Ladies and gentlemen, good day, welcome to the Styrenix Performance Materials Limited Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call. We have with us today from the management of Styrenix Performance Materials Limited, Mr. Rahul R. Agrawal, Managing Director, Mr. Bhupesh Porwal, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Chintan Doshi, Manager of Legal and Company Secretary. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict.
As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, 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. On behalf of the company, we also like to remind the participants that this call is being conducted subject to and in line with the disclaimer mentioned in the investor presentation as is available on the stock exchange. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Bhupesh Porwal. Thank you. Over to you, sir.
For our Q4 and FY 2026 earnings call. Thank you for taking the time to be here with us today. I hope you all have had a chance to go through the financial results and the investor presentation available on our website and the stock exchanges. Before I speak on the numbers, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the entire team of Styrenix for their dedication and commitment. Over the years, our people have navigated multiple challenges while consistently meeting customer requirements in a timely manner.
On behalf of the management team, I would like to thank them for their continuous efforts toward enhancing operational excellence. Now on the standard standalone financial highlights. Coming to our quarterly financial highlights on a year-on-year basis. Total income for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 658 crore, a dip of 6.3%. EBITDA for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 126, a growth of 51.9%. EBITDA margins for Q4 FY 2026 improved by 19.2%, an increase of 734 basis points. Profit after tax for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 84.3 crore, a growth of 58.6%.
Profit after tax margins for Q4 FY 2026 stood at 12.8%, a growth of 524 basis points. Sales volume for this quarter stood at 46.1 KT, a dip of 4.6%. Now coming to our annual performance highlights on a standalone basis. Total income for the year stood at INR 2,647, a dip of 3.9%, more on the pricing-driven things. EBITDA for the year stood at INR 370 crore with 14% margins. PAT for the year stood at INR 234.3 crore with 8.9% margins. Sales volume for the year stood at 195 KT, a growth of 5.2% on year-over-year basis.
We have maintained a healthy return ratio with strong and prudent balance sheet. ROE and ROCE stood at nearly 25% and 32% respectively for FY 2026 on a standalone basis. Coming to consolidated financial highlights. For this quarter, total income for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 837.9 crore. EBITDA for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 128 crore, and EBITDA margins stood at 15.3%. Profit after tax for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 73.5 crore, and PAT margins stood at 8.8%.
Consolidated sales volume, which includes both India and Thailand for Q4 FY 2026, stood at 57.5 KT. Now coming to our annual performance highlights on consolidated basis. Total income for the year stood at INR 3,454.4 crore. EBITDA for the year stood at INR 359.6 crore, and EBITDA margins stood at 10.4%. Profit after tax for the year stood at INR 182.8 crore, and PAT margins stood at 5.3%. Consolidated sales volume for the year stood at 248.3 KT. With this, I conclude the financial highlights, and we may now proceed for question- and- answer. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. We'll now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone phone. 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'll wait for the moment while the question queue assembles. Thank you. The first question is from the line of Priyank Chheda from Vallum Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, Rahul. I hope I'm audible. First on the whole of the value chain, which starts from the ethylene and benzene and then goes to styrene monomer and then our products of ABS and PS. With all the supply chain disruptions happening around ethylene and benzene, styrene monomer prices reflected that inflection, right?
The question is, in which of the value chain you see this getting more impacted? Would it be multiple refineries in South Korea going down, which ultimately becomes a negative for us? Or maybe our ABS and PS plants getting shut down. We have seen that couple of news now coming up in U.S., now INEOS, now in Europe and China, smaller players going down, which becomes a positive for us. Net-net, the spreads that we maintain, what's your assessment? Where are this headed towards, and how long would this remain disrupted?
Thanks, Priyank. With regards to plant shutdowns, specifically for ABS or PS that you mentioned in Europe, these happened prior to the current disruptions in the Middle East, I believe they're largely unrelated. If we speak about the supply chain disruptions along benzene, ethylene and crude and other, you know, petrochemical inputs, of course, you know, when there is a supply crunch due to the, you know, the Strait of Hormuz remaining largely closed and the flow of, you know, oil and other essential, you know, petrochemical products not being possible from that area, has an impact globally, right? Of course, there are specific regions and specific refineries which are impacted more than others.
When those are impacted, you know, specifically regionally, the demand and supply associated with those petrochemicals as well as downstream polymers also gets consequently affected. From what we have seen is, Korea has been affected. Korea also depends, from what we understand is, you know, gas from Qatar, as fuel for their plants, and that also has had an impact both in cost and availability and also the kind of raw materials required.
We do see an impact over there. Of course, this impact is globally. Essentially, these are all commodities, the raw materials themselves, whether it's styrene, whether it's acrylonitrile or others. You know, we have seen a price increase in all these monomers globally. There is no one specific region where this price would increase. It would increase globally, and that has been the case that we have seen. There may be some minor arbitrage between one region to the other, but, you know, that obviously gets normalized very quickly as we have normally we have seen.
