UltraTech Cement’s 200 MTPA Milestone: Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla’s speech

Good evening, everyone! And thank you for joining us today.

The first time I set foot into a cement plant, was when I was 20. I was a freshly minted CA, and set to pursue my MBA after a few years. I had no background in technology or anything remotely technical. This trip was to Vikram Cement, at Khor, Madhya Pradesh. It was one of the two cement units that the company had back then.

I came back from there fascinated— I liked the clock work discipline with which things worked, the work culture. Most of all, that you could make a material as significant as cement, in a process that seemed simple. Surprisingly, I understood the cement making process quite well too. My many subsequent trips to Vikram Cement and growing familiarity with the business only strengthened my conviction about the cement opportunity. As it happened, around then, I read somewhere, that cement is the most widely used substance in the world, only after water. With that my imagination was fired. But that early fascination was also quickly put through the grinder of operational reality. 

Every month back then, my father and I would sit with the engineering team and analyse all the breakdowns in the cement plants during the previous month. Whether they were for mechanical, instrumentation electrical or process related reasons and the steps to be taken to ensure that they did not recur. These sessions were tedious and taxing. I used to hope that one day we would have many more plants, making this monthly exercise unsustainable. As it turns out, that hope scaled faster than I had ever imagined. 

Back then, our cement capacity was under 5 million tonnes. Today with the commissioning of three plants at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Shahjahanpur in UP, and Patratu in Jharkhand, UltraTech’s cement capacity will increase to over 200 million tons per annum.

This is as much a milestone for India, as it is for the Aditya Birla Group, and holds great significance for me personally as well.

This scale is unprecedented. No other company in any sector in India has ever reached this capacity milestone. It places UltraTech as the largest cement company in the world, outside of China. Today, UltraTech’s cement capacity is almost twice the cement capacity of the United States and greater than the entire cement capacity of the European Union.

The unstoppable, the relentless, and the unshakeable Team UltraTech has created history tonight. Let’s give them a huge round of applause. I want to acknowledge the top leadership team of UltraTech. Our Managing Director, Mr. K.C. Jhanwar, Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Vivek Agrawal, Chief Manufacturing Officer, Mr E.R. Raj Narayanan, and CFO, Mr Atul Daga.

Two hundred million tons. Of this 200, about 110 million tons have been built through greenfield and brownfield expansions, and the rest 90 million tons through a series of acquisitions over the years. We started with a bang with the L&T cement acquisition and never looked back, as Jaypee, Binani, Century, Kesoram, and most recently India Cements joined the UltraTech fold.

It took us 36 years to reach 100 million tonnes. The next 50 million followed in five. The 50 after that, in just over two. No cement company in the world has added capacity at this pace in the last decade.

The last 10 years have truly been transformational for UltraTech and for India. India’s highway network has expanded by nearly 60% and metro network by nearly 350%. Daily road construction has tripled to 35 kilometres a day. And when a country begins to build at this scale, cement transcends from being a material to becoming a national development asset. UltraTech has grown in step with this ambition, rising from a capacity of 60 million tons about a decade ago to over 200 million tons today. What this milestone ultimately represents is larger than just a corporate inflection point. It is evidence of an economy that has found both the intent and the capacity to build, consistently, decisively, and with increasing velocity.

Back in 2019, I had said that scale is not everything. It is the only thing. This 200 million ton milestone makes me reflect on that, yet again. What does scale do? What does it create? What does it signal? And what does it set in motion? To my mind, scale reveals itself in four ways: in impact, in reach, in reliability, and in responsibility.

The 200 MTPA number in my view does not represent only our capacity, but also India’s place in the world. It describes an India that carries scale with confidence – in its ambitions, its execution, and its sense of self. 

Scale is about trust. The trust of a country that has chosen to build with us, year after year. The trust of an ecosystem that relies on us to show up, on time, every time. 

Few materials offer as clear a reading of a nation’s physical progress as cement. Which is why UltraTech’s contribution to India must be understood not only through tonnage, but through where those tonnes finally go. One in every three homes built in India is built with UltraTech. Two of every five kilometres of NHAI’s concrete roads. Four of every five kilometres of metro rail. Two of every five bags of Cement that go into India’s airports. These figures are a measure of how deeply UltraTech is woven into the physical fabric of this country. The Central Vista, the new Parliament building, the Mumbai Coastal Road, the Dwarka Expressway, the Navi Mumbai International Airport, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train. These are the physical signatures of a more confident India. And we have been an integral part of each of these defining infrastructure projects.

65% of our trade sales come from rural India. When a family in a village builds its first home, there is a very high chance that it is built with our cement. That connection to the aspirations of rural Indian families is something we hold with great pride.

And so, I believe, that you simply cannot reduce UltraTech’s scale to a plant count or a capacity number. Scale is what reaches the market. Scale is what reaches the village, the district, the metro, the airport, the contractor, the home builder. Scale is what allows a company to serve both the India of landmark infrastructure and the India of everyday aspiration.

That brings me to the 2nd facet of scale. Scale is reach. The UltraTech network today spans 1.5 lakh channel partners, with a presence across more than 90% of India’s talukas. There is no other company in Indian industry that can say that it serves the construction needs of the entire country, from the largest infrastructure project to the smallest individual home builder, at this depth and breadth.

