Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Camlin Fine Sciences' Earnings Call for Q1 FY2026. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajesh Pherwani from Incred Capital Wealth portfolio manager. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Incred Equities, I welcome you all to the Camlin Fine Sciences Ltd Q1 FY2026 earnings conference call. We have with us today Mr. Ashish Dandekar, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Nirmal Momaya, Managing Director, and Mr. Santosh Parab, Chief Financial Officer. I would like to thank the management for allowing Incred the opportunity to host this call. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ashish Dandekar from Camlin Fine Sciences Ltd. Thank you so much, and over to you, Ashish, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome to the earnings call of this first quarter. As is our convention, Santosh Parab, our CFO, will give you a brief and run you through the quarter's results and issues, after which both he and Nirmal Momaya, our Managing Director, will be there to answer your queries. I'll hand it over to Santosh now. Santosh?
Thanks, Ashish. Welcome everybody, and good evening. By this time, I think we would have got our investor presentation also and UFR, which was also the biggest site and also on the stock exchange. As we can upload, our revenue has been at INR 423 crores as compared to INR 437 crores of last year. There's a slight decrease. The major decrease is because of the dip in the separated ingredients stocks of course, as we had lower revenues. Of course, two aspects have impacted this lower revenue. One was we had taken an annual maintenance shutdown in the month of April in all our Dahej facility as well as Sara Food facility. Both throughput and output were impacted. This is an annual exercise every 12 - 18 months. We had to take one shutdown. This impacted the production also, and of course, the margins.
There was an unabsorbed fixed cost in the month of April of around INR 12 crores. We had the other two main verticals, which are the Hallmark and which has been the growth story of the company, the blends business. It has witnessed a strong growth in almost all our geographies. Finally, the business also has been stable. As you're aware, there are channel stocks lying in the main two geographies of Europe and U.S., where there are anti-dumping duties there, and there are very fairly attractive prices which are going up. I would be here of going there, and there are channel stocks. To maintain the revenue that what they are and the wallets has been a really nice performance. If you would have seen, we also had an increased employee cost. We had paid one-time performance bonuses to our blends business.
The blends business, as you know, has been growing at a very, very fast rate, and it was imperative that we reward the efforts of our employees. One-time performance bonus of around INR 7.5 crores was paid to the employees, mainly in Mexico and U.S. We have been strengthening our teams in the blends business largely on the sales side, where we have been recruiting salespeople. The new employees have also increased, and that is also reflecting in the increase in the employee stock. As you can see, the other expenses of the other operating expenses have been fairly under control. We have been able to control it despite the slowness. Some of the plants were not working in this, but the fixed costs are under control. At the end, it's the impact of lower production, higher debts, higher unabsorbed costs, and some one-time employees' costs.
We have seen a dip in EBITDA. We have crossed around INR 19 crore of EBITDA. It is only 4.5% of EBITDA margin. This is a one-time thing because of the close, one annual maintenance send-out taken in the month of April. As far as margins are concerned, the operating margins and the product sale margins have reduced from 48% - 44%, mainly on account of lower production. As you know, these are very sophisticated, right? To get plants once we are in the new flows and we start, you know, hardware, higher, consumption of products, and that has impacted around 2% - 3% of our margin. All other margins have been moving on. The prices are stable, fairly stable on both the sides, on the revenue as well as raw material side, in the cost.
Running business, we had a small dip in the revenues around INR 5 crore, but volumes have been fairly almost the same. Prices are going up, but in this quarter, because we are observing the channel stocks, as I said, the average utilization has not gone up as we had expected. The production of aroma in this quarter was, if you exclude the non-closure dates or the maintenance dates, it was around 50% of the capacity utilized in each other. Up to then, we are running the plant at 50% capacity set. The two main verticals are doing well. We think that the sales can come back. There is sluggish demand. There are farming issues all over the world, as you know. Of course, from perishable sales, we are closely watching. We know that this can have an impact on our business, especially in the vanillin business.
