Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. You are connected to the Tata Chemicals Limited Conference Call. Please note, this conference will begin by 7:05 PM. We thank you for your patience. Participants, you are connected to the Tata Chemicals Limited Conference Call. Please stay connected. This call is expected to begin by 7:05 PM. Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q3 and 9-month FY26 Earnings Conference Call of Tata Chemicals Limited. Please note that this conference is being recorded. 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone phone.
We have with us today Mr. R. Mukundan, Managing Director and CEO, and Mr. Nandakumar Tirumalai, Chief Financial Officer of Tata Chemicals Limited. Before we begin, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. I now invite Mr. R. Mukundan to begin proceedings of the call.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone, and welcome to the Quarter 3, 9-month FY26 earnings call. I'll start with a brief discussion of the industry situation and then get on to operational highlights across business and geographies. In terms of the demand scenario across geographies, especially for soda ash, I think the demand growth is fairly tepid and flat in the near term, constrained by weak macroeconomics in a couple of geographies, especially in Southeast Asia and some parts of Asia, which is mainly driven by certain elements related to the export restriction and export constraints those products are facing in one of the biggest markets they had in the U.S. In the short term, the medium-term soda ash demand is expected to grow modestly, supported by structural growth of solar glass and stable consumption from other applications.
However, it is very likely that the demand growth is unlikely to absorb the new global capacity additions in the near term, which will result in continued pressure on pricing and margin in import-exposed domestic markets. India continues to exhibit relatively robust demand growth, while China and the US are witnessing marginal demand declines in some sectors and overall very flat demand. Across other regions in Asia, excluding America, excluding the US, Africa are seeing broadly resilient demand, and there are pockets within this which are also having challenges. For example, in Southeast Asia, demand has been marginally impacted by tariffs on photovoltaic glass imports into the US, affecting the regional glass trade flows. Geopolitical risk and ongoing tariff uncertainties persist, continuing to cloud global demand visibility. The pace of economic recovery is expected to remain fairly slow in the year ahead, limiting any sharp resurgence in industrial outcomes.
Over the medium and long term, the demand outlook remains positive, driven by sustainability-linked applications, including solar PV and EV growth, notwithstanding near-term challenges. In terms of supply, supply remains abundant across all major regions, with elevated inventory levels continuing to exert pressure on pricing. In India, prices have remained subdued due to sustained imports from the US and Turkey, limiting the scope for domestic price recovery. China inventories remain elevated but stable at 1.5 million tons, and the sentiment softened slightly compared to the previous quarter. Export prices have remained subdued through Q3. Berun and Inner Mongolia have started testing additional expansion in December, with full-scale production sometime targeted during the Q1 of the financial year next year. While Chinese producers initiated strong spring maintenance earlier than usual, this resulted in supply curtailment in the short term, being rapidly offset by newly commissioned capacities.
In terms of pricing, the soda ash prices remain challenged across most geographies, with prices in certain markets approaching record low levels on persistent oversupply and muted demand. In India, domestic list prices remain under pressure, declined marginally in Q3, driven by continued import competition and weak pricing sentiment. In the US, spot exports continued to soften, especially to the Southeast Asian markets. Export prices were particularly impacted by intense competition in the Southeast Asian market due to Chinese supplies in the global market. Chinese soda ash prices have declined by approximately 54% between Q3 FY23 and Q3 FY26, primarily due to the low-cost natural soda ash, which has come on stream. Currently, the domestic prices are about ¥1,200 in China. Overall, pricing is expected to remain at similar levels given the elevated inventories. Now, I'll go on to the operational performance.
Despite the market advance, the company's standalone performance was actually supported by higher volumes, prudent cost management, resulting in stable operating performance during the quarter. The reconfiguration of UK operations was completed, with strategic focus on value-added and non-cyclical products to improve business stability. The revenue was about 1% down compared to the previous year at INR 3,550 crore, despite the fall in prices in the market supported by higher volumes. EBITDA at INR 345 crore compared to INR 434 crore, mainly on account of subdued pricing across all geographies, but also this EBITDA fall has been sharp mainly in the US, which has led to the overall consolidator having sharp drops. There's an exceptional charge of INR 54 crore, which is provided in the accounts for the new labor code, and PAT before the exceptional item is negative INR 15 crore compared to nearly INR 50 crore last quarter of FY25.
