Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Earnings Conference Call of Usha Martin Limited. As a reminder, all participant clients 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 touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Devr ishi Singh from CDR India. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on Usha Martin's Q2 and H1 FY 2026 earnings conference call. We have with us Mr. Rajeev Jhawar, Managing Director of the company, Mr. Abhijit Paul, Chief Financial Officer, and Ms. Shreya Jhawar from the Strategy and Growth team of the company. We hope all of you have had the opportunity to refer to the earnings documents that we shared with you earlier. We will initiate the call with opening remarks from the management, following which we will have the forum open for a Q&A session. Before we begin, I would like to point out that some statements made in today's call may be forward-looking in nature, and a disclaimer to this effect has been included in the earnings presentation. I would now like to invite Mr. Rajeev Jhawar to make his opening remarks.
Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good morning, everyone. On behalf of the management team of Usha Martin, I would like to welcome you all to our earnings conference call. I will begin by sharing some updates on our operations and strategy, following which our CFO, Mr. Abhijit Paul, will take you through the key financial highlights. We are pleased to share that Q2 FY2026 reflected steady financial progress and disciplined operational execution. Consolidated revenues for the quarter stood at INR 908 crore. The wire business continued to deliver a steady performance, recording a 2.6% year-on-year growth in revenues, driven by healthy contributions from the elevator and crane rope segments. The wire segment delivered a 14.2% year-on-year revenue increase, reflecting sustained demand and momentum. Meanwhile, the LRPC division reported a 26% year-on-year decline.
The operating EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 173 crore, with a margin of 19.1%, and EBITDA per ton stood at approximately INR 35,000 per metric ton. The improvement was aided by a favorable mix and ongoing cost efficiency. Margin percentage was further supported by temporarily lower LRPC volumes. As LRPC volumes recover in the coming quarters, margins may moderate from Q2 levels. However, absolute EBITDA is expected to increase on higher throughput. With regards to the balance sheet, we continued to strengthen our financial position. During the first half of the year, we repaid INR 157 crore of debt, fully funded through internal accruals. Operating cash flows before tax stood at INR 390 crore, translating to a robust 123% conversion of operating EBITDA to cash flow. As a result, we closed the quarter with net cash position of INR 111 crore and a healthy ROC of 20.3%.
These metrics also reflect the early impact of our One Usha Martin transformation journey. Over the past year, the initiative has evolved into an integral way of working, aligning our global teams and operations under a unified vision and driving sharper execution and stronger financial discipline. While we had earlier indicated that benefits of this transformation would become visible from the second half of FY 2026, we are encouraged to note that early signs have already emerged in Q2. That said, an area where we believe there was room for improvement this quarter was in volume performance. Volume growth during the quarter was below our expectations, particularly in the rope and the LRPC segments. Looking at rope first, this was driven by a few key factors. Number one, this quarter, our rope portfolio tilted more towards high-performance and value-added ropes.
These products command stronger realization than profitability, though they inherently yield lower output given their specialized manufacturing processes. While there were opportunities to scale up general-purpose rope volumes, we chose to maintain our focus on an upgraded product mix. Number two, while most of our CapEx is complete, a few machines for high-performance ropes, which were expected to come online during quarter two, faced slight delays in commissioning, which impacted volumes. These are now expected to be operational in Q3 and will help further optimize product mix and throughput in quarter four. Number three, the domestic market volumes in rope were relatively subdued during the quarter versus last year's strong Q2 base, partly due to delayed monsoon and a softer demand environment. We are, however, beginning to see a gradual pickup as post-monsoon activity resumes.
Number four, demand in Saudi Arabia, which we have identified as a key volume growth driver, is improving but at a slower than expected pace. Our teams are actively engaging with key stakeholders to accelerate traction and ensure we are very well positioned in this market as project activity scales up and the oil and offshore segment recovers. Now, on the LRPC front, volumes were impacted by the extended monsoon, which slowed down infrastructure activity during the quarter. On the positive side, we are in the final stages of approval with a key customer for our value-added LRPC range. This milestone will enable us to expand our presence both in India and export markets in the coming quarters. Overall, Q2 volumes were softer than expected due to short-term operational and market factors, and we expect higher throughput and growth in the second half.