The third facet of scale: reliability. Scale, when shaped with intent, becomes far more than size. What we have sought to build at UltraTech is something more exacting than just scale. It is the institutional character to deploy it well. That means being the most reliable player and delivering the best products and service to our customers, consistently and without exception. UltraTech’s ability to deliver within four hours of an order being placed is a powerful assurance. 

Behind that assurance, sits an operating system of uncommon scale. Each year, over Rs.16,000 crore is committed to moving material, that is to logistics. 

On any given day, more than 35,000 trucks are on the road carrying our cement. Over 70 railway rakes are in transit, across long distances with clockwork precision. Around 35,000 orders are processed daily, reaching nearly 30,000 destinations, from dense urban centres to remote project sites. This movement is anchored through a network of over 300 railheads and 1,350 warehouses, positioned to keep supply close to demand. UltraTech’s daily material movement is equivalent to 20% of the Indian Railways’ total material movement on any day.

Scale of this nature carries consequences that travel well beyond operations. Our procurement basket alone exceeds Rs 27,000 crore annually. Every rupee of that spend flows through Indian suppliers, Indian logistics partners, Indian communities. Clearly, the economic footprint of the company extends far beyond what its balance sheet can show. Around UltraTech’s industrial footprint also sits a wider social one. Our CSR initiatives now reach 1.8 million people across thousands of villages. 

And then comes the fourth facet of scale: responsibility. Scale, over time, acquires a certain gravity. At UltraTech, that realisation has steadily informed how we choose to grow. Sustainability, has been the character of that growth. Consider the energy transition that is already underway.

A key facet of sustainability, is future-readiness. And we have been steadily investing in building out a wider construction ecosystem. Over the past five years, UltraTech’s Ready Mix Concrete business has expanded to 450 plants across 150 cities. The RMC business is adding capacity at a rhythm of one plant every few days. The Building Products and Solutions story is equally significant. Today, this division offers over 75 products across tile adhesives, water proofing, plasters and mortars. This enables us to move closer to the customer and deeper into the construction value chain than ever before. Providing solutions as opposed to only products, which is also the philosophy of the Aditya Birla Group.

I must acknowledge that UltraTech’s remarkable journey has been built on enduring partnerships. So many of our partners in this journey are here with us, this evening. Across the country, thousands of dealers have stood with us, carrying our name into markets where trust is earned one interaction at a time. C&F agents, transporters and retailers have kept the wheels turning, often against odds that do not show up in reports. Indian Railways and Port Operators have enabled us to deliver seamlessly to customers across the country. Engineers, and architects, have placed their confidence in us no matter what. Masons and contractors have turned that confidence into homes, roads and skylines.

Our upstream partners have been just as integral. India’s leading engineering, construction and infrastructure companies have built with us at moments that demanded both speed and certainty. Banks, financial institutions and investors have backed us with belief. And so have our, technology and equipment partners, vendors and other service providers. This milestone carries their imprint as much as, it does, ours.

Over the years, these associations have deepened into something more enduring. A community bound by shared outcomes. It has held firm through cycles, through volatility, through the sheer strain of growth at this pace. This relationship capital as I call it has been one of our superpowers. And for that I am truly grateful to all of you.

And then there are our people, our team. No milestone of this scale is delivered by strategy alone. It is carried, day after day, by individuals who show up solve problems, and push forward. Some are recognised. Many are not. But all have mattered. There is an extraordinary level of determination in Team UltraTech, a capacity to absorb disruption, and to keep moving even as the ground shifts. Growth at this pace requires a certain kind of organisational courage. The courage to take risks. The courage to commit, to keep building when the cycle is uncertain, to operate without precedent, to solve for complexity in real time. 

I would also like to acknowledge, with gratitude, the contribution of several leaders who have helped shape UltraTech’s journey and cement its leadership position over the years - Mr. B. L. Shah, Mr. M. C. Bagrodia, Mr. Saurabh Misra, Mr. O. P. Puranmalka, and Mr. K. K. Maheshwari.

I see the 200 million tonnes milestone, as only a marker, and not a destination. With a target of 240 million tonnes by FY28 at an investment of Rs. 16,000 Cr already in motion the path ahead is firmly underway. India stands at a defining juncture, where choices made over the next decade will shape its infrastructure for generations. That calls for continuity of purpose and clarity of execution. It is a responsibility we carry with intent, and one that we continue to lean into.

Recently, I came across a letter that my great grandfather wrote to my father in the 1960s. He spoke with great pride about how one of our companies had been ‘permitted’ to expand capacity from 20,000 to 50,000 tonnes. It was, in its time, a significant step forward. One cannot help but pause and imagine what he would have made of 200 million tonnes. The scale has changed. However the sense of purpose has not. That is perhaps the deepest meaning of scale. Scale is as much about continuity and stewardship as it is about size. And, ultimately, it is a commitment that endures across generations.

And I stand here conscious of that legacy. Of my great grandfather, Ghanshyam Das Birla, who instilled the belief that corporations must serve a larger cause. Of my grandfather, Basant Kumar Birla, who built with great discipline and foresight. And of my father, Aditya Vikram Birla, who laid the foundation of this business with conviction.

What we see today stands on that foundation. And what we build next must be worthy of it.