Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call of Apcotex Industries 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to hand over the conference to Ms. Purvangi Jain from Valorem Advisors. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome to you all. My name is Purvangi Jain from Valorem Advisors. We represent the investor relations of Apcotex Industries Limited. On behalf of the company, I would like to thank you all for participating in the company's earnings call for the first quarter of the financial year 2027. Before we begin, a quick cautionary statement. Some of the statements made in today's con call may be forward-looking in nature. Said forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Such statements are based on management's belief as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to the management. Audiences are cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward-looking statements in making any investment decisions.
The purpose of today's earnings conference call is purely to educate and bring awareness about the company's fundamental business and financial quarter under review. Now, I would like to introduce you to the management participating with us in today's earnings call and hand it over to them for their opening remarks. We have with us Mr. Abhiraj Choksey, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, and Mr. Vivek Thakur, Chief Financial Officer. Without any further delay, I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Vivek Thakur for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line disconnected. Please stay connected while we reconnect the management. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line reconnected. Sir, you may please go ahead.
Thank you, Purvangi, and sorry for this technical glitch. Good afternoon, everyone. It is a pleasure to welcome you all to the earnings conference call for the first quarter of financial year 2027. I hope you had an opportunity to review the financial statement and earnings presentation, which have been circulated and uploaded on our website and the stock exchange. Let me provide you with a brief overview of the financial and operational highlights for the first quarter of the financial year 2027. The company delivered an exceptional start to FY 2027, achieving its highest-ever quarterly revenue of INR 526 crore, which represents a 40% year-on-year growth. This was driven by improved price realizations despite lower sales volumes. The quarter marked a historical financial milestone, with the company reporting its highest-ever EBITDA, profit before tax, and profit after tax.
Operating EBITDA stood at INR 117 crore, registering a growth of 203% year-on-year, with EBITDA margins improving to 22.3% from 10.3% in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR 79 crore. This, compared with INR 19 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, reflects a growth of 311% year-on-year, with PAT margins improving to 15.01% from 5.11%. During the quarter, the export business encountered temporary headwinds as geopolitical developments in West Asia and the resulting logistic disruptions and increase in ocean freight cost adversely impacted the export volumes. Despite the challenges faced, strong financial performance was underpinned by our strategic operational resilience, disciplined inventory planning, proactive procurement, and effective risk management, which enabled us to ensure uninterrupted customer service during industry-wide disruptions. This allowed us to capitalize on constrained market supply and deliver strong profitability.
Alongside our operational performance, we also continued to execute our strategic CapEx plans during the quarter. Working capital requirements increased during the quarter, primarily due to higher raw material prices, which resulted in higher inventory values and receivables following the pass-through of increased input cost to the customers. With this, now I open the floor for questions and answer session. Thank you. Over to 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 the touch-tone 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 Aditya Khetan from SMIFS Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity, and congrats on a good set of performance. Just a couple of questions. Sir, first, is it possible to quantify the inventory gains during the quarter? Subsequently, how much in terms of margins would have been better because of inventory gains? Some quantitative number like 3%, 4%, 5% jump is because of inventory gains. If you could highlight that would be greatly . Secondly, sir, how much would be the volume drop on sequential basis and on year-over-year basis?
Thank you. Thanks, Aditya. I'll take those questions. I would say yes, there has been some amount of inventory gain. I think, if I'm not mistaken, in terms of EBITDA, maybe the EBITDA would've been 2% higher because of inventory gain. I think EBITDA is around 20%-23%, if I'm not mistaken. I hope that answers your first question. Your second question was on, remind me again. Sorry.
Volume drop.
Volume. Yes. We had a volume drop mainly because of the export market, which we have developed, and I've mentioned on previous calls before that the MENA region has been a strategic region for us, and because of the Strait of Hormuz being shut, a lot of our customers' production being down, of course, not being able to get material to some of them. Obviously that's been a downer. Overall volume has come down by 10%, 12%, but it's all because of exports. In fact, the domestic volume has gone up by 10%. Our view is that once this war ends, and it was in between, as you know, there was a little bit of a lull in the war, and at that time we got all our orders back. Unfortunately, the war again sort of seems to have erupted.
As and when the war stops, we expect that to reverse very quickly. That has been a short-term blip in terms of volumes.