In conclusion, the progress we have made across capacity expansion, product development, market diversification, and One Usha Martin continues to strengthen our growth foundation. These initiatives are helping Usha Martin reinforce our leadership in the wire rope industry. With a strong balance sheet and a clear strategic direction, we remain confident in our ability to deliver sustainable and profitable growth in the coming years ahead. With this, I would like to now invite our CFO, Mr. Abhijit Paul, to present the financial highlights for the quarter. Thank you.
Thank you, and a very good morning to everyone. I will now provide a brief overview of the company's operating and financial performance for the quarter and half year end date 5th September 2025. In Q2 of FY 2026, our consolidated net revenue from operations stood at INR 908 crore, as against INR 891 crore in Q2 of FY 2025.
This performance was driven by a healthy 14.2% year-on-year growth in the wire segment, while the wire rope segment, which accounted for around 74% of total revenues, registered a stable 2.6% growth on a year-on-year basis. Operating EBITDA at INR 173 crore compared to INR 151 crore in the same quarter last year, with margins improving to 19.1% from 18%. Net profit from continuing operations for Q2 FY 2026 stood at INR 128 crore, up from INR 109 crore in Q2 of FY 2025. For the half year, revenue from operations was INR 1,795 crore, as against INR 1,718 crore in H1 FY 2025, registering a 4.5% year-on-year growth. Operating EBITDA rose to INR 318 crore compared to INR 315 crore in the same period last year, while PAT from continued operations improved to INR 228 crore versus INR 213 crore in H1 of FY 2025.
During the quarter, we recognized an expense of INR 17.8 crore towards additional expenditure likely to be incurred related to the transfer of certain land parcels to Tata Steel, relating to the arch-wise sale of Steel Division. The same has been reported under discontinued operations. We would like to mention that our operating cash flow will not be impacted due to this, as we have amount receivable from Tata on this account. We would like to highlight that overall fixed expenses have reduced significantly compared to last year, driven by various initiatives under the One Usha Martin program. These include the establishment of a shared back office in India, optimization of treasury operations across group companies, centralized negotiations with vendors, and an increased focus on cost awareness across the organization. As a result of these efforts, we were able to reduce our fixed expenses by more than 10% compared to 2025.
On the balance sheet front, overall net working capital has reduced by over INR 108 crore from the peak of December 2024 due to improved net working capital management. While the absolute level has come down, working capital days have increased primarily due to a higher base in September 2024, as the metric is calculated using average net working capital over the past 12 months. Pre-cash flow for H1 FY 2026 was INR 229 crore, which helped us to reduce our debt significantly. Gross debt decreased from INR 338 crore in March 2025 to INR 181 crore as of September 2025. This has helped in a meaningful reduction of finance cost. To conclude, the strategic groundwork laid under One Usha Martin transformation, together with our disciplined financial approach, continues to strengthen the company's foundation for sustainable growth.
With steady demand across key markets, improving cost competitiveness, and a robust balance sheet, we are confident of delivering a stronger performance in the second half of FY 2026. Thank you, and over to you.
Hello.
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 the touchstone 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. The first question is from the line of Balas ubramanian from Arihant Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Sir, my first question, we have delivered a 19.1%. It's an impressive margin.
It's majorly led by lower sales in that lower margin LRPC segment. When this LRPC sales normalize, what is the sustainable EBITDA margin for the core business? And how much of the recent margin expansion is structural, especially from the product mix, cost savings versus cyclical in terms of raw material prices? I think earlier you have guided 18% margin in FY 2026 and 19-20% margin in FY 2027. If you could elaborate more on in terms of product mix shift and operational leverage from new capacities and cross-cost savings and net impact of geographic mix in terms of contribution.
Thank you for your question. As you mentioned in our report, the production was lower in the quarter expected to improve in the coming quarters. So our overall EBITDA will definitely go, whereas the absolute numbers of PAT may reduce. This is the consistent line from our previous quarters also.
This is point number one. Point number two, as our CFO mentioned, the INR 35,000 per metric ton or 19.1 is the result of also the One Usha Martin, which has helped us. The initiatives helped us to reduce our fixed cost by approximately 10% over the previous year. That has also contributed. It is a mix of the LRPC as well as advantages getting from One Usha Martin cost optimization that is definitely helping us. Going forward, as we see the volumes getting ramped up in the wire rope segment, including product mix improvement, which is part of our constant endeavor, we should be able to meet our earlier projections that we would maintain those EBITDA numbers as you articulated. We are on line to achieve those numbers even in the coming quarter.
