Motherson Sumi Wiring India Ltd

Motherson Sumi Wiring India Ltd

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Q4 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptApril 28, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q4 FY '26 results conference call hosted by Motherson Sumi Wiring India Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.

Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr.

V. C.

Sehgal from Motherson Sumi Wiring India Limited. Thank you, and over to you, Mr.

Sehgal.

VC Sehgal

Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today.

Warmly welcome you to the Motherson Sumi Wiring India Limited results call for the fourth quarter 2025-2026, and I'm thankful for continued confidence in MSWIL. I'm pleased to announce that the company has delivered best quarterly results, and the yearly performance has crossed 10,000 crores of yearly revenues for the first time.

During the quarter, we have seen copper prices rise significantly and expect to remain at elevated levels. As these are under pass-through arrangements with the customers with a time lag, I think the impact on our profitability is transitional.

Our greenfield opportunities are progressing well and have commenced contributing. We anticipate the contribution will further increase once customer volume attain the projected levels.

I'm also pleased to highlight that MSWIL continues to maintain a debt-free status since inception, supporting our preparedness for the future. With the diversified powertrain portfolio, disciplined capital and allocation, and a steadfast focus on operational excellence.

With that, I hand you over to Vaman, Pankaj, Anurag, and Gulshan, who will be happy to address any questions that you may have. Thank you, and over to you.

Anurag Gahlot

Thank you very much.

VC Sehgal

Thank you.

Pankaj Mital

Thanks.

Operator

We will now begin with the question-and-answer

VC Sehgal

session. Anyone

Operator

who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and then 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.

Again, to register for a question, please press star and then one. Our first question comes from the line of Raghunandan from Nuvama Institutional Equities.

Please go ahead.

Raghu Nandan

Good evening, team. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

It is good to see the strong revenue performance. On the demand side, can you talk about how has been the traction in terms of new orders?

Has there been any new order wins lately? Do you see the need for adding more capacities in FY '27, and can you talk about the capex plans for '27, sir?

VC Sehgal

Sure. I think Anurag and Pankaj can take this question, please.

Anurag Gahlot

Sure, sir. As far as new orders are winning, we are winning the businesses in all powertrains, whether it's ICE, EV, or even the hybrid also.

As you have seen that we have grown with around 33% on the sales revenue, and the market has grown in the single digit for the whole year, and looking into the Q1 as we are talking right now, we think that this will continue in this quarter as well. Regarding the capacities, our existing plants, they are running around 80% of capacity utilization at this moment, and the greenfields are in the different stages.

As we have informed earlier also that as soon as we are touching to the 80% capacity, we started expanding ourself, but backed by the customer firm orders only. The way everybody has announced their expansion, the various OEMs, we will also be expanding in this year.

Far, we have done the capex of around 190 crores in last year, and for this year also these numbers will be on the similar lines.

Raghu Nandan

Thank you, Anurag. On the cost side, there is a 2.9% compression in gross margin due to temporary factors.

The major one would be copper, where there is a pass-through which will happen within 3 to 6 months. I wanted to understand on the other costs.

There is adverse currency impact. Also is there an increase in power cost, freight cost, insurance cost on imports?

Is there a pass-through for currency and other costs to customers?

Anurag Gahlot

As far as currency is concerned, yes, currency is also as we have the back-to-back arrangement with the customer on 3 to 6 months lag. Major customer on the 3 months, but the balance are on 6 months lag.

Raghu Nandan

Got it, sir. On greenfields, what would be the current utilization level?

The revenue performance has been good in Q4 at 443 crores. Maybe the utilization is at 75%.

At what utilization levels do you see these plants contributing positively to EBITDA?

Anurag Gahlot

As far as capacity is concerned for three greenfield, like Kharkhoda is coming around 80%, Pune location whereas the volumes has not gone to the forecasted number, it is approximately 50%, and the third location is in Gujarat in Navagam, which is approximately 60% because as the one of the model is ramping up right now in the Q1 also. This is a status of the capacity at this moment, and as you rightly said that 400-plus crores is the quarterly turnover for these three greenfield.

