Carborundum Universal Limited

Carborundum Universal Limited

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Q3 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptJanuary 30, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Carborundum Universal Q3 FY26 earnings conference call hosted by DAM Capital Advisors Limited. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.

Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Kunal Shah from DAM Capital Advisors.

Thank you and over to you, sir.

Kunal Shah

Hi. Welcome to the 3Q FY26 earnings con-call of Carborundum Universal Limited.

From the management side today we have Mr. Sridharan Rangarajan, the Managing Director, and Mr.

G. Chandramouli, the Advisor.

At this point, I would like to hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks, post which we can take up the Q&A. Thanks and over to you, sir.

Yeah.

G. Chandramouli

Good morning. I am Chandramouli.

Let us start the proceeding with a disclaimer clause. During the call, we may make certain statements which reflect our outlook for the future or which could be construed as forward-looking statements.

These statements are based on management's current expectations and are associated with uncertainties and risk are more fully detailed in our annual report, which may cause the actual result to differ. Hence, these statements must be reviewed in conjunction with the risk that the company faces.

Thank you.

Sridharan Rangarajan

Good morning to all of you, and a happy new year to all of you. A warm welcome to our third quarter earnings call for the financial year FY26.

Thank you for joining us today. We'll begin this call by providing an overview, and then followed up by Q&A.

On a standalone basis, the standalone sales in Q3 FY26 was ₹769 crores compared to ₹712 crores in Q2 FY26. This is a growth of 7.9%.

Ceramics grew by 11.9% from ₹228 crores in Q2 FY26 to ₹255 crores in Q3 FY26. Electrominerals grew by 7.9% from ₹213 crores in Q2 FY26 to ₹229 crores in Q3 FY26.

Abrasives grew by 4.9% from ₹308 crores in Q2 FY26 to ₹323 crores in Q3 FY26. Standalone sales in Q3 FY26 was ₹769 crores compared to ₹728 crores in Q3 FY25.

This is a growth of 5.6%. Abrasives grew by 9.8%, electrominerals grew by 8.9%, ceramics dropped by 3.8%.

On a YTD nine months basis, standalone sales was ₹2,179 crores compared to ₹2,097 crores for the same period last year. This is a growth of 3.9%.

Electrominerals grew by 7.3%, ceramic grew by 1.7%, and abrasives grew by 1.3%. At the standalone level, PBIT of Q3 FY26 grew by 32% compared to ₹87 crores in Q2 FY26.

The PBIT for Q3 FY26 was ₹115 crores compared to ₹110 crores in Q3 FY25. This is a growth of 5.3%.

Standalone PBIT margin increased sequentially from 12.2% in Q2 to 15% in Q3. This was compared to Q3 FY25 is almost flat.

At YTD nine months level, standalone PBIT was ₹369 crores compared to ₹344 crores. This is a growth of 7.1%.

PBIT margin increased from 16.4% in FY25 to 16.9% in FY26. Standalone profit after tax for Q3 FY26 was ₹85 crores compared to ₹64 crores in Q2 FY26.

It's an increase of 31% on a sequential basis compared to ₹81 crores in Q3 FY25. This is an increase of 4.9%.

Profit margins in Q3 FY26 was 6% compared to 2.8% in Q3 25 and 5.8% in Q2 FY26. At the nine months level, standalone profit after tax was ₹294 crores compared to ₹260 crores in the same period last year.

This marks an increase of 12.9%. At the YTD nine months level, PAT margin in FY26 was 13.5% compared to 12.4% in the same period last year.

Moving to the consolidated results, on a YTD nine months basis, consolidated sales was ₹3,766 crores compared to ₹3,635 crores in the nine months of FY25. This marks a 3.6% growth.

Ceramic grew by 6.1%, abrasives grew by 2.4%, and electrominerals is almost flat. Consolidated sales in Q3 FY26 was ₹1,273 crores compared to ₹1,241 crores in Q3 FY25.