Okay, sir.
My second question, the share of international business has been increased to 58%. Which specific geographies like Europe, Americas, or APAC are driving this growth? Which are the key target markets for the future? Are you seeing any signs of demand softness in your key international markets? You mentioned about flexibility to shift production to the U.K. to mitigate U.S. tariffs. Right now, it seems not cost-effective. What is the EBITDA margin differential between supplying the U.S. from India and Thailand versus U.K.? What level of tariff or change in cost structure would make this shift to U.K. production happen? It may be in the future.
Thank you for your question. In terms of the international market, which is now 58% of the total top line, the growth has been driven primarily by Europe and U.S.
Europe is now 28% of our total top line, and the Americas, so U.S. as well as Canada, Latin America, that combined is 9%. Both of them have contributed to our growth. Firstly, with regards to the U.S. market, our performance, both in terms of top line and bottom line, has been better in one compared to the other. In terms of the tariffs, shifting production to the U.K. is something that we have not done, and it is not something that is in our pipeline right now. The tariffs have largely been passed through to the end customers. What is happening in the end market is overall price levels have gone up, but it has not, it has minimally impacted our margins, so little or no impact, I would say.
Secondly, in the U.S., in terms of the demand momentum, what you asked, we have won some new customers as well as contracts, which we were able to secure earlier this year. Because of that, we have quite a good and stable order flow in the region. Like I said, U.S. is one part where, of course, there is still uncertainty. So far, we've managed it well. Our goal is that in the Americas, we also look at Canada, Latin America, whether it's Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, those are important markets as well, which will help us grow our overall share in that region.
Secondly, when it comes to the European market, as you mentioned, the integration of and the model changes in Brunton Shaw that happened over the last year have helped us, and the direct shipments from India, from our Ranchi facility to Brunton Shaw, have started. That's made us more competitive, helped us reduce our lead time as well, which is translating into overall better order flow and helping us win new customers as well as serve our existing customers. The demand momentum is fairly stable to positive, I would say. We are seeing demand pick up in certain regions, whether it's the industrial sector, crane, and offshore is stable.
Our target now in the European market going forward is that right now, through our service centers in Deloitte in Netherlands, we have a strong presence in that market as well as the Aberdeen, North Sea area with EMM as a service center. We feel that Europe is a big market, and each of these countries are a market of its own, and there is a lot of scope and opportunity for further expansion in the European market.
Okay, madam. My last question, the new competition is coming from mining printers and high-value wires. Beyond R&D and customer engagements, what are our strategies to operate product or margins and market share? What are the strategies to tackle those competitions? Is there any risk of margins, especially in that high-value wires, because of this competition?
Competition will always be there, and I think it's a healthy competition where each one of us in the global market continues to upgrade our products and our offerings to the market. We are constantly working with our team in Europe as well as our team in India to constantly upgrade and improve our product mix and live performance of our ropes as per the customer requirements. We are happy to say that we are making steady progress on this. On the various product lines of whether it's mining, crane, elevators, we are constantly upgrading our products based on the needs of the customer, and that is helping us to ensure that we stay ahead of competition and keep on meeting the higher standards and expectations of the customers. Thank you.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Aman Kumar from AK Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Good morning, sir. Sir, first of all, I would like to congratulate the management for delivering steady numbers this quarter, despite very heavy rainfall in most parts of the country and a very challenging international business environment. The second thing which I want to congratulate the management for is the very high cash flow, and the company has become a net cash positive company, which is really very commendable. Sir, in the previous person who has asked the question, I want to understand that really we are seeing very good traction in the U.S. market despite these tariffs. Previously, the European market was challenging, so are we seeing good traction in the European market because that is a very big market for us?
Yes.