You know, net-net, raw material prices have increased on account of supply crunch and supply chain disruptions, but so have the finished product prices. You know, that's kind of moved in tandem. How long it's going to last? I mean, I think, that's a very difficult question, and really, I am not qualified to answer that. I think if anyone can answer when this Middle East crisis can end, that can give obviously some indication. Then again, I really don't know how and when that would happen.
Sir, at least the availability of the raw material is not an issue for us, despite all the disruption?
We have obviously not faced any significant disruption to our manufacturing. We may have had minor disruptions, but nothing that requires significant reporting or, you know, worry. We have covered for all the raw material that we need. We are buying from multiple sources globally, and that has been the strategy of the company all along.
We are very diversified in terms of our ability to procure. We may choose to procure from one region over the other due to time and cost and other factors. When it comes to being able to procure raw material from other sources and still meet our customer demand, we are being effectively being able to do that without any concern.
So would be the case also with Thailand, the availability won't be an issue. Essentially at this revised pricing structures that are prevailing as of now and may not be known till when it will prevail. At the current prices, earlier we had an rough estimation of getting a break-even point at 65%-70% utilization. Now that levels becomes an ease and with, say, 14,000 tons, 15,000 tons or 16,000 tons per quarter, should we also reach a faster break-even point for Thailand if the availability is not an issue?
Currently, availability is not an issue, not a serious issue in any case. Of course, as you know, the Thailand plant itself is not a very large plant. In the context of being able to, you know, procure sufficient raw material. When we talk about break-even, I think we have to be cognizant of the fact that whatever is happening currently is a short-term phenomenon. From a long-term perspective, you know, this is not something that one can rely on. You may have certain gains or certain, you know, losses in the short term.
For instance, there might be some gain in the short term because of certain tightness in the market, and we may be in a better position in Thailand to be able to serve that. Like I said, you know, it's a certain arbitrage that you enjoy in the short term, which may not exist in the long term. To comment that your break even would change significantly from what we have earlier stated would be a fallacy. I think it's better to still work towards that target, which we are effectively doing so. Yeah, in the short term, we may get some gain, but yeah, that doesn't change the fact that we still need to increase our capacity utilization to the levels we have earlier indicated.
One last question. In the presentation, I could find, ABS expansion, on track. I couldn't find a mention on polystyrene expansion, which we were supposed to do. In case if you can just, draw back our attention on what would be the timelines and the capacities that we are planning to add in polystyrene and ABS.
I think ABS is essentially along the same lines as has been indicated earlier. There is no change in that. As far as polystyrene is concerned, you know, we haven't given any fresh inputs recently in terms of, you know, when this expansion would take place. As far as general purpose polystyrene is concerned, we had already in fact expanded our plant and that capacity is available to us. However, the demand has been muted, and also I think there has been a margin, you know, compression over there on account of material coming in from imports as well.
We have been not very actively trying to, you know, fully utilize our general purpose polystyrene volumes. In the case of HIPS, we have carried out some studies. You know, we are still not 100% sure or convinced which way we would like to go in terms of deploying additional capital to build that HIPS plant. as and when you know we are closer to making a decision we shall definitely convey to all our shareholders.
Sorry. Yeah, thank you. Just last thing on the power savings, have we seen any benefits coming up in this quarter with respect to the agreements that we were supposed to do to source the power from the third party?
Okay.
Should that be visible in the coming quarters?
Yeah, it should be. I mean, we have been advised that, hopefully by next month or so we would start receiving that power. You know, again, it is hazarding a guess or hazarding an opinion from a third party. I would take that with a pinch of salt. Hopefully that does happen, and we are able to start accruing gains from next month, which would reflect in this quarter.
What would be that gains or any quantification for the full year?
No, I think it's very early to say that because it is a function of production, it is a function of, you know, so many factors. You know, in the current context itself, you know, again, for the remainder of this call, you know, it is going to be very difficult for us to give volume numbers because there has been some amount of demand contraction as well, given the, you know, price increases which have happened in the area.
Till things don't normalize or somewhat normalize, you know, it's very difficult to estimate exactly what the volumes will be and consequently what the power would be and consequently what the savings would be. None of these numbers in the current context are very easy to predict or give.
Got it. Thank you, sir.
Sure.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pankaj Tibrewal from Ikigai Asset Manager.
Yeah. Good evening, Rahul. This is Pankaj Tibrewal.
Good evening. Yeah, Pankaj.
