Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for joining us today. We at Ambit Capital are pleased to host SRF Limited's Q1 FY27 results conference call.

We have with us today Mr. Samir Kashyap, President and Chief Financial Officer, and Ms.

Sugandha Singhal, Senior Vice President, Head Treasury and Investor Relations of SRF Limited. I would now like to invite Ms.

Nitika Dhawan, Head of Corporate Communication at SRF, to initiate proceedings for the results concall. Thank you.

Over to you, ma'am.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on SRF's Quarter 1 Financial Year 27 results conference call. We will begin this call with brief opening remarks from our President and Chief Financial Officer, Mr.

Samir Kashyap, following which we will open the forum for an interactive question-and-answer session. Before we begin this call, I would like to point out that some statements made in this call may be forward-looking and a disclaimer to this effect has been included in the earnings presentation shared with you earlier.

I would now like to invite Mr. Kashyap to make his opening remarks.

Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome to SRF Limited's Q1 FY27 earnings conference call. Thank you for joining us today.

I trust you have had the opportunity to review our financial results and the investor presentation shared earlier. I will begin by taking you through the key highlights of our performance during the quarter, followed by an update on each of our businesses, and we will be happy to then take your questions.

The operating environment remained volatile during the quarter, shaped by ongoing geopolitical developments, evolving trade dynamics, and disruptions across global supply chains. Demand trends also remain uneven across some of our end markets.

Despite these challenges, SRF delivered an extremely strong start to the financial year, reflecting the resilience of our diversified business portfolio, the agility of our teams, and our disciplined focus on execution and operational excellence. During the quarter, we strengthened our market positions through technology-led innovation, deeper customer relationships, and improved operating efficiencies.

We also made steady progress on our strategic investments aimed at expanding capacities, broadening our product portfolio, and strengthening the capabilities required to drive sustainable long-term growth. For the quarter ended June 30th, 2026, gross operating revenues stood at 5,033 crores.

The company's operational EBIT increased 61% to 1,116 crores in Q1 FY27 when compared with the comparable period last year, translating into an EBIT margin of 22%. Profit after tax stood at 759 crores, registering a growth of 76% over the corresponding quarter last year.

The board has also approved an interim dividend of 5 rupees per equity share. Let me now take you through the performance of our individual businesses.

Our chemicals business continues to be a key growth driver during the quarter, reporting revenues of 2,315 crores, representing a 26% year-over-year growth. The specialty chemicals business delivered a steady performance despite operating in a challenging market environment.

Our continued investments in technology, process innovation, and cost optimization have maintained competitiveness across key product categories. During the quarter, we strengthened our innovation pipeline through the development of new AIs and intermediate molecules, while deepening customer engagement across both agro and pharmaceutical applications.

In SCB, we are now working on various molecules that are beyond our traditional customer segments, which we believe will bring greater impetus to the future of this business. Our efforts toward operational excellence were also recognized externally during the quarter.

SRF received the ET Edge Bronze Award for Supplier Relationship Management and was recognized as the ISCM Supply Chain Champion in the diversified sector. These recognitions reflect strength of our supply chain capabilities and the quality of our customer relationships.

The fluorochemicals business delivered another strong quarter, supported by healthy domestic demand and robust export volumes. Higher volumes across refrigerants, industrial chemicals, and fluoropolymers, along with improved realizations, helped offset the impact of elevated raw material costs caused by supply chain disruptions.

Our HFC facilities continue to operate at high utilization levels. We also made further progress in scaling up PTFE, with an increasing contribution from value-added grades.

As communicated earlier, we expect the fluoropolymer portfolio to make a progressively stronger contribution as customer approvals and higher value-added grades translate into higher commercial volumes. Our strategic projects, including the proposed investments at our new site in Odisha, are progressing in line with our plans.

These investments in next-generation refrigerants, backward integration, and specialty fluoropolymers are central to our ambition of building a globally significant fluorochemicals business. Post the commissioning of our new HFO plant in Odisha, we will be in the top three to four refrigerant gas manufacturers globally, thereby positioning us uniquely.

While geopolitical and trade-related developments may continue to create near-term volatility, we remain confident about the outlook for the chemicals business. Growth will be supported by healthy refrigerant demand, improving contributions from fluoropolymers, a strong innovation pipeline in specialty chemicals, and the progressive commissioning of new capacities.

Moving on to our performance films and foils business. This business reported revenues of 2,017 crores, reflecting a 42% year-on-year growth.

The business delivered a strong operational performance across all manufacturing locations. Margins improved across regions, supported by temporary supply disruptions arising from geopolitical developments.

