural regional? I still believe that one year of excess monsoon or one year of drought doesn't spoil the overall industry outlook. If I have to, I've really looked at last 10, 15 years of how the industry has performed and because I've done a little bit of work to see what happens to demand variation based on a drought-like condition or an extended monsoon-like condition. My inference is, if you have a back-to-back year where things go wrong, either in monsoon or in drought, then the demand gets impacted to 5% kind of a number. That's what the historical data says. But I'm assuming that doesn't happen next year. Also, certainly, even though costs have gone up, if you look at the growth in India, it's still coming at 7.8, and a fair amount of growth is happening in infrastructure, and once the monsoon ends and the festival ends, I think construction activity will pick up speed going forward. And also it coincidently matches with the cement cycle from December to June. I'm pretty optimistic that demand for the industry should be in the range of 7%-8% like before. Maybe it could be a percent here and there, a little bit more. But in all India is multiple countries and multiple regions have got different growth rates. But if you put a blended growth for India, I'm really looking at about 8% industry growth in H2. Understood, sir. My second question is on Vadraj assets. It may be too early to ask, but if you could guide us, what would be the EBITDA pattern on these assets, and how much time would it bring to bring these assets to Nuvoco's standard cost? Okay. I will answer this question in two ways. One will be a little bit of a theoretical way, because when we made the acquisition and we looked at the market and the opportunity which we have and the value we are paying for the asset and the cost of refurbishing the asset, and looking at the very realistic growth which Nuvoco can get in Gujarat as well as Western Maharashtra. We are looking at an EBITDA for Gujarat matching the North EBITDA in year three. That should be tallying with Nuvoco's blended EBITDA at a country level in year three of operations, assuming FY 2026 is the first year. We're looking at FY 2028 is when the full assets will be sweated and the market will be fully developed and the EBITDA per ton of Vadraj will match the EBITDA per ton of Nuvoco in year three. But that is subject to two things. One is how is that model line we developed based on the prevailing cost structure and prevailing prices in the market. That has undergone a little bit of a change, but I am assuming all this cost inflation which has happened due to various P&L items will be offset by price increases in the coming quarters. So in a steady state of next two to three years, cost inflation will be absorbed by the price increase. What will Nuvoco bring to the table? I explained in the last call. We are uniquely positioned in Gujarat with the bulk terminal very close to Ahmedabad, the Kutch grinding unit and the Surat grinding unit, and the jetty movement from Kutch to Surat, as well as the railway movement from Kutch to Surat. I think our costs will be under control and certainly in year three, which will be FY 2029, maybe FY 2028 Q4, and then on to first one Q, FY 2029. Gujarat and Western Maharashtra EBITDA per ton should match Nuvoco's all India EBITDA per ton. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Parth Bhavsar from Investec. Please go ahead. Parth, your line is unmuted. Please go ahead with your question. Since there is no response, we will move on to the next question from Jyoti from Ashika. Please go ahead. Thank you so much. Good evening, and a great set of numbers. I only have one question is, what is the reason behind the interest expenses? Apparently, this quarter it has actually come down. Do we see the same trend or is it very specific to this quarter? And what has resulted in the reduction of this interest cost? While the interest rate Jyoti, we just missed your last bit. It kind of broke off. Can you just repeat the question one time, please? I was asking this quarter the interest- I heard what you are saying, but then the second part of your question, I missed. You said, what is the reason for the Why do not you repeat the question, please? What is the reason for the reduction in interest expense, and do we expect this to continue in the subsequent quarters despite increasing interest rates? Okay. Jyoti, as you asked this question, basically, and what Jay mentioned sometime back, the commercial operations for the Surat plant started sometime in the last week of September. Accordingly, all the borrowing costs as per the Indian Accounting Standard have been capitalized. As the Surat operations pick up, there will be definitely impact of the interest cost that will be there clearly visible in the P&L going forward quarter-on-quarter. Besides that, there will be depreciation charge that also will be coming up. Okay. Which means this is very specific to this quarter. We will see impact of interest expense and depreciation going forward, right? Yes, predominantly because of this. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Sir, couple of data points for this quarter. Lead distance, road rail share, blended cement share. Our road and rail share is rock solid at 64/36. Q1 and Q2 numbers are almost same. 64 road and 36 rail. A little bit of tweak in lead distance. Lead distance has gone up by about 4 km. 328 it was there, it has gone to 332. In terms of blended fuel cost in Q2 is at INR 1.59, which I mentioned, out of which coal comes at INR 1.47, petcoke came at close to INR 2, and AFR at INR 0.95. Fuel mix, coal at 66%, petcoke at 27%. In fact, last call I mentioned that one of the big initiatives of the company was reduction in petcoke. We hung on to the same petcoke numbers in Q2 versus Q1. We still operate at 27% petcoke. AFR at 6%. This will increase in Q3 because Risda kiln will be up and running after shutdown and our AFR percentage will go up. Coal at 66%, petcoke at 27%, AFR at 6%. The blended cement share would be 82% odd. Okay. Blended cement ratio is at 83%, I think it was 82% last time. CK ratio came at 1.75 in Q2. It was 1.73 in Q1. Thank you. Premium was an all-time high, as Bishnu mentioned. We came at a 45% premium, which is the highest ever in the history of the company. I think that's an agenda which we have been pursuing, and we'll continue to pursue this agenda going forward as well. Very happy to report our Duraguard Microfiber and Concreto UNO, both brands have become 1 million ton brand. In fact, in the entire industry, if there's a premium product in the shortest possible time of less than 18 months, reaching from 0- 1 million, it's Concreto UNO. I think that's something which we're very proud of. Lastly, sir, tax rate 41.6% for 1H, so on a reported basis. So for full year, how one can look at and when it will be a kind of a 25%-26% from FY 2028? [audio distortion] Can you repeat the question? Tax rate for 1H was 41.6% on a reported basis, the tax divided by PBT. Yeah. Also for full year. We are evaluating the transition of tax from the old regime to new regime. It is still being evaluated, and we will take a final call before the end of this financial year. Thank you. That reason why you are seeing the tax testing slightly higher than the normal stuff at 41%, because in the new act, the MAT that is being paid is not allowed to be set off, and that reason why it is slightly higher from 35% in the normal course to 41%. Okay. Thank you, sir. By the time we reach end of this year, we will have a good fix on. We will move. It is the timing when we will be move is the question. I think in the next three to four months, we will have made a decision which regime we will move in, and the implication of tax we will share with you at that time. