Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to JSW Steel Q4 FY 2023 earnings conference call. 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. Ashwin Bajaj, Group Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Fine, a very good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Ashwin Bajaj, and it's a pleasure to welcome you to JSW Steel's earnings call for Q4 and financial year 2023. I hope you had a chance to peruse the presentation and press release on our website. I would just like to draw your attention to the disclaimer in the beginning of the presentation. Everything that we say will be governed by the safe harbor statement there. We have with us today the management team represented by Mr. Jayant Acharya, Joint Managing Director and CEO, Mr. GS Rathore, Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Rajeev Pai, CFO. We'll start with opening remarks by Mr. Acharya and then open the floor to questions. With that, over to you, Mr. Acharya.
Good evening, everyone. We welcome you all to the JSW Steel quarter four and FY 2023 results call. FY 2023 was a volatile year, as all of us know. After three years of COVID, we were impacted by the Russian-Ukrainian War, more of geopolitical fragmentation, high inflation, which impacted into central bank tightening the interest rates. If you were to compare this with India is an outlier in terms of the economy. It's the bright spot today in the world. Has been resilient in its growth, aided by government CapEx. Manufacturing and the service sector is doing well. We see energy transition being supportive in terms of the growth. While the inflation is cooling, you know, we see that there is a probability that RBI may pause rates going further.
Global slowdown in terms of a subdued demand from the West remains a risk. However, the India growth story is strong. In the last year, global steel production in the calendar year 22 globally fell by about 77 million tons, and the production fell by 60 million tons. Based on the World Steel Association forecast, however, most of the regions are coming back into positive territory, and we see a growth of about 40 million tons in steel demand in the world globally. Out of this, rest of the world accounts for about 23 million tons, and India accounts for close to 38% of this incremental growth in consumption. India in the last year grew at a very robust rate of 13.3% to 120 million tons of steel.
The crude steel production grew by 5% YoY to 126 million tons. Going forward, we expect demand to continue to be healthy, with an incremental possibility of 8%-10% of steel demand additionally getting added during FY 2024. Indian steel imports also grew by 45%, which remains an area of concern, while exports fell by 55% during the FY 2023. While domestic steel demand remains strong, India remains vulnerable to trade flow diversions and subdued global demand. We need to watch low-priced, zero duty imports coming into the country and it is something which the industry and the government will need to watch out for. If you look at our performance for the last quarter, it has been a volume story.
It has been aided in the last quarter by a good steel price cycle. Lower cost of coking coal coming into the quarter four. From quarter three, we had guided that the coking coal prices will be flattish. However, we could achieve a $6 drop in coking coal blend into our steel capacities in India. Coking coal cost was about $274. In spite of the macro uncertainties, volatility in commodity prices, as well as the export duty in May 2022, we still managed to achieve 100% of our production guidance and 97% of our sales guidance for the consolidated India operations, which excludes Ohio and JISPL. You may recall that we had not reduced our guidance despite the global challenges and imposition of the export duty in India.
JSW Steel achieved its highest ever quarterly consolidated crude steel production at 6.58 million tons in Q4, supported by stabilization of the Dolvi Phase 2 production and higher capacity utilization at BPSL. JSW India capacity utilization was up significantly during Q4 2023 at 96% and 90% for FY 2023 as a whole due to better operating efficiencies. Improved availability of iron ore added to a better performance in BPSL as well. JSW Steel also achieved its highest ever consolidated crude steel production of 24.2 million tons during FY 2023. The sales of the company again was the highest ever consolidated sales at 6.53 million tons during Q4 and 22.39 million tons in FY 2023, growing by 16% and 23% respectively.
During the quarter and full year of FY 2023, we achieved our highest ever domestic sales, as well as a high growth in the auto sector as well. Our exports picked up in Q4 post lifting of the export duties in November and a better domestic demand were responsible to achieve good Q4 numbers. We also achieved an inventory reduction of about 350,000 tons. Post a buildup of inventory in the past nine months, 350,000 tons of inventories were reduced in Q4 of 2023. On the financial performance on a standalone basis during Q4 FY 2023, we reported revenues of INR 37,153 crores, up 22% quarter-on-quarter, and EBITDA of INR 6,247 crores, up 55% quarter-on-quarter.
The EBITDA margin increased to 16.8% from 13% in quarter three FY 2023. The EBITDA margin was higher primarily due to higher sales volumes, higher net sales realization, and a lower power and fuel cost. The company reported a standalone net profit after tax of INR 2,838 crores for the quarter. On a consolidated basis during quarter four 2023, the company reported revenues of INR 46,962 crores, up 20% quarter-on-quarter, and an EBITDA of INR 7,939 crores, up 75% quarter-on-quarter, with an EBITDA margin of 16.9%. The increase in EBITDA quarter-on-quarter is primarily attributable to higher sales volume, improved sales realization and lower cost emanating out of a better coking coal and a better mix of iron ore.
