Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Automotive Axles 3QFY 2024 Digital Earnings Conference Call, hosted by Batlivala & Karani Securities India Private Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sailesh Raja from Batlivala & Karani Securities India Private Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah, thanks, Kiran. Good afternoon, and thanks to everyone who has logged into Automotive Axles' 3Q and 9 months FY 2024 earnings conference call. Today we have the senior management team. We'll be hearing from Mr. Muthukumar N., India Leader, Cummins- Meritor, Mr. Nagaraja, President and Whole-Time Director, Automotive Axles Limited, and Mr. Ranganathan S., our CFO, Automotive Axles Limited. So I would now like to turn the call to Mr. Muthukumar for the opening remarks, followed by Q&A. Sir, you may begin now.
Thank you, Sailesh. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for joining for the Automotive Axles investor call today. We really appreciate your time, and looking forward to giving an answer to most of your questions. I have with me my colleagues, Nagaraja and Ranga, and Ranga will share with you the last quarter, the financial, year-to-date financial, and then we are here to take the questions from you. Over to you, Mr. Ranga.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Muthu, and very good morning to you all. Thanks for taking your time and participating in the third earnings call of Automotive Axles Limited for financial year 2023-2024. We are glad to present the financial performance for the Q3 and for the nine months ended December 2023. So, before we start the financial performance, I just wanted to, you know, happy to share with all of you, like, Automotive Axles Limited has been awarded the TPM Excellence Award. We are going through this journey for the last two years, and it's our pride to announce that, a good recognition for overall, you know, the production systems and their interconnectivity and the entire system working around Automotive Axles Limited.
It's a very prestigious one, which, in the milestone of Automotive Axles' journey. I just wanted to share this with all the investors. With this introduction, I just take you through the quarterly performance. The quarterly performance, as per, for this quarter, is that we did about INR 545 crore, and as compared to the previous year, the same quarter, was INR 657 crore. EBITDA is close to about 6.22 as compared to 7.91, close to about 20%-21% dip. Our work to the volume, what we have performed in this quarter, I think, to that level, except for the impact on the fixed cost absorption, we are holding up to the performance for the rest of the years. PBIT is close to 9.6 for this quarter.
And the same year, last quarter, is about — for Q2 last year is about 6.79. You know, so with this, the YTD nine months performance, if you really look at it, you know, we did about INR 1,668 crore. More on the same level as compared to last year, we are slightly up by 2% in terms of the nine-month performance. If you really look at it, the EBITDA, we are at 11.6. Compared to last year, we are up by 5%. In terms of percentage, we did about 11.6% as compared to 11.2% a nd PBIT is concerned, we have got about 9.8% as compared to 9.2%.
In terms of absolute values, we are up by 9%. So the volume is totally driven to the market, and so, probably, you know, we're not showing a significant growth in the top line. Nevertheless, we are trying to see a cut over the last year. We wanted to show some, you know, overall top-line growth. But nevertheless, if you really look at it, our efforts, our continuous efforts all these years, we are going through our Mission 25. Our EBITDA is improved and protected, and we are continuing to focus on all the costs, cost reduction, cost control and profit improvement programs.
Definitely, our marketing under the leadership of Muthu is working with all the customers to ensure and improve the you know our business share with each customers and try to maximize the revenue for the organization. So with this introduction, and I'll probably open the floor for the questions, if any. Thank you.
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 use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have our first question from the line of Radha. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir, hi, thank you for the opportunity. So, my first question is on the industry perspective. We have seen that the trend in developed countries like North America is that the CV players they outsource 100% of the actual manufacturing to independent manufacturers like us. So we believe that in India also, gradually the industry will move towards this global trend. So how has that panned out in the last two to three years? So, for example, VECV recently has announced its foray into small commercial vehicle segment. So whether more CV players are going for independent axle manufacturers, and how is the state of the industry as of now?
Thank you, Radha, for asking that question. You are right. I think globally, the trend of OEMs are with electrification or new power vehicles are coming, whether it's hydrogen, hydrogen fuel cell. Most of them want to drop their development initiatives on the conventional axles and try to give it to an axle player. This is what the global trends are starting, but not in India. So, the main reason for that is, so you know, in 2018, 2019, most of the Indian OEMs, which has axle manufacturing by themselves, has created a huge capacity, and Indian market has not crossed the 2018 volume in terms of the number of vehicles. Of course, in the tonnage we have crossed it.