During the quarter, we capitalized our capacitor-grade BOPP film project following the successful completion of trial runs undertaken earlier. The project strengthens our presence in the specialized high-value segment through CAPLAR, our brand of capacitor-grade BOPP films, offering excellent dielectric stability and self-healing performance, thereby enhancing reliability and extending capacitor life.

Customer qualification is progressing well, with approvals already secured from several leading customers. Commercial volumes are expected to ramp up progressively as additional approvals are received.

The aluminium foil business also continued to gain momentum. Exports increased during the quarter, while customer approvals for value-added applications progressed further, especially in the aseptic packaging segment.

These developments should support an overall improvement in the product mix. Our board has approved a proposal for setting up of a BOPET thick film line in India with a capacity of 25,000 metric tonnes per annum at a projected cost of 250 crores.

This addition serves a few strategic objectives, including expanding into a new substrate where due to limited domestic capacity there's lesser volatility versus thin film, as also helping us provide a wider product offering to our customers so that we can truly become a one-stop shop for them. We intend to target high-end use cases in the electrical and electronics industry and are slated to be the only manufacturer of thick film with a dedicated line, thereby setting us apart from competition.

We see a 24-month timeframe for this line to be commissioned. We are also progressing with our investments in additional metallizers and coating lines.

These projects will enhance our value-added product portfolio and strengthen the business's ability to address emerging opportunities in sustainable and specialized packaging applications. We are also encouraged by the improvement in our overseas operations.

While there's been some benefit due to the geopolitical uncertainties, there's been a sustained effort to enhance product penetration in the local markets, which will make the business more resilient. While competitive pressures remain in the segment, we are encouraged by the improvement in operating performance and the progress being made in scaling our newer product categories.

After this exceptional performance in Q1, which was aided by supply constraints and higher prices due to geopolitical uncertainties, we do see the performance of this business stabilizing to more normal levels in Q2. Having said that, we expect the baseline performance to be recalibrated at a higher level from here on.

Our technical textiles business reported revenues of 597 crores during the quarter. The nylon tyre cord fabrics business continued to generate stable performance, supported by resilient demand across key end-use segments.

Optimal plant operations, disciplined manufacturing, and focused cost optimization initiatives helped the business maintain a healthy operating performance. The belting fabrics business benefited from improved domestic demand and robust exports to the US.

The outlook for the business remains positive, particularly following the rationalization of tariffs in the US. Our focus will remain on expanding volumes and improving operating efficiencies.

PIY has performed well in the quarter, supported by improved share in geotextile and seatbelt segments. TTB's performance in Q2 is expected to normalize, but yet deliver an improvement versus the comparable period previous year.

Our other businesses, comprising coated fabrics and laminated fabrics, delivered a stable performance during the quarter. The coated fabrics business maintained its leadership position in the domestic market.

Disciplined cost management, operational efficiencies, and a growing focus on value-added products helped sustain profitability. The laminated fabrics business also delivered a steady performance, supported by product mix optimization and continued improvements across manufacturing operations.

During Q1 FY27, our CSR arm, the SRF Foundation, continued to drive meaningful social impact across education, digital inclusion, skill development, healthcare, and community development. The foundation reached thousands of students through learning and STEM programs, expanded access to digital services, supported youth employability initiatives, and strengthened community engagement through partnerships and government convergence, reaffirming its commitment to creating sustainable, inclusive growth.

Furthermore, I'm happy to share that the SRF Foundation was honored with the prestigious Bhamashah Shiksha Bhushan Award for the ninth time in June 2026. To conclude, the global operating environment remains uncertain, with geopolitical developments, changing trade policies, and raw material volatility continuing to influence businesses and supply chains.

Nevertheless, we remain confident in SRF's ability to navigate these challenges. Across our businesses, we are focused on improving operating efficiencies, increasing the contribution from value-added products, deepening customer relationships, and executing our strategic capital expenditure program.

Our investments in innovation, technology, and new capabilities are creating new growth opportunities and strengthening our competitive position. Supported by our diversified portfolio, strong balance sheet, and disciplined execution, we are well positioned to deliver profitable and sustainable growth.

Overall, we are pleased with the start to the financial year and remain confident about SRF's future prospects. It is important, though, to recognize that SRF's business, especially the chemicals business, is highly seasonal in nature.

As has been the case in the past, we will see lower numbers in Q2 as compared to Q1. Having said that, this exceptional outcome across all our businesses in Q1, which has helped us deliver our best-ever quarterly performance, positions us very well vis-à-vis our goals for this financial year.

This outcome is a strong testament to the resilience, maturity, and robustness of our business to convert adversity into opportunity and maximize outcomes, while remaining strongly committed and steadfast in our efforts to ensure the success of our customers as well. On that note, I conclude my remarks and would be glad to discuss any questions or comments that you may have.

