Thank you, [Iqra?] , and good morning to everyone.

I'd like to start by expressing my appreciation for your presence today. Joining me are Mr.

P. Srinivasan, our Chief Financial Officer, and our investor relations advisors from SGA.

I hope you have all received our investor presentation. If not, it's available on both the stock exchanges and our company's website.

Let me begin by providing an overview of the company's performance for quarter four financial year '26. During the quarter, revenue from operations stood at ₹330 crores, reflecting a sequential growth of 5%.

Volumes continued their upward trajectory, registering a 7% sequential increase. Domestic volumes witnessed a single-digit growth, primarily driven by improved demand following the implementation of GST 2.0.

Volumes in international markets also posted a steady single-digit growth, underpinned by our ability to convert our long-standing engagements into concrete business gains, while further deepening and strengthening customer partnerships. Moving on to the full year performance, financial year '26 can broadly be divided into two distinct halves.

On a year-on-year basis, the first half saw a volume degrowth of 5%. However, the second half witnessed a strong 12% volume growth, supported by GST 2.0-led demand uptick.

This helped the company deliver an overall volume growth of 3% for the full year. We expect this positive momentum to sustain in the coming quarters.

On the pricing front, realizations continued to be under pressure in the quarter due to the ongoing dumping of lower-priced imports. In this evolving global environment, we remain focused, maintaining an optimal balance between price and volume.

With respect to the anti-dumping petitions filed with the government of India, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies, DGTR, recommended positive final findings in respect of the antioxidant TDQ and sulfonamides covering CBS and NS in March 2026. The same is subject to central government approval.

I would like to provide an update on the capex front. The TDQ capex at Dahej, which was announced on 26th March 2024, has been completed, and we have commenced trial production.

After trial runs, samples will be sent to customers for approval. As mentioned earlier, the total capex incurred will be less than ₹250 crores.

Additionally, in line with our overall growth plans, capacity utilization, and market demand, we announced another capex of ₹130 crores on 16th March 2026, which is expected to be completed by H1 financial year '28. This capex is for setting up a comprehensive integrated facility in the specialty portion of our rubber chemicals business.

During the year, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our teams in driving initiatives across our eight strategic levers, which are aimed at strengthening resilience and building sustainable long-term growth for the company. As an example, under our excellence lever, we continue to implement a series of operational efficiency improvement initiatives across the organization, which have started yielding positive results.

We believe there remains further scope to build on these improvements, and this will continue to be an important area of focus in the coming year. As we speak today, the geopolitical developments in the Middle East continue to create uncertainty across global energy, feedstock, and logistics markets.

For the chemical industry globally, the impact is being felt primarily through volatility in crude-linked raw materials, freight costs, shipping availability, and transit timelines. While the situation remains dynamic, we have been proactively monitoring developments and working closely with our suppliers, logistics partners, and customers to ensure continuity and reliability of supply.

Our teams have responded with agility through calibrated inventory planning, diversified sourcing wherever feasible, and tighter coordination across the supply chain. In response to the significant increase in raw material prices, during the quarter, we revised our price upwards for the non-contractual part of our business and for the present quarter for the contractual business.

At this stage, we see this more as a volatility and cost management challenge rather than a structural demand issue. The global tire and rubber value chain continues to remain operational and resilient, although near-term fluctuations in input costs, logistics, may continue depending on how the geopolitical situation evolves.

Over the last few years, including through the pandemic and subsequent global supply disruptions, we have built stronger operational resilience and customer engagement capabilities. We believe these capabilities position us relatively well to navigate the current environment in a balanced and disciplined manner.

Our teams are closely monitoring developments and working proactively with suppliers, logistics partners, and customers to ensure dependable servicing and continuity. At NOCIL, our approach remains balanced and disciplined, focusing on safe operations, customer reliability, prudent cost management, agility in execution, and calibrated price actions to ensure continuity of supply and operational stability.

We do this while continuing to advance our long-term growth and value-creation plans. That's it from my side.

I now invite Mr. P.

Srinivasan to provide an overview of our financial performance.

Thank you, Mr. Anand, and good morning to everyone.

Let us run through the consolidated financial highlights. On the index parameters, volume for Q4 FY '26 stood at 150, considering a base of 100, which was Q1 FY '20.

The 150, I think this is the second time in history we have achieved. This is after four years, after 10 or 12 quarters.

We are happy to be in that level, and we hope to build on this. Net revenue from operations for Q4 '26 stood at ₹330 crores as against ₹316 crores in Q3 FY '26.

As far as the revenue from operations for the whole year under review for FY '26, it was at ₹1,303 crores as against ₹1,393 crores in FY '25. For the quarter, we recorded a 7% volume growth as compared to Q3 FY '26, and for the full year, the growth was 3% as compared to FY '25.

