Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q4 and FY 2026 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, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. We have with us today R. Mukundan, Managing Director and CEO, and 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 R. Mukundan to begin proceedings of the call.
Thank you. Thank you, Darwin. Good evening and welcome everyone to our Q4 FY 2026 earnings call. I'll start the discussion with a brief overview of industry and then our operational highlights across business and geographies. The demand scenario across geographies. Global demand is expected to be broadly flat in the near term, constrained by weak macroeconomic conditions, and more specifically amongst all our products due to soda ash excess capacity. The recent Middle East conflict has driven up the energy and raw material prices, increasing production costs across various parts of the world, especially other than U.S. Also, it has increased our shipping and transportation expenses. Despite these pressures, I think there is no clear evidence as of now at present of demand erosion, but however, a prolonged conflict could begin to weigh on demand.
India continues to exhibit relatively robust demand growth with higher capacity utilization across all sectors. China and U.S. are witnessing flat demand. Mainly in U.S., it's due to the reduced offtake in the container glass segment. The geopolitical risk and ongoing tariff uncertainties continue to cloud the global demand visibility. This tariff uncertainty is mainly with respect to U.S., China tariff issues. While the pace of economic recovery is expected to be slow in the year ahead, we do believe solar glass and lithium carbonate are expected to continue to drive demand, especially since the world is expected it would certainly pivot towards more renewable and more natural energy sources. Soda ash globally would be gaining from this growth in this segment. In terms of supply scenario across geographies, China inventories remain elevated.
The market sentiment softened slightly during the quarter Q4. In addition to that, I think while several things happened, the Chinese units did begin to slow down, and they carry out their maintenance work. One unit, which is about 800,000 pool-based plant, sort of had an expiration of production permit, and it has started to do maintenance work. We also know in U.S., one of the producers with 1,360,000 tons capacity around, has also mothballed its plant. Solvay, as we know already, had done about 180,000 tons of reduced production from their Spanish plant, and this process is only gonna help us to balance the demand-supply equation.
In terms of pricing, while in the month of March, there were certain corrections, what did happen towards the end of March, the prices saw a slight increase to compensate for energy and raw material prices and higher shipping cost. U.S. domestic prices remained flat. China spot export offers remained steady between 150 and 170, and this resulted in Southeast Asia prices remaining unremunerative, especially for the U.S. producers. Overall, pricing is re-expected to remain range-bound and react to mainly the energy cost increases, which some of the producers may pass on. We'll move to operational highlights. In terms of the consolidated performance, the revenue was down by 2% at INR 3,438 crore compared to previous year. The lower exports from U.S. was offset by higher volumes in India.
EBITDA was at INR 274 crore compared to INR 327 Q4 of it, mainly on account of subdued prices across all geographies. An exceptional charge of INR 1,837 crore is provided on account of impairment of goodwill in U.S. and INR 159 crore of deferred tax write-off. This tax write-off is expected to be reviewed once the unit starts to making profits. Profit after tax before exceptional item was INR -279 crore compared to INR -12 last year. Net debt without leases as on March 31st stood at INR 5,961 crore. In terms of standalone, the revenue from operations stood at INR 1,254 crore, up 3% compared to previous year, same quarter. EBITDA at INR 216 was down by 6% due to lower realization.
Profit after tax from continuing operations was INR 48 crores, down 51% due from Q4 of last year. During the quarter, we acquired Novabay Pte. Ltd. This acquisition was completed on March 19th, 2026. In addition to this, 50 kilotons of electrically calcined soda ash in Kenya was operationalized. Unit-wise in India, this non-soda in India, Gujarat facility achieved 1,000,000 tons of soda ash production. The performance is higher compared to previous year. However, price drop was offset by higher volume due to mainly due to higher volumes. Drop in EBITDA is due to increase in fixed cost compared to previous year. U.S. export volumes were lower. Southeast Asia market realizations were unremunerative. I spoke about the impairment charge and the deferred tax write-off recognized in the books.