As we have projected earlier also that it will be in the tune of around 2,000 crore on the annualized basis, we are going to touch soon if the volumes forecasted by the customer are going to met.

Raghu Nandan

Got it, sir. Thank you very much.

I'll come back in the queue. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Siddhartha Bera from Nomura.

Please go ahead.

Siddhartha Bera

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, first question on the revenue. Like we said that last quarter the revenues were really not fully reflecting the copper price increase, fair to say that the current revenues will be fully reflecting the sharp increases in copper we have seen till the last quarter?

Anurag Gahlot

Largely, with respect to the previous quarter prices, that is there, but for the quarter 4, in terms of the pass-on impact will happen in the next quarter.

Siddhartha Bera

Okay. Sir, because copper has been going up consistently in the last three quarters, if we look from quarter 1 to quarter 4, our gross margins have come down by close to 600 bps.

When this pass-through happens, would you be able to recover the entire sort of cost pressure, or you think because there is a numerator-denominator effect, the recovery may not be able to fully cover up the levels where we were at operating at? How should I think about going ahead?

Anurag Gahlot

See, the cost will be recovered fully with the lag, and there will be a denominator effect which will be there, right, because there is no percentage increases. Whatever increase will be billed in the sales, same amount will be built in the cost.

Due to denominator effect, some marginal dip will see in the EBITDA always. Just to add that it is pretty evident from the full-year profitability, the cost rises in the first few quarters have already been passed on to the customers.

Whatever dip is seen in this quarter, it is not pronounced for a full year if you just see.

Siddhartha Bera

Understood. Understood.

Sir, last question on this greenfield plant. Like we discussed, we are already at 440 crores run rate quarterly.

At what run rate do we expect the profitability to be similar to our existing business? Is there any sort of guidance you can give given that we have continued to ramp up quite well in the last few quarters?

Some sense like how much is the fixed cost and by what utilization or revenue run rate we can sort of touch our company average margins will be very helpful.

Anurag Gahlot

Siddharth-ji, as I was earlier explaining that these plants are still under ramp-up. Like Mandal I was talking about is still the volumes which has been come in the Q4 in one particular model, they are still ramping up.

In Pune also where volumes are not there, those volumes are yet to come which has been forecasted earlier. As soon as these greenfield will come to the complete capacity utilization and they will turn into the normal plant for like our existing plants, I think then we can see that margins in totality will be give our total picture at the company level.

We are not going into specific to that and trying to just tell you that once the volumes will get up and reach to that 80% capacity, then we can see a improvement there.

Siddhartha Bera

Understood, sir. Thanks a lot.

I'll come back in the queue.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Gunjan Prithyani from Bank of America.

Please go ahead.

Gunjan Prithyani

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions.

Just a quick follow-up again on the copper side. Could you just refresh us how do we think about the proportion of copper in the raw material basket, or if you can share a number in terms of percentage of revenues?

The typical pass-through is it 3 months, is it 6 months? Some color if you can give on that.

Similar to last quarter, you had quantified the impact of copper inflation that we saw on gross margin. Is it possible to quantify that for this quarter as well?

Pankaj Mital

With respect to the copper prices, if you see on a sequential basis, there's a 18% increase in the copper prices. If you just look at the sales number and the increase on account of 2% just because of the increase in the copper prices.

Firstly take that out. The remaining is pronounced to the growth volumes which were there in the revenue.

The second, with respect to the cost part, it's fairly in the percentages of 24 to 28% roughly sitting in the cost on account of copper. Right?

Secondly, in terms of quantifying the impact, but it's very difficult considering the large set of components we have in the wiring harness. On a ballpark number, you can just put it around 2 to 2.5% on the bottom-line effect on account of increase in copper prices due to some lag in the recovering from the customer.

Gunjan Prithyani

Okay. And 3 months, 6 months, what's the typical pass-through timeline?