I would now like to ask the moderator to open the lines for the Q&A session. Thank you very much.

Good morning, sir. Thanks for taking my question.

I got few of them. First, on the infrastructure space in Dahej, how much land more left because the Odisha plant may take another two years to come?

For the next two years, do we have enough land parcel available in the Dahej facility for us to commission all the active ingredients we are working there? How are we placed on the infrastructure side?

That will be my first question. Thank you.

In Dahej, we do have some space. We're reasonably well utilized in Dahej, Sanjesh, but there is still space specifically for specialty.

There are structures that are available over there to expand and grow all that they need for this next 24-month period. There is adequate space specifically for specialty.

Everything else that we've already commissioned on the capex side, those spaces are already well earmarked and work is ongoing over there. In a nutshell, enough space to cater to anything that we need to get into at least for the next 24 months at Dahej.

That's clear. Thank you.

Second, when do we see some of these active ingredients really getting into a scale? Because we have been speaking now for almost three years.

I know it takes time, and market hasn't been supportive. What are you hearing from your customer?

You spoke about some green shoots in the specialty business. Are we seeing good offtake in the second half in active ingredient, or it's more like an FY28 story for us?

Even on the last call, Sanjesh, I had called out two leading aspects when I talked about the green shoots. One was we were seeing volumes start to show the first signs of recovery.

I think through the last year, you heard the commentary from SRF being very clear around protecting share. That was the primary focus, and I think that's paid off well over this time, while it's been a very difficult journey, as we saw the price destruction around us.

Nevertheless, I think we've done a fabulous job of holding onto share. That's number one.

We're starting to see volumes overall, a little bit through last quarter and this quarter as well, start improving, the trend is upwards. That's the first sign.

I think the second, which is probably one that has you all more concerned, is around price. At least across key products at this point in time, we are finally starting to see price trend marginally upwards in the right direction.

We've seen some volume support. Given your specific question on what we're hearing from customers, through this period in Q1, while there has been some opportunistic buying as well, I think through specific pockets where we have kind of stayed by the customer's side through this journey, we are starting to see support from them on the volume side, and we're seeing uptick over there.

I think that's the basis and genesis of my opening comment around volumes starting to look better. It's still early signs.

It is in pockets. I wouldn't say it's a broad-based improvement just yet, but first signs directionally building on, I think, what I shared with all of you when we did this call in May.

Got it. That's very clear.

Very helpful. One last question on the fluorochemicals business, which is our refrigerant gas.

The prices appears to be very strong and sustaining. Thanks, there were very harsh summer this year across the world.

Do you see these pricing trends sustaining at the level what we saw in the last quarter, or post this season over, have we seen some softening of the prices?

Sanjesh, you probably recollect from the previous call as well, there was this whole concern around RG pricing through this year. Our broad commentary was we expect ref gas pricing broadly to stay at the levels they were, or only get better from here.

I think what you've seen in Q1 is testament to that view that we had. I think that view is playing out well.

Having said that, I think we all do know Q2 and Q3, specifically from a India and Middle East standpoint, is weaker versus Q2, even from a volume standpoint, forget just price. From both standpoints, it is softer.

We will see that come off a little bit. I think we are very clear that we will see strong growth versus last year Q2 overall on ref gas.

It's done outstandingly well in Q1 and will continue to do so, I think, through the rest of this year for a bunch of different reasons that we've talked about multiple times in the past.

Got it, Samir. Thanks for answering all those questions so patiently, and best of luck for the coming quarters.

Thanks, Sanjesh.

Thank you, sir.

Sir. Thank you so much for taking my question.

Sir, first question just pertains to the performance films business has basically performed very, very well in this quarter. Just wanted to know what could be the reason for such a strong outperformance in this quarter, especially from the performance films business?

I'm not sure if you had joined our call in May, but I had kind of put the seed in all of your minds that, contrary to what you were all hearing around strife and grief in the packaging films business, we were going to do well. I think I talked about the fact that we had robust supply chains that were holding up despite everything happening in the Middle East.

I think all of that is what has really panned out in Q1. Let me try and give you a few broad indicators on what kind of drove the Q1 performance.

In a perverse way, the war has helped us, said very simply, right? I think the rest of the world were shutting plants, capacities were going off-stream, and like I told you all on the previous call as well, we were operating flat out 100% capacity.

That's really just points to the fact that we did not have domestic reliance on raw material. The fact that we operated in a DTA unit, the fact that we sourced globally, ensured that our raw material supply chains were very robust.

One, that ensured we were operating right through this entire quarter, and like I said, we've pretty much operated flat out. That's factor number one, especially I think when you contrast us with a lot of the competition, we will stand out and show up differently on that account.