Net debt stands at INR 5,596 crore, excluding a lease of INR 772 crore. In terms of standalone, the revenue from operations stood at INR 1,204 crore, up 3% compared to Q3.
Ladies and gentlemen, please stay with us. The management line seems to have disconnected. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your patience. We have now reconnected with the management. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. I was highlighting the standalone highlights at this point in time for Q3 FY26. The revenue from operations stood at INR 1,204 crore, up 3% compared to Q3 FY25 due to higher volume. EBITDA at INR 228 crore in standalone was 9% up from Q3 FY25, effective also higher volume and lower fixed costs. An exceptional charge of INR 14 crore was provided in the account on the new labor code. Profit before the exceptional item from continuing operations was INR 87 crore, up 21% compared to Q3 FY25. In terms of unit-wise performance, India had performance higher than previously, mainly on higher volumes and operational efficiencies. Quarterly sales volume of silica was up 15%. Quarterly sales volume of FOS was up by 9%. We also commissioned a new L55 line in Mambattu on October 25.
Pearl grade silica of 3,000 metric tons per annum in Cuddalore was commissioned in December 2025. US, both domestic and export volumes were higher. Prices were sharply lower in the exports, which led to the sharp fall in revenues and the margins. UK salt production was impacted due to unplanned stoppage, which resumed thereafter. The bicarb is slowly recovering its market share with the feedstock coming in from TCNA natural soda ash. Kenya had higher revenue due to higher volume. Offset by lower realization, the price did drop there. The 50KT Electric Calciner soda ash plant in Kenya was operationalized and will be fully stabilized by March 2026. Rallis saw revenue growth of 19% driven by crop care and seed business. We also announced the acquisition of Nova Bay Singapore on November 19th, which we entered into a share purchase agreement.
This acquisition strengthens Tata Chemicals' position in premium-grade value-added bicarb market by expanding the geographic footprint, which now extends from the UK, which serves the European market, India, as well as now the Asian markets, including ASEAN and Far East. CAPEX, the board also approved an investment of INR 515 crore for setting up a greenfield facility in this board meeting of a 210 kiloton per annum capacity of iodized salt in Valinokkam in Tamil Nadu. This facility is expected to be commissioned over the next 36 months. The board, in its meeting in 2021, also approved a 50 kiloton per annum precipitated silica expansion at Katalu at an investment of INR 775 crore and a 350 kiloton dense ash plant in Mittapur with an investment of INR 135 crore.
All the CAPEXs are happening in India, a market which is steadily growing, and also in bicarbonate in the Asian market to capture the premium bicarb market. Overall, our priorities remain firmly aligned in protecting margins, preserving cash flows, maintaining the balance sheet strength. We continue to adopt a disciplined approach to capacity utilization, cost control, and capital allocation, ensuring resilience during the current challenging phase of the soda ash cycle. With this, I close my comment and hand back to the moderator for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Participants are also requested to limit their questions to two per participant, and you can rejoin the queue in case of further questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Saurabh Jain from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is, please can you remind us how the soda ash domestic realizations in the U.S. are looking like for this year because the contracts would have been signed in January? So any color on that?
The US domestic prices, which have been negotiated, are at par or about $5 to $10 variation, bulk of them. Overall, I would say that there's been about a $5 drop in realizations on the domestic market.
$5 drop. Okay. That is useful. Can you please also make us understand how the costs would have changed in the last five years? Because at the similar realizations, we used to make very good margins pre-COVID times. So now and then, on a top level, how has the cost structure changed so that we are not making any profit anymore at these realizations? That is useful.
In terms of on a fixed-cost basis, which is in dollar terms, I think there is broadly, if you spread it between two elements, on fixed costs, there is about the increase in fixed costs over the last five years has been broadly about $15 million, broadly. On the variable costs, certainly, I think this would vary from the various pricing of coal and gas contracts. But I think a $5 movement has happened broadly per-ton basis.
But the gas and coal costs, would it be much different from what it was pre-COVID times? I would have assumed it would have stabilized and maybe have seen some increase. But then it's like a major increase in those costs versus how we used to procure, say, five years back.