Pankaj Mital

Largely our customer falls in a 3 months bracket, but there are few customers where the 6 months arrangements are also there.

Gunjan Prithyani

Okay. Got it.

Looking at copper now, does it seem like we have the headwind completely baked in in quarter 4, or you're continuing to see pressure in terms of going into quarter 1 as well?

Pankaj Mital

I wish I could predict the copper prices where it will be in the future, but that's for sure, the increase which is there in the quarter 4, we would be able to offset in the quarter 1 volumes. That's there.

That's as per the contractual terms with the customers.

Gunjan Prithyani

Okay. Got it.

The other question I had was on the greenfield. I'm little bit confused as to how to think about the profitability of these units, because you mentioned 440 crores revenue in this quarter, which is there in the presentation, and 2,000 crore is the annualized run rate that we sort of look at as revenues from these greenfield plants.

So 440 crores in itself would mean we are closer to 88, 89% of the revenue run rate that we're anticipating from these plants. Then why are there start-up costs then?

Is that the right way to think about it? I'm just little confused because it already reflects 90% of the revenue run rate now.

Pankaj Mital

Just just to just to clarify, see, in this quarter, some of the greenfields were supposed to be ramped up in the quarter T, quarter 2, but somehow have not ramped up fully, first thing. The second is in Navagam, the SOP was there for the one of the model in the quarter 4 only.

That they are in the process of ramping up. If you see quarter-on-quarter also, the profitability have profitability or the cost have improved.

The performance of the greenfields have improved. Our loss has gone down.

Probably in the one Kharkhoda is going as per plan, Navagam is going as per plan, the volumes will be ramped up in 1 and 1/2 quarter. Is Pune is the one thing where the volumes have not come up, and this is something we have been maintaining from the past two quarters as well.

I think it will take, couple of quarters the profitability will be there with respect we can we will be able to compare with our existing plants.

Gunjan Prithyani

Okay. This is just first quarter is what your meaning.

If you see the stabilized run rate of this revenue, we should certainly see margins coming at parity to where the earlier plants were. Is that reading correct?

Pankaj Mital

Absolutely. Once the volumes will be ramped up and if we are able to recover our initial ramp-up cost, obviously that will be there, performance of the greenfield plants will be there as per the existing plants.

It will take some time, few quarters. Yeah.

Gunjan Prithyani

Okay. Got it.

Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Himanshu Singh from Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.

Please go ahead. Mr.

Himanshu Singh, your line is unmuted. Please proceed with your question.

Himanshu Singh

Hi. My questions have been answered.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Preet from InCred AMC.

Please go ahead.

Preet Singh

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, my first question would be in line of what would be our gross margin in the greenfield plant in quarter 4?

Anurag Gahlot

I think this is not the right time to measure the cost element by element with respect to the greenfield because there are certain level of optimization we do across the plants. Also we don't go plant-by-plant profitability in that way.

Preet Singh

Right. Just to rephrase it, is my understanding clear that if copper prices impact would have not been happen in greenfield, we would have been EBITDA breakeven in this quarter?

Anurag Gahlot

Could be. Could be.

As I told that there will some time where we are seeing improvements in the greenfield. Once these volumes will be ramped up, I think then we'll be breakeven and the profitability will be start positive.

Preet Singh

Got it. Sir, for full year, we have incurred around 127 crores of net cost for the entire greenfield.

How much amount would be one-off in this that we would not be seeing in the coming years for one-time setup cost, something like that?

Anurag Gahlot

Could you repeat your question? Sorry, I didn't get it.

Preet Singh

We had around 127 crore of net startup cost from our greenfield plant. What would be the one-off or one-time setup cost in this for this greenfield plant for full year or for this quarter?

Anurag Gahlot

Very difficult to break into the greenfield part This is all the cost where we need to do a upfront loading of the manpower resources. We will spend some cost on that part.

It's very difficult to put it in a number that is a one-time cost or one-off cost because all greenfields are in a operationalized mode. It's not like they are in a very starting mode or SOP has just announced.