So the situation has not come, and, you know, the global survey, I think, about the, how the adoption of electrification or the new portfolios in India, it talks about the segment where we are playing Automotive Axle, like 7% above on medium and heavy commercial. They talk about 10%-15% by 2032. This is what the latest survey says for electrification. So I'm sure that the trend will come, but whether, it's not a question of whether it will come, it is going to be when it will come. Maybe till 2025, 2026 OEMs will start making it, if the market is going to cross 500,000 vehicles, which we believe that it will happen by 2028 in commercial vehicle market.
At that point of time, when there's no capacity, they will outsource these axles to outside and also start investing on, depending on the technology at that point of time, on electrification or, fuel cells or something. So this is a situation is little fluid, but the government is doing a lot of support in terms of the bus for the electrification. And you know, our presence in bus is very less, but unfortunately, the bus axles are being sold, electrification of bus axles are sold at a very high subsidy.
So it's a question of the technology breakthrough has to come to make the cost almost, neutral with the current technology. I think that is where the market is going to pick up, and that is where it will cross the 15% threshold by 2032. It will, it will come, but it's a question of when it is going to come. We believe that it's not, it's not going to come before 2026, 2027. Hope that answers your question.
Yes, okay. What gives you confidence that the OEMs will not expand the capacities any further and will resort to giving the contracts to independent manufacturers like us?
I can't say that. I think that has to be answered by OEMs. We can't answer for the OEM strategy, but we believe that being an axle expert, no one will do further investments on this because their focus will be on the new generation vehicles. You touched upon the point on VECV announcing their small commercial vehicle. For information, we are not present in that segment.
Yes, okay. Helpful. So secondly, so from a tonnage perspective, the industry has crossed the FY 2019 peak levels. So going forward, if at all there is a slowdown or a down cycling, in the CV industry, we seem to be better placed this time, given that we have announced our entry into the 7.5 to 16-ton segment, and already we have customers as well in this segment. And, other than that, we also have different customers. So wanted to know what percentage of your revenue is coming from this segment, and how has the mix changed as compared to the previous peak of FY 2019, and any other plans, that can help us mitigate through this cycle?
Commercial vehicle market, ups and downs will come, and we have seen in the last three cycles, anytime when the market goes down, we are always ahead of market in terms of this. Whatever the new generation axle that has been launched after 2019, the company is present in full, be it the 55-ton with the largest crown wheel trim inside of axle, we call it 185, or we are going in for a tipper with a higher tonnage and higher ring gear size. All these new product developments are being done, but of course, I don't want to comment anything on to the segmentation, share what we have and all, because it's highly complex.
But the one thing that I can tell you is the market is moving towards more of a tractor-trailer from the rigid trucks where we are present. And of course, 15-19 ton vehicle, whatever you said is also we are present in both the customers. But other than that, I don't—i t will be challenging for us to fit that into segment-wise sales or the sales between different centers. Sandra, if you want to add, please add that.
No, good, Muthu.
Thank you. So, in previous con calls, in our conversations, you have mentioned that, after-market margins are better for our company. But what I understand is the kind of products that we have, the product range is designed to sustain the entire life cycle of the vehicle. So, could you please explain what are the products, that we are talking about, that we sell in the aftermarket, and where the margins are better?
See, this is the bigger challenge. There is a general perception that aftermarket are better profitable. No doubt, aftermarkets are better profitable, but you also have a lot of additional costs in terms of reaching to the customers, your channel partners and all. Having said that, one side we are improving, one side we are improving our product reliability to meet the OEM demand. Most of the customers who buy vehicles from OEM, and you know, the trend in the commercial vehicle market today is six years and 600,000 lakh km, and people are talking about 1 million cycles in the days to come. With an advent of technology, with an advent of data analysis that's available, digitalization, every company is looking at how to enhance the product.
And at the same time, we wanted to penetrate more into aftermarket. This is a typical o nce the product reliability is up and up, your aftermarket sales is going to be less. So we are trying to look into an innovative ways of what are the other things that we can sell. We are even talking about remanufacturing of some of the axles to make sure that the total cost of ownership for the end fleet operator comes down. So it'll always be a chicken or egg situation in this, but nevertheless, I would say that we will always stay focused onto the customer and whatever brings value to the customer, of course, and also all stakeholders, we will do the right thing which is good for the market, which is good for the country.