The profit after tax for the quarter was INR 3,741 crores after incorporating the financials of subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates. At the end of FY 2023, our net debt stands at INR 59,345 crores, down by INR 10,153 crores compared to Q3 of FY 2023 due to healthy cash generation and release of working capital in the business. Our net debt to EBITDA is 3.2. Our net debt to equity is about 0.89, both lower sequentially. Our net gearing and leverage are well within our stated gaps of 1.75 and 3.75 respectively. At the end of FY 2023, revenue acceptances stood at $2.8 billion, and capital acceptances stood at $211 million.
On the project side, we would like to update that the 5 million tons expansion at Vijayanagar is progressing well with construction activities and equipment erection for all packages underway. The project is expected to be completed by the FY 2024. The phase one expansion from 2.75 million tonne to 3.5 million tonne at BPSL was completed in FY 2023. The phase two expansion from 3.5-5 million tonne remains on track for completion in FY 2024. The company's domestic CapEx spend was INR 3,507 crores during Q4 of FY 2023 and INR 14,214 crores for FY 2023 as a whole against the revised planned CapEx of INR 15,000 crore for FY 2023.
The company expects to spend about INR 19,000 crores for FY 2024, primarily for completing 5 million ton brownfield expansion at Vijayanagar. The BPSL Phase 2 expansion to 5 million ton and downstream facilities and sustenance CapEx apart from sustainable CapEx in mining as well as new acquisition of mines. The board has recommended a dividend of INR 3.4 per equity share for the year ended March 31, 2023, subject to the approval of members at the ensuing annual general body meeting. The total outflow on account of this dividend would be INR 822 crores. For FY 2024, the crude steel guidance for Indian operations includes, including the joint control is 25.5 million ton and sales of 24.2 million tons.
Including Ohio operations the crude steel production and sales guidance for FY 2024 is 26.34 million tons and 25 million tons, respectively. I would like to mention that the India growth story, as I said, is very positive. We have seen a lot of resilience in the Indian economy, aided by Government CapEx, manufacturing, energy transition services. The deleveraged corporate balance sheets and bank balance sheets provide scope for private expansion. The fiscal position benefiting from low energy prices, fertilizer subsidies and strong tax collections. The cooling of inflation is a positive in India as well. On the back of this, we expect Indian economy to do well, and it's a bright spot in the midst of all the uncertainties which we see in the world.
I would also like to sincerely thank Mr. Seshagiri Rao for his valuable contribution to the growth of this company over the last 25 years. He superannuated from the services of the company and consequently stepped down off from the board with effect from sixth April, and he continues to be associated with JSW Group as a group CFO. We would now like to open the floor for questions, if any. Thank you.
Thank you.
Over to you, Ryan, please.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove 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, please restrict to two questions per participant. We will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from Amit Dixit with ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Amit, your line is unmuted. You could unmute from your end as well.
Yeah. Sorry, I didn't realize that my line, I mean, I unmuted my microphone. Thanks for taking my question, sir, and good evening, everyone. Congratulations for a good set of numbers ahead of expectations. Sir, two questions from my side. The first one is more on industry scenario. We have seen that, you know, in last couple of months, a few imports have been booked. Chinese steel prices are well, you know, below our domestic prices. Don't you see a repeat of FY 2016 happening here when domestic steel consumption was very healthy, but due to advent of, you know, imports, particularly from China, domestic industry really didn't get anything.
Isn't that apprehension playing back in your mind when, you know, we are progressing on our expansion projects and guide, and guiding for a very robust volume growth?
Thank you, Amit, for the question. You know, I think it's a little different this time because if you really look at China over the last seven, eight years, I think China has taken active steps to reduce their energy consumption in any sectors which are polluting in nature. We have seen a responsible behavior towards the international market as well. Over the last few years, Chinese exports have come down. If you were to look at over the past few years, we see that trend. While in the quarter last, that is January, March and April, maybe the Chinese exports have gone up. Because there was an expectation that post-opening of China, the demand would go up and production was actually built to that extent, but that did not happen as much.
Some of its steel found its way to the international market. Having said that, I think China has announced that they would like to limit their steel production to CY 2022 numbers, which would effectively mean that in the remaining 8 months of this year, China would reduce their production by 6 million tons or per month, which is a very big positive for the world at large and global steel prices in general from a sentiment perspective. The margins in China also today, given the cost structure, I think the prices have by and large bottomed down. They have a margin which is under pressure.
