Thank you, Danish. Good afternoon, everyone.

It's a pleasure to welcome you on behalf of Godawari Power and Ispat Limited. Please note that today's discussion may include certain forward-looking statements, and therefore, this must be viewed in conjunction with the risk that the company faces.

We are joined today by Mr. Abhishek Agrawal, Executive Director; Mr.

Dinesh Gandhi, Executive Director; and Mr. Sanjay Bothra, Chief Financial Officer.

May I now invite Mr. Sanjay Bothra to present the company's business outlook and performance, after which we'll open the floor for Q&A.

Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Sahil. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call.

Our financial results and earnings presentation have been uploaded to our website as well as the stock exchanges, and I trust you have had an opportunity to review them. I will now briefly walk you through the key highlights of the results, following which we will open the floor for a question-and-answer session.

We are pleased to share that FY '26 has been a year marked by several significant milestones and strategic achievements. Despite softer realization, GPIL delivered good set of numbers with revenues remaining steady and EBITDA and PAT margin strong at 23% and 15%, respectively.

On the operational front, GPIL delivered a strong performance in FY '26, successfully achieving its production targets across key segments. Sponge iron, structural rolled products, and ferroalloys surpassed their targets with production exceeding 100% of planned levels.

Meanwhile, mining, pellets, and billets achieved 92%, 95%, and 96% of their targeted production level, respectively. In FY '26, healthy production ramp-up was seen across iron ore mining, pellet production, and structural rolled products.

Q4 witnessed robust YoY growth in pellets, sponge iron, and structural rolled products, supported by capacity ramp-up and healthy demand. The sales volume in FY '26 showed an increasing trend in pellets, sponge iron, galvanized fabricated products, and structural rolled products.

In Q4, the growth momentum of sales volume remained strong, led by pellets and structural rolled products. Q4 witnessed sequential improvement in the realization driven by better pricing momentum across the steel value chain, while FY '26 realization remained softer across key products.

Coming to the consolidated financial performance, FY '26 revenue remained stable, while Q4 FY '26 revenue recorded a strong 41% quarter-on-quarter growth supported by a hefty production ramp-up, higher sales volume, and improved realizations. FY '26 EBITDA stood stable at ₹1,253 crores, whereas Q4 FY '26 EBITDA increased by 38% YoY basis and 91% QoQ basis to ₹439 crores.

FY '26 PAT also remained stable at ₹802 crores, with Q4 FY '26 PAT rising to ₹280 crores. Cash flow from operating activities improved by 29% to ₹1,157 crore, driven by a strong operational performance and efficient working capital management.

GPIL continues to maintain a healthy balance sheet with a cash position of ₹837 crore. The standalone performance during FY '26 also remained stable and healthy.

The standalone PAT growth of 19% represent dividend income from Ardent Steel and exceptional income on sale of stake in Ardent Steel. However, in the consolidated results, the stake held in Ardent Steel has been derecognized upon disinvestment of stake held in Ardent Steel.

Further, dividend income and profit on sale of stake of Ardent Steel does not form part of consolidated results, and therefore consolidated PAT was lower as compared to standalone PAT. Coming to the key achievements and strategic updates, I am pleased to share that GPIL received environment approval and consent to operate from the CECB in February '26 for the capacity enhancement of the Ari Dongri mines from 2.35 to 6 million ton.

The ramping up of the capacities has already begun in a phased manner with full scale operation targeted from FY '28. The iron ore beneficiation plant capacity expansion at the Ari Dongri mines, increasing capacity tenfold to 6 million ton, is targeted for commissioning by Q3 FY '27.

GPIL also received CTO from CECB for capacity expansion of the sponge iron division from 0.59 million tons to 0.65 million ton; HB wire from 0.1 million ton to 0.115 million ton; and for additional 7 MW waste heat recovery-based power plant, taking the total waste heat recovery power plant capacity to 49 MW. GPIL commissioned its 2 million ton iron ore pellet plant in December '25, taking total pellet capacity from 2.7 to 4.7 million ton.

The plant is India's first to use advanced natural gas-based grate-kiln technology, marking a shift from conventional carbon-intensive processes. GPIL is progressing on its 0.7 million ton CRM complex project with on-site construction expected to commission by July FY '26.

Orders for key equipment lines have been placed and advance payments have been released for all major process lines. The project is targeted for commissioning by March FY '27.

GPIL is setting up a 20 GWh BESS project for which soil testing has been completed and construction of the compound wall is currently underway. We have signed long-term agreements with EVE Power for Grade 1 628 Ah LFP cells and with Shanghai Shenghui Roshine Energy Technologies for DC balance of system supply, securing the project's supply chain.

BESS project is expected to commission from March '27. The board has approved the setting up of a 1 million ton integrated steel plant for manufacturing structural steel and wire rods.

Land acquisition and environmental approval are in place, while consent to establish is awaited. Discussion with equipment suppliers and project engineering are underway, with construction expected to begin in October '26.

GPIL is also expanding its captive solar power capacity by over three times, currently from 165 MW to 540 MW, to support captive consumption across iron ore mines, additional 2 million ton pellet plant, CRM, and upcoming integrated steel plant operation. In addition to current 165 MW, the company has commissioned solar power capacity of 25 MW yesterday only, and additional 100 MW is expected to be commissioned by July '26.

On the ESG front, the company has completed most initiatives under its energy efficiency and decarbonization project, reinforcing its commitment towards achieving net-zero carbon emission by 2050. As part of its EV-led transition towards greener operation, GPIL invested in 10 EV dumpers, 24 EV loaders, and 15 EV excavators during the year.