I think the second piece is there was a whole period where there was a lot of panic buying by a bunch of customers at that point in time. I've shared at different points in time that we've tried to manage this journey of price volatility effectively with our customers because we also realize that at some point this was going to correct as well, and we want to manage that downturn equally effectively.

We've tried to be rational about pricing. Having said that, prices had significantly improved because of panic buying.

Those pretty much are two big drivers for what happened in Q1. I think the crux really comes down to the efficacy with which we could operate and ensure we could deliver product to customers reliably, which was significantly impacted during this period.

Sure, thanks for that, sir. Sir, we do agree that there are some green shoots in the agrochem cycle and so slowly volumes seem to be coming back and that recovery is there.

Now with even prices of the refrigerant gases also pretty strong, just wanted some color on how we are going to grow the chemicals business, what are the big strong growth drivers of this business going ahead? Just wanted more color on that front.

Probably you can highlight some factors from the pharma piece as well, which you're slowly trying to grow. Could you give us some color on what are the growth drivers for the chemicals business going ahead?

Sure. Our broad guidance on chemicals for this year was that we would grow 15 to 20%.

We continue to hold that guidance, and I think the Q1 outcome positions us outstandingly well to deliver that result. We've delivered a 26% growth in that portfolio.

I think very, very solid start to the year. The fact that RG pricing has held as well as it has through Q1, and our expectation is, yeah, we will go through the cycle of Q2 and Q3, but overall for this year, I think we see the overall numbers looking very good both from a volume as well as a price standpoint.

I think everything around quota and all that will happen through December will also drive a set of outcomes which will be significantly positive for the ref gas business. For the longest time we've said this, and I know people have kind of looked at it differently maybe from a market standpoint that the time for ref gas has arrived.

We've been saying this for a little while now. I know a lot of people look at it differently, and that's fine.

I think what you're seeing in our results is that part of the portfolio truly shining at this point in time and delivering to a plan that I think we put in motion some time ago. That will continue to be a big driver.

We continue to hold the overall growth range that we set for the year. I don't think directionally we're moving away from that range.

Hopefully, we will eventually land at the higher end of that by the end of the year, given how strong Q1 has been. In terms of pharma, since you asked about that specifically, I've said this before, but I'll repeat it again.

We have a slated goal to be in the 20-30% range of revenue by 2030. We're progressing well on that journey.

We've had a strong outcome the last couple of quarters in growing that share. It is baby steps, and in the larger scheme of the numbers, it kind of obviously doesn't just show up as yet.

I think to give you some more color of what is positive on that front through this quarter is we are working on a larger number of molecules with the set of customers. The number of customers we're working with is also growing.

When you kind of put that together, you're in a matrix of sorts where the likelihood of your hit rate improving has only gone up, because you've just increased both the universe you're playing in and the number of molecules that you're playing in. When one of these comes to real fruition in terms of true large quantities that matter, I think we'll start seeing some step-function changes.

At this point in time, those volumes are smaller, and in the larger scheme of things on the overall chemicals business, it doesn't really show up. That's some additional color on the pharma sector for you.

Sure, thanks, sir. Just one thing, with reference to...

Sure.

Thank you for taking my question, and congratulations on a great set of numbers. Sir, the first question is just in your comments, you did allude to probably the second quarter being sequentially weaker.

Just for my understanding, year-on-year, we don't see because seasonality would be second quarter previous year also. You're specifically referring to sequentially Q1 to Q2.

Is that the right understanding?

Arjun. Absolutely.

You've got it spot on. Yeah.

Year-over-year, we will see growth. Sequential quarter, Q1 has been fairly obviously kind of a blowout in terms of outcomes.

Versus that there will be correction, but versus last year, we will see growth.

Sure. The second query, sir, is regarding, say, the aluminium foil piece.

Essentially, our packaging piece has been expanding. Now this quarter margins are significantly higher, but when you all look at a sustainable level, EBIT move from maybe 10 to 17 this quarter, what would you believe the sustainable levels to be for this piece for the remaining part of the year?

Without giving you a specific number, let me just give you some color here, Arjun. I think at a structural level, I think we're doing a bunch of different things in aluminium, okay?

We have kind of significantly now managed to deliver progress in our push to be more export-oriented versus the past. Directionally, close to half the volume, or maybe a bit more, kind of actually moved into Europe.

That's kind of given us a good bump up in terms of being in a different market, number one. Number two, we are participating in areas where traditionally we weren't in terms of product end-use, and that's giving us better realization from a price standpoint.

There was a big spike in the aluminium price point anyway earlier this quarter. Those have more or less, I wouldn't say entirely rationalized out, but yeah, they're at lower levels versus the peaks that we saw.