As we mentioned, in both the Europe and U.S. market, we have been able to see both top line growth as well as bottom line growth in both of these markets. In the U.S., in particular, even though with the tariffs, there are tariff headwinds, and there is still some uncertainty, we are quite sure with our healthy order book for H2, we are quite confident that this is a market in the near term that we will continue to do well. For the long term, we are constantly working on whether it is new OEM approvals, whether it is strengthening our mining presence, trying to secure more contracts. We are constantly working on that to ensure that even in these high-value segments of mining, elevator, etc., we only keep increasing our market share in the U.S.
Thank you.
My next question is that in the plasticated LRPC, I think we have not got much success so far in the volume as far as volume is concerned. When can we see this noticeable volume growth in this plasticated LRPC?
It's a good question. Thank you. Basically, plasticated LRPC requires a lot of, it's a process of approval with customers, takes a lot of time. Out of the five or six global players, we have got approval with almost all of them, but a couple of them we are working, which should happen in the coming quarters. That should result in not only start increasing the volumes to them in India, but even in the international market. To answer specifically, I feel that Q4 and Q1 onwards next year, we should see significant growth of plasticated LRPC from these customers as well.
Secondly, while we have orders from our other customers, but the projects were significantly delayed due to the extended monsoon, and those should start getting delivered from quarter three and quarter four onwards. The existing orders should also start picking up from a delivery perspective. Overall, I think quarter four and quarter one onwards, we should start seeing a significant improvement in production and deliveries.
My next question is that LRPC, the margins are quite muted. I think it's a very thin margin we are working with. A lot of players have entered in this segment. Whether we are making any profit in LRPC and whether we are getting some very high margin or good value orders in normal LRPC?
You see, LRPC is a very competitive product, and a lot of demand is there, but equally, a lot of competition and supply from other competition is there. The margins have definitely come down, but I would say that still it is profitable. We expect these volumes to continue to do better in the coming quarters with a positive margin, not the high margins of earlier, but it continues to be profitable.
Sir, one more question regarding this Galfan line. Whether we are getting good volume growth and good orders in Galfan wire?
I'm happy to say that the GALSTAR line, as our product is named as GALSTAR, is continuing to. We have been able to get approval from most of our customers. It's again a very high.
The approval process is fairly long as the samples are supplied, trial supplies are made, and then delivered to different parts of the world, and then we start getting repeat orders. I'm happy to say that the development process has done well, and we have got good response from our customers for our initial supplies. We expect to start ramping up the capacity from quarter four onwards, and we expect to get to our levels of 5,000-6,000 tons a year, what we had projected earlier from quarter one onwards of the next financial year.
One last question is, sir, how is the Synthetic Sling business performing? Are there any notable developments, new customers, or growth opportunities in this segment?
Thanks for your question. Yes, the Synthetic Sling business is a new business for us. It continues to perform steadily.
We did get a couple of high-value orders, both from the European as well as Latin American market. I'm happy to say that though it's a new business for us, it is already a profitable business. While it remains a small part of the overall portfolio, definitely it can become an independent vertical for us going forward. Since it's a complementary product to our ropes and a lot of the end customers are actually similar, it can be a very good complement and value-added offering to our rope basket.
Sir, the last question is, madam, is the company planning to introduce new products that are related to our existing business lines and cater to the similar customer base?
Yes, of course, that most of our product lines, we are constantly looking at new opportunities to expand.
Like the Wire, we have constantly started looking at how to expand into the value-added wires. Of course, our focus would be always in the niche value-added wire, and that's a constant process. That is definitely helping us to identify new products, new customers, and that is helping us to gradually increase our volume of higher value-added wires in the market. Similarly, on the ropes, of course, we are present in mostly all these segments, but we are constantly looking at upgrading our portfolio within these segments and trying to introduce new variants to the customers, be it mining, be it elevator, be it the crane ropes for different applications. This is a constant part of our daily constant part of our activity because that is the only way we can continue to increase the share of our value-added products and stay ahead of competition.
I'm happy to say that in most of these areas, we have been able to constantly improve our mix and thereby helping us to continuously keep on increasing the share of specialized ropes within our wire rope portfolio.
Thank you, sir. This is from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mayank Bhandari from Asian Markets . Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity, man. Question is particular to Steel Wire segment. What would be your EBITDA per ton in the Steel Wire currently?