This marks a growth of 2.5%. Abrasives grew by 8.1%, and ceramic was almost flat, electrominerals dropped by 3.6%.

On a sequential basis, consolidated sales in Q3 FY26 was ₹1,273 crores compared to ₹1,287 crores in Q2 FY26. This marks a drop of 1.1%.

Ceramics grew by 4.7%, electrominerals grew by 0.6%, abrasives dropped by 2.5%. Coming to the bottom line performance, consolidated PBIT for Q3 FY26 was ₹109 crores compared to ₹141 crores in Q3 FY25.

Consolidated PBIT in Q2 FY26 was ₹111 crores, which is almost flat compared to Q3 FY26. At the nine months level, consolidated PBIT was ₹301 crores compared to ₹444 crores in FY25.

Consolidated profit after tax for Q3 FY26 was ₹76 crores compared to ₹35 crores in the same period last time. The profit after tax of Q3 FY25 includes an exceptional item related to VAW.

At the Q3 FY26 level, the PAT margin was 6% compared to 2.8% in Q3 FY25. On a sequential basis, consolidated profit after tax for Q3 FY26 was ₹76 crores compared to ₹75 crores in Q2 26.

At the YTD nine months level, consolidated profit after tax was ₹212 crores compared to ₹264 crores in the same period last year. Profit after tax for the first nine months of FY25 includes an exceptional item related to VAW.

At the YTD nine months level, the PAT margins were 5.6% compared to 7.3% in the same period last year. I'll move now to abrasives.

Standalone abrasives recorded a sales of ₹323 crores in Q3 FY26 compared to ₹294 crores in Q3 FY25. This is a growth of 9.8%.

The growth was broad-based, driven by retail, industrial, and precision. On a sequential basis compared to the sales of ₹308 crores in Q2 FY26 is a growth of 4.9%.

On an YTD basis the FY26, ₹917 crores is the total sales in FY26, which is a growth of 1.3% compared to ₹905 crores in the same period last year. Consolidated abrasives, Q3 FY26 consolidated sales was ₹569 crores, with a growth of 8.1% compared to ₹526 crores in Q3 FY25.

This growth was contributed by standalone business, which grew by 9.8%. Compared to Q2 FY26, consolidated was lower by 2.5% compared to moving from ₹584 crores in Q2 FY26 to ₹569 crores in Q3 FY26.

Standalone business grew by 4.9%. Rhodius Abrasives had a small drop, which is in line with the seasonality.

Consolidated sales for YTD nine months in FY26 was ₹1,660 crores with a growth of 2.4% when compared to ₹1,621 crores for the same period last year. At the YTD level, standalone abrasives grew by 1.3%.

Now, I will move to Rhodius. In Q3 FY26, Rhodius achieved a net sales of €14.8 million, which is a 3.5% drop over €15.3 million in Q3 FY25.

On a sequential basis, sales declined from €17.4 million to €14.8 million. Normally, Q3 is a lower quarter, two and a half months quarter, because of the Christmas vacations, etc.

At the nine months level, FY26 Rhodius recorded a sales of €45 million compared to €49 million. You might remember that we lost close to €5 million sales in Q1 due to the shifting of warehouses in Q1.

Q3 FY26, the loss after tax was €0.84 million compared to the loss after tax of €0.78 million. On a sequential basis, loss after tax increased from €0.57 to €0.84 million.

At nine months level, FY26 Rhodius incurred a loss after tax of €3 million. This is after PPA write-off, €2.1 million.

The loss of business due to shifting of warehouse is the predominant reason for the higher losses. The nine-month loss after tax in FY26 was €0.89 million.

On a full-year basis, we said in the last call that Rhodius will do same as last year in Q2, Q3, and Q4. This means an annual sales of €62.6 million.

Now, I expect the full-year sales to be about €60 million. We expect the full-year loss to be in the range of €4.5 million after write-off of PPA about €2.8 million.

AWUKO, at the YTD nine months level, AWUKO recorded a sales of €7.9 million compared to €7.6 million in the same period last year. This represents a growth of 4.6%.