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Siddharth Mehrotra from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead. Thanks for the opportunity again, sir. I just wanted to check. I am sorry, your audio is not very clear. Can you use your handset mode, please? Sure thing. Is it better now? Yes. Sir, I just wanted to check. A couple of our peers had highlighted that there were very strong rains in the East region. Could you just give us a sense of what was the regional growth in East region versus, say, the North region? I think in terms of guidance of regional growth, I will not be able to share in a forum where what is the regional growth. I think the different dynamics work. Suffice to say, East had an erratic monsoon, and in fact, monsoon was heavy in certain states. There was a little bit of a sluggishness in demand in East in Q2, but that will go away after the festival season. But net- net, if you see, I think some months we have gone ahead in East, some months we have gone ahead in North. North has been pretty robust in Q2 in terms of volume growth. In fact, hence we could get the benefit of growth in North. Overall, I guess, going forward, we still look at anywhere between 8%-9% blended between North, West, and East for us. Understood, sir. Just to confirm, the pricing you were saying has gone up by around INR 20 in October versus average prices last quarter. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Parth Bhavsar from Investec. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I just had one question related to Surat operations. Since we do not have clinker supply currently, where are we procuring our clinker from, what would be the landed cost, and how would it change once we get supplies from December onwards? Yeah. I guess, correct. This was part of the plan, there is nothing, no surprise at all. Since we sequenced Surat to start first and Kutch, the quantum of work was much more than Surat. Surat was the first of the block in less than 12 months we could commission the plant and commercialize it. That is why Surat came first. Hence it was a call that we will move clinker from our Chhattisgarh cluster into Surat. But little bit of an issue we had, because of the overall rake non-availability, we ended up moving less clinker from Chhattisgarh into Surat, and then we had to do little bit of a clinker purchase, which I mentioned, and move clinker from North unit to Surat. It is a little bit of a mix and match which has happened, at least in August, September, and first week of October. Obviously we know what has been the landed cost of clinker in Surat, but I guess that is a conscious call we took to bring expensive clinker into Surat. But by end of this year, Kutch will happen, and once Kutch happens, I guess the clinker will come either through jetty route. By the way, very pleased to inform that we already run trial runs of dummy items from Kutch into Hazira, and we have successfully learned how to manage the jetty operations. As we speak, we are doing the dredging of jetty in Kutch, and by first week of December, we will have operational jetty. So we should have, once the clinker line starts in December, in Q4 of this year, we should be moving clinker via jetty through the sea route, barge route from Kutch into Surat, which is the cheapest form of clinker movement from Kutch to Surat. Once Kutch starts, it will be Kutch clinker in Surat, and we do not have to bring high-cost clinker from Chhattisgarh into Surat. The prevailing rates, all of us know the ex-factory rates of clinker, which is being sold by any cement companies, is pretty high these days at about INR 3,600-INR 3,700 per ton and at freight cost, obviously it is much higher and not an economical model. Since we have started a plant and we have to run, I think part of the startup strategy that first few months we will run with clinker from Chhattisgarh. Sir, there would be some dent because of this into Q3 as well, and then some improvement in Q4. What would be the delta be from Q3 to Q4? Can you reach out to Bishnu and then he will give the exact calculation to you. Yes. I will do that. Thank you so much. He will be able to give you all the information, because right now I have multiple sources. I have clinker coming from Chhattisgarh. I get clinker from Chittor plant also. I also bought clinker in Q2. All these assumptions will change. Currently, we are looking at some bartering of clinker for Q3. All these variables are at play right now. For me to give one number will not be right in this call. No worries. Sir, I will reach out to So best thing to reach out to Bishnu and he will give you a basis and the logic of this calculation. I will do that, sir. Thank you so much for answering my questions. Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Bishnu Sharma for closing comments. Over to you. Thank you all for your participation. Before we conclude, I would like to leave with a few closing remarks. Quarter- after- quarter, we have been delivering consistent results despite various challenges, and this quarter was no exception. Our continued focus has been on the three levers of premiumization, geo-optimization, and operational excellence. As we move forward, we remain committed to strengthening our position and creating sustainable value for our shareholders. Our growth agenda remains firmly on track with the Kutch projects progressing as planned and the bulk terminal at Sachana expected to further enhance our logistics capability. We are confident in the resilience of your business and strategic initiatives underway to navigate the evolving operating environment. Investor relations team will remain available to address any further clarification you may request. Thank you once again for your time and interest in the company. We look forward to engaging with you in our upcoming interactions. Thank you all. Thank you, members of the management team. On behalf of Nuvoco Vistas Corporation Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us and you may now disconnect your line.