U.K. had lower revenue due to lower volumes, partly offset by pricing. PBT is higher than previous year. Increase in volumes in Kenya was partially offsetting the lower realization. Singapore acquisition, as I mentioned, was completed during the quarter. Rallis saw an overall revenue growth of 6%, volume growth of 5% and price growth of 1%, driven by growth in both crop care and seeds business. Overall, when you look at the context of strategy, the non-soda ash revenue grew 14% from INR 6,118 crores in FY 2025 to INR 6,946 crore in FY 2026. This is in line with company's focus to grow non-cyclical business and non-soda ash business. In conclusion, geopolitical developments in West Asia since late February have led to disruption in supply chain. These have resulted in higher costs.
This impact has been varied across geographies. Overall sales performance remains steady. Management is focused on reinforcing supply chain planning, maintaining cost discipline, improving operational agility to address near-term disruptions. Our priorities remain firmly aligned to protecting margin, preserving cash flows, and maintaining balance sheet strength. We also continue to adopt a very disciplined approach to capital allocation, and we want to ensure resilience through this current phase of cycle. We would be focusing on growing non-soda ash revenue in line with long-term strategic objectives. With that, I close my comments and hand it back to moderator to open for Q&A.
Thank you very much. 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 please use handsets while asking a question and to please limit themselves to two questions per participant. You may rejoin the queue in case you need to ask further questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Saurabh Jain from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Can you please expand a bit on the disruptions that you're noticing because of the Middle East conflict? In particular, how is it impacting your raw material sourcing across your regions? Any outlook you would have that if the conflict stretches from here, can it materially impact your availability to procure your raw materials?
Thank you, Saurabh. I think firstly, I would say that U.S. operations remains largely insulated from this disruptions. The U.K. operation also largely is insulated because the key element for them is the brine which they bring from their own brine wells. In addition to that, they did see some increase in spike in the unhedged portion of the gas, but this is only a price issue, not an availability issue. Part of that price increase, we have also informed the customers and have also made the requisite changes there. With respect to India thankfully has been working with imported coal mainly from Indonesia, which is not disrupted. It's continuing as we speak.
Of course, there's a movement in pricing for which we have taken price changes. Our biggest issue in India has been mainly the availability of imported limestone. While we have adequate stock, we've also moved to blended domestic and imported limestone, which is enabling us to run the unit well. At least we don't see any big issues for the next three months. I would say amongst all the units, the one which probably we need to watch closely is the Kenyan unit, which depends on HFO. As of now, I think they've got about 40 days of supply. We are monitoring this closely. The HFO comes from Middle East, and we need to ensure that we have alternate sources about which we're working through the system.
All in all, I think except for one key element, which is HFO, which is bought for Kenya, all other units are absolutely safe and sound from the input disruptions. The big issue for us which we are trying to monitor is, while we have passed on the cost increases to customers, would any of our customers be under pressure in terms of the impact from this crisis? Up to now, we have not seen it in the marketplace, but we remain completely watchful on that account.
Understood. Do you also have any ammonia needs in our domestic India manufacturing?
Yeah. I think there has been a notification on ammonia. I'm glad you brought that up because, while it is a very small quantity, it is nonetheless a quantity which is cycled through in terms of, you know, one tanker for every 15 days or so. Up to now, we have adequate supply. We are able to source from the market. I think the fertilizer units have been advised not to supply to non-fertilizer users. We've written to government that this order is going to impact all of us. As of now, we are fine, but I think we are closely monitoring it, and we are also sure government will look into this. It is, it's about 1% of the entire ammonia consumption in the country, and hence should not disrupt the fertilizer for the farmers. At the same time, this were made available to the industry as freely as it was before. I think we wouldn't have any issues with respect to any of our production challenge in India.
Understood. That is very helpful. A related question will be that you talked about cost inflation you're noticing in different production facilities across the regions. Can you also give us some sense what kind of price hikes you would have taken in different regions, and also whether all of the raw material cost inflation that you would have been noticing now, does it also need more price hikes or everything is factored in?
In terms of the co-price impact, I think the cost impact, if you look at U.S., it's mainly in the diesel, which is used in the diesel vehicles which we run in the plant for the mobile units which are there. Overall in the cost structure it is not a big number. We are more or less hedged in terms of our gas. I don't think there's gonna be a big issue there. What we are certainly doing is the shipping costs have increased, so to our customers when we ship them, these are being passed on to customer in a very transparent manner. We are not doing beyond what is the cost increase. In terms of U.K., certainly we have informed the customers.
