Q4 25/26

May 27, 2026

Summary

Q4 PAT rose to ₹103 crore as ferrochrome realizations increased, while growth projects and renewable power expand capacity. Q1 FY27 prices and volumes are expected to improve; commissioning delays, startup costs and forex volatility remain key watchpoints.

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Limited Q4 FY26 earnings conference call hosted by Adfactors PR. 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 then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Savli Mangle from Adfactors PR. Thank you and over to you, ma'am. Thank you, Aldric. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Limited earnings conference call for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31st March 2026. Today we have with us Mr. Subhrakant Panda, Managing Director, Mr. Saunak Gupta, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Suresh Chigurupalli, Head of Ferro Alloys Business Unit, Mr. Sandeep Narade, Head of Mining Business Unit, and Mr. Binoy Agarwalla, Head of Power Business Unit. We will start the call with the opening remarks by our MD, Mr. Subhrakant Panda, on the business operations, key initiatives, and the broad outlook, followed by discussion on financial performance by our CFO, Mr. Saunak Gupta. After which we will open the forum for a Q&A session. Before we get started, I would like to point out that some statements made or discussed on today's call may be forward-looking in nature and must be viewed in conjunction with the risks and uncertainties that we face. A detailed statement of explanation of this risk is included in our earnings presentation, which has been shared with all of you earlier. The company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements publicly. I would like to now invite Mr. Subhrakant Panda to make his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you, Savli, and at the outset, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you who have taken time out from your busy schedules to attend today's investor con call to discuss IMFA's Q4 and financial year 26 results. As Savli mentioned, I will start out with a few opening remarks and then we will go into the Q&A section. I want to, at the outset, point out that we have uploaded an investor presentation to the stock exchanges, which has all the relevant data available therein relating to production and sales numbers, et cetera. We will not be going through those in this con call per se. Of course, any questions relating to it, we will certainly do our best to answer. At the outset, I would like to say that the fourth quarter of FY 2026 has been a very good quarter operationally. We registered production of about 68,500 tons. Broadly, I would say it had two elements. One, as far as the existing facilities at Therubali and Choudwar are concerned, the production numbers were by and large the same. What is interesting in this output number is that it has some output from our KNR One acquisition. As you would know, we closed that deal on February 27, and we switched on the furnaces in March. We have about, I think, 2,200 tons ore production included in the quarter. Just as an aside, as far as the ongoing first quarter of FY 2027 is concerned, all furnaces are running smoothly and we are getting approximately 6,000 tons a month output. More on that later. Secondly, realizations as compared to the corresponding quarter last year are substantially higher. In fact, in the fourth quarter, broadly about INR 109,000 a ton as compared to roughly INR 87,000 a ton. That is why you see a substantial jump in the PAT from about INR 47 crores in the corresponding quarter to INR 103 crores in the current quarter. Costs are up marginally, primarily on account of royalty on chrome ore, which has gone up a little bit due to elevated ore prices. Thermal coal prices have inched up a little bit. By and large, I would say we've had a tight focus on costs. In fact, if I were to use this as a segment to talk about the West Asia crisis update, I think broadly the only direct impact we are seeing is in terms of higher freight costs and domestic logistics costs because of increase in fuel prices. Other than that, in terms of demand, in terms of container availability, shipping space, et cetera, I think all of that is by and large okay, under control. Next, I'd like to give you an update on the various projects as well as the additional hybrid renewable energy that we have signed up. First, on the renewable energy. As you know, we have 70 megawatts signed up with JSW Energy, which is expected to flow in July or so of this year. We had another agreement for 40 megawatts, which we canceled on mutual discussions with the developer. Instead, we have tied up with Enfinity Global for 65 megawatts hybrid renewable energy, which will come online June of 2027. 70 and 65 takes the hybrid renewable energy portfolio to 135 megawatts, which will substantially reduce our carbon footprint through abatement of carbon emissions. Of course, we have the benefit of stable prices over the length of these agreements. Now on to the project updates. As far as the greenfield project KNR One is concerned, it is broadly on track. We are initiating cold trials and pre-commissioning activities from 30th of May onwards, which will continue through June. Slight delay of 10 or 15 days in terms of switching on the furnaces. That is on account of two things, which is that temporarily, there was a partial manpower demobilization because of various reasons, people moving out for elections, et cetera. That broke the tempo a little bit, but we are now back at full manpower at site since last week. Work is continuing, of course, at full speed. Second, of course, for the last 2-3 weeks, the midday temperatures are intense, 44-45 degrees, and that is certainly affecting output to an