It is not like that. We have covered our journey in the greenfields also, and we reached a stage where we see that there will be a stabilization in the greenfields.

Preet Singh

Sir, if we stabilize our greenfield revenue and comes at a same capacity utilization of whichever existing field is there, will we be able to maintain same kind of margin, 11-12%, what we do in existing field? Is that possible?

Anurag Gahlot

See, I think we have already maintained that we don't go by margin. We are ROCE-focused company, and we have been able to deliver consistently more than what the ROCE and deliver that return.

Right? We don't go by that plant-by-plant profitability.

We always see at a cumulative at a company level.

Pankaj Mital

Look, I think the are definitely all picking up in the Indian context, so that is a very good sign. Also if you see that as long as the copper prices don't continue to appreciate with all the volatility that's there in the market, this should normalize and you would see that the, of course, the plants are showing much better performance because of this.

Couple of double hits in this quarter because of the rising prices, but as they take on volumes and the prices, copper stabilized, you definitely should see a much better delivery on those numbers. We're fairly confident that this should happen in the next year.

Preet Singh

Thank you. Thank you so much, sir.

I'll join back in the queue.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ashim from Canara Robeco.

Please go ahead.

Ashim Pant

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

I had just one question regarding this 200 crore capex which we are talking about next year. Could you please give us the nature of this capex?

Will it be a new greenfield plant or will it be capacity addition at our existing plants? Will we see again start-up cost or that won't happen?

Anurag Gahlot

It is a combination of what you have said. Something will be obviously towards our greenfield because the customers have already announced their expansion plan.

We need to cater that. Second is something will be towards automation and digitization also.

The third will be a replacement capex also with in terms of the existing plants. It will be a combination of the prominent combination.

I think you already covered it.

Ashim Pant

Okay. This automation should help our margins going forward?

Pankaj Mital

Should be.

Ashim Pant

Okay. Thanks.

Thanks. Bye.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Nandan Pradhan from MK Global.

Please go ahead.

Nandan Pradhan

Hello. Good evening.

Am I audible?

Operator

Yes, sir, you're audible. Please go ahead.

Nandan Pradhan

Yeah. Just a small clarification at my end, I think as a follow-up from the previous participant.

We mentioned, 24 to 28% is sitting in the cost due to copper? Did I get that right?

The question was around proportion of copper in the RM basket of

Pankaj Mital

You're talking about cost or you're talking about the cost with respect to sales? No.

Nandan Pradhan

In the current RM basket, we've got about 70% is RM cost, right? Effectively remaining 50% would be conversion cost, and this 24 to 28 would be pure commodity cost, roughly?

Pankaj Mital

No, commodity cost would be approximately, I would say, in the range of 9 to 10% the increases. No, sir.

Nandan Pradhan

Not the relative change, sir. The absolute.

Within that 70%, how would you break that down into commodity cost and say conversion cost?

Pankaj Mital

So. Hello?

That we have covered I think this is in the range of 24 to 28% in the RMC with respect to the copper.

Nandan Pradhan

Okay. Okay.

All right. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Vijay Pandey from Axis Capital.

Please go ahead.

Vijay Pandey

Hi, thank you for taking my question, sir. Sir, I have couple of questions.

One, I wanted to check about the Pune ramp-up plan. When do you expect to see the volumes coming back from the OEM side?

Do you expect to see this in FY '27, or it might be this calendar year, or probably it will go to the next calendar year? Can you just help us understand how the ramp-up schedule will be for the Pune plant?

Anurag Gahlot

See, these customers bring a lot of variation into the volumes, and they launch the new models as well. There is no as such fixed date if you're asking us that when these volumes will be back, but there are replacement models also and there are new model launches also keep coming which takes care for these low volumes.

Vijay Pandey

Just if the plan was delayed by the OEM, then probably you would have got it whether it's delayed by 6 months or 3 months, that I was asking in that aspect.