No. Gas has broadly, in terms of gas, settled at a much higher price from pre-COVID. The coal has also increased because many of these coal companies have had to sign a contract with annual escalation because many of them are actually running at the end of their cycle of the current seam, and they're finding it difficult to get financing for new seams. So they want to run the current seam, which effectively means they have to travel longer to get the coal out. Hence, they've had an increase in cost. It's been annualized escalation. I think if you take pre-COVID over the last three to four years, I think probably it's about $5, broadly.
$5 in total.
$5 per ton of the finished product and $5 per ton of the coal cost, which is about $50, I think it's about $55 now. That's what I understand.
Okay. Understood. That is very helpful. If I may squeeze in one more question, the US currently has seen some winter storms. So any disruptions in your production or sales activities? Have you noticed any such signs on that side?
No. This time, there is no disruption to speak about. If you look at the operational challenge, this quarter has been mainly in the UK, where I think we had an unplanned stoppage in our salt plant. But I think in quarter four, we'll have much more stable operations, so we should be reporting better numbers. In fact, we were hoping that this quarter, we would break even in the UK, which has got pushed because the UK had a very difficult storm which came on the way. But I think that did disturb the operation, and there was an unplanned stoppage. But the US, there was none.
The US margins, how would you look at the coming quarters? Do you see any normalization towards the usual margins, or would you expect it may continue to run at loss?
No. I think what we are going to do, and I think this is really the operating team is managing it on a case-by-case basis, on shipment to shipment, while we continue to serve all markets which have held more or less pricing steady, especially in the Southeast Asian market. We are stopping to take orders which are below our expected number. So you would see in the coming quarter us not delivering the volume, going down on the volume because it doesn't make any sense to be selling in those markets at negative contribution.
Does it mean a volume decline for the coming quarters in Europe?
It's a temporary pause, especially to the Southeast Asian market.
Sure. I will join that with you. Thank you so much.
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I'm answering the questions. Moderator, can you take the other participant, please?
Thank you. Thanks. Hello, Darwin? Hello.
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Principal, everything is off. It's the chorus line.
Close the flight.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, as there was an issue at our end. We have now reconnected with the management.
Yes, sir, you are now connected into the conference call.
We have our next participant, Abhijit Akela, from Kotak Securities, with the next question. May we go ahead with the question, sir?
Yes, please go ahead.
Sure. Thank you, sir. One moment. Abhijit Akela, your line has been unmuted. You may proceed with your question.
Thank you very much, sir. So, first question from my side is regarding the capacity expansions. Could you please just give us some guidance with regard to the expected EBITDA from these expansions for silica, soda ash, and salt in India? Also, if I may squeeze in one alongside that, with regard to Nova Bay as well, you know, will that appear in the Europe business or somewhere else, and what EBITDA number could we expect? And also, sorry, the Kenya capacity expansion of 50,000 tons, the electric calcinary, is that a capacity addition, or is that maybe a change to a different fuel source?
I think firstly, on Kenya, let me take that. I think Kenya, the 50K is additional capacity addition. It is over and above the current capacity. But also, it is likely to be a more superior product because the purer ash, which also has low carbon footprint because of electric calcination. So the EBITDA numbers will be higher than normal, and it's completely electric. The second piece is on the Nova Bay acquisition. Actually, in Singapore, it is for the Asian market, mainly for food and pharmaceutical application. And the unit numbers, everything, we will highlight once we consummate the operation acquisition. But, needless to say that it also gives us flexibility at a very low cost to double the capacity to 120,000 tons from the current 60,000 tons. So we will also highlight what will be the operational benefits of doing the same.
The other thing which we are trying to do as far as Singapore is concerned currently, they are importing the synthetic soda ash all the way from Europe. We will be supplying that from some of our more known and more competitive sources. The third piece is on the capacity expansions in salt. It would continue at about same margins as we have overall, because whatever increase in cost is because of the new site, that is more or less compensated very well with the logistic cost reduction. So the margins should not change in the additional capacity coming in on the Valinokkam . Also, it's coming at the right time because we in 24 to 36 months, our unit in Mithapur will be fully loaded by that time, and we will not have any spare volume unless this goes on stream.
Of course, we could have expanded in Mittapur rather than here, but we chose to do it in South so that we have flexibility with two sources. With respect to dense soda ash in Mittapur, we will come back to you with a specific number next quarter. Precipitated silica, we already highlighted the margin numbers in the past. A specific number, we will share it with you in terms of what it is likely to do. But all these projects have returns which are in excess of 16%. Normally, we try for returns closer to 18%.