extent. I would say a slight delay, but nothing significant. We will broadly switch on around July 10th-15th is what we are expecting. Secondly, as far as the Ethanol project is concerned, we had updated earlier that as against the target of March or April of 2026, we are seeing a delay in it due to the geopolitical developments and delay in fabrication and supply of some equipment because of related factors. There, I am happy to report that we are on track. We will be taking up pre-commissioning activities in July, as we have mentioned, and commissioning in Q2 of FY27. We should be able to start getting output maybe towards the end of August or something of that sort. I think beyond that, what I would like to mention is that stainless steel demand continues to be good. Although growth has been about 2%-3%, there has been a sharp up to 64.157 million tonnes in the calendar year 2025, globally speaking. There has been a decline in ferrochrome output globally by about 9.4% to just short of 16 million tonnes. That is one of the reasons, along with elevated cost structures, which has led to prices firming up. In the ongoing Q1 FY27, we are seeing prices and therefore margins higher than what we saw in Q4. I think that will enable us to report good numbers during the ongoing quarter. Of course, that is something we will discuss later. Generally, we continue to be positive about the industry fundamentals, about demand, about the fact that stainless steel production and demand in India is moving up. I think we are ideally positioned not just to cater to our international customers as we have been with the 90-10 export versus domestic sales. Moving ahead, we are looking to pivot towards more domestic sales, and some of that was evident in Q4 itself. We are confident about industry fundamentals, about our own resilience and cost structure. We will, of course, keep an eagle's eye on operational efficiency so that we are able to deliver superior results. Thank you. Thank you. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. In the interest of time and fairness to others, please restrict yourselves to two questions. For any more questions, you may rejoin the queue. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Parthiv Jhonsa with Anand Rathi. Please go ahead. Hi. Congratulations, sir, for good set of numbers. Thank you, Parthiv. How are you, sir? I am good. Thank you. Yeah. Just a couple of questions. The first one is pertaining to the South African power tariff. Now that the government and the local authorities are planning to have the lower tariffs for the ferro manufacturers. A couple of mills are expected to start their operations, the smelters are expected to start the operations. What is your take on it? Because I think over the last 12 months or 14 months, the actual global output of ferrochrome has been lower. As you also mentioned, it is shy of over 16 million tonnes. Do you expect this volume to come on stream, which will eventually have some competition for us in the Asian market? Okay. Parthiv Jhonsa, as you know, the South African power tariff situation has been publicly discussed for quite a while now. In 2025, South African ferrochrome production fell off drastically on account of their high costs, power costs, high inland logistics costs, et cetera. While some of it was made up with the increase in Chinese production, where monthly output went from about 650,000 tons a month to, if I recall correctly, about 950,000 tons in December and those levels thereafter. Nevertheless, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, overall during the year, ferrochrome production was down by a little more than 9%. As against the standard rate of 136 cents, first 87 or 87.7 cents was approved. Then Eskom and the government have agreed to 62 cents. Public consultations took place on 25th May from what we read online. I am not sure if there will be more consultations or that was the only thing which happened. What we believe is the following, that it is actually an interesting scenario where this special tariff is being offered to only two producers in a specific sector. Eskom today is making a point that they will not need any additional subsidies because of the difference between 136 cents and 62 cents. They do not need any support. They do not need any fiscal support from the government. They will not pass on or burden the retail consumers with this, and it is overall a better scenario than not selling power. The thing I do not understand, we are all struggling to understand is that, why did this then have to be almost forced on them? But having said that's their prerogative, that's their national policy to do what they want to do. What we broadly believe is that, from a chrome unit's perspective, it will by and large be neutral in the sense that if ferrochrome production picks up in South Africa as a result of these, if 62 cents is finally approved, I believe, first of all, it will come with certain conditions like upside sharing and all sorts of things. That apart, if it leads to increase in ferrochrome production in South Africa, then it should lead to reduction in ore supplies to China and therefore lower ferrochrome production in China, maybe moving back towards that 650,000, 700,000 or 750,000 ton sort of a monthly mark. Net-net, you will not see a glut of ferrochrome. What I will acknowledge is that if ferrochrome production in South Africa picks up and Chinese ferrochrome production doesn't go down, then you will certainly see pressure on prices. But I would argue that it is not something which is going to be unique to IMFA. And in fact, it will put this whole special power tariff arrangement into a tailspin because Glencore has been very vocal in saying that 62 cents is what they need to sort of quote, unquote, "survive". But if ferrochrome prices drop down