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Release
August 2026 · rev 1
Opportunities PMS · Published
As at 31 Aug 2026 · IST₹ · ₹ cr · BSE 500 TRI
Present
Internal working platform. Published figures are extracted from the August 2026 source package and reviewed; reference prices and fundamentals are unlicensed working data, not for redistribution. Past performance is not indicative of future returns.
Company Atlas/Chemicals/Archean Chemical Industries
NSE: ACI· ChemicalsNot in Aug top-30Small cap

Archean Chemical Industries

Bromine cost-curve leader

Last close
₹490.60
29 Sept 2026 · reference
1D · 1M
+1.6% · +1.3%
price-only
Weight
0.6%
31 Jul 2026 · Aug rank —
Thesis review
8 Sep 2026
Why We Own, p66
Coverage owner: Research (per book); latest results Q Jun-26Buoyant AIF I Top 30 Holdings - Aug 2026.pdf · p1Buoyant_Why_We_Own_What_We_Own_Sep2026.pdf (portfolio as of 31 July 2026) · p66Screener ↗Tijori ↗NSE ↗
OverviewBusiness & segmentsChartsFinancialsValuationThesisRisks & catalystsCompetitorsResearch & documents
What the company does

Archean Chemical Industries · Chemicals

Archean Chemical Industries Limited is a leading speciality marine chemical manufacturer in India. It produces and exports bromine, industrial salt, and sulphate of potash globally from its integrated production facility in Gujarat.

Full profile (Yahoo)

Archean Chemical Industries Limited manufactures and sells specialty marine chemicals in India and internationally. It offers bromine for use in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, flame retardants, and water treatment products, as well as oil and gas, and energy storage industries; industrial salt for chloralkali chemical, food and beverage, water treatment, and oil and gas industries; and sulphate of potash, an inorganic salt for use as a water-soluble fertiliser in agricultural applications. Archean Chemical Industries Limited was founded in 2003 and is based in Chennai, India.

Sector (Yahoo)
Basic Materials
Industry (Yahoo)
Chemicals
Employees
257
Website
archeanchemicals.com

Key people: Mr. Rampraveen Swaminathan (MD & Director) · Mr. Ranjit Pendurthi (Executive Vice Chairman of the Board) · Mr. Ramamurthy Natarajan (Chief Financial Officer) · Mr. Vijayaraghavan Nemam Echampadi (Company Secretary & Compliance Officer) · Mr. Vijaykumar Vyas (Head of Sales & Marketing) · Mr. Rajeev Kumar (Head of Strategy)

Who are the competitors of Archean Chem. Inds.?

Archean Chem. Inds. major competitors are Neogen Chemicals, Tata Chemicals, Laxmi Organic Inds., Foseco India, Yasho Industries, GHCL. Market Cap of Archean Chem. Inds. is ₹5,747 Crs. While the median market cap of its peers are ₹4,988 Crs.

Is Archean Chem. Inds. financially stable compared to its competitors?

Archean Chem. Inds. seems to be less financially stable compared to its competitors.Altman Z score of Archean Chem. Inds. is 5.09 and is ranked 4 out of its 7 competitors.

Snapshot and what to watch · Tijori · 19 Sep 2026
  • Archean Chemical makes industrial salt, bromine and sulphate of potash. Salt is about 54% of revenue and bromine about 40-42%.
  • It sells 70% abroad and 30% in India. Its largest customer is Japanese trading group Sojitz at about 36% of revenue.
  • It sold mainly salt and bromine until FY25. Bromine derivatives and SOP then began contributing.
  • Base profit is salt and bromine. Growth is starting from bromine derivatives and SOP. Logistics costs and plant interruptions drive volatility.
  • It is building a $249m semiconductor fab, large against ~₹1,089Cr annual revenue. It is also scaling bromine derivatives, SOP and oilfield mud chemicals.
  • Its bromine derivatives business turned EBITDA-positive in Q1FY27. SOP sales of 1,952 tonnes were the first real step.
  • Near-term profit depends on salt dispatches normalising and bromine holding its recovery. Management guides 20–25kt/yr bromine exit run-rate and 9–10kt SOP for FY27.
  • Customer concentration is high at about 87% for the top 20. Its Gujarat brine-land lease is still unsigned.