Got it. Sir, what would be the sustainable numbers we can work on? Like on the margins, you mentioned 2% jump was because of inventory gains. Subsequently, we are also witnessing spreads on the spot markets have also expanded. When you see, suppose if the crude oil prices fell and that demand also comes back to the normal levels, where you see these margins sustaining around? Because earlier, sir, we had even clocked around between 9%-12% margins, and we are at 22%. Stripping off all the benefits getting today, what do you see the sustainable margins?
I've again mentioned this, in our kind of business, I would say instead of sustainable margins, I think I would talk about average margins, and we are quite confident of 15%-16% average margins that I've mentioned from before as well. As we are growing, that may increase further. Obviously, you will have a few quarters where margins could be lower, a few quarters where margins could be really higher. In the current context, look, I don't know what normalized is, right? We'll have to see where things land. As I said, Q1 was a really good quarter, so we're grateful for that, and we'll have to see how things play out, honestly. Difficult to say.
Got it. Sir, my next question is on to the nitrile latex. Is it possible, sir, to quantify where are we standing in terms of a cycle? We have seen the bottom in last year wherein spreads have fallen to multi-year lows. Now we are witnessing some slight improvements. Where we are exactly in the cycle? Secondly, onto your further CapEx, which you have outlined, any timelines and updates like when it can start, and when can it start flowing through the top line?
nitrile latex, I would say margins have improved. Obviously, this Q1 margins were much better than before as well for various reasons. I'm not sure, again, as you said, what will happen in next two, three quarters, but certainly the situation is better than what it was in the previous year and the year before that. Things are improving. We are quite hopeful, and that was one of the things that was pulling our margins down, if you recall, Aditya, you've been on calls before. That's improving slowly. Again, as I said, Q1, I don't want to specifically talk about one quarter, but in general, I would say things are improving there. I think that's it, right? You had one more question.
Onto the CapEx cycle.
Sorry to interrupt.
The NBR will be on stream by Q1 next year as per plan right now, but I'll be able to confirm that maybe, frankly, in the Q3 con call, we'll have a final date. The SB latex, other synthetic latex CapEx would probably be just a couple of months after that. Maybe end of Q1 or so, probably.
Just one last question, sir, if you may allow.
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Aditya. May we request you return to the question queue for a follow-up question?
Yeah. Aditya, sorry, we should give everyone else a chance as well, right?
Sure, sir.
Yeah. Is that okay?
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Sajal Kapoor from Antifragile Thinking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, thank you for taking my questions. Hi, Abhiraj, just two questions I have. First is, this quarter showed that we remain highly profitable despite a major disruption to exports. What changed in the design of the business over the past few years that made the system resilient enough to absorb that shock above and beyond the gross margin expansion, even excluding the 2% inventory gains that you mentioned? Has something fundamentally changed in the system You reckon?
See, of course, while the quarter did include a favorable timing benefit, it was not purely incidental. This margin expansion this quarter was driven by operational resilience, and that's been intentionally developed over the last few years by us. This strategic capability, which includes risk management, inventory management, quick procurement decisions at such times, now that's all been intentional. Obviously, this quarter did give us some opportunity to implement those capabilities, which I think a lot of our competitors and other manufacturers were not able to do. Just to give you an example, our plants have two fuel sources. A lot of our competitors had only one fuel source. When gas was in short supply, we were able to continue using coal and do that. If tomorrow coal is in short supply, we can run the plant on gas.
These are the kinds of things that we have intentionally done, and we've invested money and perhaps more CapEx than some of our competitors, but this is when it comes in handy. Quick procurement decisions, which I think large MNCs are unable to take or for whatever reason were not able to take, those are things that we are able to do. Alternate raw materials. We have multiple raw material sources. For each raw material, we have multiple sources. If one geography shuts down, like in this case, MENA, we were able to get it from another source because we have good relations everywhere. These are all kinds of things that we have done. Yes, to that extent, it's part of the system and it's sustainable.
Obviously, these kinds of opportunities may not present itself all the time, but this is part of the company's strengths that are inbuilt into what we have built into the company. We hope we'll be able to continue serving our customers as we did in Q1 without any supply disruptions in the future as well. The supply was definitely constrained in Q1, and that helped us, along with some inventory gains.
Yes, understood. We were well-positioned.
Higher margins, I guess.