The adoption of electric transportation has reduced operating cost by nearly 75% and lowered carbon emission by around 88% compared to conventional diesel vehicles. The company has plans to shift the existing transport fleet to EV fleet to reduce emission and cost saving, which shall be announced in due course.

Now coming to the market outlook, global iron ore prices remained relatively resilient during FY '26, supported by steady demand from China, supply side disruption, and healthy steel production in emerging economies such as India. Benchmark 62% Fe iron ore prices largely traded in the range of $95 to $110 per metric ton during recent months.

On the domestic front, India witnessed a sharp rise in the iron ore imports and reached a seven-year high of 12 million ton-plus in FY '26, driven by strong steel demand and shortage of high-grade ore required by domestic mills. Despite higher domestic production, imports increased significantly, highlighting robust consumption trend in the Indian steel sector.

Looking ahead, the medium-term outlook for iron ore prices remains closely balanced, aiming showing steel demand in China and expected ramp-up of new low-cost supply from Simandou project in Guinea. However, rising steel consumption in India and increasing preferences for high-grade iron ore are expected to provide structural support to demand going forward for pellets and high-grade iron ore.

On the pellets front, demand for premium-grade pellets continues to strengthen globally aimed decarbonization initiatives and the gradual shift towards gas-based DRI steelmaking. Industry reports project the global iron ore pellet market to grow at a CAGR of around 5% to 6% over the next decade, supported by increasing adoption of cleaner steelmaking technologies.

Looking ahead, India's pellet demand outlook also remains positive, supported by ongoing steel capacity expansion and the industry's growth focus on low-carbon and high-grade raw materials. In conclusion, backed by the competitive advantage of captive iron ore mines, a strong net cash position, ongoing capacity expansion, and an instinct for ESG focus, GPIL remains well positioned to drive sustainable value creation through operational excellence, solar-led cost optimization, and the continued support of all stakeholders.

I would now like to open the floor for questions and answers.

Hi. A very good afternoon, and thanks for the opportunity.

A lot of congratulations on a good set of numbers for the quarter. My first question, sir, on the iron ore mining guidance, I might have missed in the opening remarks, but for FY '27, if we go to slide number 17, we have a guidance of 3.4 million tons for FY '27.

Now, I think last call, we were guiding that we would be doing somewhere around 4.5 to 5 million tons. What's changed?

Is there some delays in the ore production, and can you please just help me with that?

Couple of things. Firstly, the guidance we've given is the net usable iron ore which will be sent to the pellet complex for using it because we will be beneficiating the iron ore in the mines itself once our 6 million beneficiation plant commissioned.

The actual mining will be close to about 4 to 4.25 million tons this year because 1.5 million will be BMQ where the recovery will be less than 50%. About 0.8, 0.75 million tons of iron ore will be waste as tailings.

The actual iron ore mining production will be about 4 to 4.25 million tons, but the guidance we have given is the net usable iron ore coming to the plant for making pellets, which is about 3.4 million tons. This year, we will be doing about 4 to 4.25 million tons of iron ore production.

End of Q3, early Q4, we should be able to hit the rated capacity target of 6 million tons. For FY '28, we should be able to mine 6 million, and the actual output, concentrate usable for pellet plant, will be about 4.5 million tons.

That's how you're going to see it.

Okay. Thank you for that.

This 3.4 also includes ore from Boria Tibbu or is it purely Ari Dongri?

No, see Boria Tibbu, last year mining was hardly about 0.3 million tons. This year we'll be doing about 0.5 million tons, because again Boria Tibbu is a very low-grade ore.

Currently, we are bringing it to the plant and beneficiating where the recovery is hardly about 40%. Even if you do about 0.5 million ton this year, the usable iron ore will be about 0.2, 0.25 million.

Which is very not substantial. So 3.4 will be the net usable iron ore this financial year, which will be going to the pellet plant.

Okay. Understood.

To get it in a nutshell, we'll be buying roughly 1, 1.5 million tons of iron ore for our pellet requirements?

About, yeah, close to about 1 million ton. That will drastically come down post-Diwali, which is November, once we are able to achieve the rated capacity post-monsoon.

As a year whole, we can see a total mining to be about 4.5 million ton, including Boria Tibbu. Net usable iron ore about 3.4, 3.5 million tons for this financial year.

Okay. Got it.

With

the new mine now putting in the ore from this year onwards, how do we see the landed cost of ore changing? Do we expect it in the ₹2,900, ₹3,000 per ton range?

No. This year, unfortunately, if you see now, because of the diesel escalation and the shortage all over because of the war, our transportation cost is already up by ₹200, ₹250.

For the full year, we will see the value to be at the similar levels of ₹3,000. Mr.

Bothra just mentioned, we have started talking to the transporters. We want to convert the entire fleet to EV trucks to have a substantial saving on the diesel side.

This year, the guidance will be at the similar levels, which is about ₹3,000, ₹3,200 levels. Q3, Q4 onwards, we can see a substantial reduction in the pricing of mining.

Sure, sir. Thank you.

My second question is, how do you see the pricing in Q1 as compared to Q4 across the board?

See, Q1, the pricing was pretty much at the same levels of Q4 for the first half of Q1. The second half of Q1, say, end of April, early May, the prices have softened a bit almost by 10% across the supply chain.

It might be a war effect. It might be the summer season or the heat wave which is across India right now.

Q1, the prices have softened by almost 10% across the supply chain post end of April onwards. Sure.

Okay. That's helpful.

