Q1 25/26

Aug 6, 2025

Summary

Q1 was subdued by delayed water-infrastructure spending and maintenance, but management expects recovery from H2 and guides to FY26 volumes of ~7.5 lakh tonnes. The T.I.S. valve acquisition adds a growth platform, while most future CapEx is expected to be internally funded.

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1 FY 2026 earnings conference call of Electrosteel Castings Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vikash Verma from EY LLP. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Verma. Thank you, Michelle. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Electrosteel Castings Limited, I welcome you all to the company's quarter FY 2026 earnings call. To discuss the performance of the company, we have with us from the management team, Mr. Madhav Kejriwal, Whole-Time Director, Mr. Sunil Katial, Whole-Time Director and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Gaurav Somani, General Manager of Finance. Please note our CFO, Mr. Ashutosh Agarwal is not available on this earnings call as he is unwell. Before we proceed with this call, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks, uncertainties, and other factors which will be beyond management control. We kindly request that you bear in mind there may be uncertainties when interpreting such statements. We will now start the session with the opening remarks from the management team. Afterwards, we will open the floor for interactive Q&A session. I will now hand over the conference over to Mr. Madhav Kejriwal for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Madhav. Thank you. A very good afternoon to everyone, and thank you all for attending our earnings call. As anticipated, the quarter gone by was a challenging one. The slowdown continued that began in the second half of the last financial year. During this quarter, we have sold 1.63 lakh metric tons of pipes and fittings compared to 1.89 lakh metric tons in Q4 of FY 2025 and 2 lakh metric tons of Q1 FY 2025. Exports contributed to approximately 20% of our total pipe volumes. The decline in government spending on water infra related infrastructure, in particular, contributed to the subdued demand. Additionally, we undertook our annual maintenance shutdown of 9 days at the West Bengal unit, which marginally impacted our production. Under JJM, the rural households have reported to have tap connect water connections at the beginning of the mission of 3.23 crore, which has grown to 15.67 crore as of July 2025. Although new scrutiny has shown that the functioning household tap connections is at approximately 50% of the target, which is 19 crore households. There are headwinds at the moment, but we are optimistic about the future. The extension of the Jal Jeevan Mission, as announced during the finance budget and the budgetary allocation of INR 67,000 crore for FY 2025-2026 are positive indicators. We expect that the demand will start improving from the second half of this financial year. Additionally, the government is also prioritizing on river interlinking projects through the Interlinking of Rivers program, which is aimed at redistributing water from surplus to deficit regions across India. This signifies huge long-term potential for our pipes in the coming years. India remains one of the fastest-growing global economies, with an ever-increasing need for robust water infra in both rural and urban areas. This will continue to drive the demand for pipes and fittings. In the meantime, we are using this period to optimize resources across all levels to minimize costs, to enhance operational efficiency, and for implementing IT solutions. We believe these challenges are temporary and do not alter the long-term growth prospects of the industry. We have proactively enhanced our capacities and are well-positioned to capitalize on the demand resurgence as it materializes. Coming to the performance of the first quarter of FY 2025-2026, the company's consolidated total income stood at INR 1,586 crore, reflecting slowdown in the JJM and maintenance shutdown undertaken at our West Bengal unit. I would also like to take the opportunity to mention that we are reorganizing our CapEx plans in light of the current demand scenario and certain other new acquisitions. I would like to share some updates on the coal mine compensation matter as well. As for the coal mine compensation, I am pleased to inform that the office of the nominated authority from the Ministry of Coal, Government of India, has issued provisional compensation order dated 15th May 2025 in respect of compensation for cost of geological report, cost of consent, land, and incline and shaft infrastructure payable to prior allottees at Parbatpur Central Coal Mine in terms of Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015. As per the aforementioned provisional compensation order, the Ministry of Coal has estimated an amount of INR 500 crore approximate as compensation to the company. Coming to the recent acquisition, I am very pleased to inform you of the acquisition of T.I.S. Service S.p.A., an Italian valve manufacturing company. It is a prominent international designer and manufacturer of valves and equipment used in water mains, sewage treatment plants, and hydroelectrical power stations. Its comprehensive product portfolio includes butterfly valves, gate valves, air release valves, hydropower