No, that's fine. Second question is, assuming exports recover fully, that's an assumption, right? What is one constraint that prevents Apcotex from then doubling throughput over the next five years? Let's assume a much more normal operating environment, which we may or may not get, but in that scenario, can we double our throughput in five years?
Look, obviously the market has the support. We have high market share in India. We are working towards higher market share in these other certain strategic geographies as well. The investments that we have already announced and which will be on stream in 2027 will come, both will come on stream in 2027, will help us add another probably about INR 600 crores to our top line. I don't know about doubling throughput, but from what we have already announced, it will definitely maybe increase of maybe 40% or so.
Sure. That's helpful. Thank you so much.
Further investments, yeah. As and when the market supports and if we see the opportunities in the market, there is no reason. I see no reason to be able to double as well.
Of course. I mean, yeah, our balance sheet is very healthy anyway.
Exactly. Balance sheet is strong. We're a low debt to equity company. We barely have any debt. In fact, we're net cash as of now. In spite of this higher working capital requirement in Q1, we've managed it well. There's no reason. We're looking at other opportunities, as I've been mentioning, nothing is planned out yet. As and when. We are looking at ambitious growth targets, and when I have certain other numbers, we'll come back to you with specific numbers and plans.
Thank you so much. Good call.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Deepak Poddar from Sapphire Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible, sir?
Go ahead, Deepak. You're audible.
Thank you very much, sir, for this opportunity. Just wanted to understand, what led to our product price spikes, and then how sustainable would those be?
I think I've already sort of mentioned it to the previous couple of things. Look, as I mentioned, there is definitely a favorable timing benefit. To be honest, we wouldn't annualize this level of benefit, but certainly the execution, the quick decision making has helped. The exact magnitude of what's sustainable and what's not remains to be seen. What's important is the approach to risk management and procurement as a competitive capability, core competitive capability will continue on. There's certain things that we've built into the company that are not easy to replicate. As and when these opportunities do arise, we'll do that. As I said, in our kind of business, as we grow and as we scale up, margins should continue to improve.
There can be certain things that happened in the last couple of years, whereas like low margins in the nitrile latex segment, from time to time, dumping does happen. Those kinds of things we've fought quite well. Even right now, we have no anti-dumping, nothing, we are quite competitive not only in India, but also regionally and in some cases globally. That's what we'll continue to do.
Okay, understood. As you mentioned, this 22% EBITDA margin is not a sustainable one. A 15%-16% is more a EBITDA sustainability that as a business we look, right?
In the past, that's what I've mentioned. Frankly, I don't know given the current situation with the war and overall, maybe with oil prices at such high prices, maybe our volumes may not grow, but margins could be sustainable. Honestly, it's a difficult one to answer.
Okay.
For this year at least.
Okay, understood. Sir, you mentioned about a couple of CapEx, that can add about INR 600 to your top line, right? What's the total CapEx amount there?
About INR 200 odd crores, INR 220 crores.
INR 220 crores.
Yeah.
Okay. Just one last thing.
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Poddar.
Okay.
May I request you return to the question.
We'll move on.
All right. It's a very small one, yeah.
Yeah.
Sir, what led to a decline in your other expense this quarter? fourth quarter was close to INR 55 crore. This quarter, it is close to INR 45 crore, right?
I think we had made some provisions in the Q4. I think it is in our notes to account. That was the main reason. Vivek, can you confirm this?
There was a one-off impairment provision, which was done about INR 4 crore last quarter. Apart from that, the major differences is quarter four generally is usually a high maintenance kind of a quarter. We incurred a lot of repair costs there. Broadly, these were the reasons why the reduction you are seeing in this quarter.
Understood. That's very clear. That would be it from my side. Wish you all the best. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harsha from Merisis Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Sorry, most of my questions are answered. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Farokh Pandole from Avestha Fund Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Abhiraj, congratulations on the historic best results. Really great numbers. I just had a question on the nitrile business. If we are Hello?
Yeah, carry on. We can hear you, Farokh.
Yeah. If we are in a situation where clearly the market has moved in our favor, and as you highlighted, from a balance sheet standpoint, we are clearly in a reasonably strong position. What is the thought on accelerating the Stage 2 of the capacity that we had envisaged at the start, while getting into this project?
