Agarwal Industrial Corporation is India’s largest private-sector bitumen company - the black, sticky binding agent that holds together the asphalt on nearly every road, runway, and port yard in the country. It began in 1995 as a logistics firm hauling bitumen and LPG in tankers, then made what management calls its “finest forward integration” by moving into manufacturing and trading the very material it was already transporting. The recurring approach is vertical control: own the ships that bring the raw material from the Middle East, own the port terminals that store it, own the plants that process it, and own the tanker fleet that delivers it - cutting out middlemen at every step. # Business segments Three engines built in sequence - a bitumen platform that owns the full chain from ship to road, a shipping fleet that carries its own cargo and hires out to others, and a logistics arm that moves both bitumen and LPG for India’s oil majors - with two small trading and wind-energy sidelines. ## 1. Bitumen and allied products: the core platform **The company imports, makes, stores, and delivers bitumen and over 20 waterproofing and road-building derivatives - capturing margin at every link in a chain where more than 42% of India’s supply comes from overseas.** - **Import-led, not refinery-dependent** - it buys finished-grade bitumen (VG30, VG40) directly from Middle Eastern refineries and sells it straight from the port to the customer, bypassing its own factories entirely when that route earns more; domestic VG10 from Indian refineries is blended into higher grades only when economics favour it. That dual sourcing means the company is never captive to a single supply source. - **Seven port terminals, soon with a captive mega-hub** - it operates 30,500 MT of bulk storage across owned and leased terminals at Dighi, Mumbai, Vadodara, Haldia, Hazira, Karwar, and Mangalore, with Karwar and Mangalore alone driving 35-40% of annual revenue. A new 40,000 MT company-owned storage facility at Mangalore began commercial operations in May 2026, and the acquisition of Konkan Storage Systems (Karwar) added another 24,000-plus tons of capacity - turning previously leased assets into owned ones that cut costs and guarantee availability. - **Seven factories, run seasonally by design** - the manufacturing plants at Belgaum, Cochin, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Pachpadara, Taloja, and Vadodara have a combined capacity of 35,125 MTPA but operate at only 20-25% utilisation during monsoons and 40-50% in peak season, because importing finished product and selling it directly generates higher revenue and profit than running the plants harder. - **A product for every surface and seal** - beyond standard paving-grade bitumen, the portfolio spans crumb-rubber-modified bitumen for heavy-traffic roads, polymer-modified bitumen for extreme-weather infrastructure, bitumen emulsions that can be applied cold on wet aggregates, and a range of waterproofing compounds, anti-corrosive paints, cable insulators, and roofing felts sold under sub-brands like Bitubond, Bituplast, and Bitukote. Bulk sales to road contractors account for 72% of segment revenue; the remaining 28% comes from these allied products. - **Priced off the PSU benchmark, sold to a fragmented base** - bitumen pricing is pegged to fortnightly price lists published by state-owned oil companies, with AICL offering discounts off those listed rates rather than locking into fixed-price contracts, so it can adjust quickly to input-cost swings. Customers range from large to small road contractors, with no dangerous concentration on a handful of buyers. ## 2. Shipping and vessel operations: the supply-chain backbone **Eleven company-owned tankers carry roughly 60-63% of the group’s bitumen imports, and earn third-party charter income during the monsoon months when internal volumes drop.** - **Own ships, lower freight cost** - by carrying the majority of its bitumen on its own vessels rather than hiring third-party tankers, the company captures the freight margin that would otherwise go to a shipping line, which is why the integrated platform is described as a barrier to entry for competitors who lack their own fleet. - **Chartered out when idle** - the vessels operate on voyage or time charters, and during the four-month monsoon season when bitumen movement slows, they are hired out to third parties, turning a seasonal cost centre into a revenue stream. A single supply cycle to India’s east coast takes 40-45 days, so a vessel can complete 12-15 turnarounds a year depending on location, but only 8-9 on longer eastern transits. ## 3. Logistics - road transportation: the last-mile moat **A fleet of 650-plus specialised tankers moves bulk bitumen and LPG for the company’s own needs and under long-term contracts with India’s three state-owned oil majors.** - **One of the country’s largest specialised tanker fleets** - 350-plus insulated, pump-equipped bitumen tankers and 300-plus safety-engineered LPG tankers make up the fleet, a scale that has been maintained consistently for over five years. Most of these tankers are under contract with HPCL, BPCL, and IOCL, providing stable, annuity-style utilisation. - **An in-house service centre keeps the wheels turning** - because the entire tanker fleet is built on Ashok Leyland chassis, the company operates an authorised Ashok Leyland service centre with workshops in Mumbai, Vadodara, and Jodhpur, ensuring fast turnaround on maintenance and repairs rather than queueing at third-party garages. - **LPG logistics doubles the utilisation** - the LPG tanker division is among the leading transporters of LPG in India and creates operational synergies with the bitumen fleet, since both products move through similar port-and-refinery corridors and serve overlapping oil-major customers. ## 4. Petroleum products trading: a small, separate counter **A distinct trading book dealing in petroleum products outside the core bitumen range, contributing a steady but minor share of revenue.** - **Ring-fenced from the main business** - this segment trades petroleum products that are not bitumen or bituminous derivatives, reported as a separate operating line in every annual filing. It accounted for roughly 2.5% of total revenue in FY25. ## 5. Windmills: a tiny green-energy sideline **Two windmills in Maharashtra and Rajasthan sell electricity to the grid, while solar energy is used in the company’s own manufacturing process.** - **Power sold to distribution companies** - one windmill operates at Dhulia, Maharashtra, and one at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, generating revenue by feeding electricity into the local grid. The segment is a legacy diversification that has been part of the business since at least FY20. # Group structure and partners **A listed parent with four wholly owned subsidiaries - two operating arms that run the bitumen plants and the shipping fleet, one that holds the road-transport fleet, and one financial-services shell yet to commence business - plus a fifth storage subsidiary acquired after the financial year-end.** - **Bituminex Cochin Private Limited** - the manufacturing and trading subsidiary that runs the Cochin plant, acquired in 2010 and fully integrated into the group’s bitumen operations. - **AICL Overseas FZ-LLC (UAE)** - the material subsidiary domiciled in the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone that owns all 11 vessels and undertakes ship-chartering activities for both the group and external clients. - **Agarwal Translink Private Limited** - holds the road-transportation fleet of specialised bitumen and LPG tankers and operates a BPCL petrol pump in Shahpur, Maharashtra; it became a wholly owned subsidiary in FY21 through a share-swap with the promoter group. - **AICL Finance Private Limited** - an NBFC incorporated in January 2023 that had not yet started business as of the latest annual report and was still seeking regulatory approvals. - **Konkan Storage Systems (Karwar) Private Limited** - acquired for Rs. 22,00,00018 (Rupees Twenty two Crores eighteen Only) in cash and consolidated as a wholly owned subsidiary by January 2026, adding more than 24,000 tons of port-based liquid-cargo storage capacity at Karwar. - **No joint ventures or associates** - the group is structured entirely through wholly owned subsidiaries, with an eight-member board split between three executive directors, one non-executive non-independent director, and four independent directors including one woman.