Bitumen is definitely in the commodity space and margins will be tight since there is a lot of competition in the market.
To highlight the competitors, the major key players operating in the India bitumen market include Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd., Total India, Tiki Tar Industries India Ltd., Agarwal
Industries Corporation Ltd. , Juno Bitumix Pvt Ltd., Universal Bituminous Industries Pvt. Ltd., and Swastik Tar Industries. Other players operating in this market include Hincol, Jalnidhi Bitumen Specialities Pvt. Ltd., OOMS Polymer Modified Bitumen Pvt Ltd., Sapco, and UFTI.
Agarwal is opting for growth through business expansion to stay competitive in the market and has been growing sales & profits consistently.
Please also note that margins are fluctuating on a quarterly basis if you see in screener. In the most recent quarter, their NPM is 5% and OPM is 9%. There is no coverage on this company and the details are not available on their annual reports on the fluctuating margins.
One of the things is their margins are higher in the shipping (25%) and windmill divisions (40% +). The windmill division is a miniscule portion of their revenues and shipping & chartering was launched in 2019 only thru a subsidiary and it carried about 34cr in revenues and profit of 10.6cr. The margins are similar in logistics (small segment) and petrochemicals segment (which is the biggest & accounts for 87% of revenues).