There is that impact, too. Having said that, I think the most important piece and I think we spoke about this in our press release that we put out yesterday, is we are making some very strong progress on the aseptic packaging side, working with a bunch of leading players.

There's very significant progress that has been made thus far, and we're in stages of testing at this point in time, but if all things go well on that front, it could mean opening up a completely different segment and space of revenue for ourselves.

Sure. When we had announced aluminium, we had said we may look at expansion.

If you could comment on where we are on that thought process, and two, what's the outlook on BOPET and BOPP at this point in time? I'll come back for questions later.

Thank you.

I don't think we're getting into expansion on aluminium just yet. We're pretty much right now more focused on where product goes out to in terms of markets.

Like I said, our focus is to build on that export share. As time comes and we are ready, our site at Jaitapur has ample space for us to be able to expand.

I think right now the focus remains around moving to higher grade of foil and better use cases and applications like what I spoke about around aseptic. Once we kind of gone past those gates, I think is the point where we'll start thinking about potential capacity expansion.

At this point in time, there isn't anything on the cards that we're talking about. That's the answer on foil expansion.

Outlook on BOPET and BOPP, Q1 was, like I said in my comments in the previous question, we saw disproportionate pricing in Q1 just because of all that was happening in the Middle East. I wish I could crystal ball gaze and tell you what is going to happen in the Middle East crisis.

You guys are probably a better judge of that than I am. The uncertainty, in a sense, kind of helps because it does keep crude oil prices at a certain level.

We see crude in that 70s range, and if it kind of holds over there, I think we all know from past that goes well for plastics pricing in general, and that's the way we see it panning out. Yes, there will be a correction.

I don't think we'll see numbers that look as crazy as Q1 heading into Q2, but we don't see a steep cliff either.

Sure, very helpful. Just on the PTFE, we were talking of scaling up.

There is a comment in the presentation on the same, but if you could throw some more color on that?

Sure. We've been talking about moving into higher grades for some time.

That work on even just the base PTFE site is progressing well. Last call, we talked about some small capexes that we were making over there on the PTFE front to kind of get to those higher grades.

That's kind of on track and progressing well. Our PVDF plant is set to be commissioned towards the end of this quarter, so that's all on track, too.

On Chemours, they are happy with the progress that we've made. Chemours has requested a few design changes in the plant, and Chemours is very specific in terms of expectations they have on equipment.

There are some pieces where there are only specific manufacturers of that equipment in Europe that Chemours lets you work with. That's added a little bit to the timeline.

It's nothing huge that is moving out. Maybe a couple of months here or there, three, four months versus the December timelines where FP3 and FP4 could kind of move out a little bit.

At this point, from everything we hear from Chemours, very happy with the progress. The only thing that's kind of moving the timelines marginally outwards is this design piece that they want us to incorporate to make the plants more effective and to bring in this equipment from Europe.

Perfect. Thank you, and wishing you all the best.

Thank you so much.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

Two questions. Starting with the electronics-grade films, capacitor and conductor grade, where I believe we are committing roughly 520 crore rupees of capex.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? What is the TAM size for these two grades could be in next few years?

What are the key drivers here? Is the economics of these grades of films are different than versus our core packaging film business, especially in terms of margin profile and volatility?

Okay. In terms of capacitor, like I said, we capitalized earlier in the quarter.

Trial runs are done. We're in the stage right now where we are working with the set of customers on satisfying quality parameters.

Testing on the capacitor side is significantly more extensive versus vanilla film, as you can imagine. Those timelines are where we are right now in terms of the middle of testing, to say.

We're expecting to start seeing some early stage revenue towards the later part of this quarter. By Q1 or Q2 of next year is when we think we should be close to full capacity.

That's kind of the outlook that we have. Pricing on capacitor film is significantly better than vanilla films.

It is only going to be accretive to margins for the films business. You've heard us say this in the past, kind of our whole desire to move up into the value-added chain.

This our step in capacitor is clearly in that direction. It is significantly better in terms of pricing versus vanilla film, like I said earlier.

Presently, there aren't a large set of players in India producing this set of films for the electronics industry. There's a lot of customer interest and demand, and that universe of who we're working with is only growing at this time.

There's a fair amount of early acceptance that we've reached with the set of customers as well. Strong momentum on all of those fronts and getting through those checkposts at this point in time.

Initial study and sense in terms of the economics and volatility of this piece of packaging business versus the base business, would it be similar, would it be better?

I don't think we see as much volatility. That was part of the rationale behind the play.