Just one last question. I was looking at a slide 25 where we have a vision for 2031.

We have a line item with the growing substantially from the current levels.

Just want to

get a sense of what all are you looking at from a company's long-term strategy point of view. Is it the current projects is what the estimate is or there are certain projects which haven't been announced or the company

is looking at? No.

It's basically the revenue top line coming from all the projects we've announced. If you see the BESS battery storage, which is about 20 GWh, if you consider about 16 GWh, from there, we see a top line of about ₹15,000 crores.

A new steel plant, we see a top line of about ₹6,000 crores. The CRM, we see a top line of about ₹3,000 to ₹4,000 crores.

With the pellet capacity crossing 4 million this year, put together, the current complex and the projects we've already announced, we see a top line reaching close to about ₹30,000 crores in next four to five years.

Got it. That is helpful.

Thank you. All the best.

I'll join back the queue for more.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for taking my question, sir. My question relates to more of a EBITDA growth what we had seen quarter-on-quarter.

If we see, the prices has remained more or less same for pellets, though we had seen increase in other commodities. The delta seems quite high in EBITDA growth as compared to what we had seen in the prices increase of the pellet.

Anything special? See,

yeah. There are two reasons.

One is there was a carryover inventory of iron ore pellets of about 89,000, 100,000 tons in Q3, which got sold in Q4. The additional EBITDA has come from there.

Plus, our new pellet plant started production end of Q3, which is December, and we were able to reach to a 70% capacity. The additional volume of pellets came in from there.

Lastly was our mining production, which was about 2.4, 2.35 till last year. We got the EC approval at third week of February.

March, we could do the extra mining of almost about 2, 2.5 lakh tons. Majorly, these three factors contributed to the additional EBITDA compared to Q3.

Okay. Sir, second question related to BESS.

So 20 million overall you will be do 20 GWh overall you will be doing, and can you give the timeline how it will be starting? Means first you will be starting 5 GWh and thereafter how you will scale?

Sure. See, with the current development, we should be able to commission the first line by end of Q4, which is March '27.

First year, FY '28, we expect to do a 5 to 6 GWh of output, which is hardly about 30%, 40%. Second year, we want to scale it to about 70%, which is at about 12, 13 GWh, 14 GWh.

From third year onwards, we expect to do about 17, 18 GWh. Next two to three years, we should be able to reach to a 90% capacity.

That's how we have planned it for the phase one of 20 GWh line.

If you can talk about the margin in this BESS business?

See, when we started the project, when we conceived, we were expecting a margin of about roughly about 7% to 8%. Today, if you see, the price of one container is close to about ₹80 lakh per MWh, which is about ₹4 crore per container.

When we conceived this project, it was supposed to be about 7%, 8%, about ₹3.5, ₹4 lakh margin. With current demand coming from Indian sector, with the grid stability and all those things, the margins have gone up almost to 12%, 13% at the moment.

Still, if you consider a very conservative figure of 7% to 8% on a ₹80 lakh per MW, we do about a ₹4 lakh of net margin. Basis that, you can multiply to a 16, 18 GWh line.

That's how we have conceived the project. A ₹4, ₹4.5 lakh per MWh into a 16 GWh line comes to about ₹700, ₹800 crores if everything goes well.

Yeah. Great.

Sir, something related to this only. How we are means related to anything increase in lithium prices or lithium sales prices, if that happens, then how we are safeguarded?

See, so

as Mr. Bothra announced, we have already done a long-term tie-up with a Tier 1 Chinese company called EVE.

The way we have priced the entire supply of the cells, it is index-based where we have captured few important components which contributes to the manufacturing of lithium cells. If the market goes up, the supplier will pass on the price to us.

If the market goes down, it will be vice versa. For example, if you see, six months back, the prices of lithium cells were about $37, $38 per watt, which is now at about $55 per watt.

In the same way, if you see, six months back, the price coating in India was about ₹70 lakh per MWh. Today, price coated for the same container is about ₹85 lakh per MWh.

Eventually, any substantial increase in the cell price will be eventually passed on to the buyers in the Indian market to maintain the margins. The pricing is done with the supplier is on index-based so that it is fair to both the parties.

Okay. Great, sir.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thanks.

Thank you for the opportunity for asking questions, and congratulations, sir, on the wonderful set of results. Sir, I wanted to get a current understanding on the iron ore environment that we're seeing.

Recently, we've seen that it has been hovering around $105, $110, currently around $107. Do you think these prices will be stable for the next of the year?

With them being at these prices, our spread will eventually increase?

See, if you see about 15 days back, the prices also touched about $110, $112 levels as well with this war situation and the currency fluctuation. The prices have softened a bit.

As you see the international reports, I feel this year, the prices should remain above $100 levels for the entire year. That's what the international report says.

There is demand from China. Import into India is also start happening because of availability of iron ore in India is not up to the mark.

I feel

$100-plus

should be the target for the entire year on iron ore side.

Got it. For the pellet plant, I think you mentioned, sir, it is a gas-based pellet plant that we've set up?

Yeah. Earlier, we were using coal gas,

basically

getting into gasification. Now from coal gas, we have shifted to natural gas.

We have done a seven years MoU with GAIL for supply of natural gas. Our new pellet plant, it's running on 100% the fuel is natural gas.

Sir, with that, I think you clearly explained in the last call the difference between a coal-based DRI pellet and a gas-based DRI pellet. You clearly stated we will not want to look into, let's say, a DRI that's gas-based.

With this, are we looking at that kind of an export market?