Yeah, absolutely. It is on the cards. We have the project plan. It is completely ready and ready to go. That would, of course, be a third expansion project that we would have to undertake, and it would probably take less time than the others because there is not much civil required in that. As I told you in the last call, as I mentioned as well, we would like to see a sort of a little bit longer term view on margins and how things are playing out. There is the China factor. There is some additional capacity that has also come up in Malaysia recently, or coming up in June, July, August right now. I think we will wait for another three, four months and then take a call on that. I think the project plan is ready.
We know how much the investment is going to cost now and what is the additional volume that will come about. I think we will take a call shortly on that.
Great. The INR 220 crores that we are looking to spend, that includes both projects, right? Or is it just NBR?
No, both.
Both.
Yeah.
Great. Okay, great. Thanks. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mehul Panjwani from 40 Cents. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity, and congratulations on a great set of numbers. Sir, I'm tracking this company very lately. I just want to understand, post-COVID, we saw a cyclical upside in the profitability of our company, and now we have seen a robust comeback. If you can put those two phases in a layman's term, like what went right for us post-COVID when we saw the upside in our profitability, and now that we have come up with a great quarter again. If you can just put down in simple terms, what is the difference in the two phases?
Sure. Yeah, maybe since you're following the company lately, but we have covered this in the past. To quickly summarize, what happened sort of post-COVID is people were sitting at home and ordering goods. All manufacturing companies, obviously, the demand was great. Services was down at that time for the two years, from 2020 to 2022, 2023, around that time. At that time, we saw that we quickly moved to 100% capacity utilization across all our products, which was not expected. Therefore, the margins were fairly good for those two, three years. After that, what happened was not only us, but globally, some of our competitors, everyone added capacity altogether.
That resulted in overall margins, of course, normalizing or coming down from, Not even normalizing, coming down below the normal, what I would consider for most of our products, and specifically one product, nitrile latex, which is mainly for the medical glove industry, where we saw a really large amount of capacity addition because of COVID. That whole market, the whole glove industry, as well as the supply chain for gloves is still in that overcapacity mode, even after three years after COVID. three, four years after COVID. That's normalizing now. I think both those things have normalized now, overcapacity in the rest of the products and overcapacity in nitrile gloves, which to some extent still continues, but is much better now than it used to be. As capacity utilizations go up, things are improving again.
As far as Q1 is concerned, I'm repeating again what I said. There's of course, certain events that occurred in Q1 that were more beneficial to our company because we were better prepared, of course, and we took advantage of that. I hope that answers your question, and it's a good summary of what you're looking for.
Yeah, that's fantastic. One follow-up question, sir. Have we added any new products in this phase of growth compared to post-COVID? I mean, have we added any new product which is adding to the significant upside?
This one is post-COVID nitrile latex is a big range of products. It's a range of six or seven grades of nitrile latex, which goes into different types of gloves, medical gloves, industrial gloves, household gloves. We have added that range. In addition to that, we've added another probably 25 new products in the markets that we already cater to, whether it's construction, there's some specialty applications like oil field, oil drilling applications, carpet and textiles, we've added a few products. That we continue to do as we go along. Today we cater to eight different industries largely. Of course, there are some more specialty industries, but largely eight different industries. All of this is available on our website, but if you want more detail, you can send an email and you can get more information on this.
Great. Sir, last question, sir. What is the CapEx schedule? When the capacity expansion is coming online?
As I mentioned to one of the previous callers, one of them will be in Q1 of next year, early Q1, probably April, and the second will be end of Q1. That'll be by June or so.
All right. Okay. Thank you so much, sir, wish you the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Karan from Credent. Please go ahead. Mr. Karan, your line has been unmuted. Please go ahead with the question. As there is no response, moving on to the next question. The next question is from the line of Abhishek, Anand Rathi Investor. Please go ahead.
Am I audible?
Yes, go ahead.
Am I audible?
Yes, go ahead, sir.
Sir, how does the current working capital cycle and inventory holding period look compared to the previous quarter?
Vivek, can you answer this question?
In terms of days, it remains on the similar trajectory like last quarter, as we were explaining, the prices of raw material have gone up in value terms. The quantities remain the same, number of days of inventory we are holding remains the same, just that the value has gone up significantly up.
Okay. Sir, my next question is, given our strong balance sheet and cash generation, what is the management capital allocation priority between organic growth, debt reduction, or shareholder returns?
