Please note this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Priti Dubey from Investor Relations team. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, Vikram. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Hindustan Zinc first quarter fiscal 2021 results call. I'll begin this call today by introducing our new Head of Investor Relations, Ms. Shweta Arora. Shweta has over 12 years of experience in capital markets and joined our group in November 2019. Over to you, Shweta.
Good evening, everyone. I'm very excited to be heading Investor Relations team at Hindustan Zinc and look forward to interact with you all in the coming few months. Today we have with us our CEO Designate, Mr. Arun Misra, and our CFO, Mr. Swayam Saurabh. Mr. Misra will present an update on business performance, while Swayam will brief you on financial performance. After which, we will be happy to take your questions. Before we proceed, we have an announcement to make, for which I will hand over the call to Swayam. Over to you, Swayam.
Good evening, everyone. I'm pleased to announce that Mr. Arun Misra will be taking over as CEO of Hindustan Zinc from 1st of August 2020. He has been with us since November last year as Deputy CEO and has been an integral part of our executive committee. He has a diverse experience of 31 years, and we are excited to have him. I would also like to thank Mr. Duggal, our outgoing CEO, for his immense contribution in the growth of our company, and he will continue to guide us as the CEO of Vedanta. Now I'll ask Mr. Misra to take over this call.
Thank you, Swayam, for your kind words. Good evening, and a very warm welcome to all of you. I thank our board of directors for giving me the opportunity to lead such an illustrious company, and it will be my endeavor to continue to our growth story and achieve our vision of becoming the largest and most admired zinc, lead, and silver company. I trust that you and your families are safe and maintaining all precautions against spread of COVID-19. While the uncertainty due to the pandemic is still lingering, we have done well in keeping our assets and people safe and have ramped up our mines and smelters to near normal levels.
The needs of our communities remain close to our hearts, and we have stepped up our CSR activities during these times, not only to ensure sufficient supply of food, health services, masks, and other PPEs, but also continue to provide access to our programs in livelihood, education, and childcare. I am delighted to share that our sustainability efforts over the last several years have paid off, and we have been certified as 2.41 times Water Positive company. What it means is that we are adding 2.41 times more water than we are actually consuming. This is significant as we operate in a water-scarce region where water availability to communities for drinking and agriculture is a key issue. Initiatives like rainwater harvesting, desilting of Fatehsagar Lake, water conservation initiatives like dry tailing and enhanced use of treated sewage water have enabled us to achieve this distinction.
Another good news is that we are now the sixth largest producer of primary silver in the world and contribute to over 10% of our domestic demand. We have increased our silver production 4.1 times over the last decade to over 600 tons, which now constitutes approximately 13% of our total revenue. We have plans to further increase it to over 1,000 tons in the coming years through higher production from existing and new silver-rich deposits, as well as by enhancing process recovery. This will pave the way for us to become one of the top 3 silver producers in the world. Coming to quarter's performance, we have continued to deliver good performance despite losing approximately 18 days equivalent of production in April due to lockdown and other workforce related restrictions.
Through well-planned safe restart and continuous ramp up of operations while also complying with COVID-19 guidelines, we have achieved 16% higher mined metal production run rate in May and June than the average run rate of last year's Q1 during the same month. We are well aware that risks associated with COVID-19 is yet to fade away, but based on our resilient Q1 performance, we remain confident of delivering strong performance during the year. Coming to market update. After touching multi-year lows in March, zinc prices recovered in May and trended above $2,050 in June, mirroring the rebound in industrial activity post easing of sanctions and restrictions globally. Majority of the mines where production was suspended on account of COVID-19 related lockdowns resumed operations in May, June and are ramping up while complying with new protocols.
Globally, there are also some mine closures and new project delays on account of an already weak price environment that has been worsened by COVID-19 pandemic. The overall impact of all this is likely to translate into a decline in mine supply by 5% in 2020 as compared to pre-March expectation of a 4% growth. On the demand side, Chinese consumption, which accounts for 40% of global demand, has trended upwards with increasing government spending on zinc intensive infrastructure and real estate, white goods as well as auto sector showing momentum. As a result, Chinese zinc stocks have come down despite higher imports and higher output from Chinese smelters. However, demand in rest of the world remains disrupted with secondary outbreaks.