Yahoo profile 23 Sept 2026 · Tijori 23 Sept 2026

Segments

Revenue mix and market share

Product Wise Break-Up
  • Industrial Salt51.5%
  • Bromine40.1%
  • Others5.1%
  • Sulphate of Potash3.4%
Location Wise Break-Up - Sulphate of Potash
  • Others70.0%
  • India30.0%
Location Wise Break-Up - Bromine
  • India52.0%
  • Others48.0%
Location Wise Break-Up - Industrial Salt
  • Others100.0%
Segment Break-Up
  • Marine Chemicals100.0%
Location Wise Break-Up
  • China36.3%
  • Others34.2%
  • India15.0%
  • Japan6.2%
  • South Korea5.6%
  • Africa1.8%
  • Europe0.9%
Verticals
  • ACIL92.7%
  • ACUME7.1%
  • IDEALIS0.1%
Operating Profit Break-Up
  • ACIL100.0%
Customer Wise Break-Up
  • Others79.4%
  • Sojitz Corporation20.6%
Asset Break-Up - Geography Wise
  • India100.0%

Latest reported mix as compiled by Tijori from company disclosures; percentages of revenue.

Operating metrics

Company-reported KPIs (Tijori) · latest quarter

As the company reports them. They can differ from the ratio table on the Financials tab, which uses Tijori's own definitions (for example NIM on average total assets rather than on interest-earning assets); the Cross-check panel there lines both up.

Manufacturing Capacity - Bromine42,500 MTPA 2024-03
Manufacturing Capacity - Industrial Salt40,00,000 MTPA 2024-03
Manufacturing Capacity - Sulphate of Potash1,30,000 MTPA 2023-09
Capacity Utilization - Bromine66.49 % 2023-03
Capacity Utilization - Industrial Salt119.54 % 2022-06
Capacity Utilization - Sulphate of Potash6.8 % 2023-03
Quarterly Sales Volume - Bromine4,175 Tonnes 2026-06
Quarterly Sales Volume - Industrial Salt9,82,000 Tonnes 2026-06
Business model

How the company earns

Archean Chemical is India's largest producer of bromine and industrial salt from brine at Hajipir, Gujarat (Rann of Kutch), with ~78% of revenue exported; FY26 revenue Rs 1,108 cr split industrial salt Rs 729 cr and bromine Rs 308 cr. It is building sulphate of potash (SOP), bromine derivatives (Acume, EBITDA-positive for the first time in Q1FY27), zinc-bromide energy storage, and a USD 250 mn silicon-carbide semiconductor fab/packaging unit (SiCSem, Odisha; 60,000 wafers and 96 mn packaging units/yr; partners Clas-SiC UK, Aixtron, IIT Bhubaneswar) approved under the India Semiconductor Mission.

Economics and valuation note (book)

63.6x TTM PE reflects trough earnings (FY26 PAT Rs 105 cr vs Rs 319 cr in FY24); P/B 3.2x (499/157). Stock -27% over 1 year and 3-yr profit CAGR -35%; Buoyant 34.6x FY28e vs ICICI Sec 16x FY28E EBITDA. EV/EBITDA n.m.; dividend yield 0.5%.

Competitive position · why this and not peers
Tata ChemicalsTata Chemicals posted a Rs 1,715 cr FY26 loss, ROE 1.3%, Rs 8,001 cr debt and Q1FY27 PAT -81%; soda-ash oversupply from China is structural, whereas Archean's bromine is recovering with a clean balance sheet.
GHCLGHCL is cheap (8.8x, 2.75% yield, ROE 13%, net debt ~nil) but is a soda-ash commodity play with Q1FY27 sales/profit -4% and promoter holding of only 19.8%; Archean offers higher growth (ICICI Sec >50% EBITDA CAGR) and 53% promoter skin-in-the-game.
Segment economics