If you go back to what we've been saying for a few calls, the broader strategy right now of the packaging films side of the business is really to go and de-risk ourselves from the volatility of thin film pricing. Everything that we're doing on every value-added play, whether that is around metallized product, whether that's around coated product, whether it is what we're planning to do on BOPET and capacitor, and even some of the new initiatives that we announced, including the new capex that the board approved yesterday, are all steps in that direction.

The reason we are embarking on this journeys is really to de-risk ourselves from the cyclicality of polyester pricing. This is another initiative on that front.

We don't see the cyclicality to be as volatile as what you're probably imagining, and as compared to thin film.

Sure. Second question on the fluoropolymer business...

Yeah.

Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on a strong quarter. Sir, first question on the AIs front.

The six, seven AIs that we have in captivity, part of them commercialized, where are we in terms of the journey from revenue recognition, given that at peak, we were expecting something like $400, $500 million of revenues? How many have commercialized, what are the stages, and maybe some milestones in terms of reaching that $400, $500 million revenue?

Thank you.

I think that similar question to I think what we got asked in the last call, but I'm going to just echo those same comments again. Really, it's a function of registrations, right?

I think you kind of all have a good sense on what is happening in the larger innovator space and everything happening around farm economics. Directionally, the only piece that I can tell you incrementally versus what I shared last quarter, and it alludes to kind of what I said earlier in this call, is those first signs of green shoots.

The innovator world is only going to wake up and move and do things differently when this pricing pressure that they're seeing from generics and everything else that is happening in that space kind of abates to some extent, right? That kind of has held through the quarter as well.

The only piece that gives us confidence that this is slowly starting to turn on us and we could start seeing some traction is really what has happened around both price and volume. That the so-called no-bottom to pricing from China kind of now holding out and getting better from here on.

Our expectation therefore is that once we kind of start hitting a more positive cycle, given that the downturn seems to be kind of behind us now, it's early days, is that the innovator world will be able to start making these steps to go take actions around everything that is needed around registrations and what have you, after which everything starts panning out then in terms of their whole AI space. It's still early days, I think before that recovery kind of truly shows up.

It is fairly initial at this point in time. I therefore think the innovator world is still going to be cautious, at least for the foreseeable future, before they go whole hog and move the needle on the whole registration front.

I think that kind of more or less summarizes our views on it at this point in time. More a great directional shift, but for what we're seeing on the overall agrochem space in terms of volume and pricing, being the first green shoots to hopefully kick things off.

Got that, sir. Sir, second question in terms of PTFE and Chemours.

On PTFE, we have said that we'll be adding value-added grades. What timelines do we see in terms of getting a material traction on this?

Even on the Chemours front, given that usually the validation cycles are relatively longer, what is the timeline that we are looking at when meaningful contribution from both these products will be there from the fluoropolymer space? Thank you.

On the grades and PTFE, I think as we hit the end of Q4 and early Q1, is when we will start seeing PTFE starting to show meaningful scale. I think that's probably the best way to kind of give you a view.

Like I said, we will commission PVDF towards the end of this quarter, hopefully, by similar timelines, i.e., start of the next financial year, is where we starting to see meaningful volumes and realizations on that front as well. Chemours, the slippage is really mutually agreed in terms of timelines because of changes that they are making.

At the end of the day, it is a design that they need to have approved and blessed, and these are changes that they requested that we're incorporating. Like we've said in the past, this is a effective return on investment kind of an arrangement that we have with Chemours.

Once we're commissioned and we're ready, we will start seeing that flowing through. I think if you have to think about the whole fluoropolymer portfolio, right, kicking in and across all substrates that we're talking about over here, whether it's PTFE, PVDF, FP3, or FP4, I think we're talking timelines where significant meaningful volumes are going to probably start kicking in towards the end of 27-28 and early 28-29.

That's kind of when the volumes will get to really meaningful levels. During 28-29 is when we expect to be absolutely full stream in terms of capacity.

Sure, that helps and thanks a lot, and best of luck, sir.

Thank you.

Good morning, sir, and thanks a lot for the opportunity. A bit more harping on the specialty chemicals space, especially on the AIs.

At the outset, sir, I just wanted to understand, do we have the readiness in terms of creation of assets required to launch those six or seven AIs? Would it be the right way to read that we're just awaiting imminent approvals from our customers whenever it is conducive for them to see some green shoots of patented products growing, be it this year or next year?

Do we have the readiness and should we read it as whenever the doors open for those products to get launched, there'll be a decent bit of operating leverage in the early few quarters itself? Should that be a right reading, sir?

The capacity is kind of reasonably there on the ground, right, just given how we set up plants. I'm sure you're well versed with that, across dedicated and multipurpose and the way we are able to swing plants across.

In terms of capacity and ability to get product out of the door, I don't see that being a constraint. The readiness obviously in terms of just the chemistry behind the products, you couldn't be in conversation around waiting for registrations unless that was all done, right?