While we witness demand picking up from the lows recently, it still remains weak and expected to be lower than the last year. As mine supply is expected to be lower and dependent on ramp-ups, we expect smelters will cut production due to subdued demand and lower TCs, which have declined from $300 in March to $170 per TC in spot market. This, we believe, will provide an upward push to zinc price in the foreseeable future. In domestic market, our key customers, including steel plants, are gradually increasing production and demand is expected to improve towards the end of the current quarter as Unlock 4.0 accelerates. Government's economic package to reboot the economy will aid downstream demand of zinc as infrastructure activities are anticipated to pick up pace.
In lead, we expect replacement demand to gain traction in Q2, though it may take a while for automobile OEM demand to return to normal levels as the segment globally is struggling. Silver demand is steady in domestic market and prices are steadily rising. Gold to silver price ratio has increased further and the need for safety in this uncertain time will keep silver prices on a secular uptrend. An update on operations. During the quarter, our mined metal production declined by 5% from a year ago to 202 kt due to fewer operation days in the quarter. Our grades remained unchanged at 7.3% from a year ago. Sequentially, mined metal production was lower by 19% as per mine plan and fewer days of production in April.
Similar to mines, smelters also saw a gradual ramp-up in April and released above 90% utilization in May and June, with production run rate being 11% higher in those two months as compared to similar months in Q1 of last year. Integrated metal production was 202 kt, down 8% from a year ago and 9% sequentially, in line with the availability of mined metal with zinc at 157 kt and lead at 44 kt. Sellable silver production was 117 tons, down 26% year-on-year and 30% sequentially due to delayed stabilization at our Dariba smelting complex lead smelter and increase in WIP, partly offset by improved grades. Coming to our growth projects. The commissioning of backfill plants at Zawar are expected to be completed in Q2. Fumer plant is ready for commissioning and is waiting for OEM support, held up due to visa and travel restrictions.
We are conceptualizing our next phase of growth to 1.35 million tonne per annum and finally to 1.5 million tonne per annum. For this, a detailed life of mine planning and feasibility study is currently underway in partnership with renowned global experts. I am quite excited about this new phase in our company, which will add substantial value to our stakeholders. Before I hand over to Swayam for an update on financial performance, I would like to present our annual production guidance as promised in the Q4 earnings call. We expect mined metal and refined metal production for the year to be in the range of 925 to 950 kt each, while sellable silver production is expected to be approximately 650 tons. Now our CFO, Swayam Saurabh, will provide an update on financial performance. Over to you, Swayam.
Thank you, Arun, and welcome everyone again. As outlined by Arun, we continue to strengthen the foundation of our operation to deliver the guided volume growth across all mines and smelters. I'm happy to share that our digitization and automation-backed cost optimization program launched last year. Together with the war rooms which we created towards the end of March, have started to yield encouraging results. We have been successful in structurally reducing our costs through specific initiatives which were deployed across all our operational units. In addition to this, the tailwind of softer input commodity prices helped us to protect margin in an otherwise uncertain environment. All of this has also laid a strong foundation for us to deliver the promised performance for rest of the year.
Coming to the financial performance for the first quarter, revenue from operations was INR 3,989 crore, a decrease of 20% from a year ago and 9% sequentially. Our financial performance was impacted by a sharp decline in zinc LME prices, which fell 29% YOY and 8% sequentially, as well as lower lead LME prices, which were down 11% YOY and 9% sequentially as COVID-19 pandemic slowed down economic activity. Metal premiums were lower due to an overall decline of benchmark premiums in international markets as well as mix shift to exports as domestic demand virtually halted down due to lockdown in quarter one. On the positive side, rupee depreciation aided our price realization. Zinc-lead sales volume at 163 kt and 45 kt were in line with production and higher opening inventory.
Silver sales of 146 tons were significantly higher than production and marginally better sequentially as we liquidated inventory from previous quarter. Zinc cost of production before royalty for the quarter was $1,019 per ton and included a $53 per ton impact from COVID-19 related donations and another $12 per ton as one-time startup cost. Excluding the one-offs, COP improved 4% sequentially and 11% from a year ago to $954 per ton. The reduction in COP is a combination of structural cost optimization measures in the area of consumption, power management, contracting, and overhead optimization. As well as softening prices of input commodities like coal, met coke, cement, and diesel. These were partly negated by COVID impacted lower volumes and weak acid credits due to temporary mismatch of supply-demand in acid market.
Resulting EBITDA for the quarter was INR 1,599 crore, lower by 36% from a year ago and 18% sequentially on account of lower LME and one-time costs, partly offset by lower operating costs.