We are. See, definitely with CBAM coming into picture, with demand from export market and with the capacity of pellets being added into India, the whole idea was we want to be export-ready.

For example, today the domestic demand is on the weak side. You might hear where Godawari start exporting pellets from the next quarter.

We want to be future-ready and that was the whole idea. Plus, we also saved about close to over ₹100 crores of capex on the coal gasification side to generate the same kind of fuel.

So ₹100 ₹100 crore capex was saved on the capex side, plus we are future-ready whenever export opportunity is there. That was the whole idea.

Got it. Sir, for the coal, I think you'd mentioned last time that South African coal prices had increased because of the supply glut.

Can you just give us an idea on how the prices are hovering for this quarter? See,

this quarter, we are very well covered within the limits. Our average pricing should be somewhere about ₹12,500, ₹13,000.

Q2 onwards, because of the war impact, the sea freight has gone up substantially from $15, $16 is almost crossed $20. Dollar is up from ₹93, ₹94 levels to ₹97 levels.

There is a substantial impact on the imported coal price from Q2 onwards, at least by 15% to 20%.

20%, okay.

Yeah. At the moment it is.

Domestically, we wouldn't have a problem for the 40% mix that we have?

No, see domestically, at the moment, we are close to about 100% using imported coal. We have been using imported coal to maximize our production levels in the DRI.

Any given point of time, we can always switch to domestic coal, and the availability of domestic coal is abundant. There is no supply or glut in supply of domestic coal sourcing.

We can switch whenever we want to. We are carefully monitoring this war situation, and if we feel the situation is not dying down, going forward, we might shift to some part of domestic coal for DRI.

Got it. Perfect.

Just, sir, last question before I'll join back in line. I think we have established some really good tie-ups in terms of our BESS setup, how we are progressing with EVE, with Roshine, other players.

Sir, can you just give us a sense on how do you think this market is going to play out in India? Because we've seen a lot of players announcing the capex or announcing the expansion into BESS projects that they would do.

Can you just give us a bit light on how our talks with potential customers or early pipeline talks are progressing?

See, at the moment, we haven't gone to the market yet. We want to get into the market once we know we can deliver after a certain time period.

We intend to go into the market, end of Q2, which is say about September, August. See, it's an open market.

People do feel the initial capex is on the lower side, but it's actually not. The challenge will be a continuous supply from Tier 1 components across the globe.

That is the reason we feel the market is going to be competitive, but eventually, what quality components and how you make the container eventually will play out. Once you deliver in the market, then only probably you can see who is able to deliver and who is not able to deliver.

Yeah. Sir.

Because I think in terms of capability, since we've seen China is the number one player in battery energy storage, and since we're sourcing components from most of those tie-ups, I think we should be in a very good capability.

Yeah. Recently, just to inform all the stakeholders, we recently also have tied up with FIMER, which is an Italian-based company.

They have a plant in India for PCS. We have tied up with a Gujarat-based developer for EMS, which is compulsory as a part of battery storage by the Indian government.

We are continuously doing long-term tie-ups with key component suppliers so that we have a continuous supply for all the components on regular basis.

Got it. Thank you so much, sir.

I'll just join back in line.

Yeah. Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Congratulations on a great set of numbers. I would like you to throw some light on the EBITDA margin.

What would be our conversion ratios? How do the conversion ratios work right now as of from mining to pellets to sponge iron?

That would be great, sir.

See, the conversion from mining to pellet is about close to about ₹2,000. From pellet to DRI, including thermal coal, of course, the conversion cost, operating cost is about ₹1,500 from pellet to DRI, and remaining is your coal and iron ore cost.

Iron ore is about 40%, coal is about 35%, and remaining is your operating cost. Today, if you see a breakup of say my production cost is ₹20,000, out of that, pellet will be about ₹10, coal will be about ₹8.5, and remaining ₹1,500 will be my operating cost.

That is the breakup for the DRI.

Okay. Sir, could you just throw some light on rolled structural products?

Because there's been a quite incremental QoQ and YoY growth on those products.

Yes, couple of things. One, we took the RR Ispat rolling mill, which we had designed.

There was some modification required to improve the quality and upgrade the production. That modification was over in end of Q3.

That's why you are seeing a substantial increase in the rolled product production from Q4 onwards. Now you can see this production happening on a continuous basis quarter-on-quarter because the mills is now quite stable and there is acceptability of the product in the market.

We have a healthy order book of almost six months on RR Ispat. Now you can see this volumes on quarter-on-quarter basis.

Sir, what would be our capacity and what would be utilization for this year we are expecting for FY '27?

See, total rolled product, including Godawari, we should do about somewhere about 3.75 lakh tons for the entire year.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

I'll join back the question queue again for asking further questions.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, regarding the exceptional line item in P&L, you had mentioned in your opening remarks that the difference from a positive ₹36.69 crores at standalone level to a negative ₹18.29 crores at consol level is due to the non-inclusion of profit on sale of Ardent Steel.

Could you please give us a bifurcation between this profit and, I guess, the write-off of pre-operative cost of thermal power plant?

Yes. See, in other income, there is a ₹91 crore item of dividend from Ardent Steel Limited as associate company.

There is around ₹73 crores profit on sale of stake of Ardent Steel, which is appearing in the exceptional item in standalone results.

Okay. And

This method is on cost-to-cost basis. When the consolidation comes on equity method, the profit recognized in standalone on cost basis is eliminated, and only ₹17 crore profit is there on the entire transaction of this Ardent Steel's stake sale.

