Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by.

This is Darwin, the moderator for your call today. Welcome to the post-results conference call of AIA Engineering Limited.

We have with us today the management team of AIA Engineering Limited. At this moment, all participants are in a listen-only mode.

Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session at that time. If you have a question, you may press * and 1.

I would now like to turn the conference over to AIA Engineering management team, Mr. Kunal Shah and Mr.

Sanjay Majmudar. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you so much. A very warm welcome to all of you.

This is Kunal, and I have Sanjay here with me on the call. I think this quarter is business as usual.

There are a few highlights that I would like to discuss, but generally speaking, nothing of note that is different from all that we have spoken about last quarter. I will start with a quick recap of numbers, and then we can get into Q&A.

We've done 70,000 tonnes of sales for the quarter, for a full-year sales of 258,000 tonnes, largely flat from full year last year, which was 255,000 tonnes, and compared to 68,000 odd tonnes in the fourth quarter last year. It has translated to 1,251 crores of top line for the quarter and 4,365 crores for the full year, EBITDA of 502 crores for the quarter and 1,744 for the full year, translating into a profit after tax of 393 crores and a full-year profit after tax of 1,270 crores.

This quarter, I think, has been the highest ever profit after tax, EBITDA for the company, and we are very happy to report numbers where, in a period of serious macro uncertainty, serious macro headwinds, and a lot of this outcomes are linked to a lot of efforts that we are bringing to our customers ultimately to improve their operations, right? That is one aspect of it.

Of course, there is a benefit that accrued on account of currency. There is a 65 crores currency that's sitting in the EBITDA for this quarter, and which is about 4% or 5% in EBITDA or operating margins coming from the currency as other income.

Of course, if the currency remains at this level, then it will translate into the rupee realization. Moving on, our total other income for the quarter is 132 crores and 474 crores for the whole quarter, 15 for the whole year.

15 crores comes from export benefits, business as usual, treasury income of 67 crores, again linked to our treasury, business as usual, and a foreign exchange gain of 65 crores, 64.47, which is linked to the rupee depreciation. We also had higher amount of sales of castings in this period.

The combination of the rupee weakening or of income on account of currency and a product mix has translated to a realization per kilogram of about 178 for the quarter, but for the full year, remains at 165. I think the next set of questions would be, what does this quarter mean?

How do I apportion for the rest of the year? I think this quarter has this one-off in terms of currency and the product mix.

One can consider 165 as a business as usual realization for the full year. Moving on, I think working capital at par with what we've done.

Tonnage at 70 includes about 45 from mining and 25 from non-mining, and for the full year, 258, about 160 comes from mining and the rest comes from non-mining. With that said, our net cash is at about 4,300 crores.

We've spent about 130 crores on capex this year, other than our investments in Ghana and China, which, as we speak, are under paperwork, approval procedure, there is no spend done. I also do not have an estimate of how much we will spend on the plants, or how much will we spend this year, because as we speak, they are in, I think, a WIP status as far as just getting everything else around it put together.

I hope in a quarter or two, I have more updates on what's going on with those two plants. Other than capex that we may do in plants outside of India, for India, total outflow of between 60 crores and 100 crores on all sorts of maintenance capex that we need for our plants, balancing equipment, upgradation, cost-saving initiatives, etc., and some investment to finish out our renewable portfolio.

After which, I think we're going to spend about 30 crores that's balance on that, about 60% of our power or 65% of our power, once that comes online, which is by June or July, will come from renewable sources. Of course, it's a cost-saving, but it's also a renewable footprint for our power resources.

Total we don't expect more than between 100 and 150 crores of outflow on account of maintenance capex and the renewable balancing investment left for the renewable part. From a market standpoint, the macro headwinds all of us are aware about, but just to reiterate, there is extreme uncertainty as far as global shipping is concerned.

There is just bizarre events happening where prices are volatile, availability is volatile, and customer's anxiety around global shipping. Shipping remains to be a proxy for global geopolitical uncertainty and hence the shipping uncertainty, and that plays a role where customers that migrate to our solutions will be exposed to the global supply chains.

Now, that's something that we have to take in our stride. We're hoping world will normalize, if not today, in a few months' time, and it'll get back to business as usual, but that is an impediment today.

Other than that, where every country is going back to bringing borders on, we've seen duty measures, we've seen anti-dumping measures, we've seen Trump and US bring in measures to protect local industry. I think every country is going to look for their own interest first, and to that extent, protectionist measures are, I think for us a business as usual situation, and we are creating strategies that allow us to grow on a sustainable basis taking that in our stride.