Anurag Gahlot

Sorry, your question was not very clear. If you could kindly repeat.

Vijay Pandey

I was asking in that aspect that generally when a model gets delayed, customer OEMs if it's for short-duration delayed and they provide that early, whether it's 3 months or 6 months, or otherwise, if it's delayed for a larger period, then probably we may not know. That's why I was asking.

Pankaj Mital

I think what the management has been explaining is that those delays are over. The models have been launched.

In certain regions, volumes achieved are not what were forecasted at the beginning. We do hope, as Anurag was explaining, that customers do launch many variants over a period of time to also improve upon that, plus many new things happen.

That's how he tried to explain for certain region. In the other regions, the ramp-ups that are still happening, which of course as you ask that the expectation is that the market is growing.

Within this year, those launches and the volumes should grow. Of course, market variables remain at play, there are some pluses and some minuses.

Some things click much better; some things do not click that well. Those are the kind of market variables which remain.

Vijay Pandey

Okay. Sir, just wanted to clarify.

I think you said that greenfield steady revenue expectation is 2,000 crores. Is it for the Kharkhoda plant, or is it all three plants combined?

Because we are already at 400 crore quarterly run rate, so that's

Anurag Gahlot

Sir, when we had mentioned this about some time ago, that was for all the plants put together, around 2,000, 2,100 crore. That was our expectation at that time based on the volumes and which were there at that time.

It was not any plant specific. We do not give any guidance on any plant-specific revenue,

Vijay Pandey

sir. Has this increased over last two quarters, last two, three quarters, or the expectation is still the 2,000 crore, because this is now I think should be achieved next year?

Anurag Gahlot

As you see in quarter 4, the revenue achieved from the greenfield is more than 400 crores already. If we extrapolate, the volumes are growing and the greenfields are doing much better revenues now.

Vijay Pandey

Okay. Okay.

Anurag Gahlot

Thank you so much, sir.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Sonal Gupta from HSBC Asset Management India.

Please go ahead.

Sonal Gupta

Hi. Good evening, and thanks for taking my question.

Just a couple of questions just follow-ups to the existing one. One is that we also have fair amount of import content, which is I think yen-denominated, and while yen has also been weak like the rupee, we've not seen much depreciation of the rupee versus the yen.

Would it be correct to understand that the rupee depreciation would not have impacted you other than the copper-related stuff, right?

Anurag Gahlot

There is a marginal impact with respect to the currency movement sitting in this quarter, because if you have noticed that the JPY has appreciated in this quarter, and we have a pass-through element for this currency movements as well, which will pass on in the next quarter. Precisely it's not that significant, but some part is sitting in the current quarter profitability also.

Sonal Gupta

Got it. The arrangements would be similar, right?

You're saying 3 months for most customers, right?

Anurag Gahlot

Right. Right.

Sonal Gupta

Just another cost element was on the polymer side, right, what you're using while making the wires other than copper. Given the petchem prices, etc., are all going up and PVC prices have also gone up.

How material is that for you? Could you sort of give a sense on that, because that will again start hitting us?

I don't know if it's already started hitting us.

Anurag Gahlot

Yes, I think polymer prices due to the global situation, are growing. It's a very recent phenomenon, and definitely it is not as big as a copper element, but then it will definitely have an impact.

As we work very transparently with our customers, our working is very transparent. Anything which is happening due to the global scenario, which is beyond any one of us, we sit together and find solutions together jointly.

Sonal Gupta

This would also have a pass-through element, or this will have to go back and negotiate?

Anurag Gahlot

It will be something as I mentioned that we have quite an open working together with all our customers. They do recognize when things which are happening for everyone that we have to find solutions together.

We are all in the same boat, let me put it like that.

Sonal Gupta

Got it, sir. Just lastly, I know there's been questions around what it looks like given that we've already hit 80% in Kharkhoda and 60% in Gujarat, it's mainly the Pune plant which was started first, but given the volumes have not ramped up there, is dragging the overall greenfield profitability.