₹17 crore gain as exceptional items and around ₹37 crore or ₹36 crore write-off of the erstwhile Godawari Energy pre-operative cost. Net-to-net, there was ₹17 crore loss in consolidated balance sheet as exceptional loss.

Sir. That's all from my side.

Thank you.

Hello. Can you hear me?

Yes, please.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I wanted to ask what is the revenue guidance for FY '27 and the EBITDA margin guidance for FY '27?

See, top line should be 6,000-plus with our new pellet plant operating at close to 80%, 90% capacity. There will be the additional volume and the additional revenue coming from there, as other volumes remains almost constant.

FY '27 guidance, see at current market levels, we should be able to do somewhere about 24%, 25% of EBITDA levels at current market levels. It's difficult to comment at such an early stage of the financial year.

Looking at current market scenario, 25% we should be able to maintain the EBITDA levels, and top line should cross ₹6,000 crores with the additional volume of pellet coming in.

Got it. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Hi, congratulations again for very good results. My first question is on the pellet, if we have to see the quarter-on-quarter realizations, it's not moved at all versus the market pricing.

What's happening over here if you can help us understand the reasons and how can pellet prices look for FY '27?

See, thanks, Sahil. On the Q4, we see the pellet pricing hasn't moved much compared to market because there was a phase where we were not able to do mining at that full capacity because of the EC friction as EC got delayed right from October, November, then finally came in end of Feb.

We were not able to produce the same volumes of high-grade pellets where we draw a premium for more than ₹1,000. We had to make the 63 commercial pellet.

That is why we are not able to see a difference in the pellet pricing compared to the market scenario. That was a major reason, no other reason beyond that.

On the FY '27 guidance, see as the mining production goes up from Q3 onwards once monsoons are over, the product mix of high-grade will start going up drastically, and that will definitely show a difference between the pellet pricing for Godawari and the others in the market. That will happen from Q3 onwards as the mining portion starts going up post-monsoons.

Got it. Perfect.

Thank you. That's all from my side.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi. Am I audible?

Thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations to you and the entire team on a good set of numbers.

Sir, just wanted to understand on the mining and the pellet plant scale-up that you are explaining before. Earlier, we used to mine 27, 28 lakh tons of ore and simultaneously convert that into pellet.

While this time, because of the beneficiation plant, you are saying that the mining would be of higher, over 4.5 million, and pellet-ready ore would be 3.5 million. Why is there a change in that if you could help me understand, sir?

No, there is a slight correction. Earlier, we used to mine about 2.4 million tons.

If you see our last year's mining production, it was about 2.35, 2.4 million tons. This year, we have done about 2.7, 2.8 because we were able to get the EC in Feb and there was additional production in March.

That was an additional increment. Till last year, Boria Tibbu was not in operation.

We started Boria Tibbu operations last year only where we did the mining of hardly 0.2, 2 lakh tons. If you compare basis that, against a 2.4 million, we'll be doing about a 3.4 million tons.

Straightaway, a jump of almost a million ton for this financial year. If you compare basis that, 3.4 is usable, and actual mining will be 4 million-plus.

From next year onwards, at full capacity, the actual mining will be 6 million ton, and usable will be about 4.5 million tons after beneficiation.

Okay.

Because earlier, there was no beneficiation plant in the mines. The 0.6 million plant started last year, there was a little bit of beneficiation, and further will go up once we commission the new plant of 6 million tons.

Got it. Sir, if you could broadly explain how does the economics and margin change once we do beneficiation?

Because then, ideally, we are extracting more ore and converting to lesser pellet, if that number works out that way. Then how does the margin or the economics work in case of beneficiation plant

then? Just to give you a very brief explanation, Average grade in the mine is about 59%, 60% Fe.

We want to beneficiate that, upgrade that to a 67% concentrate, basis which we will be making a high-grade 65% pellets. Once you do that, about 15% of iron ore is wasted in the form of tailings.

If you do 100 ton of mining, about 85 tons of concentrate you will be getting to feed to the pellet plant. This is one scenario.

The second scenario is we will also be mining a BMQ, which is a low-grade magnetite, where a 35%, 38% Fe will be upgraded to again 65%, 67%. In that, the recovery will be close to about only 40%.

When you put together whole, the recovery basis the 6 million will be close to about 70%, 80%. About 20%, 25% of the entire iron ore will be wasted as a tailing.

On a 6 million, if you subtract 25%, you get about 4.5 million tons of iron ore, usable iron ore of a 65%-plus concentrate. That is how it works.

Got it, sir. This is

If I don't beneficiate, if I make use of 60 Fe iron ore, I will get more volume, but my Fe in the pellet will be below 59, which is not sellable in the market. I will have to beneficiate to upgrade the Fe content.

That is the whole idea.

Got it. Sir, I think a couple of calls ago, you had mentioned that by beneficiating at the mine, you'll be saving some logistics cost as well.

Because until now you're spending more on the plant. What was the number if you could share, or is there any change in that number?

Exactly. See,

currently the freight is about ₹1,000. If you're able to remove a 10%, 15% of wastage inside the mines, straightaway a ₹150 of saving we will be doing on the freight side.

Earlier, we were doing beneficiation inside the pellet plant in the Raipur complex. We were losing on the freight.

Now from Q3 onwards, we'll be beneficiating inside the mines, straightaway there'll be a saving of about ₹150 per ton on the final concentrate being sent to the plant for usage.

Got it, sir. That's very helpful.

Thank you. I'll get back in the

queue. Thank you.

Hello.

Sir, just wanted to know any of our plans to increase our mining capacity or foraying into new mining like new and rare earth or anything or increasing our iron ore mining capacity?