For the quarter, AWUKO recorded sales of €2.4 million, which is a 3% growth over sales of €2.3 million in Q3 FY25. On a sequential basis, sales dropped by 19% from €2.9 million in Q2 FY26 to €2.4 million in Q3 FY26.

In Q3 FY26, AWUKO recorded a loss before tax of €2.7 million compared to the loss before tax of €1.4 million in Q3 FY25 and the loss before tax of €1.5 million in Q2 FY26. The higher loss is primarily due to no production during this period to optimize the inventory and hence ability to recover the fixed cost was lower.

Besides this, there was also a small one-time expenditure that they incurred. At the nine at the YTD nine months level, FY26 AWUKO incurred a loss before tax of €5.1 million compared to loss before tax of €3.7 million in the same period last year.

Now, I'll cover the bottom line performance of the abrasive segment. Consolidated abrasive PBIT in Q3 FY26 was ₹20 crores with a drop of 28% compared to PBIT of ₹28 crores in Q3 FY25.

This was on account of PBIT drop in AWUKO. On a sequential basis, PBIT of consolidated abrasives declined from ₹33 crores to ₹20 crores.

This drop is again mainly on account of AWUKO. At the YTD nine months level, consolidated PBIT in FY26 was ₹65 crores compared to PBIT of ₹118 crores for the same period last year.

The drop is contributed by Rhodius, AWUKO, and the standalone. Electrominerals: Standalone electrominerals recorded a sales of ₹229 crores in Q3 FY26 compared to ₹209 crores in Q3 FY25.

This marks a growth of 8.9%. The growth was driven by export segment, which is a very substantial progress that we have made.

On a sequential basis, sales of ₹229 crores in Q3 FY26 represents a growth of 7.9% compared to sales of ₹213 crores in Q2 FY26. Sales for the YTD nine months period was at ₹654 crores, which is a growth of 7.3% compared to ₹609 crores.

Consolidated EMD sales for YTD nine months FY26 was ₹1,204 crores, with a growth of 0.5% and compared to ₹1,198 crores for the same period last year. At YTD level, standalone electrominerals grew by 7.3%, Foskor grew by 16.6%, VAW dropped by 25%.

A drop in VAW reflects due to the US sanctions which was imposed in January 2025. Compared to Q2 FY26, sales was almost flat, moving from ₹399 crores to ₹401 crores.

Standalone business grew by 7.9%, and I think there was a decline in Foskor as well as in VAW. Q3 FY26 sales was at ₹401 crores with a drop of 3.6% from ₹416 crores.

Standalone business grew by 8.9%, and VAW dropped by 28%, Foskor grew by 6.5%. Now, going to VAW, at the nine YTD nine months level, VAW recorded sales of RUB 4.8 billion compared to RUB 7.6 billion in the same period last year.

This represents a 36% drop over the last year. VAW came under the sanctions since January 2025.

For the quarter, VAW achieved a sales of RUB 1.4 billion, which is a drop of 46% compared to the last year same period at RUB 2.6 billion. On a sequential basis, sales declined from RUB 1.5 billion to RUB 1.4 billion, almost flat.

At the YTD nine months level, VAW recorded profit after tax of RUB 414 million compared to profit after tax of RUB 35 million in the same period last year. Move to the Foskor.

At the nine-month level, Foskor recorded a sales of ZAR 336 million compared to 308 million ZAR in the same period last year. This represents a growth of 9% over the last year.

Sales volume went up substantially, 28% growth. At the same time, the realization fell by 13% because of the price pressure from Chinese competition.

In addition to this, rand appreciated by 6%. Very strong appreciation because of the rand appreciation coupled with the price drop and the volume increase, the net result is a sales value increase of 9%.

In Q3 FY26, Foskor achieved a sales of ZAR 101 million, which is a 4.5% decrease over 106 million in Q3 FY25. Again, volume went up.