Net profit for the quarter was at INR 1,359 crores, a drop of 23% from a year ago, but a marginal increase of 1% sequentially. The decline in EBITDA was partly offset by higher investment income, primarily on account of higher mark-to-market gains due to favorable interest rate movement and lower tax rate due to income mix shift. Coming to cost and CapEx guidance for the year. We therefore expect cost to remain below $1,000 per ton for the fiscal year, which includes higher spend on mine development to support future volume growth. Project CapEx for this year is expected to be in the range of $100 million-$140 million, our focus remains on conserving cash and channeling investment in growth projects with superior paybacks. With this, I open the floor for questions.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets when asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask a question, please press star one now. We have our first question from the line of Sumangal Nevatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity. First question is on the delays in the expansion plans. Both the backfill plant at Zawar and Fumer. I think on early May call, we guided that both these should start in May, and now we are turning to Q. Just wanted to know, what is the reason behind the delay? Because I'm sure a lot of these COVID related issues were already well known in May.
Yeah. You would appreciate that although the COVID-related domestic issues were well known, it was not anticipated that the foreign travel would be restricted to the extent that it has been. Especially now, the situation with China that has developed the way it is. Also, of course, because of COVID, only from a couple of countries, international flights were allowed to pick up their own citizens. Otherwise, for technical people to travel, it is still not so easy to happen. We are estimating that towards August end, for us, the travel would be easier and the foreigners to get visa. The experts can come in. Somewhere towards the end of this Q2, we should be able to get the experts to help us in commissioning those facilities.
Understand. Second half looks like we will be completing all the planned expansion projects and reaching 1.2 million ton capacity. Can we expect a steep jump in FY 2022 in terms of our volume capability? Just some early color and thoughts on FY 2022, how it can look, because then at least on the capacity or any project commissioning side, we will not have any constraint.
Swayam here. Indeed, we expect most activities related to the current expansion growth project to be completed by Q2. We also think this would allow us to exit Q4 at a significantly higher run rate. Of course, COVID-19 is something we will have to watch out for. This is not gone yet. It is giving us confidence that we would exit Q4 higher, which should give us, let's say, even better run rate going into FY 2022.
Understood. Just one last question. There's a lot of media reports that we are evaluating a bond issue of $1 billion or something. Given that we already have around $2 billion of cash, just wanted to understand the rationale behind this, thanks.
Yeah, we would not comment on media reports in this forum.
Okay, thanks, and all the best. Yeah.
Thank you, sir. We have next question from the line of Amit Dixit from Edelweiss. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple of questions. The first one is on the silver. If you look at silver EBIT, we find that for the first time, it is greater than zinc-lead EBIT, and it has been growing since several quarters. What is your overall thought process behind this division? Is there a thought process internally to spin it off into a separate hub? Clearly, this business is not getting the value it should get, essentially. Given the increasing contribution, and you said in your opening remarks that silver production is likely to go up. The kind of EBIT margin it generates, I think the contribution of this particular division is going up. I just wanted to understand the thought that goes into the future of this particular division.
It's a very interesting question, and the whole management also appreciates the fact that silver constitutes a very significant portion of our revenue. Also it's time now with the scale and the proportion it is having, a separate attention is needed. We have recently appointed a CEO for silver business who would focus exactly on the idea that you are talking about, how to this segment of the business forward while still not delinking with the main business of zinc and lead. That is the strategy as of now.
Just to add to that, on your question of not getting the right value, we are aware of that. We think that silver as a business should command.
Let's say a significantly higher value than what you see right now. As Arun explained, with more committed and dedicated focus on silver as a vertical, we are looking at ways to enhance and extract this value.
Okay. The second question is on cost per ton. While you have guided that cost per ton would be lower than $1,000. In these two quarters, Q1 and Q2, we have found that cost per ton has declined. In fact, if you adjusted with the one-off costs for COVID-19 related thing, it is already down to $954 and coal cost is expected to stay low. Why the guidance of just below $1,000? Why not have a COP to be nearer to $950? Do you expect some cost to escalate or something going ahead?