One of the updates from a business standpoint, I think from a product and a solution standpoint, is that a lot of people are asking us about what's happening on the market, what are we doing, and we've been speaking about it, but we would like to share a little more color on a specific aspect of our solution engineering, which is linked to the discharge system. When you have these grinding mills, you've got grinding media, you've got linings, and then you've got linings at that discharge end, and we are calling it new generation discharge system.

That's part of our overall solution. We had a big breakthrough last month where one of a very marquee customer, we implemented our solution of the discharge system, which is the linings and the solution linked to the discharge system, and it brought in material benefits, which is throughput improvement, power reduction, and in a larger size mill, where the operating conditions are significantly abusive in a sense of the amount of material that's being handled every hour, and the kind of impact conditions inside.

Over 2 years, we worked with that customer, kept sharpening and refining our solution, doing multiple rounds of supply, and finally we've gotten that win for the customer, right? We've gotten that important unlock for that one customer in South America where all these benefits have accrued, and that just reinforces the conversation that we were doing that as we progress to a solution offering, which is grinding media, linings, and when I say linings, it includes these solutions around discharge systems, where there is a material benefit for the customer, which is throughput and which is an important problem at the mine site, which is where grade of ore is worsening and the metal output is falling, in which situations these unlock, where better throughput actually solves that critical bottleneck for the customers.

We've gotten this important win. I will caveat it to say that it is in a direction.

A few quarters back, we spoke about our first customer where we got a 15,000-tonne order for an important mine in South America. Now we've got a lining win where the proof of concept in terms of all that we have been speaking about has come through.

I think it is all moving in a direction where solutions that AIA is providing will have disproportionate benefit for the customer, or rather play a role in solving their top two or three bottlenecks, which is worsening ore grades or which is falling metal output, power consumption or the saving in their power cost footprint, their recovery that comes from the copper or gold recovery that comes out from the ore thanks to the down-process benefits. I think all of that is now coming together, and we are hoping these solutions ultimately allow for the unlock, which is for a larger quantity of orders as a combination of linings and grinding media.

I still don't have an answer on what will happen. Please help us with not asking specifics on this quarter, next quarter, or next year.

I think there is a large market. There's an 800 to a million 800,000 to a million tonne forged market for gold and copper, and all mines facing critical issues, and we have a solution that will allow them to overcome some of these critical issues and unlock growth for us.

Keeping that caveat in mind, we're happy to share this update that there was an important win in terms of proof of concept of our solution. With that said, I will have Sanjay share his comments from last few quarters and the board meeting today, then we'll get into Q&A.

Thank you, Kunal, and very, very warm welcome to all of you, and a very good evening to all of you. As Kunal explained, what has happened is, as we have been over last few calls talking about these trials that are going on in some very large mines.

The one that he has spoken about is a successful outcome of that, one of the critical trials. It is very important because that establishes the efficacy of the solution that we have been talking about in a very novel way where I believe AIA is the only company in the world which is offering this solution for ball mills, apart from the SAG mill solutions that we were offering earlier.

Ball mill is an area of concern for all these mines. Two things: ore quality getting depleted, ore becoming harder, even for maintenance, and particularly in the metal categories like gold and copper, this was very challenging.

We believe today what Kunal has announced, that this trial success has been sort of watched quite eagerly by large mines worldwide, and I think that can pave way for a systematic and long-term journey for AIA. Of course, many challenges have been there over last few quarters.

People have been asking, but now with this solution being there, we felt it appropriate to at least share that this is what has happened, which is very encouraging. Internally, we remain very buoyant and confident about medium to long term, very, very strong growth prospects.

With this, I would request the moderator to open the call for Q&A.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session.

If you have a question, please press * and 1 on your push-button phone and await your turn to ask the question when guided by the facilitator. If your question has been answered before your turn and you wish to withdraw your request, you may do so by pressing * and 2.

Our first question comes from Varun Jain from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good evening, Kunal.

Good evening, Sanjay. Congratulations on a good set of numbers and on the mine conversion.

Just on that. This mine conversion, what is the sustainable volume it will add every year to AIA?

Varun, as we said, the current trial was based on a combination of lining system plus the new generation discharge system. The whole approach that we had adopted over last 1.5 to 2 years was to take the clients away from discussion on the pricing, which was already and always creating headaches about anti-dumping and all those issues, and create a system whereby the mining efficiency and the mining output and their operating costs can be significantly altered.