This is thanks. Any new customer additions in this quarter or last two quarters in different Off-Highway, LCV, NCV buses, exports, and has the exports mix increased from 13% in this quarter?
I would say, I will answer on the customer thing. You know, we are supplying four, four major players, or five major players in commercial vehicles. And we can have a product addition, but definitely not a customer addition in this quarter or something in terms of this. I think that's what is happening to this. In terms of exports, as you all know, that we are exporting only to the Meritor, and not directly to any of the customers, because we are making axles and axle co-components and subsystems to the global Meritor. So we are adding the products, nevertheless, and our exports has grown, even though we don't see directly the number. I think, Ranga, it is about 1.8x, Ranga?
Yes. Yes, Muthu.
It's about 1.8x of previous year, so export is growing. That is why even though the market, domestic market has dropped, our domestic market has remained flat and come down, at least we are able to little better in terms of performance. But not, I would, I won't be able to say that there is any specific addition of customers onto this.
Sir, exports, we also have Volvo as a customer?
That's the only customer, not, Volvo, now it has become UD Trucks for business of Isuzu Thailand, where we are supplying to them. Our agreements, we had earlier an agreement complete closure by 2024, now it is extended up to 2027. We are supplying axles and brakes to them. We are supplying to the customer where Meritor is not directly competing. Okay? This is to the Thailand facility where we are supplying.
Okay. Thank you. And lastly—
Regions where the Meritor is present, they are supplying to them.
Okay. So lastly, so you'd had mentioned that our aim is to become number one player in brakes as compared to number two player right now. So how do we see the change in product, product mix panning out, due to this? And, does brake have lower margins as compared to axles then? And, how will the overall margin change if the change happens in the product mix?
Okay, there are two things: aspiration of growth, meeting the number one. Yes, we are on the target, we are moving in. As you know, brakes has a lesser margin. It is definitely going to have an impact, but at some point in time, it's not a question of margin, but it's, your aspirations will be in terms of top line, and we continue to keep growing, we continue to increase, penetration of brakes with the both the largest giants, and we are on target moving towards that. Whether if you see whether it will have an impact on the overall profitability, because we are adding at the existing volume, and, definitely with the, with the absorption of fixed cost, I don't think we'll be able to di- we'll be diluting the existing margin just because of increasing the brake share.
Okay, sir. Thanks, and all the best.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sridhar Kallani from Axis Securities Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. So one question from our side, is one of the rating agency projecting that the commercial vehicles industry will decline by 4%-7% in FY 2025, and in the last call, we said that we expect a single-digit growth in FY 2025. So what is your general view on CV industry per se? What kind of growth you expect in FY 2025 or de growth? Any color on that?
Srid, the market has been predicting that in the FY 2025, the market will go down by about 8%-10%, is what has been prediction, what has been said even in FY 2023. Basically because the U.S. market, North American market, has started coming down, or they were predicting that the market will come down, and, you know, the Europe it has already come down by about 10%. But we believe with a very, very strong, factors available in India in terms of, whether it is in terms of inflation or it is in terms of infrastructure spend or in terms of the government policies, in terms of infrastructure. When I say "we," this is based on the feedback from the various OEMs. If not, growth, I think the market will be flat for next year.
I think this is what we had all been predicting. Last year, when the same, I think three, four quarters before, when most of you asked that this year itself it is going to drop, we said flat or, up to 7%, 8%, single digits. But now it looks like the market is flat. In fact, last quarter there was an apprehension that the market will go down. Yes, it did go down in December. There is a problem concerned, right? But of course, we believe that the full year will be, market will be flat. And next year also, we believe that the market will be flat before it takes on to the higher thing. But please, I wanted to bring it to your notice, when we are talking about flat, it is only in terms of the number of vehicles.
In terms of tonnage, most of the OEMs are doing higher tonnage, so higher value-added product is what is going on. The availability of tonnage vehicle, we are already growing.
Understood, sir. So, if we, if we take care of tonnage, then from an EBITDA margin perspective, is it safe to assume that we will be able to maintain our margins? And any color on commodity outlook going forward for next quarter?