The issue in U.K. why I'm not commenting is, our unhedged portion actually moves on a daily basis. If I pick a day where the spike is high, then it'll look like the position is uncovered and we are not recovering fully. I think we would rather wait for a month or so to say whether the price increase is fully covering the cost or not. As of now, on a weighted average basis, it does cover, but we'll know only as we move along in the direction move forward.
As far as India is concerned, again, we've covered the cost increases fully, whatever we had in terms of the energy cost as well as the additional cost to get the transport material from the markets in both in Indonesia and in Middle East for limestone and coal respectively. All in all, in all places we have been able to pass on the increase. Kenya too has done the same. In Kenya it's not a price issue, it's a availability issue which we are working through. As I mentioned, we are hopeful the next shipment will enable us to go beyond the 45 day cover we have today.
Understood. Okay. Sure. A related question would be that, you know, if the RM costs kind of, you know, don't really increase from here, is it a safe assumption that the margins that we delivered in Q4, that those are the bottom margins? If the costs don't increase materially from here, there is a possibility that we could do better on the profitability or you still would, you know, believe some sort of margin pressure could sustain in the 1 Q as well?
I can only speak about what we have witnessed up to now, and this is something which, you know, could change in future. I think we are fully covered. As far as the numbers are concerned, I think they should reflect what we've seen. Going forward, if something happens dramatic that we cannot engage, we'll have to probably come to and talk to all the analysts and investors. As of now, we are fully covered. What we are watching is the Kenyan situation.
Understood. Okay. Are you also noticing any inclinations from your customers to try to ask for, to shift away from the short-term contract into the midterm contract or so that? Any of that kind of excitement? Are you noticing any of those signs?
All I can say is that customers have become now more sensitive to domestic sourcing because they have realized the difficulty of depending on imports. We are seeing, witnessing, I can say especially in India, those who were importing have certainly made a request to us to increase the allocation because their view is that going forward, they would like to reduce the dependency on imports while they will maintain a share of imports versus domestic supply. The realization that they would not want to take a risk on the imported material is a positive on the market front.
Sure. Thank you so much, and all the best at John Deere with you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you are requested to please restrict yourselves to two questions only. You may rejoin the queue if you have any further questions. Our next question comes from the line of Sumant Kumar from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Hi. My question is for [inaudible]. Sequentially, we have seen an improvement in EBITDA, okay, from loss to profit. Can we say this is because of you have cut down your export where you're making losses? If it is so, what is the mix of domestic sales for U.S. and export mix?
You're right. I think broadly you would, you're attributing to not selling in the unremunerative markets, which today for us is mainly Southeast Asia. That is what has happened during the quarter.
Regarding fuel cost, in this quarter, to what extent we have an impact because of higher fuel cost in the market across geography?
No. In, in terms of cost, I think we have no impact at all. I think because usually we have different levels of stock and different positions of hedging. For example, in India we usually carry three to four months of stock. I think that more or less, if would help us to work through, and I think if at all any increases will come through going forward. We do know the coming shipments are gonna be expensive, so we have actually spoken to customers and taken the corrective actions there. As far as the U.S. is concerned, as I mentioned, the gas is fully hedged, and I think we are keeping a watch on those prices.
Our biggest issue continues to be in Kenya, where I think while we have a cover for 45 days, beyond that cover, I think we'll have to buy at the market rate. The market rate has actually shot up quite a bit in terms of going up almost to 50%-60%, which we will, which we are engaged with customers and have informed them and, we are dealing with this in a very transparent basis.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Vivek Rajamani from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you so much for the presentation. You did mention that you are seeing a few closures or some capacity-sticking maintenances. You did give examples of a capacity in the U.S. and in China. Just with respect to that, could you just talk about how soda ash flows have started to change, if they have because of the conflict? And if you could see some relief with respect to, you know, some of the regions potentially slowing their exports or you could see some relief in terms of pricing, which you are obviously suffering because of the sort of dumping that was happening. Are you starting to see some sort of relief because of these flows? Or do you expect that to kind of happen over the next couple of quarters?
