Greetings to everyone. A warm welcome to you all for today's management presentation from Rain Industries Limited. My name is Saranga Pani, and I serve as General Manager of Corporate Reporting and Investor Relations at Rain Industries Limited. Earlier today, we have released our results for the quarter and nine months ending September 30, 2024, and the same is also posted on our website. Shortly, we will guide you through the present performance highlights of Rain Industries Limited for the third quarter of 2024. The speakers for today are Mr. Jagan Reddy Nellore, Vice Chairman of Rain Industries Limited, Mr. Gerard Sweeney, President of Rain Carbon Inc., and Mr. T. Srinivasa Rao, Chief Financial Officer of Rain Industries Limited.
Before we proceed, the management would like to note that during this management discussion, forward-looking statements may be discussed that include various subjects such as outcomes, trends, targets, and strategic directions. These statements rely on our current projections and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially from those suggested to those forward-looking statements. There are certain risk factors that could lead to results differing significantly from our predictions. The discussion today contains certain non-GAAP financial measures. The related non-GAAP reconciliations are provided in the accompanying slides. With that, please turn to slide three at this time, where Mr. Jagan Reddy will offer insight into the key developments at Rain Group during the third quarter of 2024. Thank you, and I now hand over to Mr. Jagan.
Thank you, Saranga, and greetings to all. Turning to slide three of the presentation, let us begin with safety. We finished the third quarter of 2024 with one recordable incident and a total recordable incident rate of 0.2 in our carbon and advanced material businesses. This demonstrates a continued improvement over the previous quarter. The one incident in these businesses during the third quarter was related to a mechanic falling from a scaffolding ladder. Fortunately, the employee was not seriously injured and has returned to work. As discussed in our previous calls, our unwavering commitment to safety remains a top priority. We continuously adapt our safety initiative to address evolving trends observed both at our plants and across the industry. A significant part of this effort is our ongoing rollout of OSHA safety reporting norms in our cement segment, which we aim to complete by end 2024.
This initiative will enable us to report a total recordable incident rate, or TRIR, for each of our three business segments on a consistent apples-to-apples basis. Additionally, it will enhance our ability to share safety lessons learned, increase employee awareness, and provide learning tools across the entire group. These measures will make Rain an even safer place to work. Transitioning to our financial performance, we concluded the third quarter with an EBITDA of INR 2.92 billion. As previously discussed, we anticipated the third quarter results would be lower than our second quarter earnings. This outcome was influenced by several factors. Volumes decreased as expected due to some shipments being advanced to the second quarter by our customers and others being delayed beyond the third quarter due to unexpected maintenance outages on the customer side, particularly in our carbon distillation business.
As discussed during our last call, the impressive second quarter performance was boosted by earlier than anticipated coal tar pitch, or CTP, shipments and should not be seen as a return to our historical earnings level. In our carbon businesses, we continue to face margin challenges driven by both market competition and unique situational circumstances. As we move towards the end of the year, our focus is on reestablishing our unit margins to stabilize our earnings. This step is crucial for achieving our objectives as we approach 2025. In line with our strategic plan to reduce fixed costs, we will be optimizing operations at our manufacturing plants, responding to current demand conditions as necessary. During the second quarter, we saw a recovery in our carbon business margins. However, the third quarter presented some hurdles, particularly in our carbon distillation operations.
The primary challenge was the rising market price for tar raw materials, which contrasted with declining CTP prices. This price increase was driven by a global reduction in tar production caused by curtailments and closures of certain blast furnace steel mills. As you may know, global steel production remains subdued, with some producers shutting down their facilities earlier than expected. This reduction in coal tar production has led to a decreased supply for distillers, pushing up tar prices despite weaker overall market conditions for finished products. Despite these challenges, we remain optimistic and focused on the future. Our main objective in the carbon segment is to enhance our volumes in both calcination and distillation products.