We are concentrating more on the U.S. However, other than that, we don't have much exposure in the U.S. The U.S. income of blends is manufactured in the U.S. It's a local business. We will not be impacted from that because it's a local business, so it's from Mexico. We have not been selling any other major raw materials on the few crores we sold to the U.S. Thank you. I will now hand over for question and answer session. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their 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 Raman Keri from Sequin Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is, I just want to understand how much is the one-off for the entire quarter? Can you just break it down? Like how much was with respect to the employee bonus and with respect to annual maintenance shutdown, etc.?
As I said, I'll repeat the number. We had unattractive stocks about INR 12.5 crores in all our plants in the month of April. Around INR 7.5 crores were paid for one-time bonus to the centralized work plant. Apart from this, we also had 2 %- 3% of a margin loss because of startup of plants. We had closed the plants, restarted the plants. The first dozing, the convention included. That would be around 2%. That would be another INR 7 crores for.
Okay, sir. My second question is with respect to the blends business side. In the previous call, you mentioned it's the high-teens margin. If I'm doing the calculation, if my understanding is right, it should have spread during this quarter around, even if the margin is 10%, around INR 23 crore of EBITDA. Our entire EBITDA is INR 19 crore. Was there an impact on the blends business margin?
We have been saying that, yes, when the blends business is mature, it does get a higher teen margin. As you know, there are a couple of geographies which are very mature, especially Mexico. We have 17% + EBITDA margins. In America also, it's around 15% +. There are other geographies like India or Europe, the white upper teen. These are growing businesses where the margins are in the range of 8% - 10%. The overall margins are not 17%, 18%, but up to and 30%.
Okay, sir. My final question is with respect to the vanillin business. What were the prices of vanillin, what was our selling size of vanillin in quarter one, and what are the prices now? Will our realization be impacted with the U.S. tariffs, or is it a partial risk?
In the first quarter, our average utilization was $12.5. Currently, it is slightly above that. As we go forward, the anti-dumping duty levied on the Chinese producers for vanillin in the U.S., that's only to the U.S., and it is not applicable in other markets. For the Chinese, it's 280%. For us right now, currently, the tariff is at 50%. This is a moving target because in the last few days, a lot has changed. We don't know where to go and settle. We yet have a very highly competitive position versus our Chinese competitors. I don't think so. Our understanding is that we will be highly competitive and we should be able to get market share in the U.S. market. As far as Europe goes, there are no tariffs. There's just an anti-dumping duty on the Chinese producers at 131%. That should reduce.
For us, there is no other additional tariff.
Sir, with respect to Europe, have you started any commercial export of vanillin to Europe? Or have you signed any contracts for foreseeable export to Europe?
We've started sales to Europe. Europe is on holiday, so the business starts in September. We expect to start negotiating for contracts for the next year, for January. That's expected in September, October.
In the previous quarter, you gave a guidance of INR 65 crore-INR 70 crore of EBITDA every quarter. This has been a one-off quarter. Can you expect this guidance going forward? Are you planning to revise it?
No, we have not actually guided anything specific. All we are saying is that our vanillin business will work at about, the estimated volumes are at about 2,500 - 3,000 tons, is what we are saying. Expected realization would be in the $13 - $14 through the year, average for the year. We continue to hold that as going forward. We continue to hold our blends business growth. I think overall, that's what we're guiding.
20% blends business growth is intact, right?
Yes.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants to press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Chaitya Doshi from Incred Equities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. I have a couple of questions. The first one is, sir, as observed, that CIS U.S. prices for methylene vanillin were around $16 per kg for June. Could you confirm if this aligns with the realization and, if you can, share the price trends existing in the export market?