I don't see that the prices from here would really go down. It would be range bound. We expect, you know, kind of a positive traction from the India growth story. Yes, we would need to be vigilant on any kind of low-priced imports coming in, and we would watch out for those cargoes. The Government of India today has shown in the past that they are ready to take action if should the need arise, and I think the Indian Government would come forward to do that as well if there is a requirement.
Okay. The second question is essentially on debt levels. While net debt has gone down, but if we really see on gross debt level, you know, debt has not gone down compared to QoQ. Do we see any scope of gross debt reduction going ahead, considering that we have very sizable CapEx lined up at least for next three years?
I mean, this is Rajeev Pai. I think, the question which you have raised, yes, we have an CapEx, spend plan of about INR 19,000 crores for the year. Our internal accruals, what we are estimating, net of tax, dividend and interest, they are enough to meet this capital expenditure. That means we expect the debt to remain at a similar levels, excepting, with one addition that, currently we are in the process of completing JISPL merger. As a result of JISPL merger, their debt will travel to a JSW Steel consolidated, which is expected around INR 3,000 crores. Other than that, we do not expect, the debt level to go up, substantially, either because of CapEx or because of any other reasons.
Sir, just a follow-up on this. Any net debt to EBITDA threshold you will guide here or any absolute reduction in debt level you will guide for FY 2024?
No, I have mentioned the debt level will remain at the current levels plus JISPL debt, and we have a net debt EBITDA ratio of about 3.2. With the improvement of EBITDA, the ratio is expected to improve.
Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Indrajit with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations, Acharya, sir, for your elevation. Sir, I have two questions. First, when I look at your production guidance of about 1.5 million tons additional production in FY 2023... FY 2024, if you can help us understand which facilities do you think will ramp up more? On that note, what was the exit utilization of Dolvi expansion?
Our guidance, as you rightly said, is about 26.34 million tons, including ROI operations. Our Indian operations, including JISPL, would be 25.5 million tons. Our additional volumes would be coming in for the ramp up of the full facility of Dolvi. We would also get additional volumes coming in from the Jharsuguda BPSL expansion. These two will primarily add volume for the coming year. We also have the Vijayanagar facilities, which the new 5 million ton which would come in, but that would happen towards the later part of the year. May not add up in terms of volume for this financial year. In addition to that, we would have downstream capacities, you know, getting fully ramped up in this year.
Our Tinplate Two, which recently got commissioned. Our CAL line, which got commissioned at Vasind. The new facility of color lines in Rajpura and Jammu and Kashmir, which are expected to come on stream, would add to this volume availability in terms of reaching 26.34 million tons. If you were to look at our Ohio facility, I think the Ohio facility is also expected to do better from an overall years perspective compared to what it did last year. We expect 0.84 million tons from Ohio in terms of production. Similar numbers are reflected in sales as well, and we expect the overall sales to be around 25 million tons, including RoI operations.
Sure. Thank you for the elaborate answer. My second question is again on guidance. When I look at your finished steel sales guidance for India operation, it's about 2 million tons extra YoY in FY 2024, while your production for crude steel is only about 1.5 million. Do you expect more inventory reduction and hence working capital release in FY 2024 over FY 2023? What is the inventory, finished steel inventory you are sitting with right now?
We had, as I was mentioning, that we have liquidated about, let's say 3.5 lakh tons, 350,000 tons in the last quarter in terms of overall inventory. Our inventory position as on March 31st, 2023 is about 1.69 million tons. It was about 1.3 million tons on the beginning of the last financial year. That means March 31st, 2022. We see a scope of reducing inventory in the system, and that's one of the numbers which have also been considered in our sales forecast guidance, which we have given.
Sure. Thank you. I have more questions. I'll join back with you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Sumangal Nevatia with Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the CapEx. Now we're spending around INR 19,000 crores in 2024, if you look at the project update for both the expansion in Vijayanagar and BPSL, we are quite on track to complete in 2024. Just want to know for these expansion, what is the carry forward spillover CapEx in 2025? In 2025, 2026, as per the presentation, we're still guiding for a very significant CapEx to the tune of almost INR 30,000-INR 34,000 crores over two years, 2025 and 2026. Where are we spending that level of funds in the next two years?
From, you know, the CapEx numbers, if you were to look at the summary, it's about we had a carry forward of about INR 48,800 odd crores in this year. Out of that, we have spent INR 14,200 crores. We would be adding some new CapEx proposals to the extent of about INR 17,000 crores, which would go into various growth initiatives and cost saving projects, apart from backward integration and sustainable mining in our mining operations. We would also be initiating the slurry pipeline. Work on that has already started in Odisha, which would be one of our main cost reduction initiatives. The mines which are being operated in Odisha and Karnataka.
