Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our 2Q FY 2024 earnings conference call for Castrol India Limited. Please note that all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and you can ask your questions after the opening statements. If you need assistance during the call, please press star, then zero on your touch-tone phone to reach the operator. Also, please note that this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict. We have with us Mr. Sandeep Sangwan, Managing Director, Castrol India Limited, and Mr. Deepesh Baxi, CFO and Whole Time Director, Castrol India Limited. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sangwan for his remarks.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining Castrol India's second quarter and first half 2024 earnings call. This is Sandeep Sangwan. I hope you and your families are in good health and doing well. We're delighted to announce the strong growth that Castrol India Limited achieved in the second quarter of 2024. Please note that our reporting follows the January to December calendar year, and therefore this is the second quarter for us. Our strong performance this quarter was driven by strategic brand and marketing investments. Continued innovation in our products and services, along with sustained brand investments, has also supported our revenue growth. Now, let me hand over to Deepesh, who will walk you through some of our key financial performance and key numbers for both the second quarter and the first half of this year.
Thanks, Sandeep, and good afternoon to all of you. We released our second quarter 2024 results yesterday, and I would like to share some key financial highlights with you. In 2Q24, we reported strong financial performance. Our revenue from operation was INR 1,398 crores, which is up 5% year-on-year from INR 1,334 crores in 2Q2023, and also up 6% compared to the sequential quarter of 1Q2024. Profit before tax was INR 314 crores, again up 3% year-on-year, compared to INR 305 crores in 1Q 2023 and 8% higher than 1Q 2024. Balancing volumes and margins enabled us to achieve strong performance in the first half of this year, which is the half-year ended June 30, 2024. Our revenues were INR 2,723 crores, representing a 4% increase from 1H 2023, and profit before tax rose by 2% to INR 606 crores compared to the first half of 2023. We are committed to maintaining our momentum in the coming quarters.
Potential stabilization of input costs in the later half of the year could signal a positive trend for the industry, and the Board of Directors in the meeting yesterday declared an interim dividend of INR 3.50 per share, which will be paid on or before 20th August 2024. I would now like to hand the call back to Sandeep.
Thank you, Deepesh. In addition to discussing our financial performance, I'd like to highlight some significant business developments at Castrol India. We launched three new variants of Castrol EDGE and on-demand performance product range through a 360-degree marketing campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan. Castrol expanded the auto care range by launching the Shiner Sponge for the bike and car care segment. This entire range of Castrol auto care products is now available in over 45,000 outlets and on e-commerce platforms in India. We have also launched Castrol CRB TURBOMAX+ CK-4, a top-tier truck lubricant that has been rigorously tested on key Indian OEM vehicles for 100,000 km. Castrol POWER1 India's Ultimate Motostar, the country's premier motorcycling talent search on MTV, has concluded. Out of over 50,000 registrations, three winners are now set to train at the LCR Honda Castrol MotoGP Team's racing facility in Europe.
The Castrol CRB TURBOMAX Pragati Ki Paathshaala and Badhte Raho Aage campaign has successfully concluded, empowering over 12,000 truckers across 35 cities. Sports associations play a crucial role in expanding audience engagement and brand visibility. We sponsor the television broadcasts of the ICC World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Wimbledon, leveraging their influence to enhance our reach. To enhance distribution and broaden market presence, Castrol added over 2,000 new outlets in rural areas, and with 534 Castrol Auto Service outlets, 28,500 bike points, 9,000 multi-brand car workshops, and our extensive dealer network, we now have a national footprint exceeding 135,000 outlets. We also inaugurated a state-of-the-art India Technology Center at our Patalganga plant to enhance innovation and development. This facility includes advanced blending and analytical testing equipment.