We aim to achieve this by increasing production and optimizing capacity utilization throughout 2025. We are confident that with strategic planning and execution, we can navigate these market dynamics and achieve our goals. As discussed earlier, part of the reason for the third quarter carbon volumes being down versus the second quarter is attributable to unforeseen maintenance disruptions at two of our major coal tar pitch customers delaying their shipments out of the third quarter. Sales of calcined petroleum coke, or CPC, on the other hand, were up over 16% higher versus the second quarter. We expect CPC volumes to maintain this higher level growth during the fourth quarter and beyond in 2025 due to the relaxation in the Indian import restrictions which were in place since 2018.
The CPC market maintained a posture of downward pressure on pricing during the third quarter, but in recent weeks, we have seen a functional shift in China for pricing of both green petroleum coke, or GPC, raw materials and the finished product calcined petroleum coke, or CPC. Prices appear to have finally begun to change course on these materials. This is the first price improvement in China since the first quarter of 2023. As you may remember, we outlined last quarter that our GPC raw materials were back in line with current market CPC prices.
Now, if prices can improve going forward, this should help restore the remainder of our margins. In our carbon segment's distillation business, product prices remained stable during the quarter, but raw material costs crept up due to reduced coal tar availability for reasons mentioned earlier. Entering the final quarter of 2024, the strengthening of carbon product prices in China gives us optimism of a potential return to normalized margins during 2025, marking a shift from the last couple of years of declining global industrial output trends. Our advanced material segment continues to perform positively.
Volumes were down slightly for the petrochemical intermediate products, but they held strong for the quarter for our high-valued engineered products, for our HHCR products, and for our resins. Profitability took a hit due to raw material shortages in Europe, impacting our advanced materials segment and leaving us scrambling for supply. We anticipate the usual seasonal and year-end decline in volumes during the fourth quarter. However, we remain confident that the resilience of our resins business will sustain profitability for the advanced materials segment through year-end. Despite the uncertainties created by war and political tensions globally, positive economic signals continued across major global regions. In the United States, the economy has remained robust, underscoring sustained consumer demand for goods and housing. Admittedly, industrial indicators remain tapered, but the economy seems to be healthy.
In Europe, energy prices have remained manageable throughout the year, while the industrial sector continues to wait for signs of demand resurgence. In late September, following several months of failing to meet post-pandemic growth targets, the Chinese government initiated a comprehensive series of economic stimulus measures. These efforts aim to regenerate the economy by boosting consumer spending, encouraging investment, and supporting key industries. The measures, including tax cuts, increased infrastructure spending, and financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises, are all designed to stabilize and accelerate economic recovery. These actions are expected to have a particularly positive impact on our carbon business segment. Regarding our cement segment, the Indian cement industry, the second largest globally after China, is experiencing a significant consolidation. Smaller regional producers are struggling in an increasingly challenging operating environment, leading to their exit from the sector.
This trend has paved the way for a wave of consolidation as national-level firms acquire these regional players. Over the past decade, capacities exceeding 220 million tons per year have changed hands, according to industry estimates. This consolidation, coupled with greenfield expansions by leading companies, has impacted the industry's pricing power. Cement companies are aggressively pursuing higher market shares, often resorting to competitive pricing strategies to boost sales. An industry executive recently noted this is one of the key reasons for the sharp drop in realizations this calendar year. Despite these challenges, we remain optimistic about our cement segment. The Indian government's initiative to increase infrastructure spending and the normalization of fuel costs provide a favorable backdrop. We are confident in our ability to navigate these challenges and continue to perform strongly in the market.
Now, I will hand over the presentation to Gerry, who will provide further updates on the industry and our business on slide four. Gerry.
Hello, everyone. It's a pleasure to speak with you all again. The prospects for the global aluminum industry remain positive, with aluminum prices hovering around $2,600 per metric ton, aided by relatively low gas prices and the expectation of robust demand amid relatively low LME inventories going forward. Forecasts suggest that global aluminum production will increase over the next couple of years compared to the cumulative output of the past five years. This, together with strong LME aluminum prices and a functional shift in prices in China, provides reasons for optimism, as Jagan mentioned earlier. As we look at slide five with regards to key commodity price trends in our business during the third quarter of 2024, prices were relatively flat, except for benzene.