I think what we are now currently envisaging is that it's too early for us to give you any clear-cut idea about X volume, Y volume. What is important is that with this success, the addressable market, which is very huge, becomes very closely and immediately reachable.

It takes time. I can't just tell you that today I will get X number of orders.

Very important, the same client was very happy, and we have now got a very, very strong reference point where large mines in the world would be eagerly talking. Again, as I repeat, the strategy is to talk about the solution based on this lining and the discharge system, which radically makes their problem solved, and then as a corollary, automatically also talk about grinding media, which is a high-volume business.

This is just a strategic shift. Volume growth will come, should come.

Let us wait for a while, and let us see how it assimilates. What was very encouraging, what we have shared.

At this point in time, we feel it's a little premature to give you any volume guidance, but a very positive thing has happened which we wanted to share.

Sir. Sir, this customer, I'm assuming this is a Chilean copper mine.

Is that understanding right? On that, we were hearing that there are some reports that there's a Let us confine it

Let us confine it to one of the very large mines based out of South Africa. South America, sorry.

Okay. On that only, sir, in South America, we are hearing that there is a sulfuric acid shortage because of which some smelting operations in copper mines have stopped.

Are you also facing any issues like that?

No, no. Nothing of the sort.

See, we are talking of a very large headroom, correct? We are not saturated in terms of conversions, but we are talking of a very large headroom.

Some momentary sulfuric acid shortage doesn't affect us in any manner at all in as much as this endeavor is going on.

Sir. Sir, on the realization, this quarter you had the highest ever realization.

It's crossed 180 per kg. Sir, and you have said that it's not sustainable, you are guiding 155, assuming you saying 165.

165. If you see the annual average, it is 165 and that whereabouts.

You see what happened, this is a function of product mix. Last quarter, we had a very heavy tilting in favor of more value-added castings, and therefore, this shift plus the rupee depreciation also has a partial impact on that.

I think a sustainable figure is 165 and thereabouts, as Kunal explained.

Yes. Sir, my question on that was that since this conversion you said is a mill liner plus grinding media, and further conversions will also be discharge mill systems, Sanjay Majmudar:

It is not grinding media. Sorry, the point is that going forward, as we model the product mix, you can consider 165 as the realization.

Right.

No, no, sir. Sir, my question was that since it's not a grinding media, it's mill liner, then structurally the realization should be higher only, nah?

Because these are higher priced products.

You're right. The plan is to sell grinding media now, right?

It is not to sell just liners or non-grinding media. Both will grow in proportion.

Which is why consider 165 right now. Okay.

Okay. Sir, in Q4 your tax rate was much lower, close to 16% or so.

Why was that?

First, Q4 was the final adjustment of the tax for the whole year minus already provided for. That is the first answer.

Second answer, this year overall for the whole year tax rate is couple of percentage points lower because of two reasons. One, there was a significant refund that came in one of our subsidiaries, almost 15 crores.

Second, the another factor is that in one of the other subsidiaries, we have also provided for what we call as a deferred tax asset because of a reversal that we are getting in the current year. Aap hai na effectively 22% pakad ke chalo.

There is a one-off in this quarter linked to other adjustments, reversals, provisions, etc., where there is a 25 crore, 30 crore tax lower than what it should be.

Okay. Sir.

Just the last question from my side. Sir, what was the mill liner utilization for metallic and composite, and what is the minimum volume growth guidance for FY '27?

We are not giving any specific numbers about metallic or composite. We have a good traction on the mill liners.

We will only talk about the overall volumes. Please understand, as I said, one of the key trials where we were very anxious has become successful.

There are good things likely to come. Let us wait for a while.

Sir. Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Ankur Periwal with Axis Capital.

Please go ahead.

Hi, Sanjay. Hi, Kunal.

Thank you, and congratulations for the new client win there. First question, while you're not disclosing from a volume growth perspective, have we got any initial orders from this customer?

Given that year-end order book is much higher than what it used to be last year. From that perspective, have we got anything?

After this successful trial in one of their mines, they have immediately also given us the order for the second mine conversion. That's all I can share at this point in time.

See, we are under very strict confidentiality clauses, huh? You must appreciate.

Sure. Sure, sir.

No worries on that. Just a follow-up on that, what is the capacity utilization here for us both in mining as well as in grinding media?

Casting.

Current capacity utilization this year is about 55% overall.

Okay. There will be higher demand for castings here for this client, right?

Has there been a jump in that number in castings?