valves, hydraulic control valves, and turbine as well as. T.I.S. operations are strategically located across Europe and are engaged in production and commercial operations as well as R&D activities. Its major markets are Europe, Middle East, the U.S., and Africa. This acquisition marks a significant strategic move by ECL, which it has long aimed to enter into, which is the valve business, to bolster its footprint in the water infrastructure sector. Given that DI pipes and valves are typically installed together in pipelines, the acquisition enables ECL to offer integrated solutions and a more comprehensive product package to its customers. The turnover of T.I.S. Service S.p.A. is around €40 million, and its EBITDA margin is 13%. We look forward to ramping up the business and aim for revenue growth of at least 15% CAGR over the next three years and significantly improve the EBITDA margins. The global valve market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.6% and will go from $17.6 billion in 2023 to $26.4 billion in 2032. I would now like to hand over the floor to Mr. Sunil Katial, Wholetime Director and CEO, for taking you through the financial highlights. Thank you, Madhavji. Good afternoon to all the investors present in Electrosteel Castings Q1 FY 2026 earnings con call. I would like to brief you about the consolidated results in Q1 FY 2026. Total income stood at INR 1,586 crores. That has been mainly impacted due to decline in government spending on water-related infrastructure and planned maintenance shutdown at Khardah, as already explained. The EBITDA reported at INR 198 crores. EBITDA margin stood at 12.5%. PAT stood at INR 89 crores, with the PAT margin being at 5.6%. Moving to standalone results for Q1, total income stood at INR 1,426 crores. EBITDA stood at INR 186 crores, EBITDA at 13.1%. PAT at INR 86 crores, PAT margin at 6%. Net debt has further reduced and now stands at INR 1,400 crores, including term debt of INR 346 crores only. Net debt equity ratio has improved to 0.2421. Now I open the floor for question and answer sessions. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may please press star and one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Vikash Singh from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question pertains to the government orders for the slowdown which most of the companies are talking about. Despite the allocation in the budget, what was the problem that the spending is not picking up as of now? If you could throw some light on the JJM and the related issues. Sir, there is an approval mechanism that the government has put in place for allocation of funds. Since the budget is still pending to be decided, the extended outlay in total up to 2028 is still not completely finalized. Thus, the allocation of funds is at the moment moving very slowly. The states have started spending money, but the center is holding on. I think in the coming one month or so, all these formalities will be completed, and then we will see fund flow even from the central level for JJM. So another one or two months and you think that this issue will get resolved? Absolutely. Sir concurrently, there was a big story which was doing up on the Interlinking of Rivers. Any update on that? Anything has moved or this is still more on the paper? No, there is a lot moving, especially between the U.P., M.P., Ken Betwa linkage. There is also one in Rajasthan which is seeing some good activity levels. I am very optimistic on the fact that these two will definitely see the light of day. The other projects are all in planning stage, but I think this is a long-run process, sir. It is an 8-10 year, I would say, activity, since you are talking about moving huge quantities of water across a very large landscape of geography. The other projects will take another year or two to start showing up. Noted, sir. Sir, second question pertains to our new acquisition, T.I.S. We have gone overseas for the valve thingy. Usually the experience has not been better for many of the steel companies who have tried to fetch some assets in the overseas. Just wanted to understand that thought process, and because the manufacturing facilities is also abroad, wouldn't it have been more better that if we would have done this in India because our cost of production would have been much lower in India? Sir, what is important to understand is that the type of valve that is being produced in T.I.S., what it specializes in, is a valve that is not made by anybody in India. In fact, T.I.S. and the other big manufacturers of the water valve industry are exporting from Europe into India. This is not a product that is being made at all within the country, nor is it being made successfully by any manufacturer who is from the country at the moment. When we talk about the cost of production, the cost of production for that company today, even after that, they are looking at an EBITDA level of 13%, and that is in a very specialized area in terms of geography. Even when you talk about Europe, they are present strongly in specific markets of Europe, but not all of Europe. We, on the other hand, have a very strong presence all across Europe, and this is a very complementary product to our existing product basket. You can say this acquisition is done more to gain the knowledge. While I say that, it is also important to mention that definitely for the higher value products