In the future, it will feature the latest testing capabilities for EVs and other thermal fluids to meet the needs of the Indian market. As part of our onward, upward, and forward strategy, we introduced Castrol all-immersion cooling fluids for data centers globally, and in India, our new next-gen lab will lead the development of high-performance sustainable fluids. We are also deploying proof of concepts with customers and partners to demonstrate the technology's commercial viability and sustainability. Reinforcing our commitment to sustainability, we commissioned a rainwater harvesting project at our Silvassa facility aimed at collecting and reusing almost about 800-1,000 kL of water annually, thus reducing freshwater consumption. We also set up a solar power plant with 1,200 panels over 10,000 sq m, achieving a 45% reduction in on-site CO2 emissions.
Our Paharpur plant marks seven years of operating what we call a DAFW track, which is a day away from work on account of any injury or any safety-related incident, which is a huge safety achievement. Thank you for your attention. I now invite you to share any questions, feedback, or views as we open the floor for discussions. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Sangwan and Mr. Baxi. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Dear participants, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Also, in lieu of the time, we will stick to two questions per person. If you have further questions, kindly rejoin the queue. Ladies and gentlemen, let us wait for a moment while the questions come in. The first question is from the line of Sahil Kanade from Asian Markets Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, just wanted to understand more on the data center. You said the cooling fluids are ready. Just wanted to understand what is the status and what is the potential revenue that we should expect out of this?
I think, Sahil, there's a lot of interest around data center thermal management, cooling fluids, etc. I think the right question, but we are very early in this opportunity area. So I think where we are is we have a range of fluids that are relevant for data center thermal management. As Castrol globally, we are setting up our R&D facility. It's in the process. We're investing INR 500 crore in our R&D facility on thermal management, looking at the future. I think it's too early to talk any revenue. I think because a lot of work is happening with our partners, customers around testing, proof of concept. A lot more to come, but that's all I can say at the moment.
Thanks. And so just to have some clarity on that, so is it that while you are working on this globally, is this primarily done for customers in India, or this will begin more as an offering to outside of India and then gradually percolate into India?
So I think it's a global program. It's not an India-specific program or excluding India. I think we leverage all the technology and innovation that is available from Castrol, our parent company, Castrol globally. The second is I think a lot of development is happening in the Western world, whether it is U.S. or Europe, okay, and we work with those customers. But not to say that things are not moving in India. Even in India, the data center growth is forecast to be very robust over the coming five, six years. So we'll leverage the learnings from the rest of the world and bring whatever is relevant to our customers in India as part of the offer from Castrol.
Right. Thank you. Let me come back in the queue.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Balaji from Wisdomsmith Stock Brokers Private Limited. Please go ahead.
My name is Balaji from Wisdomsmith Stock Brokers. Congratulations on the good set of numbers. I actually had two questions. I think one was asked by Sahil previously, so I skipped the question on the data centers. The second question I had was, I know you have proposed a INR 3.5 crore equivalent dividend. Given it's 125th year for Castrol globally and 115 years for Castrol in India, and given our strong financial performance and cash reserve, can we expect a liberal bonus from the management in this financial year itself? Because I think the last time a bonus was given was in 2017, and prior to that was in the 2010 period. And there seems to be a trend of bonus in every seven years that VP, being a loyal customer, loyal shareholder of Castrol. So is there any bonus that we can expect in this financial year?
And also, can we expect some more dividends in this financial year?
So thanks, Balaji. I think thanks for your interest. So first of all, any dividend decision, any bonus decisions, anything to do with rewarding shareholders is a board decision. So I'm not the right person to comment on that. We do deliberate in the board, and the board will make the right decision in interest of shareholders. I think we've already announced the interim dividend of INR 3.50, which is a 16.7% increase from what we had announced last year as interim dividend. And I think that is based on the board was quite happy with the performance and the way the business is shaping up. But any future is speculation, and it will be a board decision at the appropriate time.
Okay. And so one quick question. How is the business that we are looking at from the partnership that we have with TVS Automobile, the ki Mobility that we picked up stake? How are we getting business, and what kind of additional revenue can we expect going forward from that business?