That part is reasonably taken care of as well. Really, I think the only piece that you're waiting on, like I said earlier in my commentary as well, is around the progress that is needed around registrations and these products getting launched by the innovators.

There isn't a big sales-side infrastructure requirement that's needed because of who we're selling to. We are going to sell to the innovator world.

The chain from there downstream is theirs. We own everything in from production through to making sure that there's acceptance of that product with the innovator world.

I think on those pieces, we are in a very well progressed, advanced state. I think on your question, I can positively state that we definitely are ready, but there is this last mile piece which is a hurdle that has to be overcome, and the timelines around that are uncertain at this point, to say it mildly.

Understood. Sir, that was on the AI piece, but the base business that we have, which is predominantly all chemical intermediates, be it n-1 and n-2, even those, which you probably have rightly pointed out in many of the concalls that there's a pricing pressure, but have we at least seen any growth in volumes across the portfolio despite the competition beefing up from China, and is there a positive trajectory at least on the volume front as we progress in the current financial year?

We clearly, I think, through the last quarter and this quarter, I think we at least on the core set of products that you're kind of alluding to over here in the portfolio, we definitely have seen a directional shift in volume. I wouldn't say it's a step-function as yet, but even sequential quarter, we're starting to see that trend get positive on us.

That is a great sign. Like I said, it's not only volume, it is both on volume and on price on those core set of products.

Directionally, at least on that front, it seems like we have scraped the bottom and we are getting better from here on. Our outlook is that through the rest of this year, we will keep making steady progress over here.

It's not going to be a hockey-stick kind of a recovery, it will be linear, and probably be slow, but that's the way we expect and see this panning out through the rest of the financial year. We do see, as is typical seasonality that we see in chemicals, we think H2 will be stronger than H1.

It will be a more backloaded sort of a recovery, but yes, directionally, we are seeing volumes better, we're seeing price better.

That helps a lot, sir, and wishing you all the best. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on a great set of numbers. In the opening commentary, you did allude to the packaging films margin business.

While you said margins are likely to normalize in 2Q, but the baseline will be higher now. On this, just wanted to get a bit more clarity, because what we also see, our overseas operations, be it South Africa, Thailand, and Hungary, have been under pressure for...

Yeah. Is this better?

Yeah. Should I repeat my question?

No, it's okay. I got you, Ranjit.

Go ahead. I could hear you.

Yeah. The question is mainly on the new baseline that you are indicating.

While we also see that the overseas subsidiaries have been reeling under pressure, and if you take the last 10 years, the trendline has been 8 to 12% on EBIT margins. When you say that you are seeing a new baseline, whether one should assume it is going to be above those range?

Let me answer that with two or three comments. Number one, I think we said this in Q4, I'm saying this again very clearly.

We have performed very, very effectively across all overseas locations these last two quarters, right? The outcome is showing at every level: revenue, EBITDA, EBIT.

All of the overseas locations are performing exceedingly well. Hungary was a concern some time ago.

That has improved significantly. Alltech at some point in the past was facing pressure.

That's kind of behind us as well. Overseas locations are all doing good.

That in many ways is also a reason we carry this positive view around the baselines being better. Against those directional numbers that you called, we expect margins to be north of that.

Q1, like I said earlier, is an aberration. Do not peg it over there, but it will be better than the range that you talked about.

For a set of reasons: one, overseas; B, this whole shift to value-added products, as we bring things like the volumes of capacitor and everything to full commercial levels. Like I said, those price points are significantly different versus vanilla film.

All of those are accretive from a margin standpoint. I think you'll therefore see that expansion coming through as we add more of these value-added plays into the portfolio.

Yeah. Thank you, sir.

That's quite helpful. The second question is on the ref gas front.

We do have certain duties in the US on the Chinese imports, and that are up for renewal. Do you have any comments on that and the progress?

I wish I could tell you with certainty what Mr. Trump would do, but I think the rules around US and China and how they will pan out, very simply put, I think in terms of what we have to ship out to the US in terms of quantities through the rest of this year, we don't see impact of anything that will happen out of China.

Our belief is pricing from China is going to hold through the rest of this period, at least the end of this financial year. We don't see any pressure coming out of there.

I've said that in the past as well. I'll continue to say that now.

No, I don't see a concern at this point in time.

Sir, thank you. One last thing.

You also commented that robust export volumes on the ref gas fronts, but we believe that a certain part at least to the Middle East would have got impacted, but despite that the volumes were quite robust?

In Q4, we did have impact in Middle East. In Q1, we have actually done very, very well in that market, both from a volume as well as a price standpoint.

Floron actually receives differentiated pricing in the Middle East market. We've actually done very well over there through Q1.