However, the realization dropped by 13%, volume went up by 22%, rand appreciated by 8%, and so that's the basic reason for the again impact. On a sequential basis, sales declined from ZAR 114 million in Q2 FY26 to 101 million.

The volume remained flat, and the sales drop is due to the rand appreciation in the same period. At the nine months level, Foskor recorded a loss after tax of ZAR 66 million compared to loss after tax of ZAR 22 million in the same period last year.

Q3 FY25, Foskor made a profit of tax of 10 million. In Q3 FY26 became loss after tax of 24 million.

This drop in profit is predominantly due to the drop in price and appreciation of rand. On a sequential basis, loss after tax was almost flat.

Now, I'll cover the bottom performance of the segment. On a sequential basis, PBIT of consolidated EMD increased from ₹33 crores to ₹34 crores in Q3 FY26.

It is a 16% increase sequentially. Consolidated electrominerals PBIT for Q3 FY26 was at ₹35 crores, a drop of 48.7% compared to ₹68 crores in Q3 FY25, mainly on account of the PBIT drop in VAW and Foskor.

At the nine months level, consolidated electrominerals PBIT was ₹72 crores compared to ₹168 crores in the same period last year. At the nine months level, margins have declined from 14% to 6% on a YTD basis.

I'll move to ceramics now. Consolidated ceramics sales for YTD nine months in FY26 was ₹917 crores with a growth of 6.1% when compared to ₹864 crores in the same period last year.

At YTD level, standalone ceramics grew by 1.7%. Compared to Q2, sales were higher by 4.7%, moving from ₹301 crores to ₹316 crores.

In Q3 FY26, sales was ₹316 crores with a growth of 0.4% compared to Q3 FY25 at ₹315 crores. Standalone ceramics recorded a sales of ₹255 crores, which is a growth of 11.9% compared to ₹228 crores in Q2 FY26.

In Q3 FY26, sale of ₹255 crores dropped by 3.8% compared to ₹265 crores in Q3 FY25. At YTD level, sales was ₹721 crores, which is a growth of 1.7% compared to ₹710 crores in the same period last year.

Now, total debt position, there is no debt in our standalone books. The total consolidated debt was about ₹290 crores compared to ₹210 crores in the same period last year, ₹108 crores at the same period last year.

The debt-equity ratio is 0.07 at a consolidated level. Cash and cash equivalents at the consolidated level without VAW was ₹385 crores.

CapEx, during the first nine months, the CapEx investment was of ₹248 crores compared to ₹209 crores same period last year. We said we will spend ₹350 crores for the full year, and we feel that we should be completing the ₹350 crores of CapEx.

I'll come to the guidance. During the last call, I said growth in consolidated sales could be 5.5% to 6.5%.

I maintain the same guidance. Consolidated ceramics, we communicated a sales growth of 16% to 18% in the beginning of the year.

We marginally bring this down from 13% to 14%. Abrasives sales in our last call, we communicated 4% to 5% for the year.

I maintain the same. Consolidated EMD, we gave a guidance of 1% to 2% sales growth.

I maintain the same. Margins, in the ceramic segment, we communicated PBIT margin of 23.5% to 23.7% on a full-year basis.

We are likely to be 21% to 22%. EMD, in the last call, we said 4.5% to 5.5% is the PBIT margin.

We maintain the same guidance. Abrasives, last time we said PBIT margin could be 6% to 6.5% on a full-year basis.

We now revise that to 4% to 4.5%. We said the last time the overall consolidated PBIT margin could be 8.2% to 8.5%.

This could be 7% to 8%. On the CapEx side, we said we will spend ₹350 crores on a full-year basis.

We spent so far ₹248 crores on a nine-month basis. We maintain the full-year guidance of ₹350 crores of CapEx.

I now open up for Q&A, and then we will conclude the call. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session.

Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two.

Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

The first question is from the line of Amit Anwani from Prabhudas Lilladher Capital. Please go ahead.

Amit Anwani

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

First question's for the reduced guidance in ceramics and we can see that even standalone business is kind of 4% down. Could you explain what went wrong?