See, at current production levels, we already planned the expansion for Ari Dongri, and that will take care of the next till reserves are. On Boria Tibbu front, we have already announced earlier.

We have plans to take the mining capacity from 0.7 million to 4 million tons along with beneficiation inside the mines because again Boria Tibbu is a low-grade ore, about 35% Fe content, 40% content. That will take about another three years from now on.

We have already started working on it. Boria Tibbu should be online by I think FY '30, including beneficiation.

Once we're able to do that, Boria Tibbu, the output, usable output will be close to about 1.5 million tons. These are the current mines which we have planned for.

In future, if there is any new mines coming up in auction which we feel is attractive, we are always going to explore that. As of moment, we don't see any good mines coming up in the area.

If there is an opportunity going forward, we will definitely explore it.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes.

Sir. Very good afternoon.

Sir, I have one bookkeeping question. I wanted to understand how much was the inventory gain in Q4?

Can you come again, please? You're not audible.

How much was the inventory gain in Q4?

Inventory gain in Q4?

Yeah.

No, I think Bothra ji, you have the figure for that, inventory gain?

We have roughly gained ₹20 crores on account of unsold pellet stock carrying from last quarter and sold during the quarter. That's higher realization, ₹20 crores rupees roughly on 90,000 tons.

Yes.

Okay. My next question is so I was just going through the results.

I was seeing ₹150 crores of loan giving to the education subsidiary company for some residential school project. Do you want to highlight something on that?

We have taken a enabling resolution for the time being. The school will separately go for the loan from the other sources.

In the meanwhile, for the time being arrangement, we have taken this enabling resolution.

Sir. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thanks for taking my question. Sir, only one question regarding the 2031 guidance.

Basically, in the guidance, you have mentioned that you'll be achieving ₹3,000 crore PAT. That's like a 10% PAT margin.

Just wanted a clarification. Is it because the margins are coming down is because of our BESS project?

BESS and the CRM. Both BESS and CRM will be on the lower margin side, the top volume will go up heavily.

BESS is about a 7%, 8% margin business. The CRM is about a 7%, 10% margin business.

That is the reason the overall margins are coming down, but the top line is going heavy. Exponentially there's a top-line growth.

Right. Got it.

Secondly, sir, just wanted to know your outlook on the current pellet situation domestically. How is it?

In terms of capacity as well, are you seeing any overcapacity coming in? Just wanted to get a sense on that.

Thanks.

See, at the moment, we don't see an overcapacity coming in. There will be a challenge to merchant pellet players who are solely dependent on market for purchase of iron ore.

We can definitely see a squeeze in margins for them. For people like Lloyds, Godawari, or other companies which have the captive resources, I don't see a pressure margin there, and also on the demand-supply.

At the moment, there's no over demand-supply. Plus, export is always open.

You see today, export market is very much viable if you want to really explore. I don't see at the moment.

Going forward, all depends how the steel market goes.

Right, sir. Got it.

Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Good afternoon, everyone. Am I audible?

Good afternoon. Yes, please.

Yeah. I just want to know about the steel plant cost, which we are looking at ₹7,000 crores.

I think three, four years back, we spoke about 1 million ton to be a ₹4,000 crore cost. The cost has gone up for inflation or we're doing something else on this?

No. I personally tendered an apology to all the stakeholders because for us being in the first time in a blast primary route, we did a wrong calculation.

There was a wrong estimation done by us on the capex side. Again, once again, sincere apologies.

You can please omit that entire story from your mind. We were wrong on the cost estimation.

The current capex given of ₹7,000 crores is very much on the practical side. We have done a thorough study with the equipment suppliers, and basis that, we have shared the details with the stakeholders.

Okay. What is the return on capital we are looking at for the steel plant?

Plus,

there are a couple of changes which there is an increase in capex. One is earlier, we had said we had no intention of putting up a coke oven plant because there was ample of import of coke available from Indonesia and other countries.

Last year, to support the local domestic coke industry, Government of India had imposed restrictions on import of cokes, because of which now we are investing heavily in the coke oven plant, one. Secondly is the product we're going to enter into is a value-added product.

It's not a TMT or a regular wire rod product. The structure mill which we are proposing, it's a value-added steel and it has a substantial cost compared to a similar volume of a TMT or a rebar mill.

On these two accounts, the capex is slightly higher compared to a standard 1 million steel plant, but apart from that, numbers are pretty much on the similar levels. Okay.

Sir,

how much return we are looking at for this investment of capex? What would be the calculation?

See, we expect EBITDA of more than 20% 20% once when the plant is operating at full capacity because we are into value-added steel. Currently, there is not much competition from the Indian market.

We should be able to do a EBITDA of more than 20% going forward once the plant is running at full capacity. Again, it's a commodity market, it's steel.

Anybody's open to invest in such kind of capex. It's just an estimation, and basis which, we have thought of going ahead.

Can you just share what is our cost of production for pellets basically at ₹5,000, ₹5,500? What is our basic cost for pellets?

See,

if you consider iron ore at ₹3,000 with beneficiation and everything, our current cost of pellet is around ₹5,500 to ₹5,800 after beneficiation.

Okay. This last question is, this guidance what we have provided for 2031 on the sales part, this includes the steel revenue also?

It includes the steel revenue, includes the first phase of battery storage, and the CRM revenue, all three.

Okay. Steel plant is not that big in that case.

