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Informist, Thursday, Apr. 2, 2026

 

By Sunil Raghu and Avishek Rakshit

 

AHMEDABAD/KOLKATA – Cement prices are likely to see an increase in the first half of April as the industry adjusts to the rising costs of fuel, raw materials, logistics, and human resources and focuses on lifting its margins, several persons linked with the cement business said.

 

"Costs have already increased by INR 200 per tonne during March since the cost of packing material--high density polyethylene, or HDPE--has gone up," a senior executive with a South India-based cement manufacturer that sells across the country told Informist. "The prices of petcoke and imported coal too have firmed up on landed basis due to shipping and insurance costs going up. It is expected that domestic logistics costs are also likely to go up. This will result in a further increase in costs for manufacturers, which will have to be absorbed by a price increase."

 

The view was echoed by dealers as well, especially as average all-India prices remained largely flat on month in March, at around INR 322 per 50 kg bag, as companies prioritised dispatches to meet targets set for the financial year 2025-26 (Apr-Mar). This led to a weak pricing trend despite healthy demand in several regions, with aggressive competition, particularly in the East and South, keeping prices under pressure.

 

According to dealers, demand for cement was broadly stable through March but showed signs of moderation after the Holi festival. Most workers in the construction industry normally go on a long leave around the festival. Dealers linked the moderation in demand to labourers remaining in rural India longer than usual, and to the war in West Asia. This resulted in labour shortages, weaker retail activity, and liquidity constraints in select markets, they said. "Rising petcoke prices, higher costs of packaging, and the recent hike in industrial diesel prices are only expected to make it difficult for cement companies as well as the construction industry to absorb the margin shock," they said.

 

The average imported fuel costs in Jan-Mar are up INR 72 per tonne on a sequential basis, Nomura said in a report. "We believe spot cost prices will increase due to geopolitical tensions, leading to an INR 20-30 per tonne rise in fuel costs," the brokerage said in its report mid-March. For FY26, total cement sales in the country stood at over 450 million tonnes. Of this, North India, with its infrastructure push, accounted for nearly 31%, followed by western and central India, which are relatively developed industrially. The southern market is more competitive in terms of pricing as it has almost a third of the country's cement-making capacity.

 

Overall, dealers across geographies expect cement price hikes to be in the range of INR 30–INR 70 per bag, with hikes in the South at the higher end. The near-term outlook suggests a cost-driven price recovery from the beginning of April, though the ability to sustain these hikes will depend on demand trends, especially as the sector approaches the seasonally weaker monsoon period and economic activity deals with the friction arising from the conflict in West Asia.

 

Cement dealers from South India agreed their region is likely to see the sharpest increase. They see potential increases of INR 40–INR 70 per bag, with Chennai expected to witness an increase of at least INR 50 per bag on strong demand and tight supply, and Hyderabad likely to see a hike of INR 40–INR 50 per bag.

 

Dealers from the north expect prices to rise by INR 30–INR 60 per bag as demand remains strong, particularly in urban areas. In western cities such as Ahmedabad and Mumbai, prices were unchanged in March at INR 350-INR 370 per bag as companies pushed for volumes amid the demand softness that generally sets in ahead of Holi. "This year, many of the workers are yet to come back as they fear a struggle for LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) for cooking," a dealer in Ahmedabad said. "Despite these challenges, companies are expected to hike prices by INR 30–INR 40 per bag."

 

One of the two big cement makers in western India said it has not taken any decision on pricing and may wait to see the demand and price trend of raw materials. "UltraTech (Cement Ltd.) is the biggest player in the western market," an official said. "Everything depends on that company. If it decides to raise prices by a rupee per kg, other players will raise them by 80 paise per kg. We wait for UltraTech to decide."

 

In eastern India, too, cement prices were stable in March, with no meaningful hikes undertaken by any of the companies despite good demand in certain pockets of West Bengal, Odisha, and Bihar from the individual house-builder segment, which accounts for over 50% of consumer demand in the region. Cement dealers said the increasing competitive intensity in the region has made companies focus more on sales volume and market share than on margins.

 

Dealers in Bihar and West Bengal, however, said prices are likely to be increased by INR 15-INR 40 a bag in April depending on the grade of cement. In eastern India, the price of a 50 kg bag of cement ranges from INR 260 to INR 520 depending on the type and grade. Typically, the common Portland Pozzolana variant is priced at INR 260-INR 360 a bag.  End

 

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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