Coming to the operating EBITDA parameters, operating EBITDA for Q4 FY '26 stood at ₹21 crores as against ₹27 crores in Q3 FY '26, with EBITDA margin shrinking marginally to 6.4% in Q4 FY '26, partially due to rising costs in shutdown activities and also some inventory effect, which has been seen in the stock change effect, which we can discuss separately. Operating EBITDA for the year under review stood at ₹101 crores as against ₹137 crores in FY '25, with EBITDA margin at 7.7%.

Coming to PBT, PBT for Q4 FY '26 stood at ₹21 crores as against ₹13 crores for Q3 FY '26. PBT for the whole year under review stood at ₹76 crores as against ₹114 crores for FY '25.

Coming to PAT, for Q4 FY '26 stood at ₹17 crores as compared to ₹9 crores in Q3 FY '26. PAT for the year under review stood at ₹56 crores as compared to ₹103 crores in FY '25.

One of the reasons for lower tax in previous year was because of the long-term capital gains structure change in the last year's budget, which impacted previous year's tax credits, whereas in this year, everything is in the normal tax rate. With this, we would like to open the floor for question answers.

Sir. Good morning.

I have a few questions. Sir, first is on the current situation, like you touched upon the raw material cost increases and also on the contractual and non-contractual part.

If you can help us understand, what's the current situation in terms of imports of rubber chemicals coming to India, and based on your interactions with the customers, are the customers currently negotiating on the prices, or they are more concerned about the volumes which they want to secure for their production? That is A.

B, you said that we have increased the prices immediately for the non-contractual customers. Typically, how our volumes are based in terms of the percentages between the contractual and the non-contractual part?

Yeah. Thank you, Nirav.

Yeah. Coming to imports, the first part of your question.

Yes, we also see that there have been price revisions with the imports. That's one one sign that we are seeing due to cost increases that have gone up across the value chain.

Coming to our own price increases, like I mentioned, the discussions with customers are positive. It's always a combination of supplier reliability and price.

Given the current situation, the focus is also ensuring supplier reliability because across the value chain, there are continual disruptions. That's the response on that.

The last part, which was on what's the kind of ratio, I would put it somewhere around 65% to 70% is contractual, and the rest is usually non-contractual. Yeah.

Correct. Sir, you touched upon the price revisions on the imports, but what is on the volume side?

Has those volumes seen a dip, which could give us an opportunity to increase our volumes? How has been the situation in last 1, 1.5 months?

It's still early days on that, but I would say we are continuing to see our volume-positive development, especially since also where importantly to be able to manage the supply chain to ensure that we can produce and deliver to our customers. We are still seeing it positively.

Yeah.

Correct. Mr.

Srinivasan said in his opening remarks that like last Q1 of FY '23, we have seen this sort of volumes, which now have been achieved. Given the kind of volume run rate we have achieved in Q4, and taking let's say FY '26 as a year, we are already at 10% volume growth based on Q4 run rate.

If you can help us understand, or let's say is there a sense of confidence within NOCIL that 4Q volumes can now become a base volumes, given the spare capacity what we have and the expansions which we have undertaken? How are you seeing these volumes getting built up on Q4 run rate volumes?

I think if you may recall, at the last call, we had mentioned that we expect to be able to complete the year on a positive note in spite of the first half not going entirely along the lines we'd expected. That did happen.

I think that has been a momentum in the second half, especially on the volumes front. We expect this to continue going forward.

We're quite positive that we will be able to build on this into the next quarters. Yeah.

Correct. Can one assume 4Q volumes can now become a base, given the kind of confidence we have in terms of customer approvals and the expansions what we have done?

Yes. Yes, Nirav.

We can.

Perfect. Sir, second question is on the realization part.

If I see last 17, 18 quarters, this was probably the lowest one. A, when we had touched that peak volumes in Q1 FY '23, that was an abnormal period of COVID times.

Today also seems to be abnormal time in terms of the lowest prices what we have seen. Where are we seeing our average realizations moving in between those periods, like the best of the periods what we have seen during COVID and worst of the times, because now we have seen the pricing momentum also gaining traction?

Generally, our observation is that during an inflationary trend, we tend to gain more in terms of the gross margins part. If you can share your thoughts here, where are we in terms of the current realizations, and what one could expect from NOCIL in terms of the expansion on the gross margins side?

Yeah. Nirav, basically, Srinivasan here.

One of the things which has happened in this quarter, April onwards, that the input prices went up, and market also corrected the finished goods prices in relation to the input price rises. That was one good point.

Second question on your question was on that whether in an inflationary or a high-price, high-cost regime, we tend to expand. I think maybe you have judged something based on past track record.

