General information and education, not investment advice. The author is not a SEBI-registered adviser or research analyst. No recommendation, no promised returns. Markets carry risk including loss of capital. Figures may not be current. Always consult a SEBI-registered adviser.
1. At a Glance
Carborundum Universal makes abrasives, ceramics, refractories and electro-minerals — the industrial consumables that grind, polish and line furnaces.
Consolidated sales for the three months to June 2026 were ₹1,427 crore, against ₹1,219 crore a year earlier, a rise of 17.0%. Consolidated profit after tax attributable to owners came to ₹76.4 crore against ₹61.9 crore, up 23.4%. Earnings per share, the profit attached to each share, moved from ₹3.25 to ₹4.01. The quarter before, to March 2026, carried a loss of ₹17.6 crore. That quarter also held ₹134.6 crore of exceptional items relating to two overseas step-down subsidiaries.
Operating profit was ₹135.1 crore, against ₹121.3 crore a year ago and ₹144.2 crore in the March quarter. Operating margin was 9%, which for a company that grinds, fuses and fires things at industrial temperatures is a number with a lot of furnace in it.
Elsewhere on the record: the Board approved the results on 7 August 2026, in a meeting that began at noon and closed at 1:50 p.m. The annual general meeting was held the same day. Management told the August call that capital spending in the quarter was ₹53 crore, against guidance of ₹400 crore for the full year. Management also put consolidated debt-to-equity, borrowings measured against shareholders’ funds, at 0.05.
The quarter held three segments, four countries of manufacture, two subsidiaries being exited, and one gain of ₹25.18 crore from selling leasehold rights on a building.
2. Introduction
Carborundum Universal Limited — CUMI to everyone, including its own press releases — belongs to the Chennai-based Murugappa group. It makes abrasives, ceramics, refractories and electro-minerals. Its registered office is ‘Dare House’ on N.S.C. Bose Road, Parrys, a considerably more evocative address than “industrial consumables manufacturer” would suggest.
The group is stated at ₹90,178 crore in revenue, 125 years old, with ten listed companies and 94,041 employees. CUMI sits in that stable alongside fertilisers, bicycles, sugar, tea and railway signalling equipment. That is either diversification or a very large general store.
The company’s own footprint is similarly scattered. Abrasives run across 12 plants in India, Russia and Germany. Electro-minerals operate 8 facilities, including the Maniyar hydel power plant and the Okha bauxite mines, across India, Russia and South Africa. Industrial ceramics has 2 facilities, in India and Australia. There are 477 trademarks, 84 patents and 61 designs registered in its name, and distribution across 55 markets.
Recent entries on the record are busy. In October 2024 the company completed the purchase of all of Silicon Carbide Products LLC of Horseheads, at an enterprise value of $6.66 million. A final payment of $175,900.23 was disclosed in March 2025, a figure precise to the cent, from a company that measures grit size.
In January 2025 the US Department of State’s release added Russian subsidiary Volzhsky Abrasive Works to OFAC’s SDN list, the American sanctions register. CUMI recognised an impairment expense of ₹104.13 crore in prior years. On 30 March 2026 the board of CUMI International Limited, Cyprus, approved starting closure of German step-down subsidiary CUMI AWUKO Abrasives GmbH, by voluntary winding-up, citing continued underperformance. On 13 May 2026 the board of Foskor Zirconia (Pty) Ltd concluded it was not in a position to continue operations. Sushil Kishor Bendale stepped down as Chief Financial Officer from the closing hours of 26 September 2025.
On 16 March 2026, commercial production started at Hosur, adding 46 million wheels. That took capacity past 90 million wheels a year, on an investment of ₹83 crore.
US
Now live
US Stocks terminal is live
13,000+ US tickers · EDGAR fundamentals · screener and filings feed — the same terminal, for American markets.
Explore →
3. Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?
CUMI makes the things that make other things smoother, harder or gone. Abrasives — bonded, coated, metal-working fluid and super abrasives — are the largest piece. CRISIL, a credit-rating agency, puts them at 44% of revenue over the nine months to December 2025. The company holds over 30% of the domestic bonded abrasives market, so a meaningful share of India’s grinding wheels are its own. A grinding wheel is a product whose entire job description is to destroy itself slowly and on purpose. The customer comes back.
Electro-minerals, at 32% of that nine-month revenue per CRISIL, is the raw-material end. It covers fused alumina, silicon carbide, monoclinic zirconia and calcia-stabilised zirconia, alongside alumina-zirconia and a sol-gel-derived alumina called azure S. The company is the second-largest producer of silicon carbide and the third-largest producer of zirconia globally. It bought VAW in 2007