sharply, then 62 cents will not be valid. This is a confusing scenario. We'll have to see how it plays out. But we have strong fundamentals. We are comfortable where we stand. And we believe that by and large, even if these tariffs are approved, it will be net neutral in terms of chrome units. Okay. That's actually quite helpful, sir. Sir, just to take that power point forward because now you are about 135 megawatts of hybrid renewable. What is the total power requirement which will be met through this particular hybrid renewable, and what is the cost saving on it, if you can share, sir? Okay. So our power portfolio at the moment is we have 200 megawatts of thermal at Choudwar and 4.5 megawatts peak of solar at Therubali. And of course, we have some off-gas generation of about five megawatts at Choudwar. But broadly, in as much as our expansion, which is KNR One and the strategic acquisition, which is KNR Two is concerned, we broadly need about 100 odd megawatts of power. We have tied up 135. Out of that, 70 megawatts should start flowing in about July of this year. And 65 megawatts, which we have signed up with the second supplier a few days ago, will be flowing from June of 2027. And we are also looking to increase our capacity in KNR. As you know, KNR Two has a partially built 33 MVA furnace capable of producing 50,000 tons. We are working on getting environmental clearances for it, and hopefully by June of 2027 is when we will have it up and running. But when we have a little bit more clarity is when we will share some concrete timelines for that. Broadly, we are looking at June 2027. The idea behind hybrid renewable energy is that it reduces our carbon footprint. Secondly, in terms of we will have DISCOM power as a backup because as you know, the capacity utilization factor of renewable energy is not as high as it is with thermal coal. In terms of cost savings, by and large two things. First of all, renewable energy today is at grid parity or a little bit plus minus. I think the benefit will come out of the fact that this is a rate which is steady for the duration of the entire contract, 25 years for the 70 MW and 29 years for the 65 MW, unless there are any regulatory changes. So those benefits will accrue with time. But I would also like to point out that what we are seeing in terms of the fresh coal linkages that we are bidding for, and those benefits will start flowing probably from Q3 of this year, that coal sourcing through linkages, also the pricing is expected is going to be about INR 400 to INR 500 a ton cheaper. So those are some advantages in our existing thermal coal generation that we will see, but from H2 of FY 2027. That is quite interesting. If I may just ask the last one bookkeeping question. Just wanted a quicker check on your CapEx and your debt position, which you expect for 2027 and 2028. I will ask Saunak Gupta to share those numbers. Saunak? Yeah. On the CapEx side, as you know, we have already spent 600 odd crores by April. The balance amount which we have from next year to spend is approximately 450 odd crores. We have taken INR 470 crores of loan, as a term loan, of which we have actually utilized by March to May 2027. So we still have INR 120 crores from there. From the internal accruals, we will be managing the balance INR 450 crores, and whatever we think is required, we may or may not use the full term loan. But if required, we have INR 120 crores from there. So INR 120 plus INR 284, INR 50 crores should be sufficiently generated by us through our own, whatever is the sanctions we have from bank as well as the profitability that we are getting. So that's the plan. I hope that is a good answer to your question. Yeah. Perfect. That's actually quite improving. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Anant Sarda with Chhattisgarh Investments. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I want to understand if you have tied the production capacity of Kalinganagar Two as a long-term contract, or are we selling this ferrochrome on spot pricing, sir? Building on that question, sir, what do you think will be the strategy for long-term contract versus spot pricing for Kalinganagar One as well? Okay. Anant, broadly, when we look at our marketing strategy, we look at selling about 70%-75% against long-term contracts, where essentially, whether it is an annual contract or a five-year contract, tonnages are fixed and pricing is done either every month or every quarter. It is monthly in the case of China, quarterly in the case of POSCO and some Japanese customers, et cetera. When we talk about spot sales, it is not as if we are selling to random people for the first time. It is broadly repeat customers, but where we do not have a contract locking that tonnage for any particular length of time. There are certain consumers in India as well as overseas where we sell tonnage regularly, maybe even every quarter, but there is no long-term contract where that tonnage is set aside. Spot sales is not really selling to a random person for the first time. Let me put it in that way. Secondly, as far as our strategy for Kalinganagar One and Two is concerned, our output is going to go from about 265,000 tons, which is where we are in FY 2026, to broadly 400,000 tons in FY 2027 and 500,000 tons or so, 475,000 to 500,000 tons in FY 2028. First and foremost, what we are doing is from a 90-10 in favor of exports, we are looking to be about 60-40 in favor of exports. Our existing long-term customers internationally are interested in additional tonnage, have reached out to us for additional tonnage. We will be looking to allocate some tonnages there. We believe domestically, the economy is growing, stainless steel production is growing, per capita consumption is increasing, and there is space in the market for us to make our presence felt. We will be