See, I think, what we are certainly seeing is the imports have slowed down. They've become almost half of what it used to be pre-conflict. That's the net effect, the result of the slowing down of exports which Iran was doing as well as Turkey, which was coming through the Red Sea. I think those two have certainly slowed. The movement from other exporters have reduced during the period because I'm talking about the first month of April. This trend is likely to continue in our view. Certainly in India we are seeing an impact. Customers are also very clearly wanting to have a higher share of domestic supplies. I think that's all we can say. In terms of any other pressure point in terms of prices coming down, it's actually going up because shipping costs have increased. The landed cost in India has gone up because of the shipping cost.
Sure, sir. That's clear. It would also be fair to say that the increase is purely a cost of an exercise, so margins will potentially have to wait for a bit longer to kind of benefit. Would that be a fair statement?
It would vary between market to market, but it's a fair statement. There's a play which will happen because of rupee depreciation. That also brings in a natural protection for the Indian market. We'll see all these effects play out. We do believe that it's gonna be positive for domestic producers and domestic sales in every part of the world.
Sure, sir. Thanks. Just one last clarification on U.K. You were reporting positive numbers for the last three quarters. Could you just explain what happened this time around with respect to EBITDA? Thank you.
Yeah. This time the main decision which we have taken was there were certain operational changes which we had to do with respect to our product and product production capability and capacity. We preponed the shutdown, which was planned in April, into the month of March. This was done proactively to have a better run next year. That's the impact you're seeing in terms of numbers. Otherwise it would go back to the normal number. In fact, because of the preponing of the maintenance, we do believe that we'll be have much better operating parameters than what we had before.
Sure, sir. Thank you, and all the very best.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ankur Periwal from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. First question, you know, in your opening remarks, you did highlighted, you know, some plants, either going for a longer, sort of, you know, maintenance or maybe mothballing. Does it change the overall demand-supply dynamics, given the incremental supply that was coming from China?
No, I think, see, the point which I wanna highlight on China is that their inventories are fairly high even today. The inventories are close to 1,500,000 -1,800,000 tons, but it's been stable. I think unless the stock levels come down, we cannot see the major impact flowing through to market. We will sort of highlight this inventory level in every quarter. As of now, I think it's pretty range-bound as I highlighted. The Chinese prices, while they do show an increase in dollar terms, in the renminbi terms, they have remained more or less flat at about RMB 1,250 or so per ton.
Sure, sir. Just a follow-up there. There was an expectation that probably, you know, the synthetic, the older plants in China may see a shutdown with this natural sort of, you know, production increasing. Any updates, anything on that side? Or it's still the same capacity?
It's the same capacity, but they're running, many of them are taking a maintenance closure, and many of them are running at a lower utilization. Clearly, what I would say is that the early signs are that we are beginning to see some movement, but it's not today of a number which is of a substantial nature to sort of highlight. I would certainly say that it is beginning, and the numbers are also showing. We've also looked at the listed companies and their financial numbers. Their operating parameters are under financial stress.
Sure, sir. Just, lastly on our, you know, the cash flow generation from the business. We have seen a sharp dip in operating cash flows, which is, you know, in a way, being led by the working capital decline as well. Sorry, increase as well. Any thoughts there of how should one look at, you know, the cash flow generation across the businesses? Or is there any one entity which is impacting, you know, the overall company's cash flows? Your comments over there. Thank you.
No, I think fundamentally we have to ensure that we exit from unremunerative market, which we have done. I think barring for last quarter, we did do one shipment to Southeast Asia, which was unremunerative because there was already a preexisting contract. Other than that, we have now stopped it, so we would only see this improve going forward. Also, since we are focusing more on domestic and the proportion is mostly higher with domestic, you would also find that the working capital cycle improve, and that should also release some cash.
Sure, sir. That's helpful. That's it from my side. Thank you. I'll hand over to Kristy.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. The first question is in terms of the increase in operating cost, given that we are safeguarded from the inventory. Generally speaking, increase in the fuel cost as well as the logistic cost, what would be the increase in OpEx across our four facilities, given that if the new, you know, high-cost utilities come into play? Thank you.