I know some things, which you have mentioned in the call, to the prior questions are beyond anybody's control in terms of volatility of pricing. One takes a two, three-year view, and this being an annual call, can you just help us understand what could be the shape of Styrenix, one can visualize, from the things which you are doing both in India and overseas? That will lay us some ground for all of us to visualize where the company is heading in terms of overall things.
Obviously, the raw material spread fluctuation is something which is in nobody's control or the product pricing. Obviously last quarter saw that in one month how much of the spreads can help on profitability. Just on a two, three-year view, what could be the shape and size of the company? What you're visualizing, and how Thailand can start shaping up in a very different way will help us over a period of time. Thank you.
Thank you, Pankaj. You know, again, I'm always a little cautious when giving forward-looking statements.
Yeah, that's okay. Just on an overall thought.
As far as our strategy is concerned, I can definitely speak to that, and that's a good question.
Yes. Yes.
Strategically, you know, whatever we have planned, in terms of expansion of the business in India, that remains on track. You know, regardless of what happens in the short term, you know, with regards to volatility and demand fluctuations, we do believe that demand in India will grow, and will remain robust. We will be the preferred supplier or partner to work with for most of our, you know, our relationships, going forward. We are fully committed in that journey to essentially doubling our, you know, at least our ABS and SAN output.
That will happen, you know, in the course of time, which we have already mentioned earlier. There is no deviation from that. Next two to three years obviously is enough time to realize that, you know, in terms of where we are headed for, ABS production and sales in India. As far as Thailand is concerned, again, you know, there are of course some structural weaknesses we have seen now in competitors due to this Middle East crisis. How that plays out, we'll have to see.
Again, as far as Thailand is concerned, if I look at a broader, more longer term geopolitical view, it is very well-placed. In spite of all these challenges which have happened, Thailand has not been affected so severely in terms of its ability to procure and produce. We see that as a very big positive. We also exhibited recently in Chinaplas, because, you know, as you know, we do supply a lot of material to China and the Far East.
In our interactions with customers over there, which are, you know, very large in the EV space, in the appliance space, and, you know, which are going to become more and more relevant, I think, globally as well, with the kind of technology advancements, with the kind of capital investments these companies are doing. You know, the kind of relationships we already have with them, I think, will hold us in very good stead.
We do believe that Thailand will prove to be a very critical and important asset for the organization in terms of its positioning with these customers and also supplying to these customers in all these different regions. I mean, I think going forward next two, three years, I do see you know Styrenix one step closer towards its you know vision of being a preferred global supplier you know of all these performance products to all the customers it serves.
You know and that obviously cannot be achieved just by being you know having the capabilities in India but having capabilities in Asia and potentially rest of the world also become critical. Thailand is a very, very important and critical step in that direction, which we believe in two to three years we'll have a very clear picture of what we have been trying to achieve so far.
That's great to hear that. The only thought process from an India perspective is that today there is a gap of domestic production versus import. With you and the other competitors increasing their capacity, can after three years that import substitution part will be off, and can the industry only grow at, say, 8%-10% in line with the with the demand growth? You think that further there will be opportunity to grow? Just how to visualize that picture in India.
Indian demand last year, you know, was about 350,000 tons, as we know-
Okay.
...350-370. I think between the Indian players, prior to the third new player which has entered the field, their total sales were about 160-170. Close to 200,000 tons was still being imported. Even with the, you know, the new player coming in, you know, we are still talking about a shortfall of more than 100,000 tons. Once we come in, with additional capacity and both the other, players also add in additional capacity, we do believe the market is still going to continue to add, you know, 30,000-50,000 tons of additional demand every year. I believe still the import substitution will remain and that opportunity will still remain, you know, for the next five to seven years.
There will be still an opportunity for us to add additional volume to, you know, meet that additional demand. Because if you look at, you know, some of the Eastern economies, for which we have a greater flavor of, if you look at Vietnam, it's about a 400,000 ton market, you know, which is much smaller country than ours. You look at, of course, China is the scale is very different.
You know, they are a factory of the world. Even in the context of smaller economies surrounding us, I do believe that the growth that we are estimating and the segments that we are estimating is quite realistic. We will still add this 30,000 tons- 50,000 tons, you know, every year. Given whatever has been announced so far by us and our competitors, I think there will still be an opportunity in India for adding more volumes and meeting that import substitution demand.
Fantastic to hear that. Just the last question. Today the ABS prices when we speak into the market is somewhere between INR 190-INR 200. Pre-war it used to be INR 110, INR 120. Assuming there is some normalization in supply chain raw material, which starts to happen as things starts to, you know, on the Middle East prices.
Do you think now the average pricing which could settle will be much higher than the pre-war pricing which we have seen? Is that a basic thought which is prevailing? Most of the other chemical companies seem to suggest that now the new normal could be 15%-20% higher than the pre-war kind of a situation. Is that a fair assumption to make, or you think nobody knows?
