Voltas' share price in focus: Company plans up to 15% AC price hike amid surge in copper prices; key takeaways from MD’s remarks

The country's leading air-conditioning manufacturer, having a market share of around 18% in the domestic market, expects domestic AC sales to grow by 15-20% in 2026 over last year, which turned out to be exceptionally bad for the entire industry. ce

"As there is a requirement for more copper, aluminium, and steel, it leads to a 5-15% increase in the production cost per unit," Menon noted.

Besides, the copper price, which hovered around $8,500 per tonne last year, has gone up to $12,000-13,000 per tonne this year, Menon stated.

So there is a significant amount of copper which goes into the air conditioner, and because of that, there is an impact on the overall production cost, he added.

Besides, some of the AC parts are still imported, and there is an impact due to the weakening of the rupee against the dollar, the MD said.

Menon noted that to curtail the impact, the company is looking to hike AC prices by 5-15%.

AC market conditions

On market conditions, Menon noted that the industry expects AC sales to increase by 15-20% as compared with last year.

The MD said the company is geared up to meet the enhanced demand with a production capacity of 30 lakh split AC units evenly spread across two plants in Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu.

"We are also looking to enhance the localisation level in AC units from 70 to 90% in the next two years by expanding local sourcing for compressors, motors, PCBs, copper and aluminium components," Menon said.

The company has already seen the localisation grow to current levels from 35-40% a few years ago, the MD added.

Menon said the company would like to maintain leadership in the AC segment on the back of new products and enhanced sales and service support.

He said that the domestic AC industry players are also working with the government to work out ways to enhance exports from India.

Currently, China overwhelmingly leads the segment, with Thailand coming in at a distant second position.

Voltas Q3 FY26 earnings

Leading air-conditioning maker and engineering services provider Voltas Ltd reported a 35.4% decline in its consolidated net profit to ₹84.46 crore for the December quarter of FY26.

It had posted a consolidated net profit of ₹130.76 crore in the October-December period a year ago, according to a regulatory filing from the Tata Group firm.

Voltas' revenue from operations declined 1.1% to ₹3,070.77 crore in the December quarter of FY26, compared with ₹3,105.11 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Total expenses of Voltas stood at ₹2,945.19 crore, almost flat in the December quarter.

Commenting on the results, its managing director, Mukundan Menon, said: "In Q3, the room air conditioner business remained the anchor of our overall performance, navigating inherent seasonality and the impact of a shorter second summer through stronger channel momentum, improved product mix, and the benefit of the GST rate reduction."

In the December quarter, Voltas' revenue from "unitary cooling products for comfort and commercial use", which has room AC business, was up 8.64% to ₹1,215.13 crore, from ₹1,771.13 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.