I can't give a specific number. All I can say is that the logistic cost on the output side is mostly a pass-through for customers because it's part of the contractual arrangement which we have. Whereas the input cost increases is what I said we've already transparently communicated to customers and passed on those increases. In all the units, it's been more or less been at par with what our cost increase has been. Except in U.K., where I said because of the fluctuating gas prices, we are not able to pin down. On an average, it is fully passed on to the customers.
Sure. Sure. Second question is, you talked about multiple capacities, getting, you know, in shutdowns or probably extended shutdowns. Has this happened particularly post the conflict, or was it, you know, it happened before that? I mean, just to get understanding about what and all capacities have been shut or how much capacity has been shut post-conflict. Earlier was it in short, not there in the system? Thank you.
Yeah. I think most of them had initiated this process, I think pre-conflict or conflict. It only broadly may have accelerated their decision. Because we are talking about a period in quarter where the conflict was the visible effect started to show itself towards the end of March. Really I think this was a pre-conflict issue. We are monitoring the situation and we'll give the better update in terms of post-conflict, what are the changes in the next quarter re-results call, yeah.
Thanks a lot. All the best, sir.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Arjun Khanna from Kotak Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Sure. Thank you for taking my question. My first query is on our new CapEx plan. We have enumerated almost INR 15 crores of additional CapEx. Could you help us with what kind of IRR we expect to generate on this project? These four projects.
Sorry. I think, if you look at the capacity expansion, which is immediate, which is INR 100 crore, which is what will come on stream immediately, in about 12 to 14 months' time. This return is expected to be in the upwards of 20%, which is our cutoff. This is a bottlenecking on our current plan because we do believe with the current steam capacity, we can produce more, and the market needs more every year. The precipitated silica plant is undergoing a review, detailed review in terms of various elements. If this CapEx were to stay, this will be towards anywhere between 15%-20% at the low end or 20% at the higher end.
The dense ash is actually repurposing of our existing plant. The bulk of the expenditure is on repurposing. This probably is gonna be the least cost dense ash plant built anywhere. We would be exiting at after the decision is taken from our cement business and we'll be using the same facilities to make dense ash. Valinokkam , by the same token again, is in the range of 20%.
Sure. sir, just on the Valinokkam , if one looks at the intensity, it is almost, capital intensity is 2x of that of Mithapur. Why would IRR be 20% unless the selling price is double?
No, I think the big issue you know, which I want to highlight is in salt cost structure.
Right.
Production cost is one element, but the logistics cost is equally high.
The freight, right.
Yeah, freight. What we will be saving in this is primarily the southern markets, and we have mapped out the southern markets can take easily the easy. What we will probably have a slightly higher capital cost is more than offset by the logistic cost which we'll be saving.
Sure. We generally sell this to a group company, right? Tata Consumer. In terms of our contracts, is it on a cost plus basis? I know in 2019, during the time of demerger we had mentioned. Has there been any change, in, the agreement since then? What are we currently making on, related party transactions?
No, all this is a part of the same structure, and we are continuing to do exactly as it has been approved by the board, and our arrangements remain the same. This has also been reviewed by the management of Tata Consumer and, which is one of the reasons we are going ahead with it.
Sure. Just to understand, for the iodized salt, we are looking at 15%-20% IRR for these projects. Obviously, soda ash will be very remunerative. Just on the precipitated silica plant, current HDS prices, and if you look at various grades, it seems to be at around INR 80 a kilo. I don't get how you'd be making 15%-20% margins.
Sorry, on
IRR.
Yeah. Again.
On the Cuddalore facility.
Yeah, yeah. I think, see, the big, big difference is that we are in South India, and silica is a very bulk commodity, and logistic cost is extremely high. We are the only unit which will be in south. The rest of the units are in Gujarat. There is a freight cost difference between them, and we are supplying only the tire industry.
Sure. Maybe I'll take this later. Just a follow-up and the last question is, given that we have taken a write down of goodwill in the U.S., given soda ash prices, does that mean that, logically we won't be undergoing any CapEx in the U.S. market?