Sustaining margin, if the volumes remain flat, yes, I think we'll have our challenges, but the continuous improvement, the plant team or the operation team is doing is extremely helping us to sustain our profitability. Of course, we are not meeting your ambitious growth targets. In terms of, that's the first question, and second thing you asked a question on the commodity.
After about three or four quarters when the commodities have started coming down, we see from this December, the steel prices are set to go up. Okay? It's already the first settlement of steel prices going up has been settled. But nevertheless, I wanted to bring it to your notice, like earlier, what we brought in, the commodity up and down is basically an adjustment that we do. It's a back-to-back, and, your company will not have, major impact due to commodity increase or decrease.
Okay, clear. Thanks a lot, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Chetan Dhruva. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. I had one question, sir, regarding the results of this quarter. There has been a YoY decline. So I'm sorry I missed your initial part of the address. So I just wanted to know why there was a decline if the market was flat, and you were—w as there a temporary lull or some phenomena which not visible to us?
Yeah, if you, if you see the first two quarters, we were on target with the market. Last quarter, if you see, the volumes is flat, but the inventory correction has happened with all the OEMs in terms of the sales. So the actual production last quarter has been less. I think that's the reason for our drop. It's a momentum. It'll, it'll pick up this quarter because the inventory has to be in the pipeline back. People thought that the market will drop, and, you know, most of the OEMs have dropped their production and inventory was brought down. I think that's the reason.
All right. So, so is it already picking up in future?
Yeah, yeah. Last month of January, we did better. So, OEMs are still the sales. See, I think one thing that we, the OEMs did good is they've controlled their inventory, they brought down their pipeline stocks and made the sales kind of flatter, though the production has dropped. So the inventories have come down. It's only short term. If you see our drop, I think Ranga was telling that we are almost flat between last year and this year. It's only an inventory adjustment and not much. I think this quarter we are already picking up. Right, Ranga?
Yes. Overall for the nine months, you know, subject to the commodity, we are about, actually about 2% up on the revenue.
I think that's the number.
I see. Okay. Thanks a lot, sir. Thanks for the clarification. So there's no systemic,
The market is changing. The market is changing a lot. Suddenly, the bus is picking up a lot, because of the government subsidy, and everybody is under pressure to sell it before this quarter. So those are the small, small segmental changes which will have an impact here and there, but by and large, overall, we don't feel it. With a very, very strong product background, with a very strong operational performance in terms of delivery and quality, we continue to grow. Our aspiration, we all know, growing, doubling the market growth.
Overall for the year, do you see us doing around high single digits in terms of revenue growth?
Sorry, sir?
Overall for the year, do you see the company doing at least high single digits in terms of growth?
Maybe for this year, it all depends on the February, how the OEMs are going to do it. They are going to put the inventory onto the zero, completely zero, then it may be almost flat. Right, Ranga? It looks like it's a flat point of time.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
You know, t he market is operating at much, much lower than the capacity available, so people will be able to flexibly play. If you are running at the brim, then people will not take a chance. Today, even by dropping production in December by 40% companies are able to increase the production in January because we have a huge capacity that's available. You know what's happening in tractor industry, and enough capacity is available in the casting, foundry, forging.
The supply chain is not at the risk. So, people are very, very cost conscious, and people will keep, conserve the cash. Even we are doing that, conserving the cash at this point in time, and restricting our expenses, and making sure that we are prepared even in case if anything worse happens. With that situation, everybody is playing very, very cautious, and that is going to have an impact, a little bit here and there.
I see. So, there's a—
Post May, June, when the elections are over, I think the full budget is going to come, and what is going to be the solution for improving it, all these things, when it comes, it will definitely help.
Just to add one more point what Muthu said, you know, last, if you see last year, 2022, 2023, after the COVID year, the major recovery, recovery year as far as the M&HCV is concerned, really see the Q3, you know, it, substantially improved compared to the previous year by 78%. In the last year, revenue is concerned compared to the previous year, 2021, 2022. So, but, when, when you're saying that we are compared to the last quarter, the market is holding up to the same level. And as Muthu rightly said, that we have to wait and watch, how the OEMs are going to, you know, look at the market and manage inventory in, in February and March.