The benzene price is high enough, though, so that the reduction in price, the relatively significant reduction in price, is not too concerning at this point. On slide six, which focuses on revenue distribution by an industry, you will see that the aluminum sector accounted for approximately 42% of our total consolidated revenues on an LTM or last 12 months basis as of September 2024. This marks a 6% decline from calendar year 2023, mainly due to diminished volume in our carbon calcination business in the first half of 2024. We anticipate a rebound to the usual range of 43% - 44% by the close of 2024.
Our remaining revenue streams come from various industries, including the important construction and carbon black sectors. On slide seven, our carbon segment experienced an overall 6% increase in volumes driven by CPC, while prices declined for CTP quarter -over- quarter. In the CPC business, sales volumes were up 16% over the second quarter, continuing the momentum we gained after a weak first quarter. CPC sales prices were flat to slightly down, and we saw raw material prices relatively flat. On the distillation side of our carbon segment, CTP sales volumes were down almost 13% from the second quarter due to the previously mentioned delay of two major customer shipments. CTP prices decreased in the third quarter, driven by aggressive price pushbacks from customers.
Unfortunately, due to curtailments in the steel sector, we were not able to match these sales price reductions with our coal tar raw material prices, further pressuring our margins. Elsewhere in our carbon segment, our other carbon products volumes were down by 2%, and pricing was flat compared to the previous quarter. We're pleased that our advanced material segments, EBITDA, remain positive for the third consecutive quarter with strong volumes. After a promising first half of 2024, the trend has held in both pricing and volume.
We are seeing some seasonal declines in orders, which is common in Q4, but nothing dramatic is seen in other years. In our advanced materials engineered products subsegment category, volumes of CARBORES and our petroleum-based PETRORES have held down for two consecutive quarters after a significant increase in the first quarter. Volumes in the chemical intermediate subcategory were down some 20%, majorly related to our low-margin products there. Moving on to our resins and downstream materials subcategory, volumes and prices were both relatively flat versus the previous quarter. The Red Sea shipping disruptions continue to positively impact both our engineered products and resins volumes. All are benefiting from a Made in Europe customer preference emerging from those shipping disruptions for materials coming traditionally out of Asia. This benefit includes our HHCR material, which has seen increased regional demand.
Customers in regions close to our production site are realizing the reliability benefit of having Rain HHCR as a locally produced supply for them. I'll now hand over the presentation to Srinivas, who will discuss Rain's consolidated financial performance. Srinivas, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Gerry, and hello, everyone. Staying on slide seven, during the third quarter of 2024, Rain reported a consolidated net revenue of INR 39.06 billion, marking a reduction of INR 2.37 billion from INR 41.43 billion during the same period in 2023. The downturn was primarily due to revenue decreases of INR 1.58 billion in our carbon segment, INR 0.13 billion in our advanced materials segment, and INR 0.66 billion in our cement segment. Furthermore, Rain experienced a decrease in consolidated adjusted EBITDA by INR 0.84 billion compared to the previous year. This was attributed to a reduction of INR 0.52 billion in our carbon segment, INR 0.12 billion in our advanced materials segment, and INR 0.20 billion in the cement segment.
Moving to slide eight, we can see that for the third quarter ending on September 30, 2024, our carbon segment reported revenues of INR 27.81 billion, which was a decrease from INR 29.39 billion during the same quarter in the previous year. During this quarter, our increase in volumes was primarily driven by higher CPC volumes due to higher capacity utilization from Indian CPC plants, post the relief granted by CAQM in February 2024 and the implementation of the same during the third quarter. During the third quarter of 2024, the average blended realizations decreased by about 21% on account of lower market quotations across all regions. There was an appreciation of euro against the Indian rupee by about 2.3% and an appreciation of U.S. dollar against the Indian rupee by 1.3%.