Yeah, I think our investment in ki Mobility is a strategic investment. We're not a financial investor. I think it was the coming together of two brands, two trusted brands, I must say, TVS and Castrol, to build up the aftermarket service and maintenance ecosystem. And I think the business is progressing well. Anything specific to ki results, I guess you'll have to ask ki Mobility people. But I think as far as we are concerned, we've seen progress because they have various sources of value for us. They're expanding their network.
I think in the last 2-3 years, there's been a lot of learning in terms of what works, what doesn't work. And we discuss that with ki. But good traction on network expansion. We sell our lubricants into their network. They sell their spare parts into our AWS network. We have a joint-branded workshop concept. And I think they're expanding into more geographic areas. So more to come on that, but we are really happy with the progress that is being made.
Thank you, sir. That's it from my side, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star and one. We have the next question from the line of Ashwini Damani from Manyavar Family Office. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. So just wanted to get your thoughts on two things. A, we have started spending on advertisements. As a customer myself, my service center decides on what lubricant is going, and I have little or no choice. Or maybe I don't even bother it. So how do you think these kinds of advertisement spends will help you and where will it take us, say, hiring Shah Rukh Khan, etc.? And the second question is, I think this is for the first time that we have done a lateral hiring at the senior level, Mr. Kedar Lele. If we look at the history of Castrol, it's always been someone who is from within the Castrol team or from British Petroleum that has become a managing director or a senior person.
What is the thought process in hiring someone who's not from the industry or who's not from the family itself?
Okay. So let me answer both your questions. The first question was around consumers not deciding on the lubricant brand. I think there are all kinds of consumers that are there in the market. There are consumers who want to decide on the brand, who want to be fully aware of what product is going into their car engine or their two-wheeler engine. There are consumers who give this responsibility to the workshop owners. They trust in the workshops, whatever their workshop recommends. So I think we work on all the fronts. We work with the mechanic community also. We work with workshops to educate them on the quality of our products and the performance credentials and how our products are better value for money to be used in their vehicles. So in addition to advertising, we do a lot of work with the mechanic community, with workshops.
We cover about 28,000 two-wheeler workshops. We cover 9,500 car workshops. We have a network of 530+ Castrol Auto Services. So it's a combination of everything that builds a strong business rather than just advertising on TV. But as a consumer, our intent is also to build awareness of our products. Like Castrol EDGE is a new launch. It's top-of-the-line products in our cars portfolio. We launched variants around hybrids. We launched variants around SUVs. We launched variants around European cars. So as a consumer, when you see the advertisement, it means you have a positive mindset towards Castrol, okay? And then whatever the workshop recommends is something that we build through our training of mechanics. And we have the largest kind of mechanic data set that we interact with. So that's how advertising works. Second question was on my successor.
So first of all, we are very excited to have Kedar as the new managing director who will join from 1st of October, and he'll take over as MD from 1st of November after a change handover process with me. I think we wanted to have somebody Indian leading the business, okay, and also bringing in capabilities that will drive the business forward and continue driving growth. Kedar comes with a very solid experience. Having worked in Hindustan Unilever, he understands India very well. He understands the business. So I think it'll be a huge asset to Castrol India Limited in its growth journey and looking forward. Our intent is to have the right set of capability, the right set of leadership leading the business. That's why we have Kedar joining as managing director.
Thank you. Thanks.
The next question is from the line of Bharat Sheth from Quest Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Thanks, sir. Thanks, sir.
Bharat, your line is not audible. Please proceed with your question. Bharat, you are not audible. We'll proceed to the next question, which will be from the line of Vipulkumar Shah from Sumangal Investment. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Congratulations for a very good set of numbers. Can you give the volume number?
Yeah. And pass it on to Deepesh.
Yeah. Vipul, hi. So we did 61 million L in this quarter.
What should we equate to in tonnages if that is possible?
61 million L. Sorry. What's the question? Tonnage.
Sorry, we don't measure tonnage. We measure liters, I think. There will be a factor of tonnage, but typically, we report our numbers or we measure in liters.