Look, for us the return on capital is most important as in when we take any big investment decisions. We're quite prudent on that, and we want to ensure that we expect good return on capital. Of course, sometimes things don't work out as planned, and sometimes things work out better than planned. If you see over the last 15 years, 20 years, 15 years, I would say 16 years, as far as shareholder return is concerned, which to some extent is a reflection on return on capital, has been fairly good. I think we're quite happy with the decisions that we've taken so far and the execution of those decisions. I hope that answers your question, but return on capital remains the primary driver for any capital allocation decision.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ask a question, you may press star and one at this time. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one now. The next question is from the line of Aditya from SMIFS Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the follow-up. Sir, my question is on to the import side. Sir, during this quarter, any quantitative data if you can provide, like how much was the imports of NBR and our other products onto the latex side? Were they lower compared to a normal average, and how you see that trend going ahead? Any sort of new capacity expansions into the latex side happening in the competitor space globally in any country? If you can highlight that.
On the import side, I think, look, things remain as far as NBR is concerned, where we have a capacity constraint. Obviously, the rest of the market is completely sort of managed through imports. Many of our customers buy from us. We have only 30% market share in India for that product range. The rest is imported, and that continued. I don't think there was any significant increase or decrease, but that continued as per the requirement. As far as latex imports, anyway, there aren't many latex imports into India. That's not an issue. As far as competition is concerned, yes, just as we are also expanding our synthetic latex capacity, I think some competitors have also announced some expansions, but it's not like what it was during those COVID period where the expansions are very large and altogether.
I think they'll be staggered and I think they'll be prudent investments and prudent capacity expansions and not Huge overcapacities, I don't think that will be created. I think globally, meaning Europe and America, there is no expansion announcement. In Asia, there have been a couple of announcements, but I think that'll easily, looking at the next three to five years and the growth in India and Southeast Asia, I think the market will easily absorb those expansions.
Got it. Sir, onto the NBR side. I believe, sir, when we had a talk last year, you had mentioned that without anti-dumping duty support, it makes no sense for NBR capacity expansion because imports were dumping into India and the spreads were at multi-year lows. Have you seen that sort of an improvement, which is why we had resorted for this expansion? Still the economics were weak, but because we had a good balance sheet, so we wanted to deploy some capital.
No, two things. One is, we were able to find, when we mentioned it earlier, the CapEx project cost was significantly higher at INR 200 crores to INR 250 crores. Our team was able to now find a way to do a de-bottlenecking/little bit of an expansion, a very innovative way of adding almost 100% of our capacity, by only investing about INR 130 crores - INR 135 crores. I think INR 130 crores - INR 140 crores out of the INR 220 crores that I mentioned. Plus, what we found is the margins were improving, and we saw globally also, there doesn't seem to be a major NBR expansion anywhere coming on stream. In fact, we may see certain areas of the world are finding it harder to compete with India.
We felt it was a good time right now, the main trigger was ability to do it at a lower CapEx. That the return on capital was justified.
Got it. Sir, is there any other products within the same basket, wherein we have gaps to look to fulfill that, like we are making. We are using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, we can forward integrate into our other businesses. Wherein we don't have presence and have so much better EBITDA spreads than the current businesses. Any sort of that thing is going on or we are looking to expand into these traditional businesses as of now?
I don't understand the question. What do you mean by businesses with higher margins? Which kind of businesses are you lot talking about?
Any other businesses which are related onto the latex side. We are present into some product segment. We still have some gaps, wherein we can further expand. We can fill that gaps, or we will continue to expand into NBR, XNBR, into the carboxylated latex segment.
Right now the plan is to do it in the current segments or the current product groups that we are in. We are looking for opportunities for adjacencies. Obviously, it'll have to be products where we bring in some synergy. There has to be some synergy to the current business of Apcotex. We wouldn't go ahead and, for example, we supply to the paper industry. It doesn't make sense for us to invest in a paper machine. I mean, if that's what you're talking about downstream. In some cases, it may make sense. We're evaluating all options, and we'll let you know. As of now, if there's anything to announce, we will let you know.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Farokh Pandole from Avestha Fund Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. I just wanted to ask, what is the extent of our net cash position at this point, and how much of the INR 220 crore has already been spent?