It moves, but I think typically in a situation where India is not self-sufficient, any industry which is depending on imports for to meet its requirement of the input requirement, generally tend to get that advantage for a short period. It's not a big period, but a shorter period because you need to cover a little earlier because your lead time is much higher as compared to domestic procurement.

To that extent, you may get some marginal benefits.

Just to add, I think Srini mentioned it in the initial part, and I just kind of build on that. In this particular quarter, there were some impacts that actually is reflecting a lower EBITDA, that is on account of inventory.

The inventory change. Basically, Nirav, one of the things which is very important is in the inventory change, the inventory, as per the accounting standard, is valued at raw materials plus overheads.

You have a situation in a quarter where there's a stock change is debit, which means that debit can include some portion of raw materials and some portion of overheads of the previous legacy quarters. That may come in.

Typically, if you maintain the inventory, that particular debit of extra, it's maybe in the ₹34 crores, ₹7, ₹8 crores is there, maybe that would not be there. Had we maintained the similar inventory, because in March, we had to face some production cuts, etc., because of this energy prices, etc., had we not had that thing, probably we would have improved our EBITDA also.

Perfect. Perfect.

Sir, last question from my side before I join back, how are we placed in terms of some of the critical raw materials, specifically on the amines and MIBK? Because some of the amines are available locally, which were also facing disruption due to ammonia shortage, while some are imported in India, and also on the MIBK, which is totally an imported product.

Are we getting or are we sufficiently stocked up for our targeted production or, let's say, the committed production which we have anticipated? How has been the situation there?

Yeah. Actually, you're right.

There is, like I mentioned, supply chain disruptions on account of multiple factors. At this point, we have been able to secure supplies so that we can reliably deliver to our customers at least for the next few weeks and horizon we see.

We are still in a good position for that, Nirav. Yeah.

Perfect. Sir, lastly, congratulations on an excellent working capital management, because when I see our cash flow statement, we have been able to save close to around ₹170, ₹180 crores on the working capital, which has taken care of the capex is what we have done in FY '26.

Congratulations to the team. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Good morning, sir.

Sir, firstly, to Anand sir, the first question is on the strategy. You mentioned in the opening remarks, the company is optimizing between volumes and margin, but volumes are growing steadily up for the company, while the margins are falling since Q3 FY '25.

Is company chasing volume and compromising on margin? Your thought on this will be helpful to understand the company strategy, sir.

Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you, Nilesh. No, clearly, intention is not to compromise on the margins, but to look at improving the overall consolidated.

There has been that positive uptick which we have seen. I think, like I said, Q4, which Srini just explained, is also due to some specific instance in the quarter.

We're still in line with when we say it's a mix between price and volume, very clearly, the intention is while the specific margin might drop because we have to get some additional volumes, the absolute overall number is what we are looking to increase with our available capacities. That is clearly the direction and the strategy.

Sir. Thank you.

Sir, in Q4 volume growth, is there an element of volume increase as customer want to keep some inventory level at their end so that their production remain steady? Is there that volume growth element?

No. We don't see any significant overstocking that would spill into Q1.

I'm kind of reading between the lines of your question and trying to answer it. Yeah.

Sir. Just this one question on this expansion.

On brownfield expansion project at Dahej that you announced a couple of months back. What percentage of this ₹130 crore capex will be spent on debottlenecking of capacity, and how much volume you will add with this?

This is largely additional capacities, not much of debottlenecking. Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. Whatever volume you are going to add will be consumed captively, or it will be the merchant sales?

It's merchant sales. Merchant sales.

It's a growth capex, yeah.

Okay. Sir, on this lastly, on this ₹250 crore capex at Dahej, the overall capacity will be increased by about roughly, say, 20%.

When you are saying 20% volume increase, is it merchant sales volume or, again, it is internally consumed?

You're referring to the 20% which is for the ₹250 crores, that the one, right? That's all

Yes, sir.

All merchant sales. Let me just clarify some part of the earlier ₹130 we have announced has got a bit of intermediates also included.

Largely it is captive sales on that one. Your second question, it's completely merchant sales.

Yeah.

Okay. So, 130, just for my understanding, 130 largely the captively consumed volume, 250

No. No, not largely, part.

It is related to part of the finished good that will be coming out. For that, whatever is required, there is a part of it which will go into that, the intermediate, yeah.

The other 250 is completely merchant sales.

Okay. Thanks.

Thanks a lot, sir, and all the best.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity.

Sir, just a couple of questions. Sir, just wanted to give you one perspective.

When we look at the aniline prices history from July 2025 to around December '25, for that period, aniline prices has been ranged quite well between ₹100 to around ₹112 per kg. Thereafter, for the last 3 months, we have seen that 110 becoming ₹190 per kg.