Sirs, second question relates to pricing. So how are pricing stands vis-à-vis competitors? So if you can make some qualitative comments, it will be highly useful.
Yeah. So let me first of all, we have a pricing strategy, okay, in terms of where we want to operate versus the market and versus our competition. We are a premium brand, and we want to maintain those premiums. So we operate at premium to the market. But that premium is sustained with a lot of investment in technology, innovation, bringing new products to our customers and consumers, and also supported with advertising. So I think that's what I can say. Our pricing strategy will continue to be maintaining the premium that we want to command. At the same time, I think one change we've made over the last, if I can say, 1 to 2 years is we've also introduced products in lower segments, which cater to the mass segment or mass premium segment. So we launched products such as Activ ESSENTIAL.
We've launched products with CRB ESSENTIAL, which help us cater to consumers and customers who are not being serviced by Castrol.
What should be our market share in premium and mass market, if you can quantify?
Yeah. I think I wouldn't like to go into very specifics of mass premium. Our overall market share in the retail automotive market, as measured by Nielsen, because that's the industry practice, is around 20%+.
Okay, sir. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Chintan Modi from Haitong Securities India Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, as we can observe that last couple of years, our focus has been improving on the volume side to generate a lot of volumes. However, if I look at the last decade, like 2011 to 2020, our volume CAGR has been quite slow. Is this a change in strategy? And if you could highlight what is leading to this change?
So thanks, Chintan. Very valid question and good question. I think you're right in the sense our focus has shifted. We want to drive top-line growth through volume, but also want to drive bottom-line growth. A few reasons for that is one is India is still a growth market as far as lubricants is concerned. The Indian lubricant market will continue growing well into the 2030s and up to 2040 and maybe beyond because a lot of OEMs are now also calling out hybrid as a main play rather than focused on EVs. So there is a lot of growth to come in India, point number one. Second is, I think as the vehicle path grows in India, okay, our car penetration is very low. That will also drive volume growth.
I think as a business, we can keep squeezing on margins, but I think unless and until we grow the top line through volume, it'll be a business which will be under huge pressure. So that's why we want to grow volumes. We want to grow margins, bottom line. But we also said that we want to operate in a 22%-25% EBITDA range, which is, I would presume, best in class from industry standards. We've been able to maintain that while kind of rebalancing our growth profile.
Sure. Sure. Apart from automotive, we are also presenting to industrials. How large could be that industry? Would that be also kind of similar kind of a margin profile? Do we have any aggressive plans to expand considering that a lot of manufacturing activity is picking up in India?
Yeah. So again, an excellent question because the industrial market for lubricants and fluids is huge in India, okay? But as part of our strategic choice, we don't play in all the segments, okay? There's some very, very commoditized business in the industrial market, okay, which is not the core strength of Castrol. I think where we play is where we can offer differentiated value to our customers, okay, and reduce their cost of operations or total cost of operations. And we have focus sectors that we operate in. We operate in metalworking. We operate in automotive. We operate in wind, for example, okay, where we have differentiated products. And we've seen good growth in that business. But will we ever become a completely commodity player catering to the very bottom of the end of the market? Unlikely.
Sure. Sure.
Next is, I know there have been a lot of questions.
Please rejoin the queue for follow-up questions.
Sure.
The next question is from the line of Nitin Tiwari from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, and thanks for the opportunity. So my question was actually related to your product mix in this quarter. So how should we look at it in terms of how was the sales distribution between, say, CV and two-wheeler, etc.?
Let Deepesh answer that.
Yeah. So thanks for the question. We grew 6% on volume basis, and we grew about 8%-9% in commercial vehicles. And the balance growth came from the personal mobility, which is cars and bikes.
Actually, I was looking for a distribution of sales in percentage terms across these segments. If you could help with that.
Oh, okay. So I mean, in general, if you say almost 40%-45% of our distribution comes from bikes and cars put together. And about 40% will come from CVO, which is the commercial vehicles. And the rest is industrial and marine, and those are much smaller parts.