Within that, is that the exports from ceramics which has also been impacted? What is the technical and wear ceramics?

How the situation in ceramics, since we're expecting some recovery after Q1, Q2? We are again revising down the guidance for ceramics.

Sridharan Rangarajan

I think we're not again revising. This is the first time I'm bringing it down.

We feel that I think ceramics Q4 will be a strong quarter, first of all, because we feel that ceramic on a full-year basis the projects are getting delayed, and that is what is causing us this challenge of Q3. I think if you look at sequentially, they have done well on a standalone basis, and we feel that Q4 will be a very strong quarter based on the order backlog that what we have.

However, we expect that there could be delays in some of the projects, like, for example, while we have an order, our ability to ship depends on the inspection by the customers and there could be some delays. Hence, we are cautiously bring this down.

We felt that there could be some challenge, hence we are bringing it down. That's what I would think so.

It is not anything at this point in time we feel otherwise.

Amit Anwani

Sir, what's the kind of exports contribution in ceramics for first nine months?

Sridharan Rangarajan

Overall, If you see a blended rate, it could be in the range of around 50% to 55%. Industrial ceramics, it could be as high as 75%, because it's a combination of two businesses.

Amit Anwani

Right. Second question on the recently concluded EU FTA and we have exposure to Europe.

In fact, when we acquired the subsidiaries, we were talking about synergies and cross-sell. Any reading you have for your businesses from this FTA?

If you could explain more, could it benefit to you? Yeah.

Sridharan Rangarajan

I think right now, it's so early at this stage, I feel overall FTA will be beneficial to us. Right now we are under the MFN category, hence definitely compared to that rate, MFN FTA rate will be definitely lower.

At least to the extent of about 4% to 5% lower, which is definitely increases our competitiveness, hence it is more beneficial to us. Hello?

Amit Anwani

Am I audible? Hello?

Sridharan Rangarajan

Now you are audible, yes. Again, you're not audible.

Amit Anwani

I think there is some line issue. Is it better?

Amit,

Operator

go ahead with the question. Amit, if you have

Amit Anwani

We can take the next question and then let him come on the queue.

Operator

Okay. Thank you, Amit.

The next question is from the line of Harshit Patel from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.

Harshit Patel

Hi, sir. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Sir, firstly on AWUKO and Rhodius, while you have outlined your performance so far in the nine months of FY26, can you broadly highlight how we should think about revenue growth and margin development for both these companies for the next year, that is FY27?

Sridharan Rangarajan

I will share this details more in the next call, Harshit, because we will be doing the roll-up at that time. We'll be able to share at this time.

I strongly feel that the current challenge of AWUKO, which is a marginal top-line growth, is our key concern. I think we will reflect on that, and when we meet in the next call, we'll share this more.

Harshit Patel

Sure, sir. In terms of the next quarter, which is the fourth quarter, will it be broadly on similar lines as to what we have seen in the third quarter or would there be a material improvement sequentially for the January to March quarter?

Sridharan Rangarajan

You're talking about AWUKO?

Harshit Patel

Correct. Both,

Sridharan Rangarajan

sir.

Harshit Patel

Both AWUKO as well as Rhodius.

Sridharan Rangarajan

Yes, yes. Okay.

AWUKO will be on the similar trend is what our reading. We feel that the current trend would continue and it could be better compared to the profitability because of the expenses getting spread over the production process because last quarter we did not manufacture, hence the fixed costs absorption was practically zero.

That was the cause. Going forward that would be a slight benefit on that.

Top-line, we are expecting to be on the similar trend. As far as Rhodius is concerned, I feel normally Q4 is better quarter compared to the Q3 because Q3 is a Christmas quarter.

That benefit I expect that it would come in terms of the top-line.

Harshit Patel

Understood, sir. Sir, secondly on domestic abrasives, China has recently removed the export rebate on abrasive products, including grinding wheels, from 9% to 0%.

This will be in effect from April onwards. Can this translate into a tangible improvement in the domestic market share for us over a time?