Okay, sir, I believe the silica business currently is doing about some INR 60 crores of sales, if I'm not mistaken, based on the 10,000-ton capacity. So should we assume a similar level of realization as well from the expansion?
I t would be similar. The overall issue would be that the way it would work is because that 60-odd crore, you're able to distribute with only 10,000. The additional capacity which has come on stream, that will be only seen in quarter four. You should not add that when you look at the average realization.
Fair enough. Just one last thing from my side, was with regard to the Berun capacity addition that you alluded to earlier on the call. What phase one capacity is coming up over there? I think that's really the main thing.
The overall increase in capacity is about 2.5 to 2.8 million tons. 2.5, we can take as a safe number, in addition to what already exists there.
This, in our view, is in line with the target China has set of having 50% synthetic and 50% natural. But the way we see it is that while the new natural capacities have come, the synthetic capacities have to go. So overall, there'll be capacity rationalization which has to happen in China. With the current pricing, most synthetic plants are actually losing, are not making money at all. They are losing, which is why they've gone in for a cyclical maintenance shutdown to not produce below a certain number.
Thank you so much. I'll get back in the queue for any more.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Vivek Rajamani from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Just wanted to understand, I think on the US side, you mentioned that you're taking a conscious decision not to ship to Southeast Asia, while that could potentially improve the mix.
I'll just clarify. I said in Southeast Asia, if certain contracts are being offered at prices which are not acceptable, not that we are not shipping everything. We are shipping, but it may lead to certain reduction in volume. We are going contract by contract as we speak.
Sure, sir. That's very helpful. The question that I was asking was if we had to think about the US business over the next few quarters, what would be a good level of EBITDA that we should assume? Or would it be fair to say that given the market conditions and given the time it will take for you to rationalize your volumes, would this quarter be representative of what could be the case for the next couple of quarters? Or how should we think about that?
In terms of overall, I would say if you look at the shipments which we are doing, which are quantity commitments we had in the past, I think there was one shipment this quarter. There probably is going to be one shipment next quarter. Other than that, there are no shipments which we are taking below a number which we have for our fairer contribution. But if you look at US, the way to think about it is that in these swing markets where pricing has dropped below $160 or $155 broadly, even a $20 movement or $15 movement is good enough to get everything back on track. I think it is just that it's at the edge of where we think it is not acceptable.
The $20, $15, $20 move in some of these contracts would make us move to start accepting those contracts.
Sure, sir. That's very helpful. Just the second question that I had on the CapEx front, given where we are in the markets currently, and given that the closures that we were expecting, say, out of Europe or even in China, it's taking a bit longer, just wanted to understand at what point in time would you consider pushing out the CapEx? Or is there any thought process that at a certain price or at a certain level of where the industry is, you would think about either postponing the CapEx or relooking at that altogether? I do understand India is a growing market, but just wanted to understand how you would think of that given where the industry is today. Thank you.
In terms of CapEx, Vivek, I think fundamentally, we are not adding any CapEx in any market other than India. In fact, we were the first ones to stop the expansion in the US, way ahead of others because we were anticipating a market condition. If you really look at our approach, it has been that we serve markets which are fundamentally more robust, which are the regional market of North and South America. That's what we are focusing our American unit as. We have sufficient capacity to feed those markets, and also to service our UK demand for our bicarbonate unit. We also were ahead of the curve in terms of shutting down capacity in UK. Had we not done it this year, it would have been far worse.
In fact, the UK has shown about 100 crores swing from what it would have been to what it is now. We do expect by next quarter, they should be very close to break-even and next year on, start making profits. The UK is going to focus fundamentally on bicarbonate and salt, and they're to our very higher grade of food and feed and pharma. If you look at capacities in India also, most of them have happened, while we have deep bottleneck soda ash with at a very low CapEx, we've spent most of the capital towards adding capacities in salt, bicarbonate, silica, and FOS, all pretty much not in the commoditized space.
Even in the commoditized space, if you look at the CapEx which are highlighted for dense ash, for 350,000 tons of dense ash, spending INR 150 crore is a very, very competitive number. It is not an easy number that anybody can get to. We have the flexibility to get there because of the resources we have access to. It's also reconfiguration of one of the existing units within Mittapur which already exists. We're not putting fresh steel and cement on the ground. We are reconfiguring something there in Mittapur to get that additional outcome. Clearly, we are very conscious.