and even the lower value products that are being manufactured there, we are looking at starting localized production, we are looking at setting up an R&D facility here in India as well, which should not take more than a year and a half to two years. Noted, sir. Sir, just one thing in connection to this. You said 13% EBITDA margin, and at the same time you are talking about some of the specialized products. Shouldn't the margin should be on a higher side because if you are making something which is unique, you should command a better margin, right? Anything to do with what's basically the division here? Because we have seen with some other company, the margins for a specialized product is always higher. Well, if you look at the industry as a whole, you will see that they are actually hitting 2%, 3% higher margins than the other manufacturers within Europe itself. Once we utilize the know-how and spread this across Middle East and India as well in terms of manufacturing and sales, even stronger than what it is already, you will find that this margin is going to move up significantly. This is a margin despite high costs and despite being in Europe. Once this comes to India, you will find the value unlock happen, and you will find much higher EBITDA levels of 18%, 20%. Just a clarification. That 15% revenue CAGR is basically we are targeting India for that kind of growth, right? Sir, we are targeting India, we are targeting the Middle Eastern markets where we are stronger than T.I.S.'s presence and also the European markets where we are more strongly present than T.I.S. What is the current capacity utilization for T.I.S.? Well, for one plant it would be 100%, for the other plant it would be around 45%. Okay, significant legroom is there. Absolutely. We will also create a capacity here in India. Noted, sir. Sir, lastly, if I can squeeze in one more question. This INR 500 crore compensation, which they have basically rewarded, had we received the money? What is the timeline if we haven't received the money? Sir, we haven't received the money yet. It will be a little difficult to comment on the timeline exactly, but we are hopeful that it will take probably six months to eight months, maybe a year. Okay, sir. That's all from my side, and all the best for future. Thank you. Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Ashaf Patel from Molecule Ventures PMS. Please go ahead. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is, consistently after many quarters of volume growth, this quarter we have seen volume degrowth. As you rightly mentioned, it is linked to the slowdown in JJM. So can you please be more specific and give us more insights with regards to the slowdown, whether the new project tendering has been slowing down or the fund release has been slowing down, and when can we expect a quarter of volume improvement again? Sir, both parts have slowed down. The payment to the contractors has slowed down, which in turn has reduced the order booking from their end and also the tendering process has been put on hold. New tendering processes have been put on hold because new fund allocation is yet to happen. That is the current scenario. I am very sure about the fact that come quarter 3, we will start seeing an increase in volume again. Quarter 2 will also be as slow as quarter 1 has been. AMRUT 2.0 is also facing similar challenges? Not really, sir. AMRUT 2.0 is a relatively new initiative as compared to Jal Jeevan. A lot of the work is still in its design phase, and it is not yet picked up full pace, although there is still business coming from there. It is not full pace. Got it, sir. My second question would be the INR 500 crore provisional compensation which the government has allotted to us. We were expecting a number closer to INR 1,200 crore. Is that right? Sir, this INR 500 crore does not include all aspects of the mine infrastructure. This is only taking into consideration land and one particular mine infrastructure, which is the biggest mine infrastructure, that is the incline and shaft. There are other aspects to the infrastructure for which the valuation is in progress. Thus, this is a provisional order. We are still hopeful of receiving the entire investment around INR 1,200 crore, right? It is a bit difficult to say whether we will get the entire investment, but yes, we are hopeful to get close to the entire. Significantly higher. Higher. I would say higher. Mm. Got it. Last question from my side. Many of our peers like Rashmi Metaliks, Welspun, Jai Balaji, everyone has started venturing into this new segment called OPVC pipes. Why are we falling behind, and we don't have any such plans to add OPVC lines? Sir, I wouldn't exactly call it falling behind. OPVC pipes is something that is an opportunity, that is definitely something we are looking at, but there's nothing concrete. We are keeping our ears close to the ground about the opportunity present. Although, we are not very hopeful that it will become a huge market as it's expected to become because we find that in the Western markets, which usually are a precursor to what happens here in India, OPVC hasn't picked up much, and it's been there for many years. Europe, it's practically not present. The only market where it's been successful is the U.S. Mm. Okay. Got it, sir. That's all from my side. All the very best. Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may please press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Muskan from B&K Securities. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, in the past, you have mentioned that we will balance the domestic and export based on the demand. When there is weak demand in domestic, knowing that there is near-term challenges, can we increase our focus to exports as margins would be better? How is this export business opportunity, and is it easy to scale business in export market in the last three quarters, since we know the demand in domestic is weak. Why are we not able to scale it up in the terms of sales? There is a bit of a delay between preparation and execution when it comes to being able to start increasing your exports to that level where there has been a slowdown. It's always easy to manipulate it by 5%, 7%, but when we're talking about wanting to move the needle by a double-digit percentage number, it requires some time. Saying that, we have increased our focus towards volume markets now, like Africa, and we are starting to explore the South American region as well. But it takes a little time, and also this business is such where you're working with slower moving projects. Especially in countries in Africa, it takes some time. This quarter, you will find that we have increased our export though, as compared to quarter one. Hopefully. Which means export percentage has gone up because the domestic mix has come down, right, sir? Yes, please. Okay. Okay, sir. Sir, you told us about re-strategizing of CapEx in your opening remarks. Does this mean we are putting the Odisha CapEx on hold for now and you are changing the product plan in Odisha? You can say that due to the acquisition of T.I.S. Service S.p.A., and as I was mentioning earlier on the call, we want to localize so that what is being imported today into India can be manufactured and sold within India. There will be some restructuring, and also there are some delays on the land acquisition for the project. Things are moving quite slow on that front. Saying that, we are going to be seeing how we can optimize on our capital allocation and move forward accordingly. All right, sir. Sir, if the coal block compensation is INR 500 crore, how much more are you expecting, and when are you expecting to receive these funds? Ma'am, when is a question which is difficult to answer. I'm expecting it between 8 months to a year. How much it will increase, again, that is something that we are constantly working on. We've only managed to get the valuation for the land, the geological report, and one big mine infrastructure. It's difficult to give a number on that exactly, but definitely it will be a bigger number than this. Okay. Sir, one last question. Margins in DI has come down sharply because of a lot of capacity addition by the players. With all this capacity addition, can we still do INR 15 per kg EBITDA in the coming years? Again, ma'am, rupees ke basis pe dekhna is not the right way. I always encourage looking at it on a percentage basis. I've said that a 15%-18% EBITDA range is what we will be hitting. I am still certain that if you look at it from a midterm perspective of a year, for the entire financial year, we will still hit that range. Okay. All right, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dipesh Sancheti from Manya Finance. Please go ahead. Hi, am I audible? Yes, sir. Please proceed. Okay. What is the effect of the U.S. tariff on the company? How much is the percentage of sales to the U.S. You said that Sir- 20% is exports. How much is that to the U.S. Sir, of the total sale, our U.S. sales is approximately 1%. Okay. There will be negligible to no impact on our overall performance based on U.S. tariffs. Thank you. Regarding the compensation from JSW, the temporary order which we have received compensation order, has JSW filed anything against it? What has been the response from JSW? They have seeked some clarifications, which we are in the process of giving. So far there is no issue. There is no issue. Sir, because you mentioned that you expect 6-12 months for the money for the INR 500 crore to be received. Yes. When do you expect that the entire amount of INR 500 crore plus would be received? That is a difficult one, sir. It will be difficult for me to give you an answer on that. Okay. Fine. That is all. If there is any other question, I will come back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We will take the next question from the line of Nikunj Bhanushali from Koch Wealth. Please go ahead. Nikunj, I have unmuted your line. Please proceed with your question. Right now we are unable to hear you. As the current participant is not answering, we will move on to the next question, which is from the line of Ankit Puri, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Hi. Good evening, Mr. Bhargava. Hi. The first question is with regards to the acquisition. What are the prospects of the cross-selling, and when do we start to see the results of the same on the balance sheet going forward? This year, next year? I think within this year itself, we will start seeing some impact. A substantial impact because of our overall size and the size of the acquisition, probably sometime mid next year to the end of next financial year, you will start seeing a major impact of the acquisition on our books. All right. What about the prospects for the cross-selling? Do we hope to