The new mines which have been recently acquired, which is 4 iron ore blocks, and 2 coking coal mines, would also be, you know, in our fold, and therefore we would be spending some of the CapEx to get those up and increase the production. I would request Rajeev to add to this. Okay. Yeah, this is basically the broad breakup.
Okay. In this new growth segment, I mean, is there any upstream steel capacity also beyond what we've announced of 37 million tons? It's only downstream and cost saving.
Yeah. In this new CapEx proposal, basically we are looking at mainly cost reduction projects, plus as Mr. Jayant has explained, to improve our mining capabilities. Whatever were the volume accretive investment that was already communicated earlier, which is basically Vijayanagar and Bhushan Power & Steel volume expansion CapEx. This also includes a sustenance CapEx, which you need to keep in mind. This includes about INR 4,700 crores of sustenance CapEx as well, in addition to what we mentioned just now.
Oh, got it.
For all our locations.
Got it. I mean, slightly, I mean,
Sorry to interrupt you there. Could you please join back the queue since there are other participants waiting for their turn?
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alok Deora with Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir, and congratulations on the good numbers. Just a couple of questions. One is the share of value added proportion has increased to nearly 60%, from the typical rate of 55%. Is it a one-off or we could see this going further from here?
Yes, in the last quarter we had a 60% VASP proportion in our sales mix. We expect to be in the range of 55%-60%, you know, as we grow our volumes. We have added capacities. The new CAL line in Vasind is stabilizing. The Tinplate Two mill at Tarapur, which is added, is also ramping up in this financial year. Our LRPC facility of wires is ramped up quite well and would play out fully in this financial year. That's at Vijayanagar. The value-added capacities which are being added in Jharsuguda for special steel longs would also fructify in this year. The capacity expansion at Dolvi, which enables us to produce more specialty steel in Dolvi operations, has also got fully ramped up.
We have added facilities which would enable us to do that, and it would also supply some steel to our Angul facility for making discrete plates. The Angul plate mill is doing quite well. It's supplying to the wind sector. We are adding a multi-cooling facility which would get completed by the next month, and that would be enable us to do much higher grades and would enable us to produce for defense as well. We see good traction coming in from the value-added and specialty steel business. Our range remains at 55%-60%. Having said that, I think what is important to note also that our volume growth is also consistently happening apart from the share.
Last year, the VASP grew by 17%, if you were to look at the year as a whole, to reach 12.36 million tons.
Sure. Also, sir, just your thoughts on the sharp correction in the coking coal prices. We have corrected quite significantly if you look at when we were sitting in the last quarter, you know, the price was hovering around $330-$340 or so, and now it's below $250. Of course we'll get the benefit of that coming the second quarter. Just your thoughts how that would change our profitability in FY 2024. Any guidance on that?
The coking coal market, as you are aware, has been very volatile post the Russia-Ukrainian war February last year. Coking coal prices peaked in this month of March, April and started correcting post that. Therefore the nine months of the last year have been impacted. While the coking coal price average for the last 10 years, if you were to look at, is $170 odd FOB Australia. While the coking coal prices have come down as we speak today, it still remains elevated. For the month of February, if you were to look at, October, December, the coking coal prices had gone down. In the month of February and March, it again went up.
In February and March, it was in excess of $350-$360 range, FOB Australia. As we speak today, the prices have come off by close to $100, and the benefit of this coking coal price reduction would flow into our business from June and mainly in the July-September quarter. Because we carry about 60-65 days of inventory, which would remain in our system in the first quarter. We expect the first quarter coking coal cost to go up. Last quarter, we had guided a flattish coking coal cost. However, we could achieve a $6 reduction. It went down from $280 to $274.
In this current quarter, we expect that the coking coal cost would go up by $10-$15.
Sure, sir. I'll come back in the queue for more questions. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Satyadeep Jain with Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. A couple of questions. One on mining. You've obviously won multiple coal mines. Can you maybe give some insights on how much coking coal and how much coal production could we see? When the timeline for that? How much CapEx could be required? Which plants, especially thermal coal, is it mainly gonna go to BPSL or could you see some other plants also gonna get that thermal coal? So that's on mining.