Even at this time, we are going to be one of the key directions and we have been seeing for the last one year has been, while the market is going through this challenging space, we are extremely focused on making sure we serve the customers who make fair returns for us and serve them well, at the same time keep continue to drive our fixed cost down while keeping the efficiencies up, mothballing units and equipments which don't make competitive efficiency, and rationalize capital in a way that it makes a positive cash flow for us. So this year, for example, if you look at the cash flow for three quarters, it's about INR 700 crore negative at the operating level, of which INR 350 crore is on the forex movement on the debt taken, debt we already have.
The real number hasn't moved up. But 350, which is additional, is fundamentally a sharp reduction, and that has been achieved because of a sharp reduction in CapEx expenditure from last year to this year. Going forward next year, there are further going to be sharper reductions. When we announce these plans, these are going to be done very judiciously.
Sure, sir. That's very clear. Just one last clarification. There are no one-offs, sir, uncommon costs in the US, correct? That's all a normalized number, the ones that have reported, correct? No one-off costs or no one-off expenses to note?
No, there's no one-off call. If, as I mentioned, there's only one one-off issue in the revenue line because of the quantity commitments we had with customers. We had to ship them at a pricing which we would normally not have done. There probably is going to be one more shipment which will go to Southeast Asia. But other than that, we've actually stopped taking orders at those numbers.
Sure, sir. Thank you so much, and all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we request you to please restrict your questions to two per participant. You may rejoin the queue if you have follow-up questions. Our next question comes from the line of Ankur Periwal from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
H i, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Just on, you know, the U.S. part of our business, if you can help with what was the volume or revenue share from exports for the quarter or for the nine-month period?
Well, we'll share that with you. This quarter had a higher volume of exports, but we'll share that with you.
Sure. Where I was coming from was, you know, the subpar profitability that we are seeing in US is largely because of this export order which probably will not be there in the coming quarters. Or even the base profitability in US given the lower pricing contract is also slightly under pressure.
So I think what we will do, we will start sharing the export volumes with you. The subpar in export also is only in.
Ladies and gentlemen, the line of the management seems to have disconnected. Please stay with us while we reconnect with the management. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your patience. We have reconnected with the management. Over to you, sir.
I was mentioning that we will start sharing the split. But in terms of exports, I think there's only one region which is posing a challenge, which is exports to Asia, especially to Southeast Asia. Other regions are not a challenge at this point of time. And the prices have held, and while they've come down, but they've not gone to a level where they're holding at a very fairly good, acceptable margins.
Sure, sir. I was referring to, you know, the local sales in US, given the slightly lower pricing there. Will, let's say, the EBITDA margin on a per-kg basis will be similar versus last year? Or it will be slightly down if I look at it from CY27?
I said, on average, you could take $5 down. It's not too much. I mean, in the sense that I think, given the market conditions. But our volumes in domestic have also increased. I think to that extent, it has more or less compensated for whatever we would have lost in terms of pricing.
Sure. A second question on, you know, the margins, both in India and Kenya. Kenya, we have seen, you know, pretty healthy uptick there. And, you know, same in terms of volume growth in India. But somehow, Indian margins are slightly lower. Any specific reason? And the same question on Kenya margins. What should be the steady-state number there?
I think Kenya would remain where it is. I think Kenya, we are not seeing any major changes in their numbers, this quarter to next quarter. It's all going to be volume-dependent. They sold more, so they've had a better number this quarter. Hopefully, once the 50,000 ton comes on stream, that will be at a slightly higher pricing and probably would give them even higher margin. As far as India is concerned, I think, broadly, we expect the current numbers to run through. The margin numbers in India have broadly been more or less steady, except for some pockets where prices have gone down by about INR 500 or INR 600 a ton in soda ash. But otherwise, other products have held more or less up.
But India also has had one-off impact of certain costs which they had to incur this quarter, to get ready for the next year.
Okay. Okay, that's it from my side. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sumant Kumar from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
My question is for the solar. Solar was driving overall soda ash demand earlier. So how is the scenario globally, say, for China and other developed countries?