Right. Right. So my second question was actually on pricing and margin. So if we look at our margin in terms of what we are making on rupees per liter terms, right? So that's roughly about INR 50-INR 55, which translates into about $0.69 sort of per liter, right? So how is this margin looking globally? I mean, if you look at international markets and what Castrol sells globally, so how is that number there? So why I'm asking this is that I want to understand where perhaps the market in India could head in premiumization terms, if at all, when we move in that direction.
So I think, first of all, I think the margin profile you asked a question around how does it compare globally. There are certain markets where the margins are higher. There are certain markets where the margins are lower. It depends on the vehicle profile, the consumer profile. So there are many factors that come into play if you start comparing India with other markets. I think as far as we are concerned, our focus is on both growing volume, but we don't want to grow volume for the sake of volume. So there is a lot of premiumization also to come in, okay? So I gave you the example of Castrol EDGE, which is a much higher-priced product, but also delivers better performance for vehicles.
The focus will continue to be also to continue to premiumize the portfolio so that we can keep our EBITDA profile that we've spoken about.
All right. So that's helpful. But the reason for asking this is that we are the premium player in the market, and our EBITDA margins have been in the range of about INR 50-INR 55 per liter for quite some time. So do we see this number expanding from here? Is there a scope for this number to expand from here on as well?
So there is definitely scope to expand this number, but will 55 become 100? Unlikely, okay? 55 become 57, 58, 59. That's a continuous endeavor that we kind of keep working on. But again, it also depends on mix. Say, for example, if commercial vehicles grow at a much faster pace, the margin profile on commercial vehicles is not similar to what we get in personal mobility. So that.
Sure. Sure. That's very helpful. And if.
What I would want to reassure our analyst community is that margin per liter is definitely a focus area, and there's something that we watch very carefully.
Understood. That's very helpful. If I may question one more. Just wanted to understand that across different product categories, and I'm talking about the broad categories, which is two-wheeler cars, etc., how many products are available in each category, and what would be a typical price range for these products? Very broad numbers would be okay.
Yeah. So let me give you. On car space, we operate with three brands. There's Castrol EDGE, which is the most premium. Then you have Castrol MAGNATEC, okay, which is the second. It's premium, but slightly lower than EDGE. And then you have Castrol GTX. So those are the three brands in our profile: EDGE, top, then MAGNATEC, and then MAGNATEC is centered around protection. EDGE is all about performance, but performance with protection, and GTX is for cleaner engines that operate at a slightly base level. In two-wheelers, we have Castrol POWER1, which is our premium brand, okay, again, positioned on performance and delivering superior performance to consumers. And then you have Castrol ACTIV, which is all about protecting your engines, okay? And then in commercial vehicles, we have CRB TURBOMAX and CRB. CRB, and then you have Castrol CRB PLUS and CRB PRIMA for the agri sector.
Those are the broad kind of brands that we operate with.
Right. And what would be a typical sort of price range if we look at these products?
I think it'll take a lot of time for me to go through the price range. All the prices are available. If you check on Amazon, you should be able to see all the prices or in the market.
Sure. Got it. Got it. Thanks. Thanks. This was very helpful. Thanks for taking the questions and giving the opportunity. That would be all.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you are requested to please restrict your questions to two questions per participant. You may rejoin the queue for follow-up questions. We are in the last 10 minutes of the call. Please press star and one if you wish to ask questions. The next question comes from the line of Anuj Sharma from M3 Investment. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for this opportunity. I'm not sure if this was answered earlier, but between a like-to-like hybrid vehicle and a normal ICE vehicle, what is the intensity of lubricants which goes into it?
I think between a hybrid and an ICE vehicle, it's pretty similar. There is no change. The product requirement or the technical specifications change because hybrids operate in different conditions. But from a volume perspective, there's no difference.
