From Carbon To The Clean Energy Core: The Anurag Choudhary Playbook

For years, Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd was a name known only within industrial circles — a reliable carbon-chemistry player supplying to sectors that quiet yet critical. Its products kept factories running, tyres rolling and materials reinforced, yet the company itself stayed in the shadows. At the centre of this understated empire was a soft-spoken leader, Anurag Choudhary — Chairman, Managing Director & CEO of Himadri Speciality Chemical, who believed the story could and should change.

Choudhary’s guiding question wasn’t about market cycles or incremental gains. It was sharper, more existential: What happens to a company built on yesterday’s materials in a future that demands completely new ones?

That question nudged Himadri onto a path that led to a strategic transformation. What began as tweaks to the product mix has now placed the company squarely on the map of India’s clean-energy ambitions — with Choudhary emerging as one of the key business figures shaping the country’s entry into the battery-materials value chain.

This shift did not come overnight. For a long time, Himadri’s world revolved around carbon black and coal-tar derivatives — high-volume, generally commoditized, always operationally challenging. Choudhary saw the limits of this model early in his role as CEO. Instead of chasing every tonne of commodity demand, he began pushing the organisation toward specialty grades — high-purity materials used in engineered plastics, high-performance tyres and advanced coatings. It was a deliberate decision to sacrifice short-term volume in favour of long-term value.

To the untrained eye, the transformation within the company’s manufacturing ecosystem appeared gradual, almost imperceptible. Tighter control systems. Better integration. Small but meaningful technology upgrades. A culture shift that prioritised precision over scale. But the results eventually erupted into the numbers: both record EBITDA and PAT, far surpassing historic performance. Himadri is now nearing its FY27 profit-doubling target from FY24 levels, in just two years, well ahead of schedule, proving that the hard-won operational and financial discipline under Choudhary’s leadership has truly rewritten the business baseline.

Even as the specialty business flourishes, Choudhary — wearing his CMD & CEO hat — was already thinking ahead to the chemistries the world would need next. Batteries. Energy storage. Electric mobility. Progress would not be derived from coal tar alone but from lithium, advanced carbons and high-tech integration. If India wanted to be more than a consumer in the global energy transition, companies like Himadri Speciality Chemical would have to step into the arena of battery-grade materials, not watch from the sidelines.

And so, they did. Today, Himadri is progressing rapidly on Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) cathode-active materials — the backbone chemistry for safe, stable electric-vehicle batteries. Early samples have already drawn validation from global and domestic technology players, marking a major credibility milestone for an Indian material supplier. The company is also advancing anode-material research, moving beyond the comfort zone of its heritage into a domain where intellectual property — not installed capacity — defines leadership.

What makes this strategic leap more compelling is its foundation. Under Choudhary, Himadri has been practicing principles of circular manufacturing long before ESG became corporate gospel — running zero-liquid-discharge facilities, recovering heat energy from processes, aggressively cutting emissions and boosting renewable use. These were not sustainability slogans but operational decisions that now place Himadri at the intersection of clean manufacturing and clean energy — a powerful differentiator in supply chains increasingly graded by climate impact.

The transition hasn’t been noisy. Choudhary isn’t one for theatrics or bravado — far from the archetype of a flashy industrial disruptor. The CMD & CEO prefers the factory floor to the conference stage, and data over declarations. But his ambition is unmistakable — he is actively redesigning Himadri’s role in the world.

Today, a reliable supplier of carbon black, the company is now preparing to become a solutions partner across mobility and energy. Once part of a chain dictated by others, Himadri now seeks to create and own the technologies shaping tomorrow’s demand. When asked about the shift, he describes it with measured clarity:

“Our story now is about shaping the decades ahead — innovation, battery materials, specialty chemicals, and sustainability. That’s how Himadri’s next chapter will be written.”

The challenge he is taking on is enormous. India’s journey to a domestic battery-materials ecosystem is just beginning. Choudhary’s play is long-term, capital-intensive and technologically driven. But the consistency with which Himadri has executed its transition — quietly pushing boundaries, hitting milestones early, outgrowing old definitions — has earned him recognition as one of India’s most focused and future-aligned industrial leaders.

The man who once strengthened industries from behind the curtain is now enabling India’s clean-mobility future. And he is doing so not by abandoning where he came from — but by upgrading it for a world that is powered by batteries instead of barrels.