Solar still is driving the demand, clearly. I think it can turn on a dime. If you look at even lithium, which was a big driver, suddenly, lithium prices have rebounded. Clearly, it's a long-term direction. What really has impacted the solar in Southeast Asia, the demand in Southeast Asia, and why so much material is oversupplied there is because many of our customers have had a challenge because of the high duty put by US on exports from there. As that is getting rationalized, I think over a period of time, I think it will settle down. I think this is very much an impact of what US has done.
The US was a large market for and many of these capacities were set up by Chinese companies to continue to export to the US. So clearly, I think that has unwound itself. And hopefully, with the deals being signed and contracts restarting, this should settle.
Overall, we have seen in the past also, export has a lower margin business. And now, because of tariff issue, we are our margin is lower, and domestic demand in US is lower. So do you think next couple of you are restricting your sales to domestic US market and not exporting, minimizing the export? So do you think, the margin, overall profitability of the US business is going to normalize in the next couple of quarters?
I think in terms of what we are seeing is that the prices will have to rebound at some point because many companies will be taking decisions what we are taking. So I think it is not going to be one company's decisions will drive overall behavior. But in terms of the way we approach is that we really look at the market and do our plans. I completely agree with you. Domestic market for all our businesses is where we get the highest realization. And nearby markets are where we get the next highest realization. So for us, the nearby markets tend to be Southern American markets and parts of Far East. And they would focus in those markets rather than extend themselves beyond that and do as much of a volume in those markets as possible.
At the same time, I think the UK has completely withdrawn. So part of the UK demand for internal consumption of soda ash is being met by our US operation. And in India, I think we are able to continue to sell because India is a net importer. We still need more capacity to come in India. But I think with the current pricing, the new capacities may not make sense. It is only going to be de-bottlenecking capacities.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now take our last question from the line of Nitesh Dhoot from Anand Rathi Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I had missed the initial part of the discussion, so sorry if I'm repeating there. While we do understand that the pricing pressure is there on the other markets, but in UK, after the discontinuation of soda ash, we had been guiding around INR 250 crores of EBITDA for FY26 from the fixed cost savings, etc., and a positive quarter by Q3. Our nine-month EBITDA is about INR 110 crores, but Q3, as I understand, seems to have a one-time impact. But by when can we get to the guided EBITDA of INR 250 crores or about INR 60, 65 crores quarterly EBITDA run rate and a positive quarter there?
I think, as I mentioned, this quarter, while we were aiming to get pretty close to that number, we were impacted by one-off event which led to certain production issues because of the snowstorm they had, which really was not an insurable event in many ways. I think we have had an issue with that piece. But clearly, I think we are making progress. The fixed cost savings have come through. Part of that journey will be completed in Q4. Certainly, during next year, we will be fully on board with the statement we made. Also, the pharmaceutical salt unit is now pretty much on track to increase its capacity utilization. As that utilization increases, that would also contribute to the overall number in UK.
I must say that we are behind by almost six months in UK in terms of turnaround, not in terms of fixed cost reduction, but overall in terms of getting the margin, high-margin revenue up in that market.
All right. That's helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. R. Mukundan for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you to all the participants. This has been a short call mainly because of the inordinate failing which happened at the bridge at the chorus. Hopefully, we'll have smoother calls going forward. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for the call today. As I mentioned, during Q3 FY26, the soda ash market continued to remain oversupplied, especially for US. The pricing in the export market, in particular, had impacted them. That has had an adverse impact on the overall number. Operating environment while remaining challenging, we do believe that the actions we are taking on the ground in terms of cost discipline and portfolio resilience would hold us in good stead.
The other actions we have taken in terms of operational efficiency, tighter cost control, and proactive market management would position us. Albeit this switchover from growing to making this cost management as one of the key has been something which we have done in the last two quarters very sharply. So while the near term does call for caution, which we are advocating, we remain confident of companies' strategic direction, which essentially means to put capacities which are non-cyclical, also put only very low-capex capacities which yield higher return, and be very cash-focused in our operations. We also believe the balance sheet strength and the capability of our team will ensure that we navigate this well. So we will continue to act with discipline to ensure we are well-positioned as we come out of this challenging time to capture opportunities as market conditions improve. Thank you all.
And see you for Q4, FY26.
Thank you. On behalf of Tata Chemicals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.