I don't know from where, when we are selling, as you know, we are selling for our subsidy, and the subsidy, unfortunately, shows in consolidated sales. When India fails to not commit, it doesn't reflect. Obviously, when we get higher rate contracts in the U.S., we'll sell at a, with some discount from India. There are some transactions which could be at $15, but that's not the average realization price up to date. There are transactions with $15, but that's not the rule because the sale is on the basis of quantity also. The smaller the quantity, the higher the realization. When we get an order and we transfer from India, we do discount it and sell at the discounted price. Prices would appear to be very high.
Okay. Sir, what would be the current retail or end-user price range for vanillin in the U.S. market?
Currently, it would be at about $18 to $19.
Okay. Sir, with potential tariffs on Indian vanillin exports to the U.S., can you clarify how currently, like, who currently bears the cost of these duties? Like, are company distributors or the end users?
It's always the importer. Whoever is the importer has to bear the duty.
Okay. Going forward, how do you plan to manage up, like, in the next, if the 50% tariff is planned on? How do you plan to go on?
Whoever is importing our products will have to pay the 50% tariff. Like I explained earlier, our competitors in China are at 280% with the anti-dumping duty and tariffs from China. We are competitive versus that.
Okay. The last question, what is our current vanillin production level in absolute terms as capacity utilization %?
During the quarter when we were producing, it was around 50% capacity utilization, as I said in my introduction. At present, we are running at 50%.
When can we expect it to reach 100%?
It's a market sale, right? Because we can reach 100% tomorrow, but we have to match the market.
Market demand. The demand expectations are that the channel stocks should clear out by the next few months, and the real demand should start showing up, what ultimately is going to be the real demand coming from Europe and the U.S.
Okay. Got it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jatin Sangwan from Burman Capital. Please go ahead.
Sir, you mentioned that you had some impact on gross margin also because of your plant shutdowns. What's your sustainable gross margin number that we should look at without including the impacts of vanillin that will come in? A lot of the critical will go away. Let's say sustainable gross margin for you.
It will be in the region of 40% - 45% gross margin. In that range, 2% or 3% up or down will be sustainable. We are at 44%. It could go to 47%, 48%. That's 2% or 3% up or down from where we are.
We are saying that we are in the range of our sustainable gross margins.
Yes.
The last two quarters, we were showing 50% of gross margin, that there was some run-off in that. Going forward, gross margin would be around 45% ± 2%.
Correct.
Sir, you mentioned that the prices in the U.S. for vanillin are $18 - $19. Can you give some color around what are the prices in Europe and other geographies?
In Europe, it would be about $14 - $15 right now. Like I said, again, there is a stock in the channel which is getting cleared. Once that gets cleared, we'll have a clear idea of where this price will go and stabilize. Going by the anti-dumping duties, I think Europe will be at $15, $16, and the U.S. should go up further than an upward of $30. The rest of the world, the market prices are the Chinese prices are between $7.50 - $8.
Got it. Sir, when we say that we will do 2,500 to 3,000 tons of vanillin, how much are we expecting from the U.S., how much from Europe, and how much from the rest of the world?
U.S. and Europe should be at about 1,800 - 2,000, depending on, like I mentioned, about the channel stock. 600 to 800 would be the rest of the world.
Once this channel stock gets cleared, U.S. plus Europe combined is around 7,000 - 8,000 tons of market. By when do we expect to reach full utilization for vanillin? Because since there is not much capacity available outside China.
Correct. Yes, estimated is that we should be at about 70% - 80% capacity utilization in FY 2027. I think there we get a clear idea of what FY 2028 is, what we're saying we should be at a full capacity utilization.
Sure. Got it.
Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Surya Narayan Patra from Philip Capital, India Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Thank you for offering this opportunity, sir. My first question is on the impact on the EBITDA levels because of the plant shutdowns. Which plant maintenance have you indicated, sir?
Both sides, both sides, Dahej and Tarapur. Because they are interconnected, we took a shutdown in both sides.
Okay. Is this the annual, this quarter, the timing-wise, is this also the annual timeline for maintenance shutdown, or how is it?