Ideally, any company which has around 15, 20 days of inventory keeping of raw materials would have benefited from that inventory gains. On the contrary, we have not seen that benefit, even after adjusting for that ₹7, ₹8 crore which you mentioned on the legacy cost.

The numbers still look on the lower side. What should we judge, the inventory management is not proper of RM, or what has actually happened?

I think Aditya, there are two challenges in the beginning of the year, I think we mentioned. We had a legacy cost of inventories and a higher cost in the previous year, where we had a plan of higher sales volume, which didn't happen.

That spilled over into the first half of this year. That affected our costing in the first half.

In the second half, we got more of market cost, etc. The larger challenge which has been for us is the spreads got narrowed down because one of our products was imported largely from FTA regime, where the protection which was there earlier in the form of basic duty, that got wiped out.

That impacted the bigger impact on the profitability. That is one of the key factors in this year which happened, and that was very, very significant in that sense.

Also coming to more recent quarters, that should play out, Aditya. I think surely, whatever is in the pipeline should play out, yeah.

This is a structural change, sir? Because that FTA has been now wiped out, and that will remain obviously.

In terms of cost-wise and do we see at a disadvantage?

No. It's not at a disadvantage.

I would say it's just been a certain correction, but there has been a certain normalization also in the last few quarters, so.

Understood. Sir, coming to ADD, we know that, DGTR has announced some ₹40 per kg duty.

Sir, this is applicable on roughly any sort of a percentage number, sir, can you give onto how much product basket? Coming two products also, that there also we are pending on anti-dumping duties.

Any thoughts are on this three on to this three products, how much is the duty? This two products upcoming, what duty could be there?

When the Finance Ministry would give the final call, any timelines on that?

This is a recommendation from the DGTR after doing a thorough investigation, which is a quasi-judicial body. That's number one.

Number two, so far they have announced for TDQ and sulfonamides. They are yet to announce their findings for PILFLEX 13 and 4-ADPA, which we are expecting anytime in the few months.

I think PILFLEX 13 should come in the next month or two, 1 month or so, that's the deadline which they have internal deadlines which is already announced in the website. Now coming to the impact, I think what we have shared with the investors at large is that overall we had about 40% of revenues getting impacted by anti-dumping products.

The quantum of duty, how much is approved by Finance Ministry, it is a post factor. The second very important factor is generally what we have seen historically, you can even refer to insoluble sulfur case very specifically, where you proposed a duty, the exporters absorbed it.

Then again, you have to see what is the net effect to the industry. These are all subsequent event which we'll analyze and we'll take a call, then only we can derive.

The post approval time for the central government is about generally 90 days. We expect somewhere around middle of June their viewpoint.

Sir. Thank you for that.

Sir, now coming to when we look at the anti-dumping duty history from 2014 to '19, sir, at that time, we have seen NOCIL spreads have peaked out around ₹65 per kg. Into this cycle, suppose if this anti-dumping duty is imposed, what sort of a numbers, sir, we can look at the peak, and considering a 5 to 6 years, considering a 5-year from now on, from today, how you see numbers of NOCIL and spreads and volumes moving out, considering if ADD is imposed?

Aditya, it's premature to comment on that. I think let the final decision come, then we can see the reaction, how the foreign competitors adopt, then we can take a call.

Sir, just one last question. Sir, coming to this quarter, obviously, sir, into taking a history of the last 2 years, this quarter numbers looks quite poor.

Anand sir has also reiterated since last 4, 5 quarters every quarter, we have stated this is the bottom. This quarter, sir, any thoughts you see this pain to be continuing, or again we are saying this could be the bottom here?

Like I'd mentioned, there is an uptick in pricing, and we should see this playing out in the coming quarter. Yeah.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Just to go back, I think clearly, there is a strategy in a long-term view in terms of how we want to steer the business. There are also many other measures that we are taking internally in terms of our competitiveness intensity and what we need to do upon our efficiency.

There are several other measures, it's not only dependent on one of the external measures, yeah.

Got it, sir. Thank you, sir, for that explanation.

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, I think in last 2, 3 years, US EU and the US were planning to ban 6PPD rubber antioxidants due to its toxicity on aquatic life, and they had started some investigation on that. Can you throw some color on this investigation?

Yeah. This has been a finding which started in California.

There is a discussion in terms of the aquatic toxicity of this largely used product, which is one of the largest rubber chemical used, the most reliable rubber chemical from a safety point of view. There are discussions and all players are looking to find an alternative, including us, and we are working on it.

It is still sometime away. There have been some new alternatives that have been announced, but they're still in trial and testing stages.

We must remember it's a very large-volume product. The time will also be required will be large because apart from the testing and the assurance on safety, the execution of these products also will take time.

That is an ongoing topic, yeah.

