Q1 25/26

Jul 31, 2025

Quarterly report

Summary

Q1 FY26 revenue and margins improved sequentially, with a net debt-free balance sheet and expansion projects progressing. Costs and demand remain exposed to input, forex, geopolitical and seasonal volatility; domestic focus is expected to increase as capacity expands.

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to earnings conference call of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Limited, arranged by Veritas Reputation. At this moment, all participant lines are in the listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press Star and One on your touch tone keypad. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr Aryan Rana from Veritas Reputation. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you, Shubham. Good evening once again, everyone. On behalf of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Limited, I welcome you all to the Q1 FY 2026 earning conference call. We appreciate your time and interest in joining us today to discuss the company's financial performance for the quarter ended June 30, 2025. Following the opening remarks by our management, we will open the floor for a Q&A session. Kindly keep your questions concise and relevant to allow broader participation. IMFA, India's leading fully integrated producer of ferro alloys, has demonstrated significant improvement and resilience in Q1 FY 2026 despite ongoing market challenges. This performance underscores the company's focus on operational excellence, disciplined execution, and long-term value creation. The financial results and investor presentations are available on our website and have been filed with the stock exchanges for reference. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of the statements made in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature. These are based on the company's current expectations and are based on subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially. Joining us on today's call are, and I welcome Mr. Bijayananda Mohapatra, Whole-time Director and Chief Operating Officer of the company. Mr. Saunak Gupta, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Binoy Agarwalla, Head, Power Business Unit. Mr. Sandeep B Narade, Head, Mining Business Unit. Mr. Suresh Chigurupalli, Head, Ferro Alloys Business Unit. And Mr. M. Venkatesh, Head of Sales and Marketing for the ferro alloys business unit. With that, I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Saunak Gupta, our Chief Financial Officer for the update on financial performance and overview. Over to you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Aryan. Good afternoon, everyone. I welcome all of you to IMFA's Q1 FY 2026 earning call, and I thank all of you for joining the call. The highlights of quarter one FY 2026 results were our revenue and margins have sequentially improved over the previous quarter, primarily driven by the ferrochrome price pickup along with our cost optimization and operational efficiency improvement initiatives. Our greenfield ferrochrome expansion project in Kalinganagar is on track with our execution plan. Simultaneously, the underground Sukinda mine expansion is progressing as per our schedule. The construction work in our 120 KLD ethanol project in Therubali has also commenced in Q1, and we are on track to commission the plant by Q4 FY 2026. Our financial position as on June 2025 end continues to be robust with net debt-free balance sheet. Our focus will continue to be on operational efficiency improvement, further cost optimization, and closely monitoring the capex expansion, build on the company's financial strength and integrated business model. I will keep it short. I thank you once again for your valuable time. We look forward for your questions insights. Over to the moderator to open the floor for question and answers. Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer. To ask a question, you may press Star and 1 on the touch tone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Star and 2. 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 comes from the line of Joe Shaw from Seven Seas. Please go ahead. Binoy, I would like to understand the ratio between renewable energy and captive power, thermal power from our last concall. I understand that 25% renewable power enables us to use 75% thermal power. So 25, 75 ratio, is it a ratio of Government of India or it is a European ratio? No. Actually Renewable power versus thermal. Yes. Actually, as for the guidelines from MoP, each year they have kept some RCO obligation. That is, this year, 2025-2026, they have kept 33.01% of RCO obligation trajectory. Okay. But as for our availability of thermal power plant and as for our requirement of RE renewable, that is the ratio for 75-25. There is no guidelines for 75-25. Right. Okay. Now, ferrochrome produced by using this kind of power mix, is it called just a green ferrochrome or that has to be produced by totally renewable power? So green ferrochrome, what is the definition? How it is produced? Suppose my ferrochrome production power requirement is 100 megawatts. I am just giving you an example. Sure. Out of which 25% is renewable and 75% is thermal. Then your 25% is your green product. You have used 25% of renewable energy for your product. Right. Your 25% will be accounted for your green product, not 100%. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Gautam Rajesh from Everflow Partners. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions. My first question was, in terms of cost of production, how does our production cost compare with global peers in China, South Africa, and I believe Kazakhstan as well? So how would our cost of production compare amongst these three countries and the peers there? Suresh, you will take. Yeah. So you are asking about our price compared to the other countries? Yes. Like China and Europe. We are better compared to China and many countries. Only some few countries which are faring better than us, like Kazakhstan, that is producing at a lower price than