Right. It's basically between 12 - 18 months. We've been taking each shutdown. Last time we had divided into actually two parts. We had not done one single one, but here we had a boiler inspection to go and create the boiler. We took the shutdown for the entire maintenance. For the next 12 months, we don't need to, or at least for 12 months, we don't need to take any other further shutdown.
Okay. The food to growth is the kind of for 2%. INR 7 crore, INR 8 crore as well as the INR 12.5 crore. Almost INR 20 crore kind of impact that you're looking to the plant shutdown and the restarting of the plant.
Yes.
If I understand.
That's correct.
Okay, that's fine. Now, regards the vanillin business, the tariff is also there, which is an uncertain thing currently, but it is high also, 50%. On the contrary, we are also kind of having a significant advantageous position to the competition. Practically, we are the second player of two solvers to cater to the U.S. and European demand in this current situation. If that is the case, is it right to think that whatever tariff, whether it is 25%, 50%, whatever the tariff, that will be part-time only, will not bear anything?
Correct. Because see, the way to view it is that there is an anti-dumping duty and tariff on our competitors from outside of these two geographies. In the U.S., it is 218. In Europe, it is 130. As is 50 in the U.S., and in Europe, it is the standard 5.5. There is 131 + 5.5. We are at 5.5. We have a distinct competitive advantage over our competitors.
Hence, ideally, we should not be bearing this tariff pressure at all because it is a, it's a thing. We are the only second player for the U.S. market, so then it is a response.
You're right in a way, but the way you have to look at it is that there's an effect to what you can pass on also, right? Because the competitors come in, if it is more than 280% of what they have to pay, then of course, they also come into the market. This becomes viable for them.
If you try to sell at $20, it becomes a $30 product to the end consumer, right? Then suddenly, the Chinese will be interested because they get more than $8. Even if it is passed on to the importer, we have to bear something because we have to compromise on the realization front.
Correct.
Yes. Okay. Is it possible, sir, that instead of focusing on the U.S., given the 50%, if it is, let's say, 50% and likely to sustain this way, can we manage, since it is a two-player market for the two major regions, can we focus largely on the European side and the U.S. market for solvers? Can solvers cater the entire demand of the U.S. from the U.S.?
The way to see this is that what will be ultimately the net realization that we get in our hands. Where will it be more lucrative? We will focus more on that. Today, the U.S. and Europe, who are even with the 50%, are more or less on the same line. The U.S. is even slightly better today. Even with a 50% tariff, realization will be better going forward in the U.S. than they would be in Europe. I think it is better as a strategy to keep a balance and to be in the market because you have customers in both these geographies who are going to buy from us. The large F&F companies have multi-locational supplies, and they expect us to supply in both these locations.
I think it is safer for us to be servicing both of these, even though one may be slightly more profitable than the other, to have a face in front of the multinational customers, which is that we are a stable supplier and we can service them across the world. Only our principal competitor out of Europe and the U.S. can do that. The Chinese cannot do that. That's why I think that's a very strong position for us to be in and to take in the market, to be able to service them across all geographies.
Okay, sir. Since the anti-dumping duty was implemented in the last week of July itself, when could one think about the commencement of the supply deals, the annualized supply deals of vanillin with the large customers?
these deals are finalized in October or November because come January, they need the material. With the lead times of at least 60 days for shipping, they typically look at September or October to finalize deals.
Okay, go ahead, please.
Like I said, we don't know what is in the channel or what stocks are in the channel. Our estimate is that stock also should not, the overhang of that should not go more than three, four months.
Okay. In that case, from both the angle from the inventory, without inventory in the channel level angle, as well as the kind of a new contract commission, from both the angles, one can believe that the true benefit of vanillin ramp-up will be seen from the October, I mean, October, November, December quarter, means the third quarter of FY2026.
Correct.
Okay. Sir, is there a compulsion for us to sell in the non-U.S., non-Europe market for vanillin?