Reported revenue mix

Product Wise Break-Up

share of revenue, %
  • Industrial Salt
    51.5%
  • Bromine
    40.0%
  • Others
    5.1%
  • Sulphate of Potash
    3.4%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Location Wise Break-Up - Sulphate of Potash

share of revenue, %
  • Others
    70.0%
  • India
    30.0%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Location Wise Break-Up - Bromine

share of revenue, %
  • India
    52.0%
  • Others
    48.0%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Location Wise Break-Up - Industrial Salt

share of revenue, %
  • Others
    100.0%
  • India
    0.0%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Segment Break-Up

share of revenue, %
  • Marine Chemicals
    100.0%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Location Wise Break-Up

share of revenue, %
  • China
    36.3%
  • Others
    34.2%
  • India
    15.0%
  • Japan
    6.2%
  • South Korea
    5.6%
  • Africa
    1.8%
  • Europe
    0.9%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Verticals

share of revenue, %
  • ACIL
    92.7%
  • ACUME
    7.1%
  • IDEALIS
    0.1%
  • NEUN
    0.0%
  • Others
    0.0%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Operating Profit Break-Up

share of revenue, %
  • ACIL
    100.0%
  • ACUME
    0.0%
  • IDEALIS
    0.0%
  • NEUN
    0.0%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Customer Wise Break-Up

share of revenue, %
  • Others
    79.4%
  • Sojitz Corporation
    20.6%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Asset Break-Up - Geography Wise

share of revenue, %
  • India
    100.0%

Share of revenue as disclosed in filings (Tijori normalisation). Segment profit measure: not disclosed in this source — segment EBIT/EBITDA/PBT are not shown rather than estimated. Eliminations and unallocated costs not available here.

Industry cycle

Chemicals chapter

Chemicals — 1.5%: two cyclicals with very different drivers

Our two chemical positions are both small, both Cyclical, and owned for company-specific reasons rather than a sector call. Chambal Fertilisers is India's largest private urea producer, a 20% ROE business at under 10x earnings, whose economics are protected by the subsidy regime (retail urea is fixed at ₹267/bag; the government pays the difference) — the FY27 subsidy budget of ₹1.71 lakh crore was 58% spent by August and will likely be raised after the West Asia gas shock spiked urea from $447/t to $947/t. Its new TAN (technical ammonium nitrate) plant adds a non-subsidy, mining-linked profit pool. Archean is India's largest bromine and industrial-salt producer, with a cost position (solar-evaporation brine at Hajipir) that is second only to Israel and Jordan; bromine prices spiked on the Hormuz disruption and are now normalising ($4,453/t CIF India in July), and the company is adding bromine derivatives and a silicon-carbide fab venture (SiCSem, Odisha). Both are bought below mid-cycle earnings.

Datapoints the team can quote
  • FY27 fertiliser subsidy budget ₹1.71 lakh cr (−8% YoY); ₹99,000 cr (58%) spent by 19-Aug-2026; imported-urea line 92% used; bill may rise by ₹70,000 cr — Department of Fertilisers; press
  • Urea FOB spiked from $447/t (Feb-26) to $947/t (May-26) on the West Asia crisis before returning to $447/t in July; LNG ≈ 80% of urea cost — Industry data
  • Retail urea ₹267/45 kg and DAP ₹1,350/50 kg unchanged; kharif-2026 requirement 390 lakh t — Government
  • Bromine India CIF $4,989/t (Jun-26) → $4,453/t (Jul-26) as Hormuz disruption eased; China FOB $4,347/t — Trade data
What we deliberately do not own

We own no specialty-chemical compounder (PI, SRF, Navin, Deepak) at 40–60x — the China-plus-one story has been priced for three years while Chinese dumping and agrochemical destocking hit earnings. Coromandel is the quality fertiliser name but at 25x prices its phosphates diversification. Tata Chemicals is a soda-ash cycle we do not want.

Market position

Market share (where tracked)

UnavailableNo market-share series in the fundamentals source.
Sector datapoints

From the one-pager

  • Bromine prices: China FOB USD 4,902/t (Jun-2026) and USD 4,347/t (Jul-2026, -11% QoQ); India CIF USD 4,453/t (Jul-2026); Q1CY26 China +35% on tight supply, sulphur cost inflation and Hormuz shipping constraints (Procurement Resource).
  • Global bromine market growing ~5.6% CAGR (Market.us) driven by flame retardants for electronics, clear brine fluids for oil & gas and zinc-bromine batteries.
  • Industrial salt market described by management as challenging in Q1FY27 with pricing expected to stabilise in H2FY27.
  • India Semiconductor Mission fiscal-support agreement with SiCSem signed 11-May-2026 for India's first integrated SiC fab (60,000 wafers, 96 mn packaging units/yr).