We expect that to continue through Q2 as well. There was some disruption in terms of the amount of time you could freely ship.

There was impact around that, but eventually through Q1, we found our own workarounds and have not had any issues getting product into the Middle East at a overall quarter level. There could have been skews in timelines if you looked at it month-wise, but over the quarter, Middle East volumes have been very, very robust, have delivered strong growth year-over-year.

Given our Q4 was impacted, which like I had shared in my previous commentary on the May call, even sequentially looks better. Sir,

thank you, sir, and wish you all the best.

Thank you so much.

Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

First question on the aluminium foil bit.

sorry. Is this better?

Yeah.

Okay. First question on aluminium foil as well as the Chemours contract.

While you did alluded towards aluminium foil getting commissioning or seeing ramp-up in Q1, by Q4 or by Q1 next year, how quick can be the revenue ramp-up here, both for aluminium foil as well as for the Chemours contract?

I'm not sure what ramp-up you're talking about on aluminium foil. On aluminium foil, we are already...

In terms of optimal or full utilization.

Like I said, the area where trying to really move the needle is markets we have access to, and there's been a lot of strong push on that front towards getting access into Europe and getting a sizable amount of volume over there. Like I said, we've kind of got close to half of our volume of Q1 into that market this last quarter, so that's a very promising sign.

If that trend kind of holds through Q2 and thereafter, there's no reason why we won't be able to increase utilization of that plant to pretty much full capacity levels. I also talked about aseptic.

That is the piece that is expected to actually kind of come through by Q1 of next year. Then that kind of takes you into a different space in terms of pricing.

You truly then move away from even on the domestic side in terms of what we would be doing in the local market. You should start seeing change, I think, even as we go forward through the rest of this year just given the access to Europe market, which is half of kind of what we're doing.

On domestic, as we make more and more plays into things like aseptic and those kind of spaces through early next year, we should see the domestic side of the business also start seeing better realizations. That's on aluminium.

I'm sorry, I didn't quite get your second part of the question on Chemours. If you could just repeat that for me?

The Chemours contract, in terms of the product, while there are some rejig in terms of the plant specification, the contractual obligation, from a revenue ramp-up perspective, should be there in year one of its operations itself or it may take slightly longer?

No, we will start seeing revenue fairly soon after commissioning the plant, it should be within the first year itself. Like I said, 27-28 will be lower.

When we hit 28-29, we'll start getting to kind of full stream.

Sure. Second bit on the proportion of medium or let's say longer-term contract, especially for the performance film as well as on the technical textiles front.

Has there been any change over the last six months? Maybe we have entered into shorter-term contracts or longer-term contracts?

On performance films, it's been very opportunistic buying. You heard that in my opening commentary, right?

There's been a lot of panic buying in Q1. I think the contracts that we have that are longer-term, those continue, right?

We have a very established footprint with customers. This is a business that prides itself on being easy to do business with, is their motto.

It's a very strong portfolio of customers that is subsisted for a very long time. Those contracts are in general long and sustained with, think of all the big FMCG players that you can imagine, they're all on that customer list in a sense.

That continues as is. I think the piece that has kind of come on top of that is really a lot of this panic buying from people, many of whom were not our customers in the past.

Some of it was from our existing customers who were also worried, but there have been newer customers have come into our portfolio because of the sheer reliability with which they can buy film from a player like SRF. I think they saw the impact of being associated with other players and not being able to reliably get product, which then impacted them in turn in terms of being able to get their product onto shelves.

We've seen that shift, and I kind of said this as well on the previous calls that part of the whole journey has been around there is a price variation that we've seen in the quarter, but you do not want to be predatory about pricing either, because you know it is going to correct on you. Managing that with the customer base effectively to ensure there's collective success at the end of this whole craziness that we're seeing out from Middle East, has been part of this whole agenda so to say to ensure it's not one-sided.

The long-term contracts that have existed in the past, they continue on packaging films and kind of no different on technical textiles. Yes, again over there, slightly different, not so much opportunistic buying that happened or panic buying, but there were issues around the ability to renegotiate spreads, I think, during the early part of the quarter because of what was just happening on raw material pricing and what have you.

I think that's kind of the impact that you see in the numbers in Q1. That will kind of normalize out in Q2.

Like I said even in my opening remarks, it will settle at a level that is better versus comparable period last year. In terms of long-term contracts, those that are in place continue, no significant directional changes over there.

Sure, sir. Thanks a lot for those answers.

That's it from my side. Thank you.

All right.

I hope we've been able to address your questions. Should you have any further queries, our team and I would be very happy to assist.

We value your continued support and on behalf of the management, I thank you once again for taking the time to join us today. Bye-bye.