Not really. Some of the multinational customers, we would have to give some materiality in those other markets to prove our second supplier's thought in each of the markets, at least in major markets.
Okay. Okay. So now, just see, obviously, vanillin is a greater opportunity, of course, for the near future. If you can talk something about your blends business, which has been consistent, and also if you can possibly give some monitorable there, generally, we have been seeing the growth for this business, which has been very consistent. I think in the difficult times of the European and losses and all that, that was a business which was kind of bearing all the kind of, or observing all the kind of negatives. Now all those negatives are out. This business anyway is growing consistently. On the profitability, true profitability of the business will be reflected now onwards, ideally. What growth, as well as what change in the profitability for the blends business that one should see going ahead?
When you look at, say, different geographies where we are in, and each are at different levels of advancement. When you look at, say, Central America, which is Mexico, you have an advanced level there where revenues this year should be over $50 million. EBITDA margins will be in high teens to touching maybe a 20%. When you look at the second most advanced development for us, it is North America, where this year we should probably end up at about $30 million- $35 million with a 10% - 12% EBITDA margin. Next year, that same thing would be $50 million plus, but with a very high teen margin. Next comes Brazil, where we are at, say, this year we should do about $25 million- $28 million. The margin, again, there because it's at lower advancement, will be in the region of 10%.
Next year, the same thing will look like $35 million- $40 million, it looks like a 15% kind of margin. Next, you come to CFS White Up Cove, which is at $15 million this year, $15 million- $16 million, with a margin of between 5% to 10%. Next year, the same thing will be at an advancement to $25 million, where it will be upwards of 10%. It's at different levels. The growth, as you see, in these different geographies, the target is to grow in all the geographies at least at 15% and some of them more than 15%. The average at least comes to 20%. The EBITDA margin evolution for each geography starts going towards what, say, like a Mexico's advancement is.
For a better understanding about the profitability, generally, food additives are also believed to have a margin profile north of 25%. Is there a threshold limit beyond which the margin really expands faster, or how do you monitor whether the growth is linked to, let's say, sure, the capacity is not relevant because with limited capacity, a significant volume can be created. Capacity is not a parameter. How do you monitor whether it is a system based on which you monitor the business, or on what investment level do you monitor the business to expand to sustainable?
Basically, the business is defined by gross margin and people. A gross margin average for the blends business is 35 %- 40%. In a product mix in some markets, you may be having a better product mix which gives you better gross margin. Your EBITDA levels could possibly be higher at some point. The balance is always an issue, what other kind of investments you make in terms of salespeople, technical support, and application laboratory people in all these departments where that drives the sales. The key drivers of the sales are those people. For example, in this year, in Q1, these increases are spent in the U.S. by almost 35% in the last six months. Obviously, we are investing from the EBITDA in the U.S.
The impact of that will come from Q3 and Q4 because it takes six months for a person that you got in to start delivering on new businesses. For us, it's a balance of keeping in mind what are the gross margins in the market, which are the products, which is the focus area, and what are the people that we require to push more in that focus area. That's what drives the business. There are some businesses which are, for example, antioxidant business, which is where we are fully integrated. That becomes a door opener. Maybe the gross margin for the blends business may be even lower there because that becomes your door opener into a market.
It depends on the market, depends on strategy for each market, where it is, what is the level of maturity of the market, what is the level of maturity of us playing in the markets, what is the product mix, what are the products that are essentially where we have significant advantage over competition. It's all defined by a lot of these things.
This recent two expositions now, particularly even the.
Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Surya Narayan Patra, we request you to rejoin the queue as there are several participants waiting in the question queue.
Sure.
Okay. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Satish Kumar from Incred Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. This question is regarding the gross margin. Sir, what is the gross margin that you estimate ex-vanillin? Because when we were not selling vanillin, we were making a gross margin of around 46%, 47%. What sort of margin can we expect ex-vanillin?