No, no. So 1 million steel plant, the battery storage, and the CRM complex, all three.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, my question is what is generally the conversion ratio from our mining to pellets? From the usable 4.5 million tons mine, what will be the pellet conversion?

What will be maybe buying from the market for our 4.7 million pellet plant?

Okay. You're not audible, but still I could gauge your question.

As said earlier, we'll be doing about 0.8 to 1 million tons of procurement of iron ore this year to run at full capacity, and that should drastically come down from Q3 onwards once monsoons are over. The conversion from mining to pellet, as I mentioned, it's after beneficiation of all kinds of ore.

If you mine 100 tons of iron ore, you'll get about 75 tons of usable concentrate of high-grade to feed to the pellet plant. If you do a 4 million mining 4 million mining, you'll get about 3, 3.2 million tons of usable iron ore for the pellet plant.

Got it. On the second, on the rolled product capacity, can you provide the breakdown of our rolled product capacity?

How much is the wire rod? How much is the MS round, and how much is the galvanized product?

Okay. For this financial year, the wire rods will be close to about 2.2 lakh tons.

Wire rods will be 2.2, further rolled to 1.1 lakh tons of HB wire. On the structure side, that will be about 1.2, 1.3.

Put together, we're doing about 3.7, 3.75 lakh ton total rolled products this year.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you, and best of luck.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, my question is on the CRM complex. In the previous concall, we have guided for 50% utilization in CRM complex in FY '28.

Are we on track to achieve that guidance?

Yes. At the moment, with the current status being shared with all the stakeholders a little earlier by Bothra ji, at the moment, we're on track.

We are hopeful to commission the first line by end of Q4, early Q1 of next financial year. That's why we have taken a very conservative guidance of 50%, which is at about 3, 3.5 lakh tons of CRM complex for FY '28.

Sir,

how can expect the further ramp-up of capacity going forward?

From FY '29, we should be at about 90% capacity for sure.

Sir. Thank you.

Yeah.

Hi, sir. Thank you so much.

Good afternoon. Just a couple of questions.

Currently, the Indian pellet prices seem to be around 10,000 bucks, and the global prices around 11,500 bucks. What I wanted to understand was what is the delta because of the higher freight cost that we are looking to export?

Can you come again, please? You're not audible initially.

Sir, Indian pellet prices seem to be around ₹10,000, and export market is around 11,500 if I'm not mistaken. Because of the higher freight cost, what is it that we are looking as delta to export?

See, currently, if we talk about from my plant to say China just for number, including the freight cost, it is somewhere about ₹3,000. If I'm selling at ₹10,000 ex-plant, my export price to be at the similar levels has to be somewhere about 13,000 levels, which is not the case.

Today, the Indian prices are at about ₹9,500. With the dollar inflation, today if you want to export, we can easily achieve more than 9 9,000, ₹9,500 ex-plant.

The delta is now hardly less than $10 between domestic pricing and the export pricing.

Probably sometime in the next quarter or this quarter end, we should start exporting, that is what if I'm looking at correctly?

See, it all depends if the Indian market continues to remain on the lull side, which is at the moment because of XYZ reasons, and the export market remains at these levels, we might see some volumes going into export.

Those reasons currently in the Indian market is the Lloyd extra capacity or just monsoon coming up?

See, to be honest, Lloyd hasn't hit the Chhattisgarh market at the moment right now. Our 90% pellets are going into Chhattisgarh market.

Lloyd Lloyd hasn't touched the Chhattisgarh market at the moment. There is a lull in the steel demand.

There's no selling in the finished side. The prices cracked almost by 10% in last few weeks.

The overall sentiment is weak. Basis that, we have started exploring the export market.

No other factor.

Perfect. The second question is on the BESS front.

Just like everything else, the 5, 6 GWh for the next year is a conservative guidance or that is what we are looking to achieve?

No, it's a very conservative guidance.

Perfect. In the 2031 explanation that we are assuming, we have not considered the phase two of the BESS thing.

Is there a reason for that?

No, there's no reason. Just that key, we thought whatever we have announced, whatever the projects have started taking shape, we want to give our estimations basis that.

Phase two, when it will come, how it will come, we don't know, because battery storage itself it's huge. It's a big industry.

Hello?

Rohan. Go ahead.

Yeah.

We haven't considered phase two. The only reason is because it's something which is very new for us.

We want to establish the phase one, we want to run the plant at full capacity, and basis that, we want to decide how we want to go ahead in the phase two. Whether we want to get into expanded capacity in phase two, or whether we want to go into backward integration and enter into a cell manufacturing with a technology tie-up.

It's a very nascent stage for us to decide for the phase two. That's why we're only giving estimation basis the current projects taken up.

No other factor.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

That's it from my side.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Thanks so much for the opportunity again.

Sir, just wanted to know one clarification. The new steel plant of 1 million tons that we have, this is a blast furnace or this is through the DRI route?

No, this is a blast furnace route. See, we have no intention of getting into coal-based DRI because it's become very challenging to be cost-effective in producing steel and compete with the big guys.

It's a blast furnace route, which is a conventional route in India at the moment now. We did ponder over the gas-based DRI route, but looking at current supply disruption and dependency on import of natural gas, we thought it's better to go with the conventional blast furnace route, at least for the phase one.

Sure.

This will include the 1 million ton blast furnace, 0.7 million ton of coke oven as well, right?

No. The hot metal should be about 1.1, 1.2 million tons.

There's a 0.5 million coke oven, non-recovery coke oven. There'll be a 1 million sinter plant.

Our idea is to 50% pellet and 50% sinter because we want to also hedge our pellet bets. We don't want to keep selling pellets in the market.