looking at allocating at least about 200,000 tons to the domestic market in times to come. Having said that, long-term versus spot, traditionally in India contracts have always been finalized on tonnage-to-tonnage basis, on lot-to-lot basis. We are talking with a few customers here, and generally speaking, I think they are receptive to the idea of allocating tonnages and pricing it on whichever format. Suffice to say that we are very confident about demand, we are very confident about placing these tonnages, and we do not see any issues in that regard. Okay. Sir, regarding the Kalinganagar 2 expansion, there was one 33 MVA furnace which was partially built. What are the timelines for the completion of that furnace, sir, for additional 50,000 tons? Sir, in fact, I just mentioned that, but I will reiterate it. Yes, there is a partially built 33 MVA furnace which when completed, can add another 50,000 tons of output. Because the environment clearances, et cetera, have to be obtained for that, because it has been in that partially built stage for a while. We are just trying to figure out the timelines, but we would hope to target commissioning around June 2027. But that is something we need to get a little bit more clarity about the environmental clearances, et cetera. We will give a formal sort of an update on that, perhaps by the next, when we discuss Q1 results, et cetera, in a couple of months. But broadly, we are targeting June 2027, but I want to reiterate that a firm update on what the timeline is will be shared by us in a few months. Yes, sir. My last question- Sorry to interrupt, Anant. I would request you to rejoin the queue for more questions. The next question comes from the line of Harsh Vasa with SBI Cap Securities. Please go ahead. First of all, thank you so much for the opportunity and congratulations on the good set of numbers. Sir, I just wanted to ask- I am sorry to interrupt, Harsh. You are not quite audible. Could you please use your phone on the handset mode in case if you are on a hands-free mode? Yeah. Am I audible now? Yes, much better. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. My first question was about the CapEx on FY 2027, 2028. I know Shaunak, sir, said about that, but he was a little muffled. Could we just repeat that? Yeah. On FY 2027, what we said that the balance amount of Kalinganagar and Ichhamati what we have and the underground mines, in Sukinda that we are having, which is clear with your investment on that, the total amount is around INR 450 crores of CapEx. From that, major portion will be actually met through our internal accrual, but we still have unutilized term loan of approximately INR 173 crores. That also we can use. As the time progresses, we will see the ideal mix to use the term loan and the internal accruals. Okay. And sir, CapEx for FY 2028? FY 2028 other than the routine CapEx, primarily the balance portion of the mines will be there, which will be to an extent of approximately INR 700 odd crores. But the INR 700 is not in FY 2028. We have not yet calculated the exact amount. At least the major portion of that will be in FY 2028. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Ashok Patel with Molecule Ventures PMS. Please go ahead. Thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations to the entire team for a stable set of numbers during challenging macro environment. Sir, my first question is with regards to our hedging policy. Can you explain it at length, broadly, what is our hedging policy? Because looks like there is a sharp jump in other expenses for the quarter, which could be pertaining to that. Also the realization improvement is not as much as visible given how the rupee depreciated during the quarter. That would be very helpful. Sir, I will give a brief remark on this and then Shaunak can step in with details. In fact, as far as the mark-to-market notional loss that we have booked is concerned, that is there as, in the notes account you can see that. And secondly, the point, broadly, Aarav, what we do is we look to hedge about 25%-30% of our outstandings of any of our foreign exchange exposure, net foreign exchange exposure. Primarily try to balance the downside while also locking in some of the upside. What is obviously, what happens in a scenario when you have had a sudden jump from INR 88, INR 89 to first INR 93 and then now about INR 95, INR 96 or so, that is where it has an impact. Of course, a lot of it is notional, not realized, not actual losses. That is number one. Secondly, actually the top line does capture the rupee depreciation. It is just, I mean, obviously we cannot distinguish it and show it aside separately. But broadly if you look at it, Q4 of FY 2026, the tonnage gain is about 2,500 tons, which is not significant. But the jump in realization is from INR 87,000 a ton to INR 109,000 a ton and that, I mean, in terms of dollar prices, it has not moved up significantly. I mean, it has moved up not so significantly, and a lot of it has also come in from the foreign exchange, I mean, the rupee depreciation. But Shaunak, would you want to explain a little bit more on the hedging policy? Yes. So you have explained out some of the things. The only thing I need to say is that- Sanath, your voice is not very clear. I think if you are on speaker, you will have to go on the handset mode or something. Yes. So now I have gone in the handset mode. So now, am I audible? Yes, better. What I was saying that on the probability that INR may appreciate in future, we have internal policy that we keep it around 35% of our total exposure. Because 90% of our total trade is in exports and all in dollars. That's how we hedge, and it is mostly at the forwards and serial basis for next 12 to 18 months we hedge. Now, what we see in the accounts is, whatever are the gains coming from the full exports