Yeah, that's the margin we'll continue at. That's what I mentioned earlier, that we've been in that range. Vanillin margin, of course, will get defined by ultimately at what price the market sales is at. As it stands today, we are in this range of 45%, give or take 3% up or down.
If the vanillin goes up or down, then it will increase our margins, right?
Yes, got it.
Sir, just to recheck, when we are selling blends and sprays, what sort of gross margin do we expect? Only in blends and sprays.
Blends are typical gross margin is about 40%. In sprays, for the hydroquinone chain, it will be more than 40%. It will be probably closer to 50%. For the catechol chain, it will be closer to 20%. That's how the average margin then comes to around 45%.
Got it. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Chaiitya Doshi from Incred Equities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Sir, I have a couple of more questions. The question is that how much vanillin have we export, like we sold this quarter in the US as compared to the last quarter?
We sold almost the same amount of vanillin as we sold to the U.S. this quarter.
Can you give us numbers?
It's an internal sale, actually. You should ask me what I sold to the third party. The third party sale or on consolidated pricing was around INR 540,000.
Okay. Sir, the production cost, what is the production cost for 60% utilization?
For 60% utilization, the production cost will be in the range of INR 9.25 to INR 9.75 based on the group vendor.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhavan Shah from Alf Accurate Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Sir, my question is on the vanillin side of the business. I think you mentioned that there is an inventory of roughly 1,800 - 2,000 tons in the U.S. and Europe and around 600 - 1,200 tons for the rest of the world. If you can help us to understand how much is the demand from the U.S. and Europe annually and how much is it from the rest of the world? What is that? How is the supply environment? I mean, we have roughly 6,000 tons of capacity. We are being at 50-60% right now. It's always also there in the Chinese are also there. If you can help us to understand, you know, the demand-supply dynamics of vanillin at the moment. By when do you expect this inventory will be over? If you can help us on this part.
Sorry, I didn't understand your question. This is the inventory. We don't know what the inventory is in the channels in the U.S. and Europe. That is unknown to us.
You mentioned earlier, I think in the earlier question.
12 ,000- 14,000 tons. Sorry.
Yeah, sorry.
Yeah. 12,000 - 14,000 tons is the demand of the U.S. and Europe, and about 16,000 - 18,000 is the demand for the rest of the world.
Okay. How is the supply environment at this moment? The inventory, by when do you expect this inventory will be that over? Excess inventory that you are seeing from the U.S. and Europe?
U.S. and Europe was pre-anti-dumping. You see, the inventory has been built up. Difficult to say. We don't know the numbers. Very difficult to answer that question. We estimate that probably in the next three to four months, that inventory should be largely cleared.
Understood, sir. Understood. Let's say, you know, right now you said that vanillin price is from $13 - $14. Assuming that 50% duty right now from the U.S., our net cost would be around $20, $21, right?
Yes.
The cost for Chinese, correct, and Chinese is roughly $28 at this moment.
Right.
How much is the solvent cost?
Cost, things we don't know. What they're telling is they are selling market price is in $20. Like I said, they're 18, 19, but they'll probably take it closer to $25 as well once the inventory is clear. They don't want to obviously push in the market right now. Our estimate they'll take it to about $25.
Understood. Let's say if the tariffs, you said that by September or October, there will be the new contract revision for the next quarter of the year. Let's assume that these tariffs won't go away. This 50% will remain at least for the next one or two months. If that negotiation happens, do you foresee will there be any upward revision of the vanillin price or will you maintain the price of $13, $14 for the next calendar year?
Very difficult to say at what point the tariffs will go. Essentially, what we will naturally try and do is give them a price which is a delivered price. We should obviously take care of this 50%. The pricing will be a little higher. If it goes away, we get the higher price. If it doesn't go away, we get a lower margin.
If the 50% tariff will remain the same, you're saying that you'll revise the price, of course, when we negotiate the next price. Is that correct?