Sir, on a worst-case scenario basis, are we ready with the alternative products as such?

We are also in advanced stages, and we have got full teams dedicated working on this, yeah.

Sure, sir. Sir, and the next question would be on the quantum of price hike that we have taken in March due to RM inflation.

Can you just throw a tentative quantum of price hike?

It's dynamic situation, Harshal, yeah, but like I've given a direction. That's the way it is, yeah.

Okay. Sir, the last question is, can you just give the volume and value mix between domestic and export for this year?

Here, just 1 second, please. We'll just check that.

In terms of volume, 70% is domestic, 30% is exports. In terms of value, probably 60-40.

Yeah, 100. Sorry, it could be 67-33 or something, my mistake.

67-33.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Hi, team. Good afternoon.

Thank you for the opportunity. My question is on the demand uptick in the domestic market that would have been on the back of GST and the tire growth as you mentioned.

There would be an element of higher sourcing with respect to ADD that's likely to be implemented. Do you see the customers raising the inventories in anticipation, and is it likely to slow down the volumes after the ADD actually gets implemented?

While I do understand that there may not be overstocking on account of West Asia crisis, but anything in anticipation of ADD is what I wanted to know.

No, Nitesh. We haven't observed such a situation, not that, yeah.

We've not seen that. I think, like you rightly said, the current West Asia situation is also not kind of been very conducive for that, yeah.

Right. Sir, can you quantify on how much has been the domestic industry volume growth, and how much has our market share moved?

In the last quarter maybe?

Yeah. Clearly, the volume growth, we should have at least by close to 100 to 150 basis points improvement should have been there, yeah.

Okay. Sir, on the price increases that you mentioned for the non-contractual positions, which month did we exactly take this price hike because when we see the blended realization, that shows a decline of 2% sequentially.

Which month? Did we take it in March, or probably that would have happened in April?

No, you will not see it so much in this quarter gone by, because a lot of it started playing out that too not in the early part of March, and it was more towards the second half of March, very few days in the quarter and in the year, but more it's in the upcoming quarter, yeah.

Understood. Just one last maybe on the Dahej expansion, when the capex was announced, the margins were in 13%, 15% range.

Currently, around 6%, 7% EBITDA margin, probably I understand that this is not a sustainable number. We probably will be moving higher.

There's a 250-crore incremental capacity. Your internal IRR assumptions and investment thesis, has there been any change around that?

No. Not significantly.

We're quite positive like we've said also that we're looking to improve the EBITDA numbers through different measures. Also with the production from Dahej, we should see further improvement and better operating leverages then.

Yeah.

All right. Thank you so much, sir, for answering the questions.

Wish you the best for the future. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.

I've got two questions. First is as approvals and customer qualifications are becoming increasingly important, right, how do you measure the stickiness of your customer relationships today versus let's say 3 to 5 years ago?

Yeah. If you look at our presence, Sajal, I think we've always been present with all tire companies, not only domestic, but also internationally for many years.

What I would say in the last 3 to 5 years is it's been more deeper penetration with our international customers, especially with the additional capacities that we have brought in the stream in the last few years. With all the approvals and the increased volumes that we have got, with also the ability to prove our supplier reliability and with the trust that we have gained, the stickiness needle has significantly moved over the last 3 to 5 years, yeah.

Price alone is not the only criteria. There are other factors that customers consider before deciding on the sustainability of the relationship.

Is that understanding correct?

Absolutely. While price is critical, but it is not everything.

That's why we need to prove our capability, our ability to supply, reliably, in quality, and also during difficult times. I think that these are also other criteria that our customers look at, yeah.

Thank you. The second question is, if this anti-dumping protection does not materially improve industry pricing, can NOCIL still structurally improve margins through a combination of mix, efficiency, and specialty growth alone?

Yeah. I think that's what I was just alluding to it a little while ago in the sense that we have to be prepared for all scenarios, and we have to work towards that.

We are building on that. There is both internal measures to enhance, at the same time, consolidate and see what we can do.

At the same time, also the product portfolio front, also we're looking at how do we enhance the product mix. It's a combination of both as well as geographical expansion at a quicker pace, yeah.

Some of it is already getting reflected in the financials for FY '26. In terms of the other expenditure, if you see, there is a reduction of ₹18 crores or ₹20 crores.

These were our efforts which we undertook to optimize cost, to control cost very differently, look at various aspects of business operations, and particularly try to see how best we can optimize it. Those efforts are seen in the results in terms of, I would say, this controlling cost.

Second is the working capital management, we tried to make an improvement in working capital management, and that also is getting reflected in the non-operating other incomes. These were some initiatives which we always took, which is already reflected in FY '26 results.

Going forward, we have several other such initiatives to work on that.