are actually recorded inside the revenue or in the revenue, it is embedded there. It is not seen separately. But whatever is actually hedged out, the differential in whether on actual foreign loss or on the mark-to-market, is shown separately in the other expenses. As said earlier, as on 31st December, the USD was 89.9, which increased to 94.65 as on 31st March, due to whatever the volatile market. Now, for the accounting purposes, this difference has to be shown as a other or what we call as a notional loss in the books, though it may not be the actual loss. So whatever we have booked in for next 12 to 18 months, we are showing it as a notional amount, which you can see in the investor deck. I have said about 28 crores of that is actually the notional amount which has been put in. During this quarter, even though there has been a sharp depreciation of INR, but the actual loss is only limited to 3 crores, whereas our foreign gain almost for the full year, which is embedded in the revenue, is almost 80 crores plus than what we had budgeted. That is purely an accounting policy we have, or basically the accounting standard and our internal policy, which in the face of the P&L, it looks that there is a hit, but the actual gain is actually there in the revenue side. So that is the concept. Thank you for the elongated explanation. Sir, moving on, my second question is that we were hopeful of reducing our operating cost or EBITDA cost per ton by INR 3,000 or INR 4,000 due to operational synergies once the KNR 2 is up and running. Now that we are already on track in terms of operating the KNR 2, are you able to feel the benefits already in the numbers, or what is the outlook there? Okay. A slight clarification to that, Aarav, which is that when entire KNR complex comprising one and two is up and running, is where we are looking at a weighted average reduction in EBITDA cost by INR 3,000 to INR 4,000 on account of better logistics. Okay? Not just KNR 2, but KNR 1 and 2 taken together. And obviously, in KNR 2, operations have stabilized. KNR 1 is yet to start. But the benefits will really start flowing after the furnace operation stabilizes in both areas. Because two things I want to point out. First of all, there will be certain start-up costs which are one-off. Until furnace is stabilized, when we are drawing DISCOM power until and unless you are above 80% or 90% plant load factor, your power cost does not become economical. Whereas when you are in the heating up mode, we are actually consuming very little power, and that is priced fairly expensive. So these little aberrations will be there. Not significant, but these sorts of aberrations will be there. I will share one other example. As part of the KNR 2 acquisition from Tata Steel, we are also from the 1st of June taking over the GNA-RE corridor, which is the transmission corridor for renewable energy, which they had for KNR 2 site. So that has come to us from 1st June. But the power will start flowing from, let us say, July end or something of that sort. So a couple of months we will be paying fixed charges, which is not significant, INR 2 crores, INR 2.5 crores or thereabout, for the corridor without actually utilizing it. But you cannot perfectly time it to a 24-hour period that renewable energy is available and the corridor is available. So these little aberrations will settle down after a couple of quarters. And I would even say, when I say short term, I mean, let us say from November, December onwards, we will start seeing the full-fledged benefits of improved logistics costs and proper utilization of things like the GNA-RE corridor, which will give us benefits. Got it, sir. Last question from my side. Sorry to interrupt, Ashraf. I would request you to rejoin the queue. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Joshua Ashraf with Seven Seas. Please go ahead. Sugandh, thanks for the opportunity. Now, number one, this Ujaas Energy. Now, what is the rate you are finding out for the 65 megawatts? Rate is not mentioned anywhere. Joshua, we are not sharing commercial information on that, but suffice it to say that it is fairly attractively priced. Okay. That's good. Another thing now, KNR 1 and KNR 2, everything is going well. Congratulations for that. Now, KNR 1, I understand that there is a further plan to put up furnaces for 200,000 tons. That is the capacity, which will take us from 500,000 tons to 700,000 tons. Can you throw some light on this, how we are planning? No, that is not the case. Just to clarify, as far as KNR 2 is concerned, we have acquired 100,000 tonnes, partially built furnace. When it is completed, we will add 50,000 tonnes, so that's 150. As far as KNR 1 is concerned, it is for 100,000 tonnes. We have land for a third furnace, but that's a call we will take later. What you were talking about, 220,000 tonnes clearance for phase 2 expansion, that was prior to the acquisition. We were putting up KNR 1 as a greenfield, and we were looking at a second phase expansion. But now that we have acquired the Tata Steel unit, that second phase expansion is not something that we are pursuing. But yes, in KNR 2, we will complete the partially built furnace. In KNR 1, we will evaluate whether we would like to add one more furnace or not, and what is the timeline for that. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vineeth Thakur with Plus91 Asset Management. Please go ahead. Hi there. Thank you for the opportunity. Most of my questions have been answered. If you could just shed some light on the expansion for mining capacity of chrome. I will just give a broad overview. Of course, Sandeep Narade, our mines BU head is available on the call if more details are required. As you know, a few years ago, we were mining about 6 lakh tonnes per annum from open cast and underground. Last year, we crossed 7 lakh tonnes. FY 2026, we crossed 8 lakh tonnes. FY 2027, the target is for 10 lakh tonnes. We will be at the 10 lakh tonne mark for a couple of years, and then we will gradually take it up to 12 lakh tonnes. The eventual plan, which is what we are spending close to INR 1,000 crores for, is to sustain output at 12 lakh tonnes per annum and entirely from underground. Mahagiri, as against 6 lakh, we are already at 5 lakh 36,000 from underground operations, and that is pretty much maxing out. We will go up a little bit more. As far as Sukinda is concerned, we are still in the 3 lakh-4 lakh tonnes open cast ore. That will gradually peter off, and we will move into underground operations. That will also be 6 lakh. So 6 plus 6 is what is given us 12 lakhs. In these 2-3 years that we are mining only about 10 lakhs and our requirement is 12 lakhs, that is where we have quite a substantial ore inventory that will slowly start normalizing from next year onwards, because we will be eating into that inventory. Broadly, I hope I have clarified that. If there are any specific questions, we have the mines BU head to answer. No. Sir, what would be a targeted EBITDA per tonne for ferrochrome, and what is the current for this year as well? Ferrochrome is a volatile sector. We have a great degree of confidence about our costs, the only exception to that being metallurgical coke, which we procure from outside. Of course, thermal coal prices also move up and down, and that is where once we have more of hybrid renewable energy coming in, that is more of a steady cost. As I said, barring regulatory changes, the rate remains the same. But the question here is in terms of realizations. First and foremost, we certainly don't look beyond a couple of quarters in terms of, we don't forecast prices, and we don't look at more than a couple of quarters to be a little conservative in this regard. But we do feel that due to cost pressures, ferrochrome prices in line with other commodities are going to remain elevated. In fact, currently, I would say domestic prices are in the INR 118,000-INR 120,000 a tonne mark, which is a little bit higher than what we have seen in Q4 of FY26. Even export realizations are in excess of INR 120,000 a tonne. That is a combination of prices having moved up a little bit and, of course, the rupee depreciation factor coming into play. So we are broadly confident about the mid to long term demand cycle and what that will translate to in terms of elevated ferrochrome prices. There is a lot of talk also, if you look at it, about the commodity super cycle. But leaving that aside, I think broadly because of under-investment in newer capacity and creating new capacity, we believe that we will see a prolonged period of relatively elevated prices. A little difficult for us to give targeted EBITDA per tonne per se. But Shaunak, I don't know if you would like to add anything to this. No, I think you have already explained out the whole matter, and specifically the volatile market. We usually don't give any future prediction on the EBITDA. But on the quarter one side, we see the similar price realizations, and definitely we expect to do well in quarter one. Lastly, could you just- I would request you to rejoin the queue. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Pranav Jain with Ageless Capital and Finance. Please go ahead. Hi there. Thank you for the opportunity. I am really happy to see- Hello. Am I audible? Yes. Thank you for the opportunity. I am really happy to see KNR 2 already at 70% utilization levels. Just two clarifications from my end. Was it this year that we are targeting a 60/40 export versus domestic split? We are looking at going from 90/10 to 60/40 by sometime next year. First and foremost, the added capacity from KNR 1 also needs to come on board. That will realistically, as I said, one furnace we are looking to switch on by about 10th to 15th July, and the next furnace around end August, early September. Pre-commissioning will start in a few days. Switching on is slightly delayed in the first furnace, but slightly advanced in the second furnace. I think it overall averages out in terms of our output target for the year. We will hit an annualized rate of 5 lakh tons by November, December of this year, and that is when we will broadly start looking at 60/40. Got it, sir. Just secondly, considering that our Kalinganagar capacities are coming up largely in the first half of the financial year, along with some part of renewable energy also starting. Towards the second half, can we expect that EBITDA cost to go down by a couple thousand tons, going back to our 78,000, 79,000 tons that we used to do a year? As I mentioned a little while ago, what we were indicating in terms of INR 3,000 to INR 4,000 a ton savings, that will come when the entire capacity is online. Yes, you are right that by H2, KNR 1 will be online, and of course, KNR 2 is already operating. But again, as I mentioned, give us a few months for these aberrations in terms of startup costs and all that to sort of settle down. I do not want to overcommit and thereafter have to explain. But when we achieve a steady state operations is when we will see it. I think that will be towards the end of the year or to be on the safer side, if I say from Q4 of FY27 onwards, is when we would truly have steady state operations across the board. Fair enough, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor with Kapoor & Company. Please go ahead. Yeah. Namaskar, sir. Go ahead. Yes, sir. First, a clarification that it is the unhedged part of our forex contract that has resulted in the profitability going down by INR 30-34 crore for this quarter. And with this kind of depreciation not continuing for the next, that will not be factored for the next quarter. That is how our earnings have been impacted. No. Let me explain. So