You're still coming up the learning curve in Gujarat and in Kharkhoda, and that is why these plants are also below normalized profitability?

Anurag Gahlot

I think you're putting it very right that when new things happen and when totally brand-new plants ramp up, it's a cost of growth. You've seen that MSWIL has grown at a very fast pace setting up these large plants.

The last quarter saw the ramp-up in the Gujarat plant for one of our customers, it's a steep ramp-up. All these things do matter.

Once everything stabilizes, it gives us a much better results. Just to add also that in these plants, the customer has also postponed their project launch also, model launch also.

It has gone delayed. For us, as we said in the past also, that we have to front-load with manpower to make the skill and all that, you have to take that cost upfront.

Maybe customer has delayed, but then these are the cost which are already occurring into these projects.

Sonal Gupta

Got it. Just one last question, if I may, on the manpower cost, right?

This year has been very strong growth in manpower. Obviously that's also reflected in the strong growth on the top line.

Like you said, we have to upfront manpower cost, we've seen a very strong growth. I just wanted to understand given next year's outlook, will we see more normalized growth, or you see that manpower growth will be keeping pace with the top-line growth itself, right?

Just trying to understand that.

Anurag Gahlot

Are you talking about the costs of manpower growing in line with the sales growth? Sorry, your question wasn't very clear.

Sonal Gupta

Yeah. This year, I think our manpower growth is probably in excess of 20%, right, 25% odd, which is because we were obviously setting up these new greenfields, we had to hire also a lot of new people.

I'm just trying to understand now we have the manpower in place, and the growth in manpower costs will be more normalized related to annual increments, etc., or we still see that, given our projects for next year, we need to hire a lot more people and therefore manpower costs will sort of continue to grow much faster? No,

Anurag Gahlot

look, at least for the plants that have already started and ramped up, they're now in a good way and they should deliver better returns because they're being fully utilized and everybody has been trained over there. For some of the newer capex, the new expansions, of course, the same process will have to be repeated for those plants where if it's a greenfield, they will take some time, but the brownfields will have much faster execution and existing usage of the manpower that's already there.

Overall, like I said, I think this was a big spurt of growth for us in this year with multiple plants coming online at the same time and they have all now started to ramp in a good way. We are really bullish on the market and think that the sales will grow nicely in the next year, and that will even out this growth that we've had in the cost side.

We should perform a much better, you should see definitely a lot more realizations that's happening from these plants than the opposite effect. Also we're very hopeful of more growth and more orders, if you're setting up more greenfields, it's a good thing.

We're constantly looking at ways that we can do more with the people that we have. There is also interesting developments obviously in computers with AI agents and things like that, we're all looking in all those ways that we can develop faster, develop better, make people more productive.

Of course, being sensible about it where we can give our people opportunities of growth as well. We're trying to balance this whole thing out.

I think it's a very interesting time for us with lots of opportunities. Team is quite focused, and I think next year is really going to be a strong year for us.

Sonal Gupta

Okay. Great.

Thank you so much. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, if you wish to register for a question, you may press star and then one.

Our next question comes from the line of Bhavin Vithlani from SBI Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Yeah.

Bhavin Vithlani

Good evening. Pardon me if this question is answered.

So 33% growth for the quarter looks strong, but we see your gross profit growth, which is revenues minus the raw material growth, was about 15%. It will be helpful if you can break the revenue growth in terms of volume growth and the content growth.

We understand that the pass-through impact of the commodities which you've outlined, that can be ironed out.

Anurag Gahlot

We normally don't do that because it's a quite a fluid situation, and to be looking at these numbers on what that thing is and when we know that we're going to be compensated by the customer in the following quarter. We take your feedback.

We will look at it and see if we can provide more color down the line. We have not done that piece yet.

Bhavin Vithlani

Fair enough. You can correct me if I'm wrong, while you answered that about 25-odd percent of the bill of material is copper, and if you could also help us what will be contribution from aluminum and the PVC?