Again, the right answer is nobody knows. you know, if one has to assess, again from a-
Yes.
...strategic perspective where we land, I think-
Yes.
...given whatever is happening, even if things unwind and things seem to clear up, there is obviously there's going to be some lag between you know the current mess which is there in the supply chain and what needs to be in a normalized scenario, right? That lag itself will indicate that there will be some tightness which will remain and which will keep prices up to a certain level.
Once those things normalize, for how long you know those prices stay at what level and how much you know further they keep getting pushed down is you know is really anyone's guess. I would say in the short to potentially short, medium term, prices will tend to remain a little bit higher from what we can assess at this stage, as opposed to what they have been in the past.
Fantastic. Fantastic. No, thank you so much, Rahul, and wish you all the best.
Thank you so much, Pankaj.
Looking forward. Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Khetan from SMIFS Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you, sir, for the opportunity, and congrats on a good set of numbers. Just a couple of questions. Sir, first, is it possible to quantify the inventory gains during the quarter? Secondly, sir, we are seeing the volume, a slight volume dip in, into the Indian business, but some 20%-30% dip into the Thailand business.
Any particular reason, sir? Because onto the Thailand part, what, I know as per our previous interaction, we were having supply of raw materials from the local players. Ideally, that shouldn't have have been disrupted and the production shouldn't have gone down, ideally. Any thoughts on this, sir? Like, what about the volume dip, and possible to quantify the inventory gains?
We don't really have any, you know, significant inventory gain for the quarter. In terms of the volume dip, there has been a dip in our GPPS sales for the quarter. There has been a muted demand, and also there has been a lot of pricing pressure on account of certain imports. You know, that has accounted for the volume dip. In all the other categories, whether it's ABS, HIPS, we have grown year-on-year, you know, as far as the quarter is concerned.
Overall, we have kind of moved in the right direction, given what we do in this specific quarter, right? In that, in this quarter, you know, there are 28 days in February. There are a lot of nuances on how this quarter works. Specifically in this quarter, there are certain couple of shutdowns which happen every year, not only in this year. All these things lead to a certain volume change. If I look at the year-over-year, there is a growth, at least in our ABS and HIPS business.
We don't give a breakout, so I'm gonna refrain from telling you or quantifying exactly what that is, because, as you know, none of our competitors do that either. There is no real concern in terms of a volume dip in India other than what I've mentioned. As far as Thailand is concerned, if you compare a Q4 of last year versus this year, what we have, given information, essentially what had happened is, you know, we were again shifting from, you know, INEOS's brand to our brand.
We had started, you know, intimating to all the customers that we would be discontinuing, and we were also wanting them to switch to our brand and on account of that, there was a little bit higher booking, by customers in that earlier brand, which was a little bit unusual, which could not have happened in previous years corresponding to that same quarter. comparing that particular quarter with this quarter would not have been a fair assessment.
Having said that, I think, again, we have retained, I would say, most of our business. Business continuity, you know, has been achieved by the, you know, work of our team over there. Going forward, we do believe, you know, with whatever, interactions we have had with our customers recently, like I mentioned in China and elsewhere, volumes will start trending upwards only.
Got it, sir. Sir, my next question is, for this year fiscal, FY 2027, in terms of India, Indian business. Largely, how much room we have for the volumes to further go up? Subsequently, sir, are we confident like that ABS capacity, any timelines, sir? I think we have stated earlier, some, around in the second half that will come on stream. Any timelines, sir, on that, like, and if there is any change?
No, there is no change. Like I mentioned, whatever earlier announcements we have given, we are still in line with that. We are on track for that. As and when the additional capacities come online, we'll be sure to inform all our shareholders accordingly. Otherwise, as far as volume growth for the year is concerned, you know, one has to take the present scenario into context. If we were not facing the present scenario, I think India would still grow at the same level, and we would grow also similarly.
You know, if you assume that ABS would grow at 8%-10% or whatever, and you know, we would have additional volumes to spare, then yes, we would also grow similarly, if not higher, given the import and substitution opportunity. I don't think growth is an issue in a normalized scenario. In the present scenario, of course, like I mentioned, it is very difficult to give an estimate.
Got it. Sir, just one question I wanted to know from you. Sir, considering from a customer's perspective, who are taking ABS and polystyrene, even they are so they would be knowing that companies like Styrenix, Supreme, and [inaudible] all are dependent on styrene and acrylonitrile imports. Any disruption in raw material supply definitely so keeps these companies so vulnerable.
Why would any customer completely be dependent on these companies? Import substitutions story, what you're saying, sir, will that actually play considering all these things like if there is any raw material stoppage from these countries? Definitely they would be also left in the middle versus if they're continuing taking their purchases from China or from Korea. How these things like play out?