Overall revenue from the carbon segment decreased by 5.4% in the third quarter of 2024 as compared to the third quarter of 2023. The adjusted EBITDA for the carbon segment fell by INR 523 million compared to the third quarter of the previous year. This was driven primarily by continued pressure on margins, which was partially offset by increased volumes and appreciation of U.S. dollars and the euro against Indian rupees. Moving to slide nine, we can see the advanced materials segment's performance. During the quarter ending September 30, 2024, our advanced materials segment ended revenues totaling INR 8.45 billion, which was a decrease from INR 8.58 billion during the same period in the previous year.
During this quarter, there was an increase in volumes by 8.8%, primarily driven by higher output from our HHCR plant supported by the Red Sea crisis and higher demand compared to the same period in the previous year. During the third quarter of 2024, average realizations decreased by 9.5% due to fall in commodity prices, offset by an increase in the euro against the Indian rupee by about 2.3%. As a result, revenue from the advanced materials segment decreased by 1.5% during the third quarter of 2024 as compared to the third quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA fell by INR 122 million in contrast to the third quarter of 2023 due to fall in commodity prices, partially offset by increased volumes and appreciation of euro against the Indian rupee.
Moving to slide 10, we can look at our cement segment, which experienced a 19.2% decline in revenue in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, attributable to an 8.8% fall in realizations and an 11.3% reduction in volumes due to the extended monsoon in key markets. The Adjusted EBITDA for our cement segment saw a downturn of INR 199 million due to decreased realizations coupled with decreased volumes and a marginal increase in operating cost. Moving on, next slide on debt, slide 11. The third quarter concluded with a gross debt of $952 million, which includes working capital debt of $102 million. Our net debt stood at $711 million, and with an LTM EBITDA of $166 million, our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 4.3x.
However, over the next few quarters, as performance improves and the debt paid down, we anticipate this leverage ratio to gradually approach 3.0x. During the span of the past nine months, our euro-denominated term loans saw a reduction by $33 million , driven by $35 million in repayments, offset by $2 million towards the foreign exchange impact due to U.S. dollar-euro fluctuations. In terms of liquidity, we closed the quarter with $469 million , comprised of $241 million of cash balance and $228 million available in undrawn credit facilities. The group allocated roughly $55 million for maintenance, capital expenditure, and planned turnarounds during the first nine months of 2024. I will now hand over the presentation to Mr. Jagan for his concluding remarks.
Thank you, Srinivas. 2024 has presented its challenges, with market movements veering unpredictably as they stabilized from the highs of 2022 and early 2023. However, amidst the turbulence, we have received long-awaited relief in India from import restrictions after six years, and we are enthusiastic about operating our Indian carbon calcination facilities at optimum capacity. Despite these positive developments, some market indicators still raise concerns. Our commitment remains to scrutinize every entity expenditure, ensuring it is both necessary and in Rain's best interest. We will continue to rigorously evaluate raw material costs, striving to procure the optimal products and manufacture in locations that maximize profitability. This relentless pursuit of efficiency and cost management is a testament to our team's dedication. Looking ahead, the future is promising.
Noteworthy are the recent announcement of our new demonstration plant for energy storage materials and battery anode materials in Canada, along with joint development agreements. These initiatives position Rain as a significant player in the burgeoning EV and other battery markets. Already an established supplier to the Chinese battery market, we bring years of experience in serving major manufacturers. The demonstration plant will solidify Rain's reputation for excellence in battery technology, allowing us to showcase our products' current relevance while exploring new supply chain opportunities. We are excited about the future and confident in our strategies to navigate the complexities ahead. The dedication and hard work of our teams are paving the way for continued success and growth. Together, we will seize the opportunities that lie ahead and ensure Rain's prosperity in the evolving market landscape.
We appreciate your ongoing support for Rain Industries Limited and eagerly anticipate sharing further updates in the upcoming quarterly presentation. Thank you.