Yes. We have won specifically two coking coal mines on the metallurgical side, and our focus would be to get those up. First, we expect the Parbatpur Mine and Sitanala Mine to contribute to about 1 million tons of coking coal, net of yield. The main mine is Parbatpur Mine, which we expect to start earlier. Maybe by middle of next financial year, we would see Parbatpur Mine starting up. The Sitanala Mine would take some more time, but that's a smaller adjoining mine. It may take up to 2.5 years' time. The output of these two would be in the range of, as I said, 1 million tons of coking coal. It contributes to about 5% odd to our overall coking coal requirements.
It's a kind of a small requirement, which is being met domestically. We would supply this to our steel plants on a logistics advantage basis, in terms of wherever it is making sense. It would be more of Jharsuguda asset which would get supply from here.
The same for the thermal coal mine also? Yeah.
Yes, there is a thermal coal mine which we have won as well. We are looking at basically also as a strategy, as a domestic coal strategy, I think I would like to say that our focus is to see that we look at various domestic coal assets, establish coal washeries, and there is a possibility of washing coal and get some of the coal converted into metallurgical coal, although it may be lower metallurgical coal quality with a higher ash. We still would be able to use and blend. Some part of the middlings would go into the power plant.
While this asset is a thermal coal asset which we would use, in case we decide to go ahead for our thermal coal and maybe some of the washeries which would be set up would wash this coal for ultimate use of some quantity into the steel making. Having said that, I think our focus is first right now on the 2 coal assets, which are coking coal mines, and we would invest on the third mine once we complete these 2 assets.
Okay. second on the Iron Ore mine.
Thank you. Mr. Jain, could you please join back the queue for follow-up questions? Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time and fairness to others, please restrict yourselves to two questions per participant. Our next question comes from the line of Abhiram Iyer with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. My first question was on the coal price reduction going into July quarter. Could you please reconfirm what the number was that you see?
Directionally, what I was saying is that the coking coal prices emanating from February and March will flow into our April-June quarter.
Okay.
Therefore, the cost of coking coal in the quarter one would be $10-$15 higher than in quarter four. Having said that, what I mentioned was that as we speak today, the cost of the price of coking coal has come down sharply. It has gone down by close to $100 per ton over the February-March period. However, the benefit of this would flow in into the quarter July-September mostly. This is not an indication that $100 equivalent will flow in. These are spot prices as we speak today. We do not know how the coking coal market would behave. We, we are seeing a better supply situation, China buying more from Russia and Mongolia. Better supplies from Australia. Post-weather disruptions, supply has improved.
Therefore, we feel that there is a possibility that coking coal will be range bound in terms of the current prices which we have today. That benefit would pass on. We will not be able to exactly quantify how much benefit would pass on to us in quarter two.
Got it. Just looking at the working capital inflow for this year, this has primarily come down in terms of better payable terms. Do you see this reverse going forward or do you see that essentially this trend is continuing because of the optimization that you've done on your supply chain lines?
Basically since 85% of our sales is focused on India and India, the domestic demand looks reasonably well. I think we do not expect any major increase because of working capital. Yes, there will be seasonalities like Q1, Q2. Because of seasonality, some investment in working capital would remain in first two quarters. When you look at year as a whole, we do not expect at least 85% of the business to really get impacted. There could be something based on the raw material inventory, based on the prices, what we would like to hold, and to that extent, there could be some increase in working capital. Generally, by and large, we do not expect the debt to go up substantially because of working capital increase.
Understood. Thank you for taking my questions.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Kirtan Mehta with BOB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Thank you for giving this opportunity. My question is related to your value-added products portfolio, where we have developed now 60% on the flat side and we've also developed the long side. I wanted to understand the current total capacity for the flat products as well as long products, their current utilization level, and if at all you want to sort of quantify this in terms of the premium over benchmark. What sort of the premiums we are earning today as overall as a flat portfolio or in the longs portfolio? Hello, Am I audible?
Yeah, you're audible. Sorry, it had gone into mute. Yeah, our value-added and special products put together is what we look at. We were at a 60% level last quarter. Our range is 55%-60% we would like to maintain. The value-added capacity which we have currently value-added flat is about 12.5 million tons. We are adding capacities in long our facility in Jharsuguda, where we are adding about 0.6 million tons of additional wire rod and thereby, we'll be able to use better our bar facility which produces all specialty steel. We are also seeing the opportunity of special steel emanating from our newly ramped up facility at Dolvi.
It is capable of producing high quality advanced steel for the automotive. It is capable of producing API grade X70 and above. It is also able to produce high tensile grades for our facilities both in Dolvi and for the plate mill at Anjar. Anjar continues to do well. The plate demand is getting augmented by the renewable energy demand in India. We are putting up cooling systems in Anjar. The multi-cooling system, as I was just saying, it would add further capabilities to the product line, and we will be able to produce more refined grades and also be able to cater to the defense requirement in India. Our overall focus of value-added journey continues while we grow our capacity in India.