increase our sales with regards to DI pipes as well, with their clients? Yes, please. Absolutely. This will encourage sales in the markets where T.I.S. Service S.p.A. is strong for our existing product line of both pipes and fittings. Okay, excellent. Secondly, what are the current inventory levels, the number of days in consolidated and standalone basis as of today. If you talk about quarter 1 at the end. In terms of quarter 1, the inventory days is around 110 days, and it has gone up compared to Q4. Okay. Of previous year. 110 vis-à-vis what? It was around 97, 98 days. All right. Thanks for the information. Lastly, will you be still sticking with your overall guidance of 8.5 lakh tons for this FY year? As you mentioned, with things expected to pick up in H2. Due to the slowdown in the first two quarters, reaching that target will be difficult. We are looking at a flattish growth with regard to last year. Okay. You can say 7.5 lakh tons. Will the additional, in terms of the fitting acquisition as well as the T.I.S. acquisition, will they play a role in at least giving us better numbers compared to the last financial year? I would say that we will have similar numbers as the last financial year, because the entirety of the last financial, we saw a slight slowdown in the last quarter, whereas in this quarter, this year, the first two quarters will be exceptionally slow. Things will pick up in the second half, but it will not be so much so that we will surpass last year's performance. All right. We are looking at a flattish, basically this FY year. Yes, please. That will be all from my side. Thank you so much. All the best. Thank you. Thank you. Participants, you may please press star and one to ask questions at this time. The next question is from the line of Rajat Sethia from i.pmes. Please go ahead. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is, what would be the industry level utilization in DI pipe at the moment? Around 60%-65%, please. Okay. And how much capacity- Sorry. I am so sorry. This is just for quarter one and quarter two. Right. Yeah. Where do you see this moving, let's say, once ordering begins in two, three, five, six quarters? Once the taps for the funds have opened up, sir, we will again be in a situation where the demand will be outweighing the supply. We still haven't reached that stage where enough capacity has been added. I think probably 90%-95%, which is the norm for capacity utilization of every plant in Ductile Iron. Okay. You see this happening next year, sometime in next year, right? Or end of next year. Starting H2, sir. Maybe starting H2 or a couple of months into H2. Okay. That soon? Yes, absolutely. It's just a very temporary slowdown because of a lot of, I would say, hierarchical approvals that are required at the government level to allow for funds to be allocated. There is nothing else that is holding this back. Once that starts, we'll see a good growth potential over here. Okay. In terms of OPVC, how much of DI volumes would have been taken up by OPVC already? Any estimate that you have? I think at the worst-case scenario, it will be 2% to 3%, if at all. Okay. Understood. And all in the smaller sizes, right? Yeah. In terms of volumes, I think smaller sizes would not be big as a percentage for the overall DI pipe, right? No, sir. Smaller sizes contribute to around 40% of the DI demand. But again Okay OPVC, as HDPE had when it had come in, it cannot be a replacement for DI. It has its own set of applications, and the overlap is very minor. If you can elaborate a bit on the last point, where you say overlap is very minor. The use case for a plastic pipe and a metal pipe is very different, sir. It depends a lot on things beyond just transporting the water. It goes into pressure, overload from the soil condition, water condition, et cetera. So there are multiple aspects that determine whether a plastic pipe goes into the ground or a metal pipe goes into the ground. Considering India's weather and other soil conditions, it is a very small, I would say, very small use case where you can use either a DI or an OPVC or an HDPE. In most cases, it will be a clear-cut answer that for this application, we have to use DI, and for this application, we can use an HDPE or an OPVC. Understood, sir. One final question about the acquisition. What is the valuation that we are paying for the acquisition? Seven to eight times. Around seven to eight times of EBITDA. EV by EBITDA, please. So you said margins are 13%, so maybe EUR 5 million is the margin. So we are paying almost EUR 35 million-EUR 40 million? Yeah. EUR 35.5 million to be exact, actually. Okay. And how much debt on the books of the acquired entity? Around EUR 19 million. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants that you may please press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Deepesh Aggarwal from ICICI Prudential AMC. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Good evening. So couple of questions. Firstly, around how was the demand scenario in terms of pipe irrigation and dam improvement projects this quarter, and how are you expecting it to be in the coming financial year as well? Sir, the dam improvement projects and irrigation sector are slightly intertwined as well because a lot of the development that takes place there will help to expand the irrigatable land available. I would say that in terms of irrigation today, whatever sales that are happening are largely because of pipe irrigation demand and AMRUT demand. When we talk about dam improvement, I think the impact on the ground will take another six to eight months to take place, sir. All right, sir. Sir, how is our current cash position looking like, and how are we planning to fund our future CapEx load? Will it be debt heavy or will it be internal accrual heavy? We have net debt of around INR 1,400 crores, and we are sitting on cash of say around INR 250 crores. We have healthy cash generation out of the business operations, and our term debt has come down to INR 345 crores. Our repayments for term debts is not very huge. We will have substantial amount of cash coming in from our operations to meet our CapEx requirements. Can we expect most of the CapEx will be internal cash funded only? Absolutely. Majority of the CapEx will be cash funded, and we do not see any plans or any requirements of taking on substantial debt for any of the future expansion plans. All right. My last question was around the development of the new products. I think in the last call, we had mentioned that we are looking to foray into gaskets as well and other new products to create a whole ecosystem of water infra. So how is that development going on right now? Sir, this valve is a huge step in that direction. I think I have been mentioning that this is a product that can be a good addition. So this is a big step. And gaskets, we have already started our manufacturing for gaskets in the south. The plant is commissioned. In fact, we are looking at a minor expansion in that as well. So we are slowly moving towards that. Of course, these things take some time, and very soon, I think in the next year and a half or so, you will start seeing the impact of the diversified product portfolio on the books. All right, sir. That is all I had. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Agarwal from Maniha. Please go ahead. Sir, my question is, do we require DI pipes in hydroelectricity projects, sir? You do not require DI pipes. You can require DI pipes in hydroelectric projects, but because the size is very big and it is beyond what the scope of DI pipes usually is, we do not end up making our way into that market per se. But for fittings and for valves, definitely that is a big market. It is a very niche market, in fact. Okay. Second question, the provisional figure of INR 500 crore, have we received or we have not received that money? No, sir, we have not received it yet since it is a provisional order. Okay. There are clarifications required from our side also and from JSW's side. We are in the process of getting that completed. Sir, do we have a scope to export DI pipes to Middle East countries? There are a lot of requirements there. Today in the con call, Jindal Saw, they said they have in fact bagged a new DI pipe order of 275,000 tons also. Sir, that is not from Middle East per se. Okay. Also, approximately 45% of our exports of DI pipes goes to the Middle East. So we are already very strongly present there. Okay. So we are supplying through the contractors. Yes, please. We are the largest exporters of pipe into the Middle East. Jindal has a plant inside. Okay Middle East already. Is that order a local order or is it a Middle East order? Any idea? From what I gather, it is a local order, please. Okay. Sir, the order traction has happened. I understand the money is tight because the contractors are not getting paid in time. Once they start, the orders will pick up. But at least the orders, tender, and all that has started? Sir, tendering is an active process. It is ongoing. But participation from the contractors are low because of their own limitations. Understood. As you can imagine. Once that is sorted out, once they start receiving money, they can bid for new orders, then the cycle may start. Yes, please. Thank you, sir. Second on the coke and all, prices there, that is stable? Yeah, coke prices are stable. They are stable. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Minat Sabnis from Sabnis Financials. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I have a small question to start off with. Is there any update as to have you started receiving orders on the Interlinking of Rivers program? No, sir, we have not received any orders yet because the final detailed project reports have just been finalized for the M.P., U.P. river link project, which is a Ken Betwa project. It will be another few months before we see the orders come into our books. Okay. Just looking at the big picture here, because this presents a lucrative opportunity. What could be the volume? Can I quantify the opportunity and what will be the ramp-up, say, going forward like five years? Well, I can have somebody work out the exact potential for all the projects together, but I would say that it will contribute to around 20% of the total demand over the next seven to eight years. Okay, great. That kind of gives a fair little ballpark figure. Yes, please. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor Company. Please go ahead. Namaskar, sir, and thank you for the opportunity. Firstly, on the T.I.S. acquisition, sir, we mentioned sales of €40 million and a debt of €19 million on the book. Yes, please. Okay. These are very significant debt numbers, sir. What was the purpose of these closing debt? Have they done any capacity expansion, or what is the nature of the debt? Sir, a big part of this debt is working capital. In fact, I would say around 80%-85% of the debt is in working capital. The rest of the 15% debt is for the capital expansion that they have done in their plant in Turkey, which is underutilized at the moment. That is where we saw the opportunity for this project. Also, the reason for the increased debt level is because one of it is the nature of the business itself requires you to carry some spares, because a valve is like a car, wherein you have to keep some spare parts. It is not like a pipe that it has only one component. You have to get into a bit of operation and maintenance along with its sale. You have to keep a stock of some spare parts. Another reason is that they had built up stock in expectation of certain orders, also due to the increased supply chain from China and India. Okay. They have their two plants. One is located in Turkey, and the other one is? Is in Italy, please. Is in Italy. And the capacity is equally divided, or which plant is larger in capacity? It's equally divided, please. Okay. Sir, second question is on the blast furnace yield at our Srikalahasthi unit, sir. Are the yields have now improved for our Srikalahasthi unit? And what is the update for the Khardah unit? When will it will start being operational and the yield improvement? No, in fact, because of the ongoing low demand scenario, the blast furnace is being operated with a lower yield for now. But as such, the problem which it had has been rectified, and it is now capable. In fact, a couple of months back, it was producing full volume. This is for the southern unit, sir? Yeah. Okay. What is the update on the Khardah unit? Khardah unit, the blast furnace is working normal. Here also, again, presently, we have lowered the production because of this demand issue, which is ongoing. But the nine-day shutdown was just an annual shutdown, sir. That's Yeah. This is a normal course maintenance shutdown. Okay. And that is now up and running, sir? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It is running normal. It was a short, nine-day shutdown, sir. It was not a major overhaul of any sorts. Okay, sir. We do this every year. Every year we have an annual shutdown for maintenance work. Yes, sir. Sir, on the tonnage part, you mentioned that on a total basis, we will be flat on the pipe sales closer to 7 lakh. For this quarter, our total number was 1.60. That is the pipe and I think the fittings and CI, everything. What was the pipe tonnage, and what should we expect in terms of the tonnage for Q2? Sir, Q2- It will be around, say, 150,000. It will be close to 150,000. A slight dip there, and we are expecting that possibly by next month the funds from JJM will start flowing in. So it will recover after that. Okay. So 1.60 will go down to 1.5 for next quarter? Yeah. 1.5, 1.55, something like that. Correct, sir. Right, sir. So, okay, sir. Fine, sir. We hope Thank you. for things to change. Yeah. Look better. Thank you. We are very certain of it, sir. Do not worry. Yes, sir. Sir, we by nature are optimists, but let us see how things shape up, sir. We do not know, but we have been contemplating this for nine months now, and things have just deteriorated over every quarter. I understand your apprehension, sir, but it's just the time of bureaucracy, that's about it. Principally, everything is in the right direction. Right, sir. On the Odisha part of the story, sir, where we acquired some land and some greenfield, that is on hold now, or what is the update, sir? Sir, we had not acquired land. We had identified the land, and we were in the process of acquiring. Since that has been delayed, the entire project at the moment is running delayed. Because of the acquisition of or rather because of the opportunity of this valve company, we have decided to reorganize our CapEx a little bit. Once there is some opportunity, once there's some progress on the land, then we will take up to see what kind of CapEx we want to do and what size we want to operate. Right. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye. Participants, please press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Muskan from B&K Securities. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, how much order book do we have in first quarter versus last quarter in terms of metric ton and also how much DI volumes you have done in first quarter out of 1.60 lakh metric ton. Out of the 1.60 lakh metric ton, I would say around 1.55 lakh metric ton is DI pipes. How much of order book do we have in this quarter versus last quarter in terms of metric ton? We have order book of around 4.7 lakh tons this quarter end. Okay. If you compare it with previous quarter end, it was slightly higher. It was around 6.7 lakh tons. Okay sir. Since we have received like my earlier question, we have received INR 500 crore compensation. We already have INR 1,200 crore in work in progress. My question was would you be accepting this or would you be renegotiating it? Because if we accepted, we would have to write off the balance. Right? Well, ma'am, as explained earlier, this was not a compensation for the entire mine. This is compensation for a particular asset within the mine. In fact, the valuation given is the exact valuation that is on our books of accounts for this particular asset. In that case, we are running in line. Saying that, Of course, there will be some sort of negotiation and there will be some haircut of sorts, you can say, but it will not be this substantial. Okay, sir. My last question, you mentioned that you will be doing similar numbers as of FY 2025, and this quarter we have done almost 9%-10% of EBITDA margin, which means we have to do 15% in next three quarters in order to match the last year numbers. We mentioned that next quarter would also be little subdued. How are we planning to achieve these levels as of last year? Ma'am, I am hoping we are hopeful of the second half giving us better returns than that. Okay, sir. Thanks again. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Bhandari from Nakota Engineers. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, sir. Very good afternoon. अभी जो आपने बताया sir, कि order book अपने पास में 4.7 लाख tons का है। This is for how many months? FY26 second half जैसे आपने बताया कि वह भी थोड़ा slow रहेगा। After that it will be better. तो FY26, 27, 28 जो है sir वह अपना कैसा रहेगा, correspondingly Europe का demand उस समय कैसा रहेगा expected? Sir, I will start by answering in sequence. [Foreign language] जो हमारा existing order book है वह करीबन छह महीने से आठ महीने का है sir. [Foreign language] [Foreign language] [Foreign language] अब कोई few orders थोड़े लंबे भी चल सकते हैं, कोई पहले भी खत्म हो सकते हैं। जी। In regards to the demand scenario for the next 3 financial years, I am very certain that it is going to remain very robust because there is still a lot of work left to do. 55% taps [Foreign language] functioning [Foreign language]. [Foreign language] CapEx [Foreign language] demand generate [Foreign language]. हम्म। Next 3 years, I am very certain that demand scenario [Foreign language] robust [Foreign language]. [Foreign language] Europe [Foreign language], European Union [Foreign language] quite a lot of projects take up [Foreign language] water infrastructure [Foreign language] revitalize [Foreign language], [Foreign language] infrastructure [Foreign language] [Foreign language] global warming [Foreign language] [Foreign language] depreciation of water availability in certain pockets [Foreign language] [Foreign language] make up [Foreign language]. There is a lot of work that is happening in Europe at the moment for that. जी। अच्छा sir, दूसरा जैसे अभी अपने को ₹500 करोड़ का मिला है, partly compensation. तो वह जो 500 था, अपना estimate कितना था sir? 550, 600, 650, 700 approximately. Sir करीबन 600, 650 था sir. अच्छा तो मतलब 1200 में से अपने को मोटा-मोटी 900-1000 करोड़ तो मिलने का उम्मीद रख सकते हैं। Sir मुश्किल है exact number बताना पर- I know sir, I know. नहीं इसीलिए आपसे पूछा 600, 650 का अगर 500 किया उन्होंने। Sir ये जो valve का revenue है, यह अपना Europe में और India में क्या expect करेंगे for next three years? Gasket का अपना turnover कितना है sir? Sir, gasket का factory हमारा बस कुछ एक-दो महीनों पहले ही commission हुआ है। Yes sir. तो वह तो अभी fully operational होने में उसको अभी एक-दो महीने और लगेंगे। तो कुछ % इस पर revenue generation substantial कुछ हुई नहीं है। It will take- नहीं, full capacity अगर होगा तो। demand तो इसकी अच्छी रहती है sir? Sir, demand तो अच्छी रहती है। जितने भी pipes लगते हैं सब में gasket use होता है। In fact, even in other aspects होता है। हमम। Plus we are looking at other products that we can make with the same machinery. Okay. We are on the drawing board sir to see Okay. how to maximize this. जी। In terms of valves, as I mentioned sir, EUR 40 million ka already inka turnover hai. Ha sir. और 15% का हम growth expect कर रहे हैं इसमें year on year. जी। तो India में अभी देते हैं sir वह या India में अब आप चालू करेंगे? [Foreign language] already supply [Foreign language] particular markets [Foreign language] India [Foreign language], but they are supplying from Italy. I mentioned, this is a product which is not manufactured in India at all. A lot of what they manufacture, and they specialize in, it is not made in India. Our whole idea behind this acquisition is to gain the know-how and the production strength from them, and then replicate that at a cost-effective level at India and not only manufacture in India for India, but also export from here. Export from. Yeah, of course. That will be a big gain, sir. Absolutely. [Foreign language] All the best, sir. [Foreign language] [Foreign language], sir. I said we have retained the entire team and the gentleman who was the promoter of T.I.S. Service S.p.A., he has come on board to head the entire valve unit. अच्छा। For us. It's going to be a very interesting exercise and a very promising one. जी। Valves का in fact India में भी इस तरह के valves का तो बहुत demand है। [Foreign language] जी। हाँ, वही sir. अगर यहाँ बनना शुरू हो जाएगा तो in fact आपका gasket तो फिर उसमें भी लगेगा। हाँ जी। Right, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Thank you and over to you, sir. Thank you all for dedicating your valuable time and engaging with us during the call. I want to reaffirm that the company is not only expanding but also preserving the robustness of its balance sheet. Moreover, it is strategically poised to capitalize on the increased domestic and global investments in water infra. Should you have any questions, please reach out to EY Investor Relations consultants. Thank you. Thank you, members of the management. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Electrosteel Castings Limited, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.