It's interesting, right, that even in the current context of whatever may have happened, we have not had any supply problem for our raw materials, right? Whether it's styrene, acrylonitrile, which we are importing, we have been able to procure it. Like I said, you know, these are commodities. There is no real significant arbitrage between one region to the other when it comes to these monomers. Even for a lot of our suppliers, you know, it's interesting one of the big competitors whose position in Korea and probably has the largest share in the import substitution market, was actually vertically integrated into styrene, and they stopped producing styrene, in fact, I think a year or two ago.
They chose to now import or buy styrene from outside, even into that country, because, again, like I mentioned, these monomers are commodities, and there is no real value of being vertically integrated into these commodities in the current demand supply scenario which exists. Given that situation, I don't see customers giving any preference to a customer, to any company, you know, which has local supply of raw materials or has, you know, vertical integration into these areas. In fact, if anything, it could be a negative, I feel, at times, because, you know, the spreads on a lot of the raw materials have been low. In a normalized scenario, I believe, it's quite long, in any case, the outlook for a lot of the monomers.
Sorry for interrupting, Mr. Khetan. Please rejoin the queue for more questions. A reminder to all the participants. Please restrict yourself to two questions per participant. The next question is from the line of Pritesh Chheda from Lucky Investments. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello sir. Just to the question that you replied about pricing, most likely to stay higher than pre-war considering the supply chain. You mentioned that there was no inventory gain in the quarter gone by. Is it fair to assume that even the profitability then, should largely stay higher than the pre-war level? By the way, the pre-war level of the last one year was a continuously sliding scenario. One has to then go and refer to a year back, actually. Are these interpretations correct that we are doing, without asking how much time will it last? You know, but this conclusion is fair enough?
Hi, Pritesh. Thanks for your question-
No problem.
...essentially, the profitability, in the last quarter has probably been a little bit higher on account of two things. One is, of course, the product mix. Like I mentioned that, we sold less GPPS in that quarter, that has changed. Now, going forward, you know, what happens, we'll have to see. The other thing was, you know, in terms of certain, you know, prices that we could get for certain segments were higher on account of certain shortages which were created at that time, right?
There was a price expansion which took place. You know, that could be also a little bit opportunistic on our part for certain segments, that I don't think is sustainable, you know, long term. In a pre-war scenario, versus post-war scenario, how profitability will move, I think is a question which I cannot answer today. Prices itself may remain a little higher because even raw material prices are going to remain a little bit higher until, you know, the supply chain doesn't normalize. I think I was speaking more towards that rather than to profitability itself.
Okay. Any comments, okay, on the volume side, any comments if you have, because incrementally as well, because there was one observation that the user industry in the last quarter, any user industry would have grown substantially in volumes, and that we refer from lot of companies' results. You know, it was contrary that you had a 5% volume decline in India operations. One, any granular that we need to know. Second, at these high prices, what's your assumption or what's your thought process on the volumes? How is it behaving as of now? Whichever way you're comfortable asking this question, answering this question.
Sure. Like I mentioned, already that, you know, we are engaged in two lines of business, ABS and polystyrene. Within polystyrene, we have GPPS and HIPS. We've actually had a good volume growth both in ABS and in HIPS, last quarter, if I look at year-on-year numbers. We have had a significant decline in GPPS, and that was on account of, you know, certain unorganized market, a lot of dumping also, from imports and, you know, then us not really wanting to participate in that market at those prices. Rest of the business, you know, remained robust and volume growth was fine. I think, going forward also in a normalized scenario, we anticipate the same.
Okay. Oh, thank you very much, sir. All the best to you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ronak Chheda from Awriga Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Am I audible?
Yeah.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question was, just on the CapEx and the scale-up on the CapEx. You partly mentioned that, the demand is there out for us. Just in terms of timeline, how should one think of the scale-up once the phase I goes live this year?
Year on a high. I mean, again, no change in what we had to say earlier. We are still saying in the second half of this year, we will have additional volumes and capacities coming in line. There is no change, the CapEx also is in line with, you know, those capacities which will come in, you know. Obviously, the commitments are there, and as the, you know, machinery comes in or as the kind of construction gets over and as the commissioning takes place, you know, those that will have an impact on the cash itself. The commitments have been made. We do believe, given current timelines, We are on track with regards to whatever we have mentioned in the past with regards to our CapEx and, volume, incremental volume that we will get.
Is it fair to assume that in quarter two you will be able to scale up if the demand is out there for you to grab?
Like I mentioned, second half would not be the first and second quarter. It would be in the third and fourth quarter-
Yeah.
...month we have not mentioned, and we are not in a position to do so right now.
Fair. Rahul, my second question is on what percentage of sales for us would be, you know, based on a contract or a fixed formula-based pricing versus spot sales, if you could bifurcate?