Thank you, sir, for quite detailed explanation how the value-added focus will grow. In terms of sort of would it be also possible to sort of guide us on what sort of the premiums we are currently earning on the benchmark portfolio and how would this change over next two, three years as we ramp up this capacity to full utilization?
I think it is very difficult to quantify a premium because every product line would have a different strategy and would have a different price point. Tin for packaging, I think I would like to highlight rather the qualitative factors which go into this. Basically, if you were to look at the product basket which we have established, we have tried to build capacities around where India is growing. If you were to look at construction and infrastructure, which accounts for about 65% of the steel demand in the country, we have tried to put in capacities in our downstream facilities like Galvalume, like color-coated, which take care of this. We have also added a facility of zero spangle, galvanized.
now started giving zinc-aluminum-magnesium steel, which are highly corrosion resistant, especially for areas where corrosion resistance requirements are high. We continue to focus on our specialty long product basket and about 80% of our, I would say other than TMT, our long product basket, if you were to exclude TMT, about 80% is now in the specialty steel. If you also look at the construction steel which we do in the TMT, we have started producing much higher high tensile steel. Our new high tensile rebars. Our new facility of LRPC, which is low stress pre-concrete wires, which have started in Vijayanagar, is contributing to the construction sector and infrastructure sector in a big way.
The bullet train incidentally, project, the high-speed train corridor, which is being planned by the Government, we are happy to say that we have contributed more than 50% of the total steel requirement in this project so far. We continue to look at opportunities to supply special quality steel for all our nationally important projects.
Thank you, sir, for sort of drawing the contours where it can get utilized. Quite useful.
Mehta, sorry to interrupt you there. Could you please join back the queue for follow-up questions?
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ritesh Shah with Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. two questions. First on pricing. Sir, how should we look at flats and longs pricing, say into April, May and the quarter forward? If you could give some commentary on automotive contracts, as well. That's just the first question, sir. Thank you.
First of all, from a, you know, a volume perspective, I would like to say that our automotive business has done quite well. Our auto sales in the last quarter, at 682,000 tons, grew quite well by 7%. If you see the year as a whole, automotive was 2.6 million tons plus and grew at about 36% over the year before, FY 2022. Our continuous development on the automotive front, if you were to look at, we are making active efforts to develop steel for various automotive applications, whether it's in flat steel or in long steel. As you know, the automotive requires a longer approval cycle. This is enabling us to improve our share of business in the automotive sector.
The pricing for the automotive is basically contractual in nature and it is under discussion for the current quarter as we speak. The prices are being discussed for an increase, and they are in discussion with our various customers both across flat and longs. I will not be able to quantify right now as to what the numbers are because they are still under discussion.
Sir, generic flats and long prices, for April and May, has it trended down? If yes, to what extent?
yes, you know, we had a good steel price environment in the last quarter as I was saying. However, post March, I think the prices internationally have corrected somewhat. We see a reflection of that in India as well. The prices in India also in the month of May have corrected by about $25 and equivalent. we expect that there would be some volatility in the steel prices, primarily because of some low priced imports, which are coming in. As I mentioned, we do not see much downside because I think the prices from China and everything from China have already reached close to a bottom.
We may see a little bit of more volatility between now and June, but the price would be well cushioned by the fall in our raw material costs, which I explained on the coking coal side, which would shield margins to that extent.
Sure, sir. My second question was on CapEx. We have indicated new CapEx of INR 12,500 crore. You did emphasize on growth, cost savings and mining. Is it possible to put some numbers, if you can put, three buckets separately if you could please put some numbers. Into, say FY 2025, what sort of volume growth should we look at, given we don't know what, when we are talking about growth CapEx over here, we exactly don't know, it's going towards what? Secondly, cost savings. We have been hearing this from the management since quite some time. Specifically given we don't have breakup corresponding to this INR 12,500 crore, is there some quantification on a potential cost saving target that we have? Thank you.
On the cost savings side, you know, I would like to say that we are taking various initiatives on cost savings. One of them is a better quality of iron ore. We have put beneficiation assets across which would be, you know, able to produce better quality of iron ore grades. We are also looking at CapEx from the point of view of coke ovens, which would basically reduce the cost of coke, which we're currently procuring from outside, and it would make us fully, you know, fully compliant with our own requirements. In addition to that, we are looking at the slurry pipeline project in Odisha. That's a major cost saving initiative which we are looking at.