These are the major commodities where the prices are moving and a lot volatile, and that eventually is a pass-through for you to the customers.

Anurag Gahlot

We take your suggestions, but with the complexity of multiple plants, projects, to really get into these kind of details when we are anyway having those kind of discussions on a rolling basis with the customer, I'm not sure if it will provide a lot of value. Like I said, we take your suggestion, and we'll look into it.

Bhavin Vithlani

Great. Could you talk about the incremental growth, from what we understand is that Aurangabad is going to be a very significant hub for passenger vehicles, given that two large OEMs are setting shop there.

Would MSUMI be a participant in that growth? What are your plans for capturing that piece of the market?

Anurag Gahlot

Definitely wherever our customers go and the best locations to support them from, we work together with them and decide our location of the plants. Sometimes some existing plants are used, and as the volumes grow, new plants come up.

That's how we work together with the OEMs very carefully.

Bhavin Vithlani

Sure. Just to clarify, the new plants of Toyota and the MG that we would be seeing over the next couple of years, would MSUMI be a beneficiary of that or are those being taken up by our competition?

Anurag Gahlot

Sir, we are not allowed to disclose exact programs for customers. I think you would have seen a slide where we are supplying nine out of the 10 the top PV.

I think that should answer your question that if we are currently on the programs which are selling the most in the market, then of course the customer would like us to continue, otherwise we wouldn't have that position. We don't buy land and then hope that the customer gives us orders.

Of course, we're in very close contact with the customer. Wherever they want us, that's where we set up the plants.

We don't set up plants without having the firm orders in hand. We've already told you that we're going to expand in capex, we're going to expand in greenfield, we're going to expand in brownfield, and hopefully you know where the customer's also expanding.

That should give you an idea that wherever the growth is happening, Motherson will definitely be a beneficiary of that growth as long as the customer continues to source us, and that is the case right now.

Bhavin Vithlani

Okay. Yeah.

Thanks so much for taking my questions.

Anurag Gahlot

Thank you, sir.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Neil Shah from Punartha Investment Advisors.

Please go ahead.

Neil Shah

Hello. Am I audible?

Anurag Gahlot

Yes.

Neil Shah

Yeah. I basically just wanted the number on capex that you guided for in FY '27.

Anurag Gahlot

It will be largely in line with what we have incurred in the current year, approximately 200 crores.

Neil Shah

Okay. Yeah.

One of the previous participants asked about the impact on the sales growth due to copper prices. The year-on-year increase in sales is around 33%.

How much of this was due to the copper prices, if you can quantify that?

Anurag Gahlot

Increase of you're saying 44%, right? 43%, 44%?

Neil Shah

The year-on-year increase for March '26 was 33% in the top line,

Anurag Gahlot

right?

Neil Shah

How much of that came due to copper prices?

Anurag Gahlot

Yeah. There is an increase of copper prices quarter 3 versus quarter 3 this year is around 18%.

That is the price which is the basis for the quarter 4. If you see in terms of the copper prices, it contributes around 5%, and the remaining is the approximately 20 to 29% contribute towards volume.

Neil Shah

Okay. Can you do a similar analysis for the increase in COGS due to copper?

Anurag Gahlot

I think I have already told that the copper content is around 24 to 28% sitting in the COGS. I think it's fairly there, and we are procuring copper at a live prices only, which is prevailing in the current quarter.

That's there.

Neil Shah

Okay. In Q4, the prices averaged around 9,800 for copper.

Assuming that the prices continue to be in the same level in Q1 FY '27, can you guide for the gross margin, what would you expect the change in gross margin to be if the prices remain the same? See,

Anurag Gahlot

we are not a margin-driven company. These elements are the pass-through elements with our customers.

If you look at the ROCE, we are ROCE-focused company. If you look at the ROCE for an year is already pretty there, close to 40% for this year as well.

Obviously for some customer, it will be a 3 months; for some customer, it will be 6 months. You have to look at us from a good amount of period to get the profitability you want.