The cash outflow of the INR 220 crore, because we've just started the project, so it's mainly been advances and obviously civil costs of civil construction have started. A lot of the equipment will start getting delivered in Q3 and Q4. That's when the major outflow will be. I would say right now, not more than 15%-20% of the total outflow has happened. Exact number I don't have with me right now, but I would say that's pretty much the range, about 15%-20%. And for the net cash position, Vivek, do you have that answer?
We have about INR 40 crores of net cash position. Earlier till March, we were at about INR 70 crores, but partially, because of the higher working capital, we have come down to about INR 30 crores.
The CapEx so far has been self-funded. We have not taken any debt for it yet, we will be in the next couple of quarters.
Sure. Any update on ApcoBuild and that whole segment?
It continues to do reasonably well. No major update, Farokh. It's doing well. Still a small part of our business. We continue to grow it.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raman Kerti from Sequent Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Can you hear me?
Yes, go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations on good set of numbers. I just have one question. One is with respect to demand or demand side. How are you witnessing demand coming up in, as it's been one month in Q2? I just want to understand how is the demand coming out to be with respect to crude also being so much volatile during the quarter. Just to follow up on this, with respect to realization, how is the realization coming out? Has the realization increased further? If yes, whether this increase in realization has impacted any incremental demand from the end use. Thank you, sir.
Raman, very difficult question to answer because the realization, in fact, compared to average of Q1 had started coming down because oil had started falling, therefore our raw material prices had started falling, we had to make the necessary corrections. Now, given the current situation, when crude is going up again, I suspect that in August, September, it'll probably go up again, hard to say. It's all dependent on oil prices, which is dependent on this war situation. As far as realization is concerned in our kind of business, as you can see, in spite of lower volumes in Q1, we have higher realization. The flip side has also been true, where we've had higher volume and lower realization. Really hard to predict the net realization.
As far as demand is concerned, surprisingly, in spite of such high crude prices and inflation and so on, at least all our domestic numbers are quite strong, customers here are doing quite well. Even in the exports, we've not seen a major issue. To some extent because of ocean freight, we've had to absorb that cost, the major issue has really been in the MENA region for us. That's been the big hit for us. Other than that, at least from a demand point of view, we haven't seen any major issue.
Sir, just to follow up on that. You said that in domestic demand, there is a strong domestic demand. Can you also highlight from what sectors or industry you are getting this demand?
Across the board, across everything. Paper, construction, rubber goods, literally all across. There is no issue.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Om Dutt from an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.
[Non-English content] Abhiraj [Non-English content] . Can you hear me?
Yes, Om [Non-English content] . Please go ahead.
First of all, sir, many congratulations on your ever highest quarterly profit.
Thank you.
Your team is doing a very good job. The reason you gave is really superb. You said you increased your profit because of inventory management. You are also able to do raw material procurement well, and you have multiple raw material sources. You are able to get from different places, and your operational efficiency is good. It is very good that our company is doing very well, and keep doing very well in the future. Many, many best wishes for this. Keep giving good results like this. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir. Thank you for your support.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one now. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ask a question, you may press star and one at this time. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one now. The next question is from the line of Jasdeep Walia from Clockvine. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, rupee has depreciated considerably. Has that increased the pool of opportunities for your company on the export front? Are you more bullish on driving growth on the export front going forward?
Frankly, for our company, the rupee appreciation and depreciation, of course it does help. Any exports would help with rupee depreciation. What you need to understand is that all our raw materials are also dollar denominated, whether we buy in India or we import. If the rupee depreciates, we have to pay higher for our raw materials also, but we get higher realizations for our finished goods as well. It is not significant benefit to us if the rupee depreciates or appreciates, frankly. I hope that answers your question.
Got it, sir. Sir, earlier you used to say that the sustainable margins, let's say pre-COVID in nitrile latex business were close to around, I think 15%-16%. Have the margins in nitrile latex reached that kind of level right now?
You mean EBITDA margins?
Correct. EBITDA margins.
FY 2025, 2026, while they improved, they have not reached that level for sure. That is why one of the reasons was the nitrile latex pulled down our EBITDA margins overall. I think it is too early to say. Q1 obviously was a good quarter for us, where margins were significantly above 15% across the board. I think, as I mentioned to one of the previous callers as well, that we will have to wait and watch for another three, four months to see how things land, because the last quarter was really a blip in terms of a lot of issues. I think we will have to wait for a few more months.
Got it, sir. Margins right now are upward of 15% in nitrile latex business as well.