Sridharan Rangarajan

This is a positive news as far as the Indian market is concerned. Abrasives is one such product, but many products the export benefit drop would benefit this.

We think that this is a positive information, and it would definitely help us to strengthen our position.

Harshit Patel

Understood, sir. Sir, lastly on Foskor Zirconia, this particular business has continued to impact our margins and profits negatively.

Even in the first half of FY26, we have incurred a PBT loss of around ₹25 crores in INR terms. On top of that, there is further loss in the third quarter as well.

What is the outlook on this business? How do we plan to improve the performance here?

I remember few years ago we had also planned to divest this particular business, but I think since then nothing has happened on that front. If you can provide some outlook on this business, that will be very helpful.

Sridharan Rangarajan

Harshit. I think it's a good question.

Foskor has troubled us a lot and definitely impacting us. Right now what we are doing is we have two products, ZC and Z450.

ZC is having higher losses, we have closed down that operation and we're only focusing on Z450. The Q4 will have only Z450 operation and we want to see how that performance is.

If it is going to improve, that is fine. If not, we need to take a firm call.

This is what our current approach is.

Harshit Patel

Understood, sir. Thank you very much.

I will come back in the question queue.

Sridharan Rangarajan

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time.

To ask a question, you may press star and one now. The next question is from the line of Harshit Patel from Equirus Securities.

Please go ahead.

Harshit Patel

Thank you very much, sir, again for the follow-up. Sir, in the domestic electrominerals business, what is the mix between domestic revenues and exports within our standalone business?

Also, is there any material difference in margins between these two?

Sridharan Rangarajan

Yes, the mix is improving more towards the export. That is helping us a lot.

I think our aim is to have a 30% mix that is 30% export mix on a long-term basis, but the current trend shows that even now we are very close to that.

Harshit Patel

Understood, sir. Sir, secondly, in our standalone ceramics business, which has barely grew by around 1.5% to 2% in the first nine months of FY26, could you highlight the performance and growth rates of different subsegments, namely refractories, wear ceramics, industrial ceramics?

If you could give us a flavor on which of the segments have grown and which haven't, and based on your assessment how FY27 will look like for all these subsegments?

Sridharan Rangarajan

Yeah. I think so we have two broad segments within that, which is ceramic and refractories.

The way we discussed in the last few calls, the set of businesses where engineered ceramics, some of the fired refractories, all that growth we are looking at north of 20%. Our challenge continues to lie in the wear ceramic and also the project-based fired refractory business.

Bunching of the product and that is happening or that's going to happen in Q4 is one of the reasons that we are looking at a muted nine months one, we expect the full-year basis they will be strong. Wear ceramics continues to have this challenge.

Largely, we feel that one, the ceramic business in US, particularly in the last two quarters, were sluggish. The end customers on many projects have delayed and deferred because of the uncertainty in the tariff, not just because of us, I'm just saying as a project.

We are only a small supplier in that, because they are going to face many import costs. A lot of them have deferred this, trying to get clarity in terms of how it is going to happen.

That two quarters is causing this challenge. We think the information we are getting is that people more and more now start firming up their project and start moving ahead.

That should come back. This is how I read the ceramic business as a whole.

As we guided, we've given a guidance at the consolidated level, but in the ceramic obviously, India becomes the forming a major portion. We expect that overall growth rate, we know that the current rate is 1.7%, but we expect this to be in the range of about 9% to 11% at a full-year level.

Harshit Patel

Understood, sir. Thank you very much for answering my questions and all the very best.

Sridharan Rangarajan

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one.

The next question is from the line of Jonas Bhutta from Birla Mutual Funds. Please go ahead.

Jonas Bhutta

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

I hope I'm audible.

Sridharan Rangarajan

Yes, yes. Please go ahead.

Jonas Bhutta

Yeah. Would appreciate your comments while you said that you will give out a separate guidance for both the businesses, the AWUKO and Rhodius, probably with the Q4 results.