Again, not much change in that, from what we have done in the past. In ABS, again, you know, 60%-70% of it is formula contract based. Even the balance volumes, again, there is some kind of a formula that we follow, though it may not be further backed with a contract necessarily with a customer or a volume commitment, but there would be a pricing mechanism, by, for which, you know, we would have an understanding, and that is what we would employ with most of our customers, and that is what has worked. That is the case of ABS.
In the case of polystyrene, you know, in, specifically in the case of HIPS again, we have done far more, you know, in terms of our OEM connections and in terms of formula-based pricing. That number is now much higher than 50% than what it was earlier. In the case of GPPS, again, there has been I guess a degrowth what we mentioned in volume because, you know, we are not participating aggressively in the segments which are not backed by contract or formulas. That is where we have seen also, you know, lot of imports coming in. Today, I think it'd be fair to say the company, generally is following and working with customers on some kind of a formula basis for more than, you know, 70% of their business.
Okay. Thank you so much. Best of luck to us.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Krunal Shah from ENAM Investments. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I have two questions on the Thailand business. If I see the cash flow, it seems that there is around a INR 60 crore difference between the consol and the standalone cash flow. That would mean that a INR 60 crore kind of CapEx has been done in Thailand. Just wanted to get some clarity on that.
Second question is on the volume decline in the Thailand business. We saw that in the volume decline, and you gave the reason that it was because pre-buying happened in December quarter. In December quarter also the volumes were just like 15,000 tons, and that too was flat versus September quarter. Not much volume uptick was there. Is that like a sustainable run rate is much lower than the 14,000 tons? That's two, these two questions. Thank you.
Yeah. Hi, Krunal. Typically, you know, I was comparing the January to March quarter compared to the January to March of previous year. In fact, you know, a lot of the countries in the Far East, they follow a January to December quarter. They tend to, you know, take a lot of volumes towards December because we have rebates and we have volume commitments from customers. December quarters are a little bit higher generally. January to March quarters are generally a little bit lower.
Okay.
It was higher in the previous year because, you know, we were shifting from one brand to the other. Customers had the fear that we would not be able to supply to them the Novodur brand. That's why they did a lot of pre-buying. Not for the December quarter. This is for the January to March previous quarter. Okay?
Okay.
That is why volumes were higher. Here January to March quarters typically are a little bit lower-
Okay.
...case every year. Again, we don't have a lot of comparable breakups of all the years prior to that because that information, you know, has not been given to us by our by the earlier management in a manner which we can really present to any shareholder.
Okay.
This is the understanding we have based on how the seasonality of that business works in that part of the world, which is a little bit different from how it works in India. In terms of run rate, like I mentioned always, you know, when you look at our business, you should look at the annual business.
Okay.
Anyway, eliminates the January to March of, you know, 2025. We look at the FY 2026 April to March numbers. On an annualized basis, whatever numbers you're seeing, those I think are numbers which are now we are, we believe are defensible. Of course, there is a significant room to grow from there.
Okay. Okay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhaval Shah from Girik Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Rahul sir.
Hi. Hi, Dhaval.
Hi. Just one question. Given the prices are so volatile right now, and you mentioned your customers are doing 60%, 70% contracts in terms of long-term, that would be more from a volume perspective. The pricing, it changes every week or how does it work right now? You know, also because your procurement price also keeps fluctuating. The situation is very fluid. How, how does it happen right now?
Yeah, it's a good question, Dhaval. A lot of our raw materials are now coming basically on the spot market as well. For those raw materials, we have been able to convince our customers to consider the pricing that we are getting with them. There is typically a formula which is built in with our customers, which takes into account certain publication prices-
Okay.
...the prices that we are getting on the spot, you know, has maybe a little bit of gap with the formula prices. Customers have well understood and accepted that, and that has been again built into the formula. Typically within a small margin of error, we are able to match what needs to be done with the customers with regards to what we are buying it and what we are selling to them. We still keep kind of mostly a monthly price for most of our long-term value customers. You know, we don't see any real massive challenge in being able to procure at that price and sell to that price. There is no real gap in terms of how things were earlier before the war and even now.
Got it. You also mentioned that you were a bit opportunistic in the fourth quarter. Does it mean we sold more on the spot market, or you were more opportunistic on the kind of, on the product mix side?
I think it's mostly on the product mix that we were able to, you know, sell certain products at a higher price, you know, which gave us more margin. Obviously there was a tightness suddenly which was created, and we were able to take that advantage and shift more of our production in that area because that availability wasn't there. Secondly, also in the spot market, you know, the realizations were obviously much higher because there was no availability of material.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. How are the freight rates now? Are they still higher? Or are they kind of moderating anything? Now little bit the containers have started moving out of the straits and because your freight rates will also determine the pricing, right? The landed prices of the chemicals in our country. Any comments, any thought on that?
