India Cements (ICL) has reported a better-than-estimated performance mainly owing to substantial reduction in staff cost and lower-than-expected freight cost. EBITDA stood at Rs1.67bn (-11% YoY and -8% QoQ) vs. our estimate of Rs1.3bn. Cement EBITDA/tonne stood at Rs628 vs. Rs694 and Rs647 in 3QFY17 and 2QFY18, respectively. ICL's operating cost/tonne (cement) dipped by 4% YoY and 5% QoQ to Rs3,715 due to lower staff cost (-17% YoY and -28% QoQ) and freight cost/tone (-6% QoQ). Sales volume stood at 2.73mnT (+0.6% YoY and +0.9% QoQ). However, average NCR dipped by 5% each in YoY and QoQ to Rs4,343/tonne. On the flip side, continuing to move northwards gross debt surged by Rs1.0bn QoQ to Rs33.6bn (Rs29.2bn...