Just like Foskor, sir, do you sort of have a timeframe as to when you'll keep evaluating these businesses, whether they are something that are sort of meeting the targets that you'd set out at the time of their acquisition? As in, you'd bought them for a particular reason, and I know maybe three years or four years is not a good enough time to sort of evaluate these businesses because you buy for the long term.

Just curious to know as to what are the steps that you're taking to sort of see that whether these fit properly, just like you are going to take a call on Foskor. What is that time line that you've given yourself on this?

Sridharan Rangarajan

I think again a good question. Foskor, as I communicated, probably one quarter to two quarter we will take a call.

AWUKO, we think that we should take a firm call in a year's time.

Jonas Bhutta

Understood. Just out of curiosity, sir, again, while we bought it for I think €5 or €6 million, what has been the total loss funding that we've done in so far, or the losses that we would have incurred in the last three, four years ever since we acquired them?

Sridharan Rangarajan

Yeah. I think we have incurred a loss of close to about €30 million, and this is over the last four years' period.

Jonas Bhutta

Sure. Sure.

My second question, sir, was on ceramics. In about two years back, sir, we've seen a phenomenal growth for the past four, five years up until maybe fiscal '24, and predominantly driven by these new age applications in SOFC cells, etc.

The business of the company that was giving us those orders seem to be booming. Is it already reflective in the sales of ceramics for the past two quarters, or that's the upside that's potentially going to come going forward?

Because again, the communication was that the intensity of ceramics in these products is likely to go up, and our wallet share will sort of tend higher. I'm just again wanting to know whether that's already reflective of the upside in the last two, three quarters.

Sridharan Rangarajan

Yeah. I think your pointed observation is well noted.

I think on the ceramic side, the businesses that we are serving to SOFCs and some of the high-end one, they are growing pretty high. As I said, it's north of 20% is the growth that we are having.

We also have a very sizable, good order book. In fact, we bagged the highest-ever order in the last quarter from them, we seem to be doing fine there.

Our challenge, as I explained to you, comes largely from the wear ceramic side, which is what is causing. Probably once the projects starts kicking in in America, I think this should start getting better, and then you will start seeing the overall growth would also start looking better.

Two broad reasons. One is that side.

The other side is the refractory projects bunching that is happening in Q4. These are the two broad reasons why we are seeing a muted growth up to nine months.

Still, as I guided on standalone 9% to 11% on a basis ceramic, we will still do that because you will see a strong Q4 on that. Then you will start seeing a better growth in FY27.

Some of the businesses that you are hinting are really supporting our growth well.

Jonas Bhutta

Got it. Fine, sir.

Appreciate your responses and all the best, sir. Thank you.

Sridharan Rangarajan

Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one at this time.

To ask a question, please press star and one now. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Sridharan Rangarajan

Good. I think thank you all for participating.

I would like to summarize as follows. I think, of course, you don't have the business plan, but we are tracking to the business plan at nine months level, and we think that we have worked on all the major efforts in terms of our long-term strategies for ceramics, electrominerals, and abrasives.

Capacities are being created, and we have our investments progress is pretty much in line. That's why we are also maintaining the guidance of ₹350 crores.

All the programs in terms of technology tie-ups, working with partners in two broad areas are all progressing well. People addition, getting key leaders part of this new and improved programs that we are looking at are all also happening in parallel.

I would say while we focus on the current and the future also we are securing well. Abrasive growth in Q3 is encouraging.

We think that this trend should continue. We feel Q4 will be a strong quarter for ceramics based on the projects that they have tied up.

Electrominerals is showing good comeback, very good margin recovery that they have shown. Their ROCs are also looking good.

Overall standalone has done an exceptional job. We think that Q4 could be better in standalone.

We do have challenges at Foskor Zirconia, AWUKO, and I think we would take appropriate actions on this. Rhodius is doing fine, but I think we can get better at it.

We will do work on that. With that background, I thank you for all your patience and time in attending this call.

Thank you.

Operator

On behalf of DAM Capital Advisors Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.