There are no known reason for cost escalation. It's just that current environment is very dynamic. The second reason cost is guided the way it is guided is the fact that we have mentioned this, I think couple of quarters back, that we are focusing on accelerated development, which would allow us to generate sufficient, let's say, higher mineable reserves versus what we have today, which would translate in more predictive volume, predictive grades and also, let's say, more sustained continuous production levels. This is something we are going to be actively investing in. If the commodity prices and our cost saving initiatives stay the way they are, the cost should be around $950. However, additional development is where we need to focus on to make sure our business remains sustainable for next three to five years. That's where the investments are.
Okay. Great. I have a couple of questions more, but I will come back in the queue. Thanks, and all the best.
Thank you, sir. We have next question from the line of Pinakin Parekh from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you very much, sir. Sir, can you talk more about the acid credits? Historically it has been a material number in terms of revenues and EBITDA, and this quarter was particularly weak. What's the outlook going forward, in terms of prices that you see?
Yeah. acid credit has declined in this quarter. It has now come to about INR 1,400 per ton of acid, which is roughly 40%-45% lower than what we have been realizing till two quarters back. See, acid is a more regional business. Transportation of acid beyond 200-250 kilometers makes it unviable. A lot of price gets determined by regional demand and supply. As you know, part of the reason why our price realization came down in Q1 was because of COVID. A lot of our consumers, their facility, their factories did not start while we started to operate, which created a small delta between, let's say, demand and supply, traditional demand and supply. We do expect acid price to improve going forward.
The other factor on which prices will depend is the sulphur prices, which has also crashed coincidentally by 40% over the last six months or so. We think the acid prices are at bottom level right now, and only way forward will be prices going up.
Sure, sir. Sir, two more questions. The second question is that I would assume that in the current quarter, you would have exported a much larger share of your volumes than you normally do. What was the export % and how do you expect this to trend? Because incrementally, domestic sales volume will be more profitable. The other question is that with the commercial coal blocks coming up for auctioning, does Hindustan Zinc fancy itself entering that segment, or would it remain limited to zinc and lead and not participate in the commercial coal block auction?
Coal block auction, I will let Arun respond. Let me take your first question. Indeed, the domestic market was completely under lockdown mode, so we had to do far more export. Export as a percentage, which traditionally is about 25% or it had moved to actually 70% during May and June. We already, looking at May to June, we are seeing this trend reversing. With domestic market opening up, we expect towards end of Q2, the situation should start to get normalized.
Yes. On top of that, in spite of higher exports in the domestic market, our supply was more than what we thought of. Market share was maintained.
Yeah.
The last part is the coal block. Yes, Hindustan Zinc is looking at coal block primarily from the affordability and logistical viability compared to the coal that we use in our power plants. It is under consideration, but I would not be speculating on which mine and how much.
Understood. Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you, sir. We have next question from the line of Anupam Gupta from IIFL. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Just two questions. Given that exports were much higher in May, June, what's the sort of differential between the prices for exports and domestic? The second question. Sorry.
Yeah, go on.
The second question is on the CapEx part of it. The CapEx number which you indicated, $100 million-$140 million, is that only the growth CapEx, or does it include the sustenance CapEx as well?
To answer your first question, typically, between export and domestic, when we sell in domestic, we have something called a duty factor, which gets added back. Approximately that works out to be $100, $120 per ton.
Okay.
That's incremental margin we generate if we sell domestic.
Right. Second on the CapEx, sir?
CapEx number which has been guided is only growth CapEx. The sustaining CapEx is on top of that.
What will be the total CapEx which we build in for FY 2021 and 2022 or 2021 if you are just guided for this year?
We are still evaluating sustaining CapEx and just like all other corporates, our focus is on conserving cash. We expect the total CapEx at this moment to be in the range of $300 million ±$20 million.
Okay.
Total CapEx.
Okay. Understand. Thanks a lot.
Thank you, sir. We have next question from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is, how is it that we have deployed INR 16,500 crore? I'm looking at it from, is it more towards the short end of the curve or is it towards the long end of the curve? If at all one had to monetize it, sir, how do you look at it? Just wanted to understand what sort of deployment is from a maturity perspective.
All our investments, by design, are for the long term because our goal is to focus on tax efficient fixed income or debt investments. Any specific queries around what are the maturity profiles can be obtained offline from our investor relations team.
Okay. Sir, when we say long term, is it one year plus? That would be, say, 90% or would that be a fair roundabout number?
You should reach out to our investor relation and they should be able to guide you. It's typically three years plus because you get four indexation benefits, but there are different products with different level of tax efficiency and maturity follow.