Sure. Thank you so much for answering my questions.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, sir.

Sir, in this quarter, excluding raw material cost, there has been a healthy improvement in the conversion cost. Could you please elaborate on in which area where we have seen there is a good cost savings?

Additionally, for FY '27, which specific area that we are being targeted under the cost reduction initiatives? Also, further, company had announced performance-linked ESOP allocations.

Could you highlight the area that we are still lagging versus its initial targets, and what are the measures that we are taking to improve those performance?

I'll request Srini to take the first part, and then I'll come to the last question on this.

I think Shailesh, we looked at, I think I just said to the previous participant who raised the question. There are some measures which we took on utilities, which improved the overall expenditure or reduced the overall expenditure by ₹10, ₹11 crores.

There were some expenses on maintenance, which we worked on hard and tried to see how best we can structure that we incur, and that also we reduced during the year. I think on utilities and operational other expenses, etc., we tried to control it.

That's one. There are there are other administrative aspects also, which we need not highlight.

It's a small, small item, aggregating to significant amount. There are every team, task force were formed to look into the areas and to see how best we can optimize.

At the same time, on a capital employed for the business, that was the working capital management. If you see the large part of working capital management happened in inventory.

That we could get something. Of course, some inventory went further more than what we expected, some corrections will happen.

What nonetheless, we made a fundamental shift in terms of how to serve the customer with the least amount of capital employed is what we are looking at. This releases the cash, and this enables us So, to an extent, the entire capex this year was largely financed out of internal working capital efficiency more than we So, does the investments, of course, which was there at the beginning of the year largely retained, in fact, on the contrary, it has increased.

That enabled us to manage the things better efficiently. Now the other part, I think I'll leave it to Anand to hello.

Yeah. Sir, what about the next year, sir?

How much we are planning to reduce it? Say, if the similar volume, 55,000 tons, say, today, the conversion cost is 100.

How much we can able to bring it down?

Yeah. Clearly, the direction is, there are quite a few initiatives which are underway, and they should start coming on stream.

We expect it to improve further on the absolute conversion per kg, so that we see it to go down further. There's not a specific number that I can give you at this point in time, Shailesh, yeah.

There were other initiatives also in the S&D area, which was also reflected in the other expenses. That's also something that has given us a positive fillip.

Coming back to the last part which you mentioned, yeah, we had clearly our metrics were along the lines of profitability and the volume growth. We are a bit behind as far as what we had set out to do.

There are significant measures internally which we had taken. A combination of external environment has also played a role.

We are kind of really creating a roadmap to see how we can get back on track on that front. Yeah.

Okay. Sir, one last question.

We had installed capacity of 115 115,000 metric ton. That time our effective capacity was 80,000 tons.

Now the installed capacity has increased to 138,000, 139,000 tons. What is our effective capacity?

Also, we have announced that ₹130 crores of capex. What is the numbers that you are looking, sir, both installed as well as the effective capacity?

Yeah. The new capacity trial production is on.

Let it come commercial. As far as 115, we have never said 80 or 75 anywhere.

There is a ballpark of 65%, 75% is what we do. We don't give the explicit numbers for business sensitivity.

As far as the ₹130 crore project is concerned, we will let you know as we get into the advanced stage of project completion.

Okay. Sir, with the commissioning of incremental capacity, do you see the fixed cost absorption would be low in this year, or do you think the ramp-up of capacity will happen faster?

There could be some initial uptick in the stabilization, but overall, it will, as the plant stabilizes, enhance our operating leverage on the site, yeah. Because you already have the other utilities and everything else on the site, yeah.

Yeah. Sir.

Yeah. Thanks.

Sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, one question on the export market, specifically on the Europe and other parts of Asia where we are currently exporting. How has been the situation there in terms of disruptions at the plant in Europe and other parts of the Asia, which could provide us some opportunity in the short term to export our volumes there?

Or are we seeing any traction in terms of the improved sales volumes to this geographies?

We're not seeing any significant deviation. It's not too much positive or on the negative side.

It is pretty much quite stable. There are those ongoing interruptions due to transit timelines and things like this and freight costs, yeah, but I would say from a volumetric requirement point of view, there has not been any significant difference that's playing out.

Yes.

Correct. Sir, last quarter, you informed us that USA, where the duties were on a higher side, which were then subsequently reduced, our volumes were affected by close to around 50%.

How has been the situation there in terms of those improvement in USA volumes?

Yeah. That is moving up.

Like we'd mentioned also, so that's a positive development, and we are seeing that. I think it normally takes some time before supply chains can kind of adjust to any change of this sort.

We are seeing it in the positive direction, and we should see it gain traction in this coming year, yeah.