If we look at our EBITDA per ton on an overall basis, not really break it up between rope wire and LRPC since a lot of the capacities are fungible, but if we have to give a ballpark, it would be around INR 10,000 per ton. Whereas the value-added is much higher, upwards of INR 50,000-INR 55,000 per ton.
Is the EBITDA per ton improving in this wire segment in the last two, three years, if you could highlight some of the trend?
I think it is more a focus to maintain the EBITDA per ton in this segment and try to keep on increasing our portfolio and volumes. I think the focus is to at least keep maintaining this at INR 10,000 or around that range and to keep on increasing the volume, which we have seen in the previous few quarters. This trend would even continue going forward, the increase in trend and increasing of these value-added. I do not think we are expecting to see that INR 10,000 going dramatically up or down. It would be more stable levels.
When you say, sir, value-added, it means—
I'm sorry to interrupt in between. Mr. Mayank, can you speak a little louder as you are not audible?
Sir, when you say value-added product, if you could highlight which sectors these value-added products will cater to increasingly?
Yeah. Like GALSTAR is there. There are certain higher spring wires for the auto sector or some wires for the transmission line business and some non-roping wires to our international divisions also. These are the various sectors which we generally operate as far as the wire segment is concerned.
Okay. If I were to talk about volume growth, what is your target of volume growth in this wire business particularly?
In the wire business, as we mentioned earlier, our objective is to gradually take it up to INR 100,000 tons over the next two to three years. That is something which we are constantly working, and we should be able to hopefully work to our plan to achieve that.
Lastly, if I were to ask, can you highlight something on the competition in this wire segment? I mean, how is the competition we're having in this segment, and is the capacity increasing in the industry? How is the pricing power playing out to be?
Wire segment is a much larger segment compared to the rope business globally. It could be 10-15x compared to the rope business. And there are quite a few different players both in the domestic and international market. Some work on high volume, low margin business. Some work on niche products with decent margins and where the volumes may not be very high, but it requires higher quality, not the commercial quality. So Usha Martin wants to focus. I can only talk about where Usha Martin wants to focus.
We want to focus on the range where they have some technical special needs and requirements, which could ultimately help us in getting better realization rather than looking at pure commercial products which could have higher volumes and practically very low margins. We would like to operate in this market, and the competition will always be there like we have in the wire rope business also globally here. Each one of us wants to maximize in that way. I can only talk about ourselves that we are on course to upgrade our volumes and increase our volumes in this and at the margin levels what we indicated earlier.
Sure. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sahil Doshi from Thinqwise. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity. Firstly, sir, I would like to comment.
I think it's a fabulous job done on the balance sheet and the cash flow side. Just taking that forward, sir, just wanted to understand incrementally as we have become debt-free and we start generating a significant amount of cash flow, how should we think about this cash flow or the use of cash over the next two to three years?
Good question. I think that we have, first of all, thanks for the yes, of course, our focus as well as Usha Martin has been to constantly improve the balance sheet and the cash flows of the company. The entire team has worked to achieve the numbers what you have seen. Going forward, we expect to have our growth plans. We are further expanding our rope-making capacity, particularly in certain segments where the demands are expected to grow like elevator and crane ropes in the coming years.
Also, we expect to further increase our CapEx to increase our wire production in order to achieve the INR 100,000 tons level over a period of the next two to three years. Apart from this, we would also be looking at further expanding our reach in the international markets by further increasing the capacity of our distribution and service business internationally. All these requirements would be requiring cash, which we hope to achieve mostly out of our internal accrual. Apart from this, if the company continues, which we are confident, we would definitely look at further improving our payout to the shareholders.
Sure. That helps. Broadly, sir, would you have any ballpark CapEx estimate for all of these things for the next two to three years?
Yeah. Our CapEx would be close to, including our maintenance CapEx, would be close to INR 300,000-INR 350,000 crore a year.
That is something which we feel would be definitely needed to continuously keep on maintaining our volume growth estimate. That is something which we have in plan. This is based on only the organic growth what we have. If some inorganic growth comes in, that could be additional.
Understood, sir. Understood. Also, sir, in context of the earlier discussion, I just wanted to check two parts. I think plasticated LRPC was likely to be a growth driver and second, Saudi. Could you just
Sorry, can you come again?
In the first half, and also how much?
This is Sahil.