Based on which, overall, we may be at flat or maybe marginal reduction can be there, depends on how the February, March is concerned. At this moment of time, we are anticipating at a flat revenue for the whole financial year compared to the previous one.
Okay. Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate it a nd good luck for this quarter.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sailesh Raja from Batlivala & Karani Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. So on the Off-Highway segment front, we have limited opportunities in the domestic market and we are slowly, carefully producing axles for the existing model. So any talks with the domestic customers for their newer models and also with the overseas customers to have reasonable scale in this particular product, sir?
See, Off-Highway, as you rightly said, most of the OEMs which are making vehicles, they've integrated and they are manufacturing by themselves, be it JCB, who holds majority of the Indian market in Off-Highway business. We've been talking to them about some supplies of components and all. Again, it depends on the overall, the value addition, what we are going to do, and end up on the aspiration for top line and bottom line, where we are going to go. This Off-Highway market is little tricky in terms of saying that the product that's available in India is completely, different from what is there in the global. The same vehicle is not there.
So any axles or component that you develop for India market, you can't export it back because, you know, like JCB, the backhoe loader, is very prominent in India, it's not across any other country. So we need to have a huge product development if you want to go for any global and then do this, and need a huge investment, too, in terms of creating a capacity. We are working on a strategy of this, on whether we should invest at what point of time on this. And please note that India is becoming a favorable destination for global, and even global Meritor is looking at what we can do more in India.
So all these discussions are on, but maybe at this point in time, I'm not able to give you more information on this, but your company is working on to see that how we can penetrate into this segment. But maybe, gentlemen, I wanted to remind you, it needs a huge investment in terms of CapEx and also in terms of the engineering time on product development, because you need a huge pipeline of product development with that.
Okay. Sir, with Tata Motors, can you please update us the current share of business that, I, I understand you don't share this number. Can you give some index number, say, two years back, say, it was 100, and how much it is now, and how do you see share of business build up in next two, three years?
So you know, Sailesh, we don't supply anything to Tata Motors in terms of axles at this point of time, other than some different axles and some unique bus axles, front axles for low-floor, but which doesn't come as a part of the share, because it's a front axle. But in terms of brakes, I can tell you that we have grown up by 40% when compared to what was the base index a year before. But what we were in 2021, 2020, 2021, now we are about 40% up in brakes. I think that's what I can tell you. Tata has a huge capacity with setup, and after Cummins has taken over Meritor, we have been working very closely with Tata to find it out.
But, you know, the equation, when somebody has the capacity and then run, not running it into the full, this is a management tricky situations. But we are working them to find out how to provide a solution which will make a win-win relationship between them. So your company continues to work with Tata to see that how we can penetrate or how we can add, provide a value-added solution for them.
Okay. Okay. That's how over time. In maybe three years' time.
Sailesh, your voice was breaking.
Sailesh, sir.
You can hear me?
Yes, yes.
Yeah. Yeah. Similarly, can you give us index number for the exports also, two years back, and how much it is now, and what kind of growth you are seeing in export for next two, three years? And also non-customer mix, how that mix will change?
Ranga, can you provide that index on export? I remember 1.8, but you can give the exact number in terms of?
Yeah, it will be roughly around, if the last three years before, now the index close to about, 1.5x minimum, I'll say that. As Muthu was indicating that, you know, year-on-year, we are seeing a growth as a movement of time between 10%-12%. But nevertheless, we are working on the long-term strategies with the multi-global. Definitely, that's going to be a priority and a focused area, and definitely, we will try to maximize and try to do the best in the export. That's what our plan at this moment.
Yeah. Okay, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Radha. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir, thanks again. So I wanted to understand that in the previous peak NCV industry cycle, we had done INR 150 crore CapEx and expanded both axles and brake capacity. Also, around that time, we had introduced new products in the suspension. Any plans to introduce new products in this peak cycle and maybe anything in terms of new products that we can add?
See, in terms of 2018, we did about like INR 130 crores, INR 140 crores capacity, and that is what has made us to grow from. If you see our revenue in 2018 at that point of time, and now we have grown more than about 30%, 40%, even when the market is about 20% less. I think, that is, because of that, what we have done.