Correct. Sir, also your thoughts on the latex market, has those volumes to the latex market improved in Q4, or how do you see FY '27 panning out so far as the latex volumes are concerned?

The latex volumes, last year, there was a bit of disruption due to all the tariff back and forth that happened in the initial part of the year. It has been quite stable in terms of production.

There is increased competitive intensity from Chinese players in that market. I expect for this year, it should be stable barring any significant disruption, yeah.

Correct. Sir, you mentioned that we are already in the process of sending the samples for our expanded plant to the customer.

Typically, based on your experience with the earlier expansions and the customer approvals time cycle, when can we see a material capacity utilization uptick coming from our newer expansion coming off?

Yeah. Usually, we expect the non-tire-based business to start much earlier, whereas the tire-based customers will take their time on the approval.

We are in engagement to see how we can speed it up. I should expect that it should take about 6 to 8 months by the time we see real traction from our larger customers, yeah.

Correct. Sir, last question from my side is since on an indexation basis, we have already touched 150 levels.

One, A, on the operating leverage part, what is your internal assessment in terms of the real benefit of operating leverage coming off? Let's say, can the indexation of 160 a benchmark where we would start seeing some sizable improvement in our conversion cost?

What's your internal assessment about the indexation levels where we can start seeing those operating leverage benefits?

I think I tried to kind of consolidate it when I mentioned at the last call that we are looking to improve our EBITDA from the base of financial year '26 by another 150 basis points going forward. This will all kind of kick in into that, yeah.

Any volume growth is going to have operational leverage benefit definitely there. That's well understood.

Sir, last thing from my side. Sir, on the newer products on which we were working, and you have informed us in the earlier calls also that we could see the volumes coming from those newer products in FY '27.

Where are we? Out of the volume growth which we are expecting in FY '27, how much of the volume growth could be contributed by this newer products?

Yes, we do expect to gain higher volumes and traction on those new products. I would still see that financial year '27, it'll still be pick up more.

It might not make a significant impact on the overall volumes, but gradually moving towards the end of the year, we should start seeing more volume uptick. Not able to give you a specific number, Nirav, at this point.

Perfect, sir. Thank you so much, and wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Yeah. Hi.

Thanks for the opportunity. I had a couple of questions.

The first one was on the imports of antioxidants. If I look at the overall import data, it looks like in the January, February, the first two months of the year, on a y-o-y basis, the volumes of imports in antioxidants picked up significantly.

Could you throw some light into what could be the causative factors behind this?

You're talking about Jan-Feb of this year?

Jan-Feb of this year compared to the Jan-Feb of the previous year.

Yeah. I also see that potentially also, like we said, some of it is come through the Thailand and Korean FTA.

Overall, also, there could have been a slight uptick because the overall demand in the market per se is also on the positive side.

Basically, what has happened is you have a situation where the domestic demand is expected to grow at 7% as per ICRA estimate. When you're looking at a 7% consumption, and, in fact, the India is the second-largest consumer of rubber consumption as globally, then we have surpassed USA.

Given that background, you could have seen customers importing more from the FTA route as well as it is coming a cheaper and stuff like that.

Do you expect that to persist, or is there some corrective action or something that can be done on that?

No. On the FTA front, we are kind of highlighting to ensure that the value addition is within the norms of the FTA.

We are highlighting it, and it's being taken up at this point. No specific outcome at this point in time, yeah.

Understood. The second question was on the global rubber consumption chart that you usually present.

Just going through that. Again, if I look at it in two parts, right.

One is let's say 2013 to 2018 kind of a time period. During that time, it went from 25.5 to 29.3, which is a roughly 5.7% kind of a CAGR increase, right?

Now if I shift my focus to let's say 2022 till '25, the last 3 odd years, there the growth rate went from 29.4 to 31.9 as per your data, which is more like a 2.8% kind of a CAGR growth rate, right? Just wanted to understand what do you think are the reasons for almost more than halving of the growth rate which the overall industry was growing at.

Could you throw some light into this, and how do you see this panning out?

Yeah. One, if you really see another layered information on this, more of it is also in Asia.

The growth is much more stronger in Asia compared to the Western markets, yeah. While globally, also due to the continual disruptions that we have had in the last few years, and that's also played out at a lower growth rate.

I see overall, we typically take about 2% to 2.5% growth. That is a safe number to assume on a medium to long-term CAGR basis, yeah.

Anything above that sometimes is really not very realistic, yeah.

Basically, you're implying that the 2013 to '18 kind of a growth rate which happened at a broad level, that was kind of more unusual, and this 2.8%, 3%, or whatever, 2.5% to 3% is more a realistic growth rate as in?

Correct. That's what we always also use, yeah.

That is a barometer we use even for our evaluations of future demand scenario.

Understood. Just to, again, go back to my earlier question on the imports picking up in the first two months.