In addition to that, we have just commissioned the 175 megawatt and 60 MW power plant in Dolvi, which has started, and that benefit would fully play in this coming year in FY 2024. We are also looking at in this CapEx, which we have announced, sustainable mining CapEx, as we explained. Sustainable CapEx for our overall operations across the locations. Growth
Beginning through a pellet plant in Orissa, which would link back to, in a modular way, to our steel plant, both on the east as well as possibility of supplying pellets to our plant at Dolvi.
Sure, sir. Thank you so much. Wish you all the very best.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Vikas Singh with PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity. Sir, I just want to understand our raw material strategy. Given in the past we have expressed some displeasure over the Odisha mines which we have taken, including the costs, etc. We continue to bid for a mine, new mine that is a substantial premium. Just wanted to understand, given we have some reservation about some of the mines in Odisha including this, not fully utilization, why you continue to do so?
As a medium to long-term strategy, JSW would continue to look at both iron ore and coking coal mines because that's more of an strategic advantage, so as to get a continuous quality of a similar FE or a coal as a raw material. That ensures that our blast furnaces and various facilities are run at an optimum operating parameters. As the option of mines in India is recently started, there will be some teething troubles in each state because this is being a state subject. We are confident that going forward these issues will get sorted out, and this will be an important backward integration strategy for JSW for its 27 million current capacity, which will be going to 38 million.
My question largely pertains to the cost, the premium which we are paying. Is it makes economic sense for that kind of premium?
I just mentioned because the benefits, whilst there are two parts. One is a cost where there is it is linked to market and a premium. The important part is the consistent supply of these inputs. By ensuring the consistent quality, we are able to operate our facilities in an optimum way that reduces fuel efficiency, that improves fuel efficiencies, and various other parameters. I think, whilst we do not get cost benefit per unit of iron ore or coal, what we get is the much better operating parameters and as a result conversion cost is on a lower side.
Understood. My second question pertains to our overall capacity and debt. Given that we are now talking about 25 million tons plus handle the production in India, have we reached on an inflection point where the future incremental CapEx would be sustainable by the current capacity and our absolute debt would not go up or this point is still somewhere far away? If so, when would you like to tell us?
When a company is adding about 10 million ton, 9-10 million ton capacity in a year, and the CapEx of that, part of that is already front loaded. I think what you say is right, that JSW Steel is at a point wherein it will have an absolute production numbers, which will throw a lot of cash accruals. As a result, that will be good enough for considering the future expansion as and when we take a decision. Looking at that, we do not see the current level of debt to go up substantially, excepting, I said maybe some pockets of working capital increases, which will keep happening. Other than that, we do not expect the debt to go up substantially from the current levels.
Thank you for answering my question, and all the best for future, sir.
Thank you. Our next question is from Pallav Agarwal with Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. I had a question on the, you know, the enabling resolution for raising funds. Is this more of a, you know, resolution that we take every year or is there some actual plan to raise, you know, an equity fund?
As a strategy, we take the fundraising resolution basically to ensure that at an opportune time, we are able to raise, either from domestic capital market, international capital market. There are certain regulations regarding validity of a resolution. Some of the resolutions one need to get approved every year, including shareholders approval. But these are not, it's not necessary that all of this would be acted upon. The JSW has a strategy where whatever repayments which keeps happening, we keep refinancing this with the new debt. To that extent, we will continue to draw. As regards our CapEx pipeline of INR 19,000 crore, we have enough strong accrual so as to meet the CapEx.
I think basically, this resolution is to refinance and elongate the maturity of the debt.
Sure, sir. Also, I mean, this quarter as a standalone level, we've sold more than what we've produced, obviously some inventory also has been liquidated. Does that mean that there'll be probably some shutdowns that have taken in this quarter and probably the volume sequentially can be lower than the 4Q volumes?
Could you just repeat that question once?
Yeah. What I said, sir, this quarter you've sold at a standalone level, you've sold more than what we've produced.
I guess obviously there's been some liquidation of inventory as well. Will we see a sequential decrease in one, two in terms of steel sales volume and, you know, have you taken any shutdowns of the plant, et cetera in this quarter?
No, we have not taken, any plant shutdowns.
Mm-hmm.
per se.
Maybe three to four days of
Yeah. Maybe, yeah, a couple of days here and there, which is routine. Other than that, no. As we mentioned earlier, that we have an inventory of about 1.69 million tons in this year beginning. We would look at potentially reducing part of that inventory as we go into FY 2024 overall. May not be in Q1, but certainly over the year we would look at doing it.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Mitul Shah with Reliance Securities. Please go ahead.