All right. That's helpful. And the second question is, given the evolution of ICE engines, do you see a change in the drain intervals in the next 3-5 years, or do you think it'll be pretty much similar to what has been in the past? Thank you.
I think drain intervals keep reducing. Okay. We've seen that happen in commercial vehicles. We've seen that happen in passenger cars, okay? But you have all kinds of segments in the market. So for example, the taxi or on-demand segment or fleet segment is a much higher usage of lubricants, even though the drain intervals have reduced. But there's a consumer behavior that all the usage patterns which lead to frequent changes in lubricants. The other thing that happens in our industry is as the vehicles and engines become more efficient, more advanced, the quality of lubricants required is much higher. So as a result, we're able to kind of premiumize the market. So for example, if you go back 10 years ago, a car would be using a 10W viscosity product.
Now they use primarily 5W, and there are many cars which use 0W products, which is a much thinner viscosity. So I think it's a combination of everything that we see, and the net result is that the market still grows at about 4%-5% on volume terms.
That's helpful. Just a question. The trend change in drain interval remains the same as in past. Is that a correct assessment?
Sorry?
The rate of change in drain interval in future will continue to be, let's suppose, what's been in the past five years. Is that a correct assessment?
Difficult for me to say. I think it's for the audience to answer that question on where they're investing in technology and improvements because audiences are also focusing a lot more investment into EVs now. So I think how much efficiency gains you'll get in ICE is something for the audience to comment on rather than us. But what we will make sure is that we have relevant products available for each kind of engine or vehicle type that comes in the market.
Sure. That's helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mandar Pawar from Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for talking to me. My question is, this is, of course, not related to the facts in there. I hear you talking about the expertise to speak about it, but just some technical aspects that we want to understand. One is if we have to look on usage of this full megawatt capacity, how should we look at it, and what kind of frequency in the EV interval at which it will?
Sorry. It's very difficult to understand your question, and we can't hear very clearly.
Okay. Yeah. Is this better?
Slightly better. Yeah.
So my question regarding that opportunity on data centers, although it's too early to size down that opportunity, but I wanted to understand such a technical angle to that is if we have to look at the usage of that fluid on a per megawatt, what is the kind of usage that it will ask for, and the frequency of the intervals that it is used. And also, whenever that product is available in the market, what is the kind of margins that we will look at, considering that this is a B2B business, how different it can be from our current portfolio?
Yeah. I think, thanks for asking that question. We're also trying to figure out all the answers to the questions that you've asked. So I think maybe if you ask this question one year down the road, I'll be able to answer much more concretely. But right now, a lot of research or testing or development work going on.
Okay. Okay. By when do we expect that this product will be available here in India?
So it depends on how customers develop and if you're able to kind of work with customers to develop this immersion cooling technology. But from that perspective, it all depends on how the testing goes, how the customers respond to that. Yeah, but globally, this product is available, okay? Our fluids are available for customers, so.
Okay. And just one other question is about, is there raw material availability for the base oil? At this point, given what the situation we do face on the sea trade, is there any kind of hindrance that we are facing in the price movement of base oils, if you can give some color on that?
Yeah, Mandar. So I think overall, it seems like there is stability and stability both from a point of view of price and supply. So I don't remember a time where I could even make that statement because there's always something or the other that is going on globally, yeah, whether it's Red Sea or whether it is something around the war, etc. So I think sitting today, it seems like if I just take next 3-4 months' view, I think there will be continuation of the stability in the base oil prices and the other inputs. Of course, foreign exchange rate is another aspect that we deal with because there are these imports. And that also looks like range bound between 83-84. So that's all I can tell you right now. I mean, but you know, if things change, we know how to manage this.
We're very proactive. We keep an eye. We have our global models and tools and global insights. Some of our relationships are also global. So as price moves or instability of supply comes in, we get forced to hear about this given something that happened in the U.S. or APAC or whichever way. And I think we make an intervention appropriately.
All right. All right. Thank you, sir. That's helpful.
Okay. Thank you, Mandar.