Casting production has gone up, but still we have enough capacities to cater to the expected increasing volume that might come over next couple of years. As as per our policy, we always move couple of years in advance.

As and when we see the traction coming, we have enough wherewithal to quickly currently jo bhi 4.5 4,36,000 tonne ki capacity hai, uske samne 2,58,000 tonne ka hamara production hua. We can go up to 70%, 75% utilization, and as and when the utilization improves, we will also keep on adding incremental capacities.

That is where, at this point in time, Ghana as well as China are on a bit slowdown mode. However, we can accelerate as and when needed.

Great, sir. That's helpful.

Just lastly, if you can help with the update on the ADD, the custom duties, etc., which is going on on multiple countries, any changes there and any demand uptick because of that?

It's status quo. Continues as is.

Okay. Sure.

That's it from my side, sir. Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Devang Shah with Anand Financial. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Congratulations for the good set of numbers.

Sir, my major query is if China and Ghana is slowing downs as a geopolitical tensions are going to be there for next one or two quarters, if we expect that thing, then again our company will quarterly post operating profit margin of above 23% or something like that?

Thank you.

That would be difficult to sustain. No,

no. I think you have mixed up two things.

One, currently over last couple of quarters, we have been putting our full force, I would say over last 1 year, on this new solution and the new system on which we are now offering the global mining customers something unique on the platter, correct? When we said that China and Ghana are slowing down, we don't mean to say that humne usko shelf kar diya.

What we have said, now that the focus is clearer, we will once again take a call and start accelerating that, point number one. That has nothing to do with my margins, okay?

I have an operating margin even today, you have seen my operating margin after excluding other income is about 29%, 28%, 29%. What we are saying in the past that as and when the volumes grow, as and when the product mix grows and more and more grinding media is sold, because that product mix is bound to then tilt in favor of grinding media as a large volume-giving proposition.

Then the operating margins in absolute numbers will grow, but as a percentage can come down in the range of 23%, 24%. This is what we have explained.

Now, usko aur Ghana ko koi lena-dena hi nahi hai. Ya geopolitical

Okay. Got it, sir.

Sir, the other thing is as from three or four quarters, we are expecting that capacity utilization is going between 50 55, 60, 65%. Is it at this continuation capacity utilization, in further going forward, aren't we going to feel the pressure?

What sort of pressure, my friend?

For the shortage

of No, no, no. As I explained in the earlier question, that at current 55% utilization, I can go up to 70, 75.

Main 1 lakh tonne 2.5 lakh se 3.5 lakh tonne to aaram se ja sakta hoon within the available capacities, okay? Now, this is not an automatic line item which just increases.

As soon as we start getting the traction, we have paused our one brownfield expansion in GIDC Kerala, which is nearer to Ahmedabad, not your South ka Kerala. To woh main immediately kar sakta hoon, to 6 mahine me se 1 saal me I can further push another 50,000 to 75,000 tonnes.

I have enough of land plus infrastructure available. We will see as we go ahead.

Simultaneously, 100,000 tonnes ka capacity jo hum plan kar rahe the between Ghana and China, Ghana ke liye zameen, location wagera final hai, to aur 50,000 tonne mere ko 1, 1.5 saal me dalna hai to main daal sakta hoon. I will have enough traction We'll never face a capacity shortage.

Okay. Sir, any plans to further usage of the reserves are there on the books?

Is it last concall it was about some take over was there or something like buy out was there or something like that. Are we on that track only or No, no.

I don't think we have ever talked about any takeover or buyout, I think there's some confusion here. What we have said, okay, conservatively we have been maintaining a fairly high level of cash.

We have said that till we reach a optimum positioning in terms of what efficacy of our solution and stability that we want to bring in as a consistent growth and clear direction, we want to carry a little extra cash with us. As soon as we reach there, we will think of other avenues of reducing that cash.

At this point in time, there is absolutely no such announcements, which please note.

Sir. That's fine.

That's all from my side. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Priyankar Biswas with JM Financial.

Please go ahead.

Congratulations, Kunal and Sanjay. Particularly, I would say the conversion itself was a great news.

Just coming back on that. Can you provide me some color like this sort of large conversions, how should we look at the pipeline?

Let's say if I have to take a 2-3-year views, and based on that, let's say today we have a mining volume of something like 160 kt, right, for FY '26. Let's say by FY '29 or FY '30, where are we aspiring to be?