Sir, thank you for the opportunity and congratulations for a very strong performance. Sir, my question is on the demand side where we are indicating roughly 10%-12% increase in our FY 2024 guidance for sales. Which are the segments wherein you see more growth? Because in case of automobile, as we highlighted last year, was a very high growth of 36%. For this year, FY 2024 industry body as well as other automakers indicating single digit like 5%-6% kind of a growth. From where do you see growth coming?
Just to specifically answer on the automotive side, if you were to see the last quarter number of 682,000 tons, which we did in quarter four. If you were to analyze that, our numbers would be close to 2.75 million tons, as against 2.6 million tons which we have done last year. That is one. I think, while the, you know, the, in industry in general is doing well, the purchasing power has improved. We expect automotive production to be stable. Having said that, I think one of the areas, as you know, that 65% of the steel is consumed in construction and infrastructure and about 20%-25% is consumed in general engineering. We see traction in both these areas.
Construction infrastructure continues to be driven by government CapEx, public sector CapEx, state CapEx, and now upcoming private CapEx. We see this as a very strong enabler for this year. In addition to that, we see manufacturing in the renewable energy space to be quite good. We are seeing manufacturing activities in various areas like bearings, fasteners, some other auto components which are getting exported to be good. Even if you were to look at the packaging and the appliance sectors, we see a good traction. Therefore I think on a combined basis, even other than automotive, we see an overall good growth across all the segments which we cover.
Yes, sir. Thanks for elaborate answer. Second question on the export side. Sir, what is the export outlook? It has improved markedly in Q4. How has been the situation in April and May?
Our exports for the last year, our full India operations have exported about 2.76 million tons of steel. Exports were disrupted because of the export duty from between May and November. In spite of that, we could achieve this number primarily because of a increase in exports in the last quarter post opening up. Since the demand internationally is subdued, and there could be, you know, challenges because of the volatility. In spite of the fact that we are diversified in over 100 countries, we have still taken a conservative scenario and kept our exports limited in this year to a level slightly higher than what we achieved last year.
just to go back, we did 5 million tons in FY 2022 and we would be probably in the range of 3 to 3.5 million ton in this year as we step into FY 2024.
Thanks, sir, and all the best.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ritwik Sheth with OneUp Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Firstly, you mentioned earlier in the call about the Chinese steel players. You know, their current cost structure and realization doesn't allow them to sell around these levels. Any sense you would have what kind of margins, if any, they would be making around $550-$570 FOB, which they are exporting at recently?
Going by a pure thumb rule calculation, I think we feel that based on the current export price, they're already in negative territory for many of the Chinese steel producing companies. Therefore, we feel that while the benefit of raw material will also come to them, but they may then be a little bit over breakeven, and given the situation that nobody can continue to be unprofitable, we feel that the prices have more or less bottomed out in China, that would give a flip to the overall sentiments globally. I also explained that the Chinese government has indicated that they would like to limit the production to CY 2022 levels, which would mean that the Chinese steel production now in the remaining 8 months would go down by about maybe 6 million tons a month.
Potentially, that would further stabilize the basic flow of steel into the international market. It's a positive. We have to see whether it actually comes out the way they are laying it out to be. It's certainly the sentiment positive and good for stability of the steel prices globally.
Sure. My second question is on the OC subsidiaries. Except USA, Ohio, both others are generating positive EBITDA in FY 2023. What is the outlook in FY 2024 and for all the three OC subsidiaries?
We continue to do well in our facilities in US. Operationally, Ohio is also doing better, but Baytown is certainly doing very well. Going into the year FY 2024 for us, we see renewable energy, especially wind, barges, infrastructure picking up in US and therefore Baytown we feel will continue to do well. There is a differential pricing between plate and coils, and that also plays positively into the Baytown EBITDA. Italy, if you were to look at the overseas subsidiaries, the profitability has primarily come about from the rail orders, which has recently been given by the Italian government. We see a good traction on export orders as well.
We are reasonably confident that this year, Italian operations will do much better and maybe be able to reach the current rate of EBITDA per quarter, which we have seen. Annualized for the full year for the FY 2024.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint, that was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you very much for being there on this call. I would just like to reiterate that JSW Steel has performed very well in the last quarter and the year as a whole in spite of difficult first nine months. As we go into FY 2024, we see the India growth story playing out positively. It's a bright spot in the world economic situation today among uncertainties in the rest of the world. We see our capacity built up, which we have done over time, yielding results. We see that we are ready to basically meet this growing demand in India. We have also taken initiatives to reduce our costs through various cost reduction initiatives as explained, and also backward integrate into our mines, coking coal and iron ore both.
Going forward, we expect that the FY 2024 will be a good year, certainly better from an EBITDA standpoint versus what we have seen in FY 2023. Thank you very much. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and have a great weekend.