We could not hear your question. Please, can you come again?
Hello. Sorry, sorry. I heard you now. Just wanted to understand in terms of
Sorry to interrupt in between. Mr. Sahil, your voice is not audible to us.
Hello?
Yes, sir. Please proceed.
My apologies.
Some issue here at my end. I will repeat the question. I just wanted to understand in terms of plasticated LRPC, what would be the volume in H1? Similarly for Saudi, how much have we done this year?
Yeah. Saudi, we do not look at individual sectors. We do not look at because Saudi is part of our Middle East, part of this Middle East. As you mentioned, the supplies have been or the demand has been fairly muted in this quarter, in the last two quarters. This is part of our consolidated BW, our Brunton wire business. It is expected to grow in the coming quarters. Our LRPC plasticated has been an average of just around INR 200,000 a month, which is fairly low because of the extended monsoon and although we have orders in hand. Let's see how the projects work on site.
Based on that, only we get delivery orders, and we are able to come in. These are highly dependent on how fast the projects are getting executed. It is not a standard LRPC product which gets fairly its project-specific base. We hope that in the coming quarters, we see an uptake in the demand from the projects which were slowing down due to monsoon.
Just lastly, just wanted to check, sir, we used to guide for 12-15% sustainable volume growth. It's been fairly eight, ten quarters where we haven't seen this kind of a number. When do we see that kind of an environment coming back?
As mentioned to you earlier, in my opening remarks, that based on the various projects and all those have been completed with the balance getting completed in this quarter, we expect the volumes should start growing from H2 of this financial year. Hopefully, with all these in place and also depends on how the global markets' demands continue. I think capability-wise, the factory would be able to push higher volumes. A lot of it also depends on how the global markets also plan out in the coming quarters. We are optimistic, but let us see as the global situation improves. We are ready to push up the volumes should there be a little improvement in the uptake from the international markets.
Sure, sir. Thank you so much and best wishes, sir. Thank you.
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 Rajesh Majumdar from 3iB&K. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, Rajeev, Shreya, and Abhijit. I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. One was on the Kedarnath ropeway project and the other ropeway projects that are coming online now. What is our status in terms of the tenders here? Because we had got some approved statuses now in the domestic ropeway projects. Are we seeing any traction there, or are we going to get any chunk of this ropeway projects?
These projects have just started the process of we have just been awarded the contract. We are working on a couple of projects where we hope that we should be able to get some orders which are in advanced stages of implementation.
Some of these projects are still a few years away. Wire rope is probably the last leg of the requirement. Like the Kedarnath project, what we hear takes seven to eight years to get operational. Wire rope would be in the last stages. Of course, we are in touch with all the various project owners, and we are constantly in dialogue with them to see how we could become a part of their project.
These are still some time away in terms of giving any meaningful contribution for us.
Absolutely.
Secondly, sir, do you see any acquisition opportunities? Because by the end of this year, we will be a net cash c ompany. There will be a lot of free cash flows, and we are almost at the end of our CapEx program in Ranchi and Bangkok.
Do you see any kind of acquisition opportunities globally? Are they available? Are we studying them? Yeah. That was my question.
Yes, of course. We are already a net cash company as of September, and that would continue to improve. As mentioned, there is a pipeline of CapEx both at our Ranchi plant as well as our other manufacturing facilities, which are ongoing, and some more are expected to basically take care of the increased demand from certain sectors, whether it's value-added wires, value-added LRPC, whether it is the elevator crane ropes. That is something which will be ongoing, and we would continue as our brownfield expansion in our various facilities. Apart from this, we would definitely look at opportunities to further increase our presence in the international markets for value-added offerings. Nothing is on the table at the moment.
There is definitely an endeavor to look at an opportunity. If and when it comes, we would definitely be keen to expand our presence in the international market for our value-added products and services.
Sir, my last question is, though you highlighted a better product mix, if you look at the realization per ton in wire ropes, it is still lower compared to 1Q and 2Q and probably slightly higher than last year. Is that a concern? I mean, is there a price war still going on in Europe, etc., which can lead to variations being low in the wire rope business?
Overall, if you see the realization for wire rope has increased from Q1, both in international and in domestic market. Right? There is no reduction in the realization for wire rope.