No, indeed. We have made it clear that our CapEx for the soda ash business is going to be only when the cycle returns, and we are very clear about it. The capacity which we spoke about, dense ash, is a repurposing of the existing plant. Other than that, we have no other plans in terms of investment there. Our investments are fundamentally focused on non-soda ash businesses, which is bicarbonate, salt, and bromine and various other chemicals. That's what we are focusing because this is. The cycle is still not complete. Only when we get a very clear sign that the cycle is shifting is when we will start investing.
Our net debt, ex leases close to INR 6,000 crores. How do you see that play out over the next year? What CapExes do we have lined up for FY 2027?
Yeah, around INR 1,300 crores CapEx for next year, Arjun. Next year we expect the debt to remain more or less similar levels because the pressure on the business is there for next year also broadly. We'll expect the debt to be more or less at similar level as current year March ending 2026. We are not changed so much.
CapEx.
At the power.
What, what would we be spending this INR 1,300 crores on?
Mostly on maintenance CapEx we have in both Mithapur and U.S., plus some CapEx on Walino cum silica and some CapEx also in Singapore. We acquired a company recently. Broadly is maintenance CapEx in all geographies, mainly Mithapur and U.S., and growth CapEx in South and Singapore.
Sure. Fair. Thank you and wishing you all the best.
Thank you, Arjun.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Akella from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Thank you so much, sir. Just two from my side. One is with regard to the valuation review that was conducted for the U.S. operations. Did that cover the mining rights assets also that are part of the U.S. books? I believe those are fairly large amount.
Yeah. I talk about that. See, in the U.S. cap, there's no mining. There's only a India concept. There's only goodwill in the U.S. books. Mining rights only in the India and the IFRS part here. We only impaired the goodwill and not the mining rights. $208 million is the impairment of goodwill which is there. The mining rights remains intact. U.S. cap, there's no mining rights. It's only goodwill.
Okay. Were these mining rights also assessed, in terms of, you know, the value of that they carry at this point in time, by the valuer or not at all?
Yeah, they are intact. See, we value entire business as a whole, we see what is the value worth now. With a shortfall first we'll now talk of goodwill. This INR 208 is only goodwill, which means the mining rights are intact in the India's books.
We are depreciating the mining rights.
Yeah, over 100 years based upon the life. We take a write up every year on 100 for last 10 years now going forward. That is a gradual drop in that based upon the mine life leftover. Broadly, that's the way we look at things here.
Okay, got it. Just the other one on the silica plant at Cuddalore, the INR 725 crore investment, would it be possible to just help us with, you know, the broad expected revenues and maybe EBITDA from that project, the 50,000 tons we are putting up?
We will do it offline. We can't talk about that here. We'll do it separately.
Yeah.
The next call we'll update you watching all of people. I thought very early stages now here, but we'll talk about more about that maybe in the Q1 quarterly call.
Okay. I mean, 20%, you know, ROCE would mean something like, say INR 150 crore order of, you know, earnings, EBIT from that project. Would that be a fair assessment?
We worked out based upon those numbers. We'll talk more about that maybe in end of Q1. The assessment is done based upon the market view of what's gonna happen. See, we look at this plant, there's no, I mean, incremental fixed costs. It's the same plant only we're going to have there. We go into the same location, wanna add more capacities. Therefore, the fixed cost would remain same. You get operating leverage there. Therefore, you'll be ending up earning more EBITDA per ton. That's a broad concept. It's, it's not a greenfield. It's more like a, within the same location, adding more machines to the people being more or less constant.
Yeah, it is in that range. I mean, it's broadly in the range, yeah, obviously.
I see. Okay. Yeah, because I mean the INR 725 crores is all incremental CapEx, right? I mean, you know.
It's INR 50 in costs.
Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. I'll take it offline. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Atul from ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
No, thanks. My questions have been answered. Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor & Company. Please go ahead. Saket, your line has been unmuted.
Hello.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.[inaudible] , sir. Hope I'm audible.
Yeah.