The freights went up quite sharply, in coming trades.
Yeah.
I, for the containerized cargo, I think it's not moved significantly. You know, maybe corrected a little bit. On bulk, there has been some softening-
Okay.
...again, I think there has been some demand destruction on, you know, kind of the bulk, petrochemical, materials and hence you have seen softening over there. Again, a lot of fluctuation day-to-day basis. Very difficult to keep track of what's happening.
Got it. Got it. Sir, on the polystyrene front, you know, a couple of months ago when we were interacting, the imports were suggesting that there are a lot of PS imports happening, and you also mentioned unorganized demand is also very active. Now in the fourth quarter, you've sold less of GPPS. This trend is emerging out of what? Is it some higher capacity, you know, in the exporting countries or unorganized market expanding, or you taking a step back and focusing more on higher margin, better margin products where, you know, your competitive strength is better?
How should we look at it? That's why you are not also, you know, talking anything on the expansion of the PS side. Please help us understand this point, sir. Like, you know, when we announced the expansion, you know, we had given a roadmap for ABS and PS, how the capacities are going to be over the next till I think FY 2029 or something when we are fully up with the entire expansion. How should we understand your PS strategy?
For PS, I think we've always backended the expansion possibilities, because we were still trying to, you know, ensure that the business case aligned with the company's vision, right? We have some very important and, you know, valuable relationships in the PS sector, and we are definitely looking to enhance those relationships and service them, you know, even more going forward. We also need to understand, you know, where there is less value in that sector. Wherever there is less value, we may choose to not participate or participate considerably lesser going forward.
You know, it's kind of a balanced strategy approach that we have taken over the years. We have moved, you know, away from the unorganized sector and more into the formula-based OEM business in PS. You know, that effort is still in that direction. We have been consistent with what we have been wanting to do in PS, and that has not changed.
Going forward, I think, in that context, as the business grows and develops and our customers' requirements become clearer, as our share of OEM business grows, we'll define the business case for expansion in that sector, right? That is a developing or evolving strategy for us. As it becomes clearer, we will take that decision. The expansion for PS has always been a backended strategy as opposed to front-ended, unlike ABS, you know, where, you know, we have had far more value-added customers or relationships since much longer compared to the competitors out there.
Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Shah, please rejoin the queue for more questions. The next question is from the line of Rahul Agrawal from Ikigai Asset Manager. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good evening, Rahul Ji and Bhupesh Ji. Just quick three questions. Firstly, on the demand side, when I look at your customers, we talk to them on automotive, appliances and packaging, three sectors. We hear that even they are facing decent amount of issue in terms of passing through their own input pricing, right? Which is what we are passing it to them, and Styrenix is passing because their own input price materials has gone up globally. The point being that incrementally, when I look at fiscal 2027, and you know, we really don't know what's happening in second half on demand.
Just at the current spot trends from automotive, appliances and packaging, will you just talk qualitatively more about how do you see this OE demand happening at current spot price, whatever you're quoting to them? Are they okay in terms of how they are feeling with their own, you know, supplies taking from you? That's one question. Second is on the spreads and margins. I think enough questions have been asked. Trying to figure out that if we look at full year fiscal 2026, you know, and if we just compare that to fiscal 2027, is the spread at current spot price better or worse off?
Just in terms of direction, if you just qualify that. Third is because you're facing, you know, global imports are also facing issues on ABS from Korea, which is I think quite a decent quality ABS that comes from there. Does it make sense for us to prepone our CapEx on ABS and, you know, maybe capitalize and gain more market share? These were three questions. Thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks. You know, with regards to, you know, the demand from our customers in auto appliances packaging, qualitatively speaking, you know, we obviously have not seen any significant uptick in demand, but we haven't seen a significant downtick either. You know, it's a little bit muted, I would say, you know, at the prices that we are offering. Most of our large, you know, OE customers, you know, have been buying consistently. We have to see how the next few months pan out because, you know, for them, how fast they're able to clear their inventories, how fast they're able to pass on prices is something that, you know, we still have to hear back from them.
Far, you know, they have been, they have been running their business as usual, more or less. We do believe that there could be some slowdown. You know, that is something that we have to account for. Currently that is the case. In fact, it's more in the, I would say, unorganized market or smaller market where, you know, a lot of customers are become much more cautious in terms of their willingness to buy, product because of the uncertainty associated with pricing, in which direction it will go. That is what we are seeing qualitatively again, you know, without speaking to exact numbers.