In Q1, they were.
Okay. Got it, sir. Thanks. That's all, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sujit Marar, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes. Go ahead, Mr. Sujit.
Yes. Abhiraj, thanks for bringing out good numbers. Apcotex, I'm a decade-old investor. I have only one question related to revenue number. Please do not focus on EBITDA and this one. Last five years, I'm seeing the trend. Just I want to know whether it's a cyclical type or not. From March, June, September, December. Why December is always less?
The revenue you're talking about, why December is always less?
Yeah. I'm seeing the trend for last six years.
Really?
Only in revenue numbers, not anything else. The trend is going upper. Only when I saw the revenue number, I was doing the research, I saw the numbers March, June, September, December, the revenue number is less. That's why I'm asking. I'm not sure, the trend is showing that way.
Well, that's news. Frankly, it's good research. We'll look into it. I have not really seen that trend. I think we'll investigate it further. I do not have an answer for you right now, our team will certainly investigate and see why. There is no reason, frankly. I don't know if it's a pure coincidence, there's no reason. Frankly, the cyclicality would come in Q2 for us, which is the June, July, August quarter because of rains in some of our industries like construction and maybe in some cases footwear and those industries are more affected in the rain where demand is a little lower. They should not be in December quarter. I'll have to sort of dig deeper, we'll have to dig deeper and come back to you. Great question. Thank you for bringing it to our notice.
Yeah. Second question. This is the final question. I just want to know the breakdown of the product. The last four years I'm seeing the gloves part is been increasing higher. Earlier before COVID, after taking over the Valia plant, I figured out that your earlier products, I mean, gloves part went higher and some like construction material are not that as compared to the gloves or something. Is it that the product mix, what I'm trying to say is diversified of your product mix, is it equally or is it different trends? That's what I want to know it.
The nitrile latex for gloves is a new business. Obviously, it was zero four, five years ago. Over time, we've grown it. The new plant came on stream about little over three years ago. Obviously that is from zero in terms of total share of our business, it's grown to maybe 10% or so, and therefore the others. The others have continued to grow as well. It's not that they've not continued to grow. I'm not sure if I understood your question very well, this is what I understood, and I hope I've answered what you've asked.
Yeah. I also want to know. Thanks for answering it. I also want to welcome, when I observed for the last 10 years, so I was thinking that this product mix, the gloves is going up and up. That is okay. That my question was only on that. The final question, will you increase the dividend payout next year if the trend goes like this?
Yeah, why not? I mean, of course, it's not my decision, it's the chairman and the board's decision, finally.
Yeah.
Obviously, if profitability is higher, generally the dividend payout would also be higher.
Yeah. One suggestion to you, don't give.
Sorry to interrupt.
Rather than give
Maybe we can return to the question queue for a.
One suggestion is what? Go ahead.
Yeah. Suggestion is Apcotex should not give bonus rather than dividend is better than bonus. Just only a suggestion, okay? Thanks for that.
Thanks.
Thanks, Abhiraj, for answering the questions. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Chandpal Vilk, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.
Am I audible? Hello?
Yes, carry on, please.
Abhiraj, congratulations for the good set of numbers. Abhiraj, some quarters ago you said that the U.S. has imposed 100% duties on nitrile latex products that are being originated from China. Am I right?
Yeah, gloves products, not nitrile latex, but the gloves. The finished goods, gloves. Yes.
In next January, 100% more duty will be imposed.
Yes, that too has been imposed.
The duty has become 200%.
No, total 100% has been imposed. Earlier it was 50%, now it has become 100%.
Okay. Any update regarding the nitrile latex expansion?
Sorry, what did you ask?
You said that the nitrile latex plant in Valia, you will expand it in a little money.
Yes. I had answered the same to the previous caller that the decision has not been taken yet. Maybe we will wait for three, four months and then take a decision.
Okay. The margin expansion that has happened, is it because of this duty?
No, not at all. This duty has happened across the board, not only for nitrile latex. Margin expansion has happened in all other segments in this quarter.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one now. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ask a question, you may press star and one at this time. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you. We thank our investors for the continued trust and support. Your confidence in our vision and strategy has been instrumental, helped us achieve this record quarter. We look forward to creating enduring value together in the years ahead. Thank you, everyone, and look forward to the next interaction.
Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Apcotex Industries Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect the lines.