Yes. Sir, firstly, what are the signs of the incremental demand from the solar glass manufacturers, particularly some new capacities were anticipated to commercialize for the current financial year, and what's the outlook going ahead, especially from the solar glass? Then, sir, the update on the re-initiation of the anti-dumping duty, sir. What's the update on the same? These are my two questions.
I think the ADD is the thing which is being investigated along with the ADD is also safeguard duty, which will have quantity restriction. That's what the government is looking at. Rather than just put duty on, they also want to get the quantity restrictions in place. The second piece is on the solar glass. I think it's safe to assume that when the solar glass units are running, we would be anywhere between approximately 7,500, 10,000 tons of demand every month for the dense ash incrementally during the initial period. We'll come back with the exact specific, you know, how this demand is gonna grow as each one of the units comes on stream.
As per the program outlined by the solar glass manufacturer, what is the anticipated demand? Sir, have you worked out a number on the same? I think the big corporates [crosstalk] are coming with.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which is the main reason we are doing this unit in the conversion of dense ash plant, cement plant to dense ash plant, is to cover that demand. We do expect at least 50% utilization as it comes on stream, and the balance with the growth, which is why we are doing the repurposing of the cement unit.
Okay. Sir, currently, with the type of geopolitical scenario playing out and imported material, engine, what kind of, How are the imports being affected on a monthly basis from the other geographic into the country?
I think broadly one would say that anywhere between 70,000-80,000 ton or 1 lakh ton was the imports, depending on which month you pick up, but that has reduced to half right now.
Okay. Those are supporting the domestic volume trend. It is being supplied by the domestic players.
Yeah. That is what has happened. There's increased focus on the domestic players, and we are supporting the Indian customers as well as we can from the domestic source. All the players are doing the same.
Sir, in terms of this flue gas, flue gas, part of the story, how is the sodium bicarbonate demand currently shaping up, and what are our utilization levels in terms of the same?
I won't have the exact number of how much, what percentage of our output goes there. You know, we increased our output from about 140,000 ton to 200,000 ton in a year, which is fully sold out now. With the increased production from power from coal-fired plants, this demand is gonna continue to grow. The biggest buyer is, of course, NTPC, and we do work with them very closely.
Last point is on the freight and forwarding charges, sir. When we look at the standalone numbers, the volume increase is, I think from 2 lakh 15,000 metric ton to 2 lakh 22,000, whereas the freight and forwarding charges have gone up from INR 148 crore- INR 166 crore. Similarly, the employee benefit costs have also risen significantly from INR 67 crore- INR 84 crore. What explains these two discrete trends, sir?
The employee one is the year-end adjustments which we make. It'd be ideal if you took the full year number, which is 293 versus 313 on the employee side.
Right.
On the freight side, you wanna get back, Nandu?
Yeah, I'll come back on that separately. I don't have the numbers offhand.
Okay. 10% increase.
Thank you. We'll come back.
It is not 10%, sir. I think so it's a higher amount. INR 20 crore, yeah, more than that, sir. From INR 150 crore- INR 166 crore, where the volume has not risen commensurate to that. That was the reason for my question.
Okay.
Sir, partly in the non-soda ash revenue, what are we including in this INR 6,000 crore revenue part? What is the major item that we have?
Everything other than soda ash, fundamentally, bicarbonate, salt, silica, FOSSENCE, bromine, chlorine, cement, also Rallis, all that is included in this.
Okay. Thank you, sir, and all the best for the team.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have no further questions, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to hand the conference over to R. Mukundan for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you for joining the call today. It's been a difficult quarter and a difficult operating environment. I think what we are focused on is disciplined execution, strengthening the supply chain responsiveness, maintaining strict cost and cash flow discipline, reinforcing the portfolio action in terms of moving towards a higher percentage of non-soda ash business. These actions taken over the next few quarters will improve further the outcomes in terms of margin and profitability. Our commitment to customer service and operational continuity, especially in the current times, remains very focused. Our long-term value creation remains one of the key top agendas which we have for that. We have an experienced team which is well-positioned to manage the current uncertainties and continue to deliver sustainable performance for all shareholders. Thank you, and see you all for the Q1 FY 2027 results.
Thank you. On behalf of Tata Chemicals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your line.