Sir, is there, we also notice that in one of your large Chinese competitors, the largest one, in one of their recent calls, they had alluded to Indian players putting up capex, probably they were referring to you, I guess. I'm just wondering that is it also maybe given that most recent capex is the one which is going to come on stream is also for antioxidants, is there a likelihood aggressive and before you start commercializing your capacity?

There is always a certain capacity to hold inventory, right? I don't see that as a major impact on account of us coming up with the capex, yeah.

Okay. Understood.

Thanks for the response, sir.

Yeah. Thanks.

Yeah. Thank you, sir, for the follow-up.

Sir, my question is onto the specialty segment. Sir, has stated that this capex of ₹130 crore will come largely into the specialty side.

Just re-calibrating some numbers, if you can throw, what is the specialty segment mix as on FY '26? What are the volumes or utilization level this segment is working on?

With this capacity coming in by FY '28, I suppose, what sort of capacity addition are we looking at into specialty side? What is the demand outlook into this segment into the export market, if you can just highlight on this?

By and large, when we look at the sector that we operate, typically, we have a slightly higher skew towards the specialties than what the industry reflects, that is while the industry reflects a single digit spread on the specialty versus the non-specialties, we would be at about 15%. I think with this, we should be able to go to 20% as per our expectation, yeah.

20% mix post commissioning of the capacity and reaching peak utilization level, we can be 20%?

Yeah. That's right, because, again, volumes are not typically very, very high, yeah.

Got it. Okay.

Sir, this specialty segment is focused on which particular end users and which particular geography, like US, Europe, any sort of mature markets versus emerging markets, where it is specifically used?

It's across all the markets.

Okay. Got it.

Sir, coming to the question on the higher imports in this quarter, sir, also we have seen many times before any anti-dumping duty comes in, generally customers looks to stock up inventory right before this announcement and try to mitigate some of the higher cost which post anti-dumping duty whatever is there. Are you seeing this trend to playing out, and this is leading to higher imports or general you see because any sort of a change why imports have suddenly spiked up?

There was a question earlier on this also. While I said that could be a tendency and inclination, we have not seen it so much also due to the fact that the current situation has not been so conducive towards that, yeah.

There could be pockets of it here and there, but by and large, due to the environment, it is not played out to that extent, because it's still at this point DGTR is still only a recommendation, yeah.

Sir, just one last question onto the volume growth for FY '27 and '28, sir. What sort of numbers are we looking at?

Sorry, come again, please. I just could not hear you there, yeah.

Onto the volume growth guidance, what numbers are we looking at for FY '28 and '27 in terms of growth just?

Yeah. We are looking at a double-digit growth in terms of volumes, that's a target, yeah, for the coming year, yeah.

Got it, sir. Thank you.

Hi, team. Thank you for the opportunity.

We have a ₹220 crores of CWIP in FY '26. Going forward, how much of this comprise of the project debt, and what will be the cost of debt in one direction?

As of today, we have not borrowed any debt. We are having some lines around ₹100 crores from the bank, but we are yet to utilize it.

Depends on that, and it is a repo-linked interest rates.

Nothing that is in the CWIP, right?

No. Far, nothing is there.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Just my question is on anti-dumping duty, sir.

What we have observed that in an inflationary scenario, Finance Ministry largely reluctant to approve anti-dumping duty, though there is a recommendation from Commerce Ministry. If suppose that happen for our products, what are our plans to expand margin?

How we are ready to that?

Yes, Nilesh. Again, I think one of our earlier participants did ask this question.

I think it was Mr. Sajal.

There are plans. Like I said, there's a lot of cost efficiency measure improvements that are ongoing within the organization at our manufacturing sites, and we expect that will also positively play.

There is also product mix areas that we're looking at as well as the geographical expansion is also another area. There are multiple actions in play that we're looking at, yeah.

Okay. Secondly, to Mr.

Srini, sir, what are the tax rate guidance for FY '27? Any reduction there because of this new plant commissioning and the revenue coming from there?

No. There is normal tax rates.

Thanks a lot, sir.

Thank you, Nilesh, yeah. I think there were two questions again on this improved volumes from both Aditya and Praveen on the increased volumes which were coming in through the import.

Just one of my colleagues just mentioned that towards the end of the year, typically, you see this where some of the importers tend to use the advance license, and there is always a chunking up of it during the last quarter. That's potentially one reason.

I just thought I'll add to that question because it came up twice, yeah. Thank you.

Thank you, everybody, for your time, and we appreciate that you could be here today with us. I hope we've been able to address all your queries.

For any further information, kindly get in touch with any one of us or Strategic Growth Advisors, our investor relations advisors. Thank you once again, and wishing you a very pleasant day ahead.

Thank you.