the hedging that we had done six months, eight months ago, which was all at the realizations would have been 88, 89, 90, so to say, which at that point in time with the rate of 85, 86, 87, was looking attractive. When you have had the West Asia crisis and suddenly the rupee has dipped to 94, 95 levels. That 25%-30% that we had hedged, that is what is resulting in the mark-to-market losses. That is number one. And sorry, the second point you were making, please remind me about that again. Sir, I am looking that this is not going to repeat in the ensuing quarter since we have been mark-to-market and for the entire hedged and the unhedged portion. Well, you know what, if the rupee appreciates, actually some of that will result in a mark-to-market gain. But broadly, I think Shaunak can confirm. But Shaunak, what was the rupee closing for Q4? What is that pegged to? It was 93.65 and now it is again at 95, 96. But the swing of almost from 89.9 to 93.65, that was almost ₹3.75 paise. If that much swing does not happen, obviously we will not be getting that level of hit. But it is a relative matter between quarter to quarter. But Saket, I want to reiterate two things. First and foremost, that this is notional, and if the rupee swings back a little bit below 93.65, then we actually record a mark-to-market gain. Again, I reiterate that whatever mark-to-market we are recording is on 25%-30% of our foreign exchange earnings, whereas 70% is where we are gaining. So overall rupee depreciation is still good for us. That is one. Secondly, if you dive a little deeper into the Q4 results, and Q4 versus Q3, so let's look quarter on quarter. One is the mark-to-market on foreign exchange hedging. Secondly, there is about 16, 17 crores reduction in other income. That is on account of the investment income we were getting from the large cash balances, which we then drew down and we paid for the acquisition from internal accruals. So cash in the books has gone down from 900 odd, 950 crores to about 400, 450. So to that extent, investment income has gone down. But we are deploying that into assets which will give us more returns because investment returns is giving us what? 6.5%, 7.5%, those sorts of returns, right? Because we have been deploying it fairly conservatively. Secondly also, I think whatever investments are there on March 31st itself, the NAV was a little subdued, which is why some MTM is there on that as well. So when markets stabilize, then there will be some MTM gains as well. Right, sir. And sir, you have been very categorical whenever you speak to investors that you have visibility for 2 quarters down the line at best because of the volatile nature of the segment. Sir, how are we visualizing H1 to behave in terms of the realizations and lastly, at what price has been the revision for the contracted quantity benchmark? If you could just give us some color, how will H1 shape up as you are visioning today? One point, Saket, I want to make is that conviction is there beyond 2 quarters. But visibility in terms of you never know how things shape up, which is why we do not like to give any sort of forecast beyond a couple of quarters. But first and foremost, I want to reiterate that I have the conviction about elevated commodity prices because of a variety of reasons, cost pressures, under-investment in creating new capacity, et cetera. And of course, our own resilience and fully integrated business model, which gives me the comfort. Now to come to what H1 is looking like. First of all, as I said, Q1 is looking definitely better than Q4 of FY 2026. Q1 FY 2027 is definitely looking better. Prices have moved up a little bit more. And the higher output comes into play. As against sales of about 65,000-67,000 tons a quarter, that is normal for us. In Q1, we will be looking at about 80,000 tons because of the additional output from KNR One, which is coming in. As far as Q2 of the quarter is concerned, which is July to September, in another 15-20 days, we will start getting a flavor of what the price will be like. We expect it to be around the same as Q1. As of now, that is the expectation. Thank you. Participants, in the interest of time and fairness to others, please restrict yourselves to one question. For any more questions, you may rejoin the queue. The next question comes from the line of Anant Sarda with Chhattisgarh Investments. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity once again. Sir, like you know, in FY 2027, we are saying that according to the presentation that our ferrochrome capacity will be close to 484,000 tons. Also in the same year, sorry. Also we are also going for a hybrid renewable of 135 megawatts. May I understand how much proportion of this ferrochrome we made from renewables and how much will be grid and how much will be coal-based? Is there any kind of bifurcation that you have in your mind? Broadly for us, you mentioned about FY 2027 capacity, 484,000 tons. I just want to clear that normally while we do not give volume guidance, because we are in a growth phase for FY 2027 and FY 2028, we have given some indicated volume numbers. For FY 2027, the expected output is about 400,000 tons, which will go up to about 475,000-500,000 tons for FY 2028. Again, our power BU head is on the call, Binoy Agarwalla. He can share more details if necessary. Broadly, I would say that next fiscal, FY 2028, we broadly would expect about 35%-40% of our total energy consumption to be from renewable sources. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Pragyam Latta with Omni Securities. Please go ahead. Sir, all my questions have been thoroughly answered. Just two more questions. First, you said that there might be some one-offs when you are starting these plants. Can you throw a bit more light on it? Would you be able to quantify a timing? Pragyam, difficult to quantify at this point in time, but the initial, these are brand-new furnaces which will come into play. So the heating period and there will be a heating of about 10 to 12 days, following which you will be gradually stepping up load. So that is the period where two things will happen. First of all, you are consuming electricity without getting any output. That is one. That we may be able to quantify, although we do not have the numbers with us offhand to mention that to you. But I was also referring to things like when you are drawing from DISCOM power, and we will be drawing from DISCOM power. When you are drawing DISCOM power, until and unless you cross 80% and ideally 90% levels, your rates are at a higher, your per unit cost is high, and it starts dropping after 60 and goes down quite a bit noticeably after 90. So it is only when you are running on a full-fledged basis that we will achieve 90 or perhaps even 95% power factor and things like that. So in the initial heat-up phase, you are both consuming power without output for a couple of weeks, as well as that per unit rate is a little on the higher side. That was what I meant by one-off. And the other example I gave is, for example, the GNA-RE corridor, which has transferred. But you can never time the availability of the corridor to the flow of power. So we would much rather bear the fixed cost for a month or two, as opposed to not be able to have the power flow as it happens. We are getting the GNA-RE corridor from June 1st onwards, and the power, 70 megawatts will start, that is 68 megawatts and 17 megawatts will start flowing from, I would say, July end or so. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Kaushal Kedia with Wallfort PMS. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking my question. Sir, thank you for patiently answering all the questions. Sir, recently you made a statement in the Business Standard saying that you have aspirations to go for other critical minerals and taking into consideration that we will be generating substantial cash in the next going forward after maybe one year, we will again have a major portion of our cash in the balance sheet. Can you just throw some light as to where you want to be or what is the aspiration? I know it is very difficult to say right now. It is a far long shot right now or it is a far-fetched prospect right now, but what is your thought process like? There are nickel mines available in Odisha and I believe somewhere in Sukinda. What is your thought process as to where you want the company to be in the next 5 years? Kaushal, one lighthearted comment to begin with. Certainly not far-fetched, but something that we are working on seriously. I was just making it on a lighter note. One correction, nickel mine is not in Sukinda, not in Odisha as to the best of my knowledge. Now to get to what is the critical minerals aspirations that we have. What is very clear is that inasmuch as critical minerals or rare earth elements is concerned, that is more up our alley adjacent to our skill set of prospecting, mining, and doing one or more levels of value addition. Clearly, the technology and the scale is very different when it comes to critical minerals as compared to bulk minerals like chrome ore, because here we are talking lakhs of tons. There you may be talking tens of thousands of tons, and in some cases even hundreds of tons, not even thousands of tons. The technology may be different, the scale may be different, but broadly it is adjacent to our skill set with regard to mining and processing of minerals. That is what we are looking at. Secondly, we are looking to participate in some of these critical minerals blocks which are coming up in Odisha and elsewhere in the country. In the past year or so, we have bought tender documents for a few of these blocks to understand the process. We have not really participated in any. Going ahead, we are looking to do that. Beyond that, all that I can say is that we are working very diligently on creating a plan of action as to what we are targeting. I am afraid there is not much details that I will be able to share at this point in time, but hopefully sooner rather than later we will be. We are certainly looking to participate and hopefully sooner rather than later, we will be able to become the preferred bidder for one or more blocks and then throw more light on what our strategy is. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Subhrakant Panda, the MD, for their closing remarks. Thank you very much. I think it is always interesting and fruitful for us to engage with all of you, because we not only get to share our numbers and talk about strategy and talk about what we are doing. But as I think said without fail in every investor call, I think your questions force us to think deeper. You come up with insights which are useful. So thank you very much for taking time out and thank you for your interest in IMFA. What we are committed to is transparently sharing what we are doing, where things are going right, where things might be a little bit off track. But our commitment to transparency, our commitment to focusing on our strengths and operational efficiency to lead to deliver superior performance remains unchanged. We do look forward to continuing to interact with you, not just in these quarterly results calls, but even at other opportunities. We will certainly look to answer your questions to the best of our ability. If anything has got left out that you couldn't ask, or if you think of it later, please do reach out to us, reach out to the IR agency, reach out to Shaunak, and we will certainly do our best to respond to these questions. Thank you once again for your time and your interest. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Limited, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your-