Also, we have spent huge money at that point of time in terms of product development, and I wanted to be very, very happy to share with you that today, whatever the products that are running today, more than 60% of that are the new launches that we have done, which has substantially increased the reliability of the product, like what we are talking about doubling our warranties and all. So whatever the investment that we have done, it really helped us in terms of penetrating into the market. That is why we have grown better than the market growth. If you ask us today whether do we have a capacity? Yes, last time we answered to you that we are still not running at 100%. We have capacities available. We can expand the business.
But if you say whether with the same capacity, whether you can produce Off-Highway and those products, those are the specialized products, needs the specialized equipment. Hope I answered your question.
Yes, you did.
Ranga can provide you what is the current utilization of the plant.
Yep. We are actually at, you know, at the last quarter, if you recall it, we are around 70% level.
Okay, sir. So lastly, you mentioned that, you know, with the brakes product mix changing, we'll also have, you know, reduction in fixed costs, et cetera. So in FY 2023, we had achieved all-time low breakeven point of 6% cost versus 10% of sales. So we had also mentioned in our last QPT that we are focusing on reducing conversion and material costs. So in terms of that, how much more headroom is there into reduce costs? And how can we achieve that?
So there's no limit for continuing the— I think our approach is about half cost approach, which we are operating. I think if you can see where we were at 2018 and now, I'm sure that you are the best, better analyst. You can put it together, how we have progressed. Even though after five years after COVID, with challenging environment, which every company is talking about, fixed costs, what are the challenges onto that? And of course, on conversion, we continue to progress on that. So you will be able to see how we have progressed. So we continue to keep progressing. If you ask me, what is your target? Are you going to move into the next level? It's difficult for me to set a target on saying that we are going to further bring it down like this.
But one thing that I can show you is the continuous improvement, and we continue to keep optimizing our fixed costs and, variable costs. I think, Ranga, you can tell between 2018 and now how we have progressed in terms of both.
Yeah, yeah. I think if we really see, there are two, three things we need to see together. You know, when you look at the P&L, one is about the lot of commodity, which has come into the system. If you take a benchmark of 2018, 2019 and now, and our internal assessment, definitely if we remove the commodity, the impact on EBITDA as a percentage per se, you know, and that is very significant improvement we have made in terms of both in terms of conversion cost as well as in terms of the metal cost optimization. Metal cost optimization is one of your primary goal of cost control or cost sustainment strategy, what we are holding it. Commodity is given, we can't do anything about it.
As Muthu said, whatever be the commodity in the market, that gets reimbursed by the customers. So, if you are able to maintain overall basis without having impact, that's a great achievement there. But suppose we have our own assessment, we remove that commodity, we have very significantly improved our, that is, our operating performance both from metal cost and conversion cost perspective. And at least about 2 to 2 or 2.5% growth will definitely be seen. It's rather a rougher time saying that. So much effort has been gone in year-on-year, because our focus will continue to be in in the cost optimization strategies in going forward.
It's not that, you know, yeah, maybe some areas we may be stagnant, but most often it's more dynamic as new product comes in and, and also the market dynamics changes, product modification happens. We always find opportunities to improve our costs, and the cost, especially metal costs, and we continue to work on it. And, and a quite, a quite significant piece of, this metal costs, you know, benefit year on year improvization of the cost is being, being, achieved. And that's the reason, the commodities are in spite of the low volumes, we are upholding, barring the mix, the product mix, we are upholding the product margin. If you see, that's how we are able to maintain the consistency.
Yes, thank you. All the best.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. As there are no further questions from the participants, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing remarks. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Sailesh. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the confidence that you put on our organization. As committed, we are— I'm not saying that we are passing through a challenging time, but medium and heavy commercial vehicles, unlike two-wheeler and passenger car, is going through rough patches, and we will ensure that we continue to keep grow and bring value to our all the stakeholders of this. Once again, thank you very much for taking time to join with the call and ask your questions. Your questions always make sure to shape us and then keep progressing. Thank you very much. Ranga, you want to add anything, Ranga?
No. As Muthu said, our growth will go in line with the market, and our focus on cost optimization and operational excellence is continuously on. Definitely, we try to grow our market in terms of the business share of the customers, as well as in the aftermarket and export business. That's a long-term objective. We'll keep doing that. But definitely we'll try to do our best to align with the market.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
On behalf of Batlivala & Karani Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you.