With regards to spreads and margins between last year and this year, in the spot, you know, I think again, if I look at most of our customers, you know, the margins on the again, on the contract or formula side might be similar, slightly better, might be similar only I think largely. I think there is obviously on the on the spot side they are better because again, for specific grade of products we are able to supply where we are not seeing quality supplies from conventional competitors from Korea.
You know, like I mentioned, Korea and certain kind of countries have had structurally worse problems than say India or Thailand or even China for that matter have had. You know, we are better positioned to supply those specific grades and in those grades we are able to, you know, get better margins. Keeping in mind again, with your third question on, Korea or other areas, we do believe that, you know, that structurally there may be changes in Korea. We are not sure.
Again, that, does not take away from the fact that we still remain committed, you know, to our customers in India and their requirements and, you know, their preference for our product, which has always been the case and we have not been able to deliver. That will remain, and I think keeping our investments on track and our volumes coming on, additional volumes coming on track will be the right strategy because whatever may happen in the very short term to medium to long term, I do believe that the demand robustness is intact in India.
Got it. Just to follow up on the 30% of the volume business which we have, which is essentially the non-OEM side of it across any segment, just taking an average over here. You're saying is there a pain in that segment? That's one clarification. Second is on this preponement of CapEx, you're saying it's still on track. We don't really do that right now based on whatever is happening. Is that correct?
Yeah. We are not preponing anything. We are doing as planned. You know, the CapEx is happening exactly as we spoke. When you talk about, you know, the non-OE segment, whether it's 30% or 40%, whatever it is, you know, we don't give exact number. 60%-70%, let's assume is OE and rest of it isn't. Wherever the unorganized market is, typically, you know, they would buy more based on, you know, what they believe to be the case going forward in the next, you know, immediate future.
That's how the buying has been in that segment historically as well. Since there is greater uncertainty over there, you know, there is obviously muted demand over there. To the extent there is demand and to the extent that we are better placed to supply certain grades of products which are not coming easily from other suppliers is where we can get better margins. That's how it's working out.
Perfect, Rahul Agrawal. Thank you so much. Wish you all the best for fiscal 2023.
Sure.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of [Vanish] from Boring AMC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Yeah. I have two questions. The first question is to understand the structural difference between HIPS and your general purpose polystyrene. Like, what is the difference between the two and why do we get a better margin for the HIPS? The second question is regarding the Thailand acquisition. We had done the acquisition to get a better margin ABS product in India. Are we seeing that integration play out in India? Do we see any future CapEx for a better ABS grade in India?
Yeah, thanks. [Vanish], if you look at GPPS and HIPS, the way the market is, a lot of the For HIPS, a larger market is actually driven by air conditioning, refrigerators, you know, and some packaging industries. A lot of this is kind of organized and is growing well in India. There are also a lot of specialized grade requirements by these customers, you know, which are not easy to switch from one supplier to the other. Hence, there is a greater value that customers see in buying a specific product from a specific supplier, and hence you have a slightly better margin in that product.
In the case of GPPS, you know, a smaller percentage is in the organized segment, larger is in the unorganized, where the opportunities to switch, you know, is more and, you know, you can switch based on cost more easily. The margins are a little bit lower. As far as Thailand is concerned, I would not say that we, the strategically the decision to go into Thailand is to bring more product into India. Thailand, you know, has helped us for additional capacities for the rest of the world for certain technologies, like I mentioned.
To that question of, regarding technology, yes, we are planning to, you know, incorporate some of those technologies when we do add new capacities in India, and that will help us target some of the additional product segments as well in India, which we have historically not done so. There are some advantages of that, you know, higher kind of margin ABS also being produced in India by us with that technology once those, that additional capacity comes online in India.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you. That's it from my side.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hrishit Jhaveri from CBA Asset Managers LLP. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted to ask on the other income levels. We had an INR 11.8 crore other income in this quarter. Can you throw some light on here?
Bhupesh, I would request you to answer that. Other income, INR 11.8 crore.
This is for the standalone?
No, consolidated.
Sorry?
Consolidated.
Okay, consolidated. It has income from both India as well as our Thailand operations. Maybe some Forex gains in Thailand which comes into this. We have some services also in Thailand which we give from our facilities. Maybe, other than that, scrap sales and all other things overall come into other income.
Okay. Assuming the normalized spread, when can Thailand operations be at the break-even point?
I think I mentioned this in the past. We do believe that once we have 70% capacity utilization, the Thailand operation will start generating some returns. You know, we are still below that and we are working in that direction.
Okay. Is there any cost escalation for the upcoming CapEx of the ABS?
Cost escalation.
Not currently, no.
Okay. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. In the interest of time, that was the last question for the day. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Chintan Doshi for closing comments.
Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining us today on our link call. We appreciate your interest and time in the company. We look forward to answering you in the next meeting, which will be announced at suitable time in future. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Styrenix Performance Materials Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.