See,

I think the first part is that what we're trying to speak up is that the goal has shifted from just selling grinding media to selling a package or a solution, which is linked to a disproportionate benefit to the customer, because if we are able to ensure this strategy works, then duties, shipping, all of that becomes far far insignificant versus just a commodity supply, right, or just a product transactional supply. That is the endeavor.

How do we retool the company, or how do we tool the company to survive next 50 years with a clear moat, and the moat comes from a sticky offering, and offering comes from engineering, engineering comes from this solution. That's the pathway for us.

The point is that in a mill which is handling a few thousand tonnes of ore per hour to be able to create this level of impact is something that has been painful, a lot of learnings, but that has happened. That's what my opening line was, or introduction to this point was that I can't today convert it into goals and outcomes.

If I'm saying there is 800,000 tonnes or to a million tonnes of forged market today, and let's say 100,000 or 150,000 tonnes of lining market, that is a significant market in South America where we are now pursuing with a very strategic intent, right? That here is the goal, here is the tactics.

Once this traction is found, I don't think there is an answer, because we've seen this in cement in the past where in 5 years a large part of the incumbent got converted to chrome. We've seen this in platinum in South Africa.

We've seen this with iron ore at a let's say 15, 17 years ago. We are hoping that once a critical mass is reached as far as references is concerned and the solution has been tried by a few people, the adoption should be fast.

Now, that does not mean it'll happen in 2 years, 4 years, 20 years. We really don't have an answer over there.

We are sharing what we are doing from our standpoint. You guys have far better networks and references to go speak about what we are saying, what does it mean in the scheme of things.

I think it was a long-winded answer. The short answer is, we don't know, right?

We hope that what is happening with one or two or five mills, and we've done this for other size, smaller, medium-sized mills, maybe 15 other mills, right? This is one larger one that we've done in the area.

We are hoping that this gives us predictable growth going forward, but you'll have to allow us a few more quarters, or we'll keep updating as more information gets clearer. If I share anything now, it is more coming from an answer that is unsupported by ground reality or signals from the market that I can build on.

Kunal. That's very clear.

Maybe we can refer back to, let's say, when you did this large-scale cement conversion. I see over FY '06 to FY '10 where your volumes almost literally doubled in a span of 5 years.

Maybe take that as a proximity. Coming back, I think this technology you had developed almost 6 years back, if I recall correctly, this

No, no. The whole bit has been a 10-year journey, but the solution is a old concept.

We've been doing it for cement, right? The mill linings have come in 5, 6 years ago.

We've been doing that from 2017, '18, '19, so that's been around for 5, 6 years. The discharge system has changed the whole conversation, and that is last 2 years, not even 2 years, right?

What we have been saying lining systems includes this additional element, which is part of the lining offering, but it's a very different shape and form than what we were talking even 18 months ago. This is a very recent development, and it's built on all the knowledge.

It is not a stand-alone plug-and-play that something came up and we are now talking about it. It's a journey where we discovered while we were solving for something else, we realized the bigger problem, we realized we have the engineering capability to design a solution on top of that, and that's what I think excites us the most, because that ultimately forms the core offering through which grinding media and linings will be sold.

I would say this is not older than 18 months,

the critical

solution that we are now pitching around which the whole solution is built is last 18 months. New discharge system.

Okay. It's more like a 10-year evolution.

You started from the down systems, then went to last 5, 6 years the lining part, and now you have developed this new-generation discharge systems.

Exactly. Our North Star is that I cannot be a transactional product supplier, right, which we haven't.

Within the mining space, we've gone up the value chain, right? Our goal is that I cannot exist on a multi-decade moat-driven offering unless I'm doing something extraordinarily difficult to do, something that is also disproportionate in impact for the customer, right?

That's the path that we've followed in the past, that we're doing now. How do I improve throughput?

How do I reduce cost? How do I reduce power?

How do I improve recovery? Everything that we're doing is ultimately flowing into those outcomes, and as we kept going forward, we kept discovering better and more impactful ways to influence some of these outcomes.

Priyankar, just to add, to make a statement as an Indian company that today in this space, which is dominated by giants, there is nobody in the world offering a similar solution is a very tall statement, and I think we are very proud about it. Let us wait and see how it unfolds.

Just last thing if I can squeeze in, just from a statistic point of view, can you provide with your solution, what sort of savings, if you can let's say quantify a bit, increased let's say yield, or maybe as you say greater polymetal output, or let's say power reduction. What are the benefits if you can just quantify somewhat?

No,

I cannot quantify for this specific transaction. That's not possible, it's not allowed.

No, not this customer, but in general, what is expected to achieve?