So 50% pellet from the new plant will be going to the blast furnace, and then remaining steel complex right from converter to the finished side.

Got it. Got it.

Secondly, what sort of land parcel we have roughly 450-2 acres, right?

We have 450 acres, and that is more than sufficient for the entire complex.

No, well yes. My question was here, what would be the scalability in the future if we had to go for a brownfield expansion?

Would we have enough infrastructure from if we plan to move on going ahead post-2030?

See, we have left a certain space for a brownfield expansion, plus we also identified nearby land which is adjoining to the current land. If we think we want to go for a brownfield expansion, we can always use that same parcel and buy a little bit of adjoining parcel to expand.

To be honest, at the moment, we're not thinking of phase two. We're just concentrating on phase one at the moment right now.

Got it. We continue to maintain that our focus will be long products because, I think, we also have a CRM complex.

We could have had a full-fledged flat product See,

the problem is key for a CRM complex, right, for a HR mill, the minimum capacity which is technically and commercially viable is a 2 million ton mill because the width has to be 1,550-plus. To feed a 2 million mill, we didn't have the hot metal.

The entire capex would have crossed maybe ₹12,000, ₹13,000 crores. We didn't want to go that high.

Secondly, with the steel capacity announced by the big players, we already feel today India's market is oversupplied by HR coil, plus imports is always open, right? We thought instead of doing a HR complex, let's just focus on to CRM, which is a value-added steel, and enter into a long product where we enter into the structures and other segments.

That is the whole idea behind not going into HR mill complex.

Understandable. Thank you.

Sir, second question is, could you please highlight how the next couple of years would look in terms of capex, and what sort of debt numbers do we see coming up because of ₹7,000 crores, I think, 1:1 would be the debt-equity, right?

Yeah.

For debt from the other See,

the CRM, the battery storage, we've already invested more than almost 40%, 50% in both the projects. This year, the capex on the steel side hardly will be about 10%, which will mainly go into account of ordering of equipments and advance.

The major capex which going to incur in steel will happen from FY '28. FY '28, FY '29 will be the major money inflow into the steel plant.

Apart from that, we are self-funded from everything from internal accrual. Whatever debt we have to take on will be happening from FY '28 only on account of steel capex.

Got it. In a nutshell, if I have to assume for FY '27, we can take a ₹1,800 to ₹2,000 crore capex number, right?

Would that be the correct way to think of it?

Yes, including the balance of CRM, balance of your battery storage, and a little bit of solar, you can consider a capex of close to about 1,500 to 2,000 ₹1,500 to ₹2,000 crores for FY '27.

And '28 onwards, it can probably go towards ₹2,500 and ₹3,000?

About ₹3,000 crores, about ₹3,000 crores FY '28 and ₹3,000 crores for FY '29. Very correct.

Okay. Got it.

That is helpful. Sir, one request I had, I think in our earlier presentations, we had a split of project-wise capex and the timelines and whatever capex we had incurred.

If you could just bring back that for our next presentation, that would be really helpful.

Sure, sure. Very well-noted.

We will take care of that. Thanks.

Thank you so much, sir. All the best.

Thanks. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Sir, I think in the last concall, we had guided that pellet capacity would be running at over 90% utilization and we would be targeting around 4.1, 4.2 million tons.

I think what you guided that we would be looking at around 3 to 3.2 million tons. Any reason why we've looking at a 3 to 3.2 million tons pellet quantity for this year?

No,

no, no. There's a confusion.

Pellet guidance for this year is 4 million tons. The iron ore volume, net usable iron ore for the pellet will be at 3.4 million tons.

Okay. That will be the captive one you were stating earlier.

Okay.

Exactly, exactly, exactly. The pellet guidance is there, 4 million tons this year, and iron ore guidance, net usable, is at about 3.4 million tons.

Got it. It would be the same mix, sir, 3 and 1 sales and captive?

Yes, captive remains the same. Captive capacity is about 0.9 to 1 million ton.

There will be no increment in captive capacity. The pellet merchant cell will be at about 3 million tons.

Got it. As you had earlier rightly pointed out the increase in diesel cost that we have seen particularly.

Can you just give an idea on the incremental cost it would accrue us in terms of mining cost?

See, the good thing is, of course we have also invested heavily into EVs in the mining as well, loaders, excavators. Currently, our major concern is on the transportation side because our entire iron ore comes by road.

The diesel pricing on the rising side and looks to be at the similar levels for quite some time. We have started working on the EV, and we want to replace that with EV trucks ASAP.

Currently, that transportation is about ₹900. We foresee it can go up to ₹1,150, ₹1,200 if the diesel prices continue to rise in the near future.

₹1,150 to ₹1,200. Okay.

Yes, for short term, definitely. Yes.

Short term. Got it.

Sir, as you rightly pointed out that we're looking to transition to an EV fleet, is there an estimate on what would be the fleet size that we would be targeting and the amount that we would be committing to the same?

See, the amount of iron ore we need to move at the full capacity, we need to deploy more than about 300 trucks or about 350 trucks. At full capacity, yeah, 350 trucks.

At a full scale capex should be more than about ₹350 crores.

Okay, ₹350 crores. Got it, sir.

Yes. With the charging infra and other things, it should be about ₹350 crores at full scale.

We would like to express our sincere appreciation for joining us on this conference call. We are confident that we have adequately addressed all your queries.

Should you have any further questions or need additional information, please feel free to reach out our IR team at Go India Advisors. Once again, we sincerely thank you all for your active participation and unwavering support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.