Neil Shah

Okay. Actually, I was just having a bit of difficulty understanding the pass-through mechanism, that's why I was asking.

If you can just again try to give me some light that if the copper prices remain the same, the margin should ideally bounce back a little, right?

Anurag Gahlot

Absolutely. If the copper prices will remain same as the base of the selling prices, obviously the margins will be back to the normal which were there.

Neil Shah

Fine. Thank you.

Anurag Gahlot

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Pranav Doshi from Adecco.

Please go ahead. Yeah.

Pranav Doshi

Hi. Thank you for taking my question.

Just a couple of questions. One is that, sir, in an earlier interaction, we had mentioned that greenfield capacity is fungible and that ICE engine business could be redirected to the EV plants.

Especially if the volumes are delayed. Can you share any incremental progress on that front?

Have we got any ICE engine orders which have been allocated for the Pune or the Navagam plants?

VC Sehgal

I think you're asking more the customer information that should be asked by you to the customer. We can't answer these questions, yeah.

Basic,

Pranav Doshi

yeah. No, no, sir.

This was more on let's say that if we are facing an issue with the EV ramp-up, is it have any orders been

VC Sehgal

Sir, I can't comment about a customer facing ramp-up issues or EV orders or ICE engines order or something like that.

Pranav Doshi

Sir. Okay.

No issues.

VC Sehgal

I can tell you about our products, but I can't tell you about the customers' products or what the customer is facing.

Pranav Doshi

Right, sir. Right.

No issues. I'll move on to the next question.

Just that on the greenfield start-up costs, now we've been impacted by those on the profitability front for almost two years. I just have two related questions on that front.

First is that let's say we'll be approving more capexes in the future. Are we looking for any firmer customer commitments before breaking ground given the kind of experience that we've had for this round of capex?

That is the first question. Look,

Anurag Gahlot

again, the capex is only based on getting firm orders from the customer. We will not build a plant if we don't have the order.

Pranav Doshi

Okay. Sir, secondly, what is the plan B for the underutilized plants, let's say if the customer launches they continue to be delayed even in the future quarters?

Do we have any plan B for that?

Anurag Gahlot

Look, we're always looking at bringing different customers into those locations, but we're overall bullish on the Indian automotive scenario. I think there could be hiccups of small here and there, but over the long term, why are all the OEMs investing so much money in building new capacity?

Because everybody sees huge potential in growth. Now it might not happen equivalent in every quarter, but overall if you see the growth over the long term, we believe that these plants will take up and we need to expand more with more orders that will be coming.

Overall maybe it's a breeze with the market sort of situation if a quarter happens where certain volume doesn't do well. We, of course, try to diversify.

That's why no customer, no country, no component as a group philosophy should be more than a certain percentage of our overall sales, which we are constantly bringing down also every single year. We continue to do that even in MSWIL, and try to onboard new customers and new products and go after even two-wheelers, commercial vehicles, all different types that we can do to diversify the risk.

It might be again maybe breathe and slow down maybe for a quarter or two, but objective of the entire team is to win new business and try to win new customers from that location.

Pranav Doshi

Right, sir. Right.

Got it, sir. Just finally, since I missed it earlier, just wanted to confirm the utilization of the Pune plant.

Currently at what utilization are we operating that greenfield plant?

Anurag Gahlot

See, as we said in the earlier conversation also, that was coming around 40 to 50%, but we have to see if the volumes comes up again from these customer.

Pranav Doshi

Right, sir. That's it from my side.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Mr.

V. C.

Sehgal for closing comments.

VC Sehgal

Thank you all very much for your questions to try and understand our business. It appears that you're trying to find out more and more about things that we cannot talk about because we are bound by the secrecy of the customer, and every customer is very important to us.

I hope you take that in the right spirit. Take care, and thank you very much for your questions and have a good evening.

Bye-bye.

Pankaj Mital

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you.

On behalf of Motherson Sumi Wiring India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.