At least 15% of throughput improvement. At least, that's what, otherwise it's not material.

Throughput is inversely linked to power, 15% throughput improvement is 15% power reduction, plus the other benefits of down-process and other things. Now, that depends on every customer, but a fractional improvement is still material.

Just to add, from a geographical standpoint, in some of the regions where power cost is huge, power becomes a very big driving force. In some geographies where throughput improvement is very critical, it becomes a driving force for approaching that particular client.

Having said that, these two factors are massive when it comes to reduction of the total cost of ownership vis-a-vis just making a saving in terms of consumable wear

parts. Now it's absolutely clear.

Yeah.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rajakumar with RK Investment.

Please go ahead. Good evening.

Can you hear me? Hello.

You are audible, sir. Okay.

Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, this new solutions that we are offering, is that an expertise that we built post-acquisition of Vega Industries Australia?

Oh, nahi nahi, sir. Vega is a history in terms of way back in 2001, '02.

It is nothing. Vega acquisitions were all concluded It was not an acquisition.

When we started off, It is our own fully owned subsidiary. It was just an entity that was created, Global market.

There were three sales people employed out of that company when we originally started, and it was not owned out of AIA. It was just an entity with three people inside, and we said, rather than creating a new entity, let's just fold this into AIA.

It was not an acquisition in that

sense. Got it, sir.

Sir, this technology that you are talking about, I'm sure you will be patenting this as well, right?

There is a patent as far as design is concerned, but it is IP in terms of cause and outcomes, right? It is a causal knowledge that becomes part of our IP, but design will surely be going through a patent conversation, yeah.

Okay. No, no, the reason for this question is, is there a risk that somebody can copy this technology, or AIA will have a patent?

Sir, aisa hai ke this technology is not a formula or a Coca-Cola formula which can be copied. It requires humongous amount of engineering efforts in terms of designing and application, and then finding the right metallurgy and massive interaction with a client of a size which is several times bigger than AIA, and who is ready to stop his mine and allow me to do this conversion for a few days.

It's not just something that anybody can walk in. We are not at all worried about somebody copying, that much all I can say honestly.

Got it, sir. Sir, the second question is a housekeeping question.

Just looking at the inventory numbers between '25 and '26, they've gone up almost 25%, whereas your production, sales numbers are more or less like 2%, 3% plus or minus. Just want to know what is the reason for this 25% increase in inventory?

100% of our stock is built against order. There is the South American order that got introduced, I think from October, November this year, and there was a change in billing cycle for another lot where the billing shifted from when it moved from India to actually when they consumed.

Both of that amount, it was a delayed invoicing, and which has translated into a little more stock. Order revenue became stock, and that on a rotating basis continues then.

It is all material for a customer. It's housekeeping than actual addition of stock.

Okay. Lastly, sir, is it fair to assume that the volume journey for AIA will now start to go forward?

That is all our endeavor, sir.

Sir. Thank you so much, sir.

That is our endeavor. Yeah.

Thank you so much, sir. All the very best.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chirag Muchhala with Centrum Broking.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good evening to everybody. Sir, first question is, as you mentioned in the opening remark, that post this Middle East crisis, there are some global shipping uncertainty.

Sir, last time in FY '25, we had seen some of the deferrals in terms of conversion from forged to high chrome, etc., by customer, as generally they would prefer not to do this when shipping-related uncertainties are high. Just wanted to know how is the mood with miners globally currently in terms of conversion in FY '27?

Do you see those getting fast-tracked or there is a possibility of delays? Sir,

Chirag, currently while shipping cost is a challenge, however, we don't see that as a limiting factor. Thoda kya hua hai the transit period has been elongated slightly by maybe 10, 15 days.

However, the shipping costs which initially after the war was very high has now come down to a reasonably moderate level. I don't think that's a concern, and most importantly, the efficacy and the solution that we are talking about, it is far, far away from any of the commodity pricing worries.

Frankly, it is not at all material for the whole effort. Right now we are not actually worried about it.

Anyway, we work with 100% pass-through.

Correct, sir. I was just thinking in terms of their mood to go ahead with a new solution in such times.

Sir, aisa hai, Imagine a copper mine where over last 5 years output has dropped by 10%, 20%, 15%. That copper mine will have to invest hundreds of millions in terms of their ball mill and crushing capacities to maintain that output.

We are going there and telling him that without any capex, without anything, we will give you a solution where you can maintain your output instead of reducing it, or in fact increase your throughput. Abhi woh aadmi shipping cost ka kyu sochega, sir?