That's helpful. Sir, my second question was a bit related, pardon me for my ignorance. If a company had to raise debt, a certain large quantum, is it something that the board has to sanction the quantum? Is there any regulatory requirement around this?
You're asking me what are the requirements of Companies Act?
Yes. Basically, my next question was, assume if it is quantum that is something which the board has for some requirement of the sort.
In past, whenever we have raised debt, we have asked for board approval. That's I think all companies are required to follow. That's where I would leave this question.
Okay. We can't basically disclose the sanction quantum over here?
We don't because we don't disclose this information as a standard information disclosure.
Okay. I have a few more questions. Sir, is there any update on savings clause? I think the government was talking about abolishing Section 10A(2)(b) of MMDR. This is something which is critical for Hindustan Zinc. Sir, has there been any update over here, positive, negative, work in progress?
Section 102B of MMDR. As of now, on the MMDR Act changes, on all our leases, on the life of mine, it is still protected. There is no risk towards our ownership of the leases that we have.
Sir, this also includes the savings clause which stood allocated prior to MMDR. That is, I'm referring to the sunset clause.
Okay. Now, although they are under various clauses, we still have right over them, and for which we are in talks with the government. Some cases are on the PL, and some cases we have applied for, somewhere our government has extended, like in a BK2 project, government has extended the mining lease, and some cases we are working with the relevant authorities to get our hold on the leases.
Okay. Sorry, sir. My fourth question is for Swayam. Sir, there was a ongoing case on Teknomin Contractor. This was pertaining to the payments in this quarter because of the COVID issue. What is the impact of that on our employee costs for this quarter, or is it something which has been deferred and it can come into Q2?
You mean a payment dispute with a contractor related to COVID payment?
Yes. This is regarding the four mines which were there and the Teknomin Contractor case. The four main leases actually, where we have a common contractor, which had actually filed a litigation.
No, we are not aware of any litigation. We are also not aware of any such large dispute which is material enough, let's say, to be disclosed or discussed here. There are a few cases we are having discussions, and I think they will get resolved. None of them are material.
Okay. Sir, lastly, if possible, I think the Supreme Court has been talking about the divestment of government stake in Hindustan Zinc. If at all the Supreme Court gives a green light, how should a minority investor look at Hindustan Zinc as a listed entity?
I will not be able to answer this question because we have very little role to play. We are getting divested, if at all we get divested. I would not have answer to this question. This is not the correct forum for this question.
Okay, fair enough. Thanks for the answers.
Thank you. We have next question from the line of Indrajit Agarwal from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Two question from my side. First, on the startup cost that you mentioned about $12 per ton. Approximately how long can you expect this to sustain? Or do you think as we launch or commission all the projects, do these startup costs will go up as part of P&L?
The startup cost was a one-time cost, since we stopped our operation from 22nd of March, and then we restarted towards middle of April. These are one-time costs which you need to incur when your smelters come to a complete standstill. They are not expected to be repeated in coming quarters.
During the lockdown, was the smelter entirely closed or were there something like hot idling of those smelters?
No, only almost 70%-80% of the smelters were closed and only a roaster, which is a hot furnace, and we went to kind of slow idling it. We could maintain only one or two of them.
Sure. Second point is on the grades. How have the grades been on this quarter for zinc and lead?
Grades are at 7.3%. They declined worse sequentially, which were at 7.9%. We expect grades to improve going into quarter two and expect them to be in the range of 7.5% plus.
blended for the full year.
Yes.
Okay, thanks. That's all from my side.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take the last question due to time constraints. We have the last question from the line of Vivek Ramakrishnan from DSP Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Sir, good afternoon, sir. I'm really sorry, I have to go back to the debt question only. There's also CRISIL rating rationale which has assigned a INR 8,500 crore fresh NCD line. Could you at least guide us in terms of what are your debt rating plans? I know you raised CPs in the last quarter. How much do you propose to raise as long-term debt and what would be the end use?
See, as I replied earlier, this is not an appropriate time for us to provide specifics. I would request you to drop here and once we are closer to any concrete plan, via our Investor Relations you would be informed.
Okay, fair enough. Thanks a lot, sir.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I'd now like to hand the conference over to Miss Shweta Arora for closing comments. Over to you, ma'am.
Thank you everyone for joining the call today. For any follow-up questions or clarifications, please feel free to reach out to investor relations team. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Hindustan Zinc Limited, that concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining with us and you may now disconnect your lines.