New Delhi, Aug. 27 -- India's largest cement manufacturer crossed a milestone it had been building toward for three years in Q1 FY27: UltraTech Cement's installed capacity reached 200 million tonnes per annum in June, making it the only cement company outside China to breach that threshold. The market's response was instructive. UltraTech's stock added 2.3% on the announcement. Its quarterly net profit fell 8%.

the country added 58 million tonnes of new annual capacity in FY26, national utilization rates fell to 68%, and cement prices dropped Rs 22 per 50-kg bag year-on-year even as construction activity hit multi-year highs. Scale is not translating to margin.

UltraTech reported consolidated revenue of Rs 17,841 crore for Q1 FY27, up 1...