Correct, sir.

Right. Theek hai?

There's no such moat, okay? The moat is really the efficacy and the remarkable positive impact of the solution.

Nothing to do with any costing.

Sure. Sir, second question is that, sir, it's heartening to know that in one of the large mines our trials have been successful.

If I'm not wrong, sir, we were doing such trials in two large mines. Sir, any update on the second mine?

It is going on, sir. We are expecting something to happen over next couple of months.

Okay. Sir, lastly, sir, have we started winning any volumes back from Brazil after the end of that sunset review clause?

We should be doing 6,000, 8,000 tonnes in Brazil, but it still needs to scale up. It's not gone through the scale-up we had hoped

for. Sir, yeah.

Thanks. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Varun Jain from Dolat Capital.

Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Just a couple of questions I had missed.

Sir, in your balance sheet, I've seen that you had a short-term borrowing of 485 crores that has gone to zero. You had earlier said you use this export packing credit limit because there is interest subvention in that.

You have stopped using that?

Sorry, can you repeat that? I think interest subvention has No, no, no.

It's very, very momentary or functional. What we were doing earlier, that we were trying to sort of utilize lower cost credit and trying to work out on a little bit of arbitrage, but oh, that is all cyclical.

It doesn't happen consistently, and there's no specific reason ke why yeh quarter me thoda kam tha ya kya hai. It just happens as cycles.

More of a treasury function also.

Okay. Okay.

Sir, any from the treasury, you have 4,300 crores of cash, any plans? There's been a lot of, I think, couple of years that the plan has not come forth.

Any update Yeah.

To a previous question, I had replied that we have deliberately and consciously kept a little higher level of cash, though it impacts my ROCEs. If my 21%, 22% ROCE without this cash goes up to 35%, 37%, we are conscious about it.

Having said that, we are working on many fronts. Give us at least 6 to 12 months more.

I'm sure today, even today at the board level, we had these discussions. We are very conscious about it.

Allow us this luxury for a few more quarters. That's all I have to say.

Sir, on the dollar-rupee thing, since rupee has been depreciating so much, do any of your customers come back and say that they also want some rebate or some price negotiation there, or you get to keep the entire benefit?

I think we've already settled this question in the past where we benefit momentarily because most customers except US, are importing in a local currency. Canadian dollars, riyals, euro, South Africa, whatever that currency is.

Generally, I think there is a disconnect where rupee has weakened more than other currencies, but generally, they expect a lower dollar price so that their local currency cost does not go up. For us, a depreciating currency is better than an appreciating currency, because we get to keep some, but as a concept, I have to reset, or I want to reset my dollar price.

You get it? A weakening currency, when it weakens, the reset in dollar may take a quarter or two, but till that time, we have a little more benefit for us a quarter or two, and then one can assume a lot of it being passed through.

Sir. Okay.

In the last year, sir, you had guided close to 300 cr of this power capex. Have you been able to do that?

Because I think the power cost in this quarter was close to 5.8% as a percentage of sales, will that be structurally lower as more capacity of power comes on? No.

Yeah. About 30 odd crores of balancing capex

Sorry, 30 crores, yeah.

30 odd crores of balancing capex is required to be incurred in completing the ongoing hybrid group captive scheme project that we are going on. Just to give you a perspective, our current consumption annual is about 30 crore units at current level.

It may go up, correct? Iske samne once this rated capacity, which I will achieve, will be almost equal to about 100 megawatt in terms of my renewables, jiske samne at peak, I should be able to generate about 20 crore units.

Which means I'll become almost 60%, 65% dependent on my own captive renewable power. Now, these are all under group captive.

As against 7 rupee ke aaspaas ka jo discom ka cost hai, this should come around 5, 5.5. To 1, 1.5 rupee ka saving hoga net-net.

My investment for this is relatively much lower. Sir.

Okay. Sir, that's all from me.

Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lokesh Manik with Vallum Capital.

Please go ahead.

Hi. Good evening, Sanjay and Kunalbhai.

Sir,

Can you be a little louder, sir?

Sorry to interrupt. Yeah.

Lokesh, you sound muffled.

Yeah. Is this better?

Please go ahead, sir. Yes.

Like

this. Yes.

Please go ahead. Sanjay, just one question and one suggestion.

One suggestion was that if you could going forward provide us with percentage of revenue coming from new solution offering. I appreciate it is very small today.