If you do per ton basis, it's INR 242,000 compared to INR 251,000 in 1Q.
No. We can share the numbers with you separately. As per our calculations, both have increased, both domestic and international from Q1.
Okay. Okay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Arora from P4 Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Rajeev, Shreya, and Abhijit. Firstly, congratulations on an amazing performance despite all the headwinds, especially on the balance sheet and the margin front. I just had two questions. One was a follow-on question to the previous participant. How are you seeing the competitive intensity in Europe? The second was in terms of there's a lot of initiatives taken by the Government of India on shipbuilding.
Just wanted to understand how are we positioned in marine shipyard segment in terms of being able to capture the new shipyards, port expansion, inland waterways segment, both in terms of product itself and approvals?
Good question. As far as the shipyards are concerned, Usha Martin is very strong in our product portfolio of shipping, not only across all the continents. We are supplying to quite a large amount of the shipping liners through our various subsidiaries and through our dealers in India. That is something which we will continue to do so. We are in touch with all the various shipyards in the country as well as the new shipyards coming in different parts, both. We are not only in the shipyards but also in the ports where we consider these two as part of a common group of portfolio of products.
We are fully geared with all the approvals as well as the entire product offerings to be able to serve to these customers. As these projects start coming up, we are well positioned to take our share in this market. As far as the European market is concerned, the demand is stable and slightly positive in certain sectors. The competition is equally there with all the European and the Korean players. We all work in the same market. The intensity is always there. I'm happy to say with our One Usha Martin approach of working with our Usha Martin India plant and the BS U.K. plant and the product offerings through this route directly to the customers, we are not only competitive but are able to offer much quicker delivery schedules, which is helping us to continuously increase our market share in the European market.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Agarwal from Moneyore. Please go ahead.
My question is, what is the size of opportunity when the ropeway order comes for that Kedarnath and Rudrapur and all? Or you can quantify in terms of kilometer, what can be the value of the orders?
The wire rope is a very small part of the entire project cost. It would be less than 1% or 2% of the project cost. As mentioned earlier in one of the questions, it is almost seven to eight years each of these projects take to get commission. The wire rope comes as one of the last part of the project. It comes only after five or six years.
Most of these big projects, particularly I can talk about Kedarnath, they are talking the execution time between seven to sometimes even eight to nine years on this. The project cost, the rope part would not be more than 1%-1.5% of the total cost.
Then the domestic growth will come from which sector, sir then?
Elevator is one sector which is growing well. The ports are also ports, elevator, mining, as well as the construction and the crane rope. These are the four sectors which should, and all these depend on how the economy grows and how the industrial production grows. Assuming that those grow at the levels, these are the four sectors in which we expect growth coming here.
Sir, the last question is on working capital. Again, the working capital has increased.
Any particular reason in this quarter for the working capital to go up, years to go up?
As we mentioned in our opening remarks, that working capital is calculated based on last 12 months' average. Since we had a higher base in September 2024, the average working capital base has gone up. If we take September as the exit and calculate based on September numbers, it will be down by five to six days. It will be similar.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aman Kumar from AK Securities. Please go ahead.
Sir, one last question is that regarding the cable bridges over the rivers. How big is this opportunity? I think it is a big opportunity going forward.
Yeah. These are all project-related businesses.
As India is expanding its river connectivity as well as some of these big metro cities are connecting the coastal roadways, this is a good opportunity. We are well positioned to meet any log coil bridges coming or any of these LRPC plasticated or any of these suspension bridges, any types of offerings in terms of ropes. We are well positioned. All these, we expect the demand to be good. It is also important to understand how these projects get implemented in the country. We are ready to be part of any of these projects. We have mostly all the approvals except a couple of LRPC customers where plasticated, where we are in the process of final stages of approval.
Okay, sir. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further participants, that was the last question for today.
I now hand the conference back to the management for closing comments.
I would like to thank everyone for attending this call and showing interest in Usha Martin Limited. I hope we have been able to answer all your questions. The company is dedicated to creating value for all its stakeholders in a sustainable manner. Should you need any further clarification or would you like to know more about the company, please feel free to reach out to us or to CDR India. Thank you once again for taking the time to join us on this call. See you all in the next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Usha Martin Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us today, and you may now disconnect your line.