No, I'm saying that the price in the negotiation will be defined by what the competitors are doing. Chinese will come in at $28. Solvent will come in at maybe $24, $25. I don't know what price they will come in at. We have to see if we will end up at $20, for example, or $21. That's including the tariff. If the tariff doesn't come, we get $21. If it comes, we get $40.
Let's assume if, by the end of this month, there will be more tariffs on India. If your landed cost would go up to $25, and if that tariff doesn't go, will there be any clause in the contract that if the tariff goes away within the next three to four months, the price would be revised afterwards?
No, I don't think so.
Will you close out the price or the pricing?
Generally, these are fixed tariff contracts.
Okay. Okay.
It is unprecedented. No tariff has ever been like this. It is very difficult to say what people are going to do, as a buyer, what their tariff is.
We don't know whether they will die. Tomorrow morning we can get a quid to 250%.
No, no, who knows? Zero or 15 or 20 or who knows?
Understood. You said that by FY2027, we are assuming 70% - 80% capacity utilization of vanillin. How much of that, I mean, 40 - 100 tons, you are assuming the sales volume for vanillin, how much of that would go to Europe?
About 40% to Europe, 30%- 40% to U.S. in the balanced sales of the world.
Understood. European contract would also be negotiated by September, October only.
Correct.
Understood. This quarter shutdown, was it there in the last year also, the same quarter?
It was in the year before last.
Understood.
Sure. We have seen the last quarter results, where the plants are at full capacity and we are outputting this.
Perfect. Sure. Thank you so much for answering all the questions.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Krishnan Arora from Celio Neshek. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, as you mentioned, some of the tariffs will be borne by the company. What initial discussions with your customers suggest in terms of the ratio of tariffs that will be borne by Camlin?
The price is inclusive of delivered price to the customer. That's what is interested in it. I explained this whole thing in the last question in detail.
Is the tariff usually borne by the import?
We have to send the material at this stock or this at the doorstep in the U.S. We have to clear it. Customs would be paid by the way. Nobody wants to share. You can only adjust your selling price.
Got it. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagar from BNK Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. I think you just mentioned that about 80% of our vanillin sales are coming from Europe and the U.S. How much of that is generally contracted and how much of that is on sponsorship?
We do look at some of these 50/50 rate.
In the rest of 20%, do you feel that there will be a larger pressure in terms of sourcing, given that all the Chinese players will be eyeing on this market and possibly even the volumes could be subjected to some challenge?
Yes. The volume is okay. The price is not the challenge right of time. Since we have high purity, high quality vanillin, we have some opportunities in some high value-added F&P products. That's the market that we are targeting. We're not targeting the regular market. We're targeting very specific high-end consumers who require high quality, high purity vanillin.
Got it. Can I just ask clarification in terms of the current, you know, tariff scenario? When we are, I mean, are we getting any orders from the U.S. market? If we are getting those orders, are they backed by kind of advanced payments or how does it exactly work? Because we sell the material. If the shipper is, I mean, the customer is not able to lift the material, will there be a risk of any payment cycle which may get longer?
No, no. Yeah. That's all multinational customers and very large customers. That doesn't happen. If you sign the contract, people generally honor the contract.
Right. Got it. That's helpful. Thanks a lot for the conversation.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jatin Sangwan from Burman Capital. Please go ahead.
Sir, the losses in China and Europe have reduced to around INR 6 crore per quarter now. By when do we think that they will completely go away?
China should go away this financial year by the end of FY2026. I mean, we should be by the end of the year. China will go away. Europe, we yet have to maintain the site, so there will be some cost of keeping that offboard site, which we have said that our estimate is it will be about INR 20 million a quarter in the next financial year.
This financial year, we will have a similar rate of around INR 5 crore per quarter on Europe.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this was the last question. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for giving us your precious time, and I hope you were able to clarify most of what you wanted. I look forward to interacting with you again. Until then, goodbye.
Thank you. On behalf of Camlin Fine Sciences Ltd, we conclude this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.