We don't need the pricing and the quantity information, but percent of sales coming will give us an idea in terms of how the strategy is moving quarter to quarter or going forward year to year. It will just give some qualitative sense.

Just a suggestion on that front. Second was a question, with this new offering, would the time for conversion reduce versus acquiring a new customer where you would take at least 3 to 4 years to establish your credentials versus with the new solution offering you can do it much faster?

Is that the case, from your recent experience, sir? Yeah.

From a time to market, it it surely helps because now there's a better reference, right? In the process, there is skepticism or friction for the customer to see whether it will work, not work.

Having done it at an important mine site surely helps to confidence. I think this announcement was also to reinforce that it's a very interesting solution that we are now crystallizing as we go forward.

It's both things, right? Our own confidence that all that we are saying is coming true.

We had the confidence. We knew the technology will work.

We've done it with smaller mines, with smaller mills. To get the solution to work at a bigger mill gives us reinforces our confidence in it, number one.

Reinforces the fact that my solution is extraordinary or disproportionate, and helps with comfort of course and and hopefully a lower conversion time. Like I said, it ultimately the signals today I can't convert that into 2,000, 5,000, 100,000 tonnes in 2 years, right?

We still don't have that. Sir, that's fair.

For the 15 15 mines that you've implemented, have you seen the time to market reduce from 4 years? That was just my understanding, just a historical

Sir, these are 15 mines are in different countries, they are different mill configurations, different operating conditions. What I'm saying is there are two parallel things.

One is building out the solution, and second is a reference list. As both happen, your time is bound to reduce.

I think what I'm saying is the input barabar hai to output lagega fir na. I cannot give you an objective answer there ke 24 mahine ka 18 mahina hoga.

What I'm trying to tell you is that it will still take time, but objectively these are important developments that hopefully will lead into lower conversion time.

Understood. Understood.

That's it from my side. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may press * and 1.

Our next question is from the line of Ankur Periwal from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the follow-up.

First question, not specific for FY '26, but let's say even '25 and '26 put together, there is an absolute increase in realization on a per tonne basis, while the cost here is largely flat or maybe down. I'm referring more on COGS side.

Would it be fair to say that this increase in realization is largely a function of product mix, maybe more of casting getting sold versus grinding media here?

I think as of now, my raw material cost is at one of the highest levels today, this quarter, right, with the Iran war, Russia me hua, COVID me hua, fir Russia me hua, fir material commodity ka rise hua, it has been volatile. My raw material absolute rupees per kilo has gone up, my selling price has gone up, number one.

My shipping cost has gone up, is reflected in my selling price. My currency has moved from 75, 78, 80 to 85.

That is reflected in my realization, and my product mix is part of it. It's a combination of all four things.

I don't think we'll be able to strip it out to say what is which element. Next year, 165 is a fair realization to consider.

Sure. Just thinking aloud, as the solution business keeps on picking up, which is where more of castings will get occupied versus not only grinding media, directionally the realization growth will sort of Not really,

not really, because today also a lot of our business in cement, some part of mining, is solution-driven. The nature of the solution is changing.

It is still grinding media and castings, right? Today also I'm doing a reasonable portion of my volume comes from castings, right?

Castings have always been and will continue to be important part over here. What we are specifically discussing is the intervention and the impact of the casting bit.

We don't want to sell only castings. It cannot function without the grinding media in sync with the whole operating conditions, right?

The impact of castings are not just wear parts, but are tools that are bringing disproportionate benefit as part of the solution, which includes grinding media. You cannot just strip away castings and say 500 ban jayega realization.

The intent, endeavor, and the solution is to sell the whole package, which includes grinding media and castings, and this is where considering much above 165 may not be a fair assumption.

Sure, that's very clear. Just second bit, the earlier order of around 15 odd thousand tonnes from the South American client, should that volume start coming in this year?

Any timelines you can share on that?

No, no, it has already started, huh, dispatches.

Okay. Last year it started.

No, no, the dispatches started last year. It will it this quarter in January quarter would have started seeing some invoicing.

I think a lot of that will come in in this quarter and ongoing, first quarter of this year onwards. Some of it is there in the fourth quarter, but it will really become because dispatches from India started in October, invoicing will happen from, I think started from sometime in February, January, February, and it'll get into regular stream from this quarter.

Sure. Sure, sir.

That's very helpful. Thank you, and all the best.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you. As there are no more questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the AIA Engineering management team.

Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, everyone, for joining. As usual, Sanjay and I are available for any questions offline, and we look forward to connecting at the end of the first quarter next year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference for today.

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