Thank you. Participants, we are now in the last five minutes of the call. The next question comes from the line of Rohit Maheshwari from Tata AIG General Insurance. Go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. Most of the questions are answered. The last one question I have is, can you give some sense of uses of lubricant in ICE versus hybrid versus EV?
Yeah. So I think, as I said earlier, hybrids use the same kind of amount of lubricants as an ICE. On EVs, the usage is much lower, okay? Specifically, percentage, etc., I can't say. But for example, EVs don't use engine oil, okay? They primarily use transmission fluids, coolants, and greases. So that definitely has a shrinkage of volume. But I think what we are also seeing in India is, given the low penetration of cars and electrification will come much faster in two-wheelers, I think all the modeling work that we've done, the Indian lubricants market will continue growing well into the late 2030s and early 2040s, okay? And especially India has very strong Japanese OEMs have a very strong play in India. And I think they're also seeing hybrid as a not as a transition technology, but as a mainstay technology.
Hopefully that keeps the market for lubricants very robust going forward.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Miraj Shah from Arihant Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. Just quickly, and within a short time, I wanted to understand the volumes. That you spoke 61 million L for this quarter. If you could tell me what was for the previous quarter and the same quarter last year?
Yeah. So 2Q 2023 volume was in the range of 57 million L. That's a 6% growth. And 1Q24, sequential quarter, that was also in the similar range for 57-58 million L.
Okay. So next is regarding the opening remarks, one of the opening remarks that you gave that you're seeing stabilization in the input costs right now. So which input cost in particular are you talking about? And how do you see the margins panning out? Do you see healthier from here, or do you see more movement in the raw material costs over here?
So the input cost I was referring to, and I was explaining to Mandar earlier, is both on the base oil, which is roughly 60% of our cost. And also, one can't guarantee it, but also Forex seems range bound because we import significant base oil. So that's what I meant by it being stable. As far as margin is concerned, the reason why we have kept this range of 22-25, we landed at 23, is for us to have that elbow room to be able to, in a quarter where there is more stability and less fluctuation, continue to invest in our brand from a medium-term basis and to go after the volumes more aggressively as well.
But at the same time, if there are external factors that change it, then we look at a medium-term view and make an intervention in the market appropriately. So I think it's that balancing act that we need to do, given there is an external dependency for the industry. So I wouldn't sort of signal at this stage anything different than the margin that we have kind of been talking about, which is in the range of 22%-25%.
Understood. Okay. That is a margin change. And just one last thing in the data center part that you gave your initial remark on, that you've inaugurated a technology center in Patalganga, and you are currently in the testing phase for fluids. So just wanted to understand that how long would this duration be, and if there are any significant developments, in which unit would this be produced, or would you have to put in a new unit to work on this? Just want to understand that.
Yeah. Let me kind of just clarify. All the data center work is happening in the parent company in the U.K. rather than India, but we have access to all the technological developments that come out of there. I think production capabilities, we have three plants in India hopefully capable of producing whatever we need for the Indian market. It's a function of when do we start local production based on the volume profile of various products, okay? Our technology center in Patalganga does additive work on top of whatever work is done in the global R&D centers for adaptation to local markets. That's how we operate.
Understood. So any developments coming from U.K., from the parent, on that, we'll be working on, and then we'll be able to deploy it in our plants?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think there is a process of deployment that we go through, but we've done that for many, many years. It's nothing new for us.
Do we have any existing products in there that are actually coming from U.K., or this is just the initial step?
So we still, even currently, import some products which are kind of very high technology products, either in the industrial sector or some of the car products. But most of the production is local. It's only in specific cases where the volumes are still very small. We import from our global centers.
Okay. Understood. Thanks a lot for answering my questions here. I'll remain in the questions offline with you. All the best for the future.
Thank you.
Thank you. We are at time. This brings us to the end of the call. On behalf of Castrol India Limited, I thank you all for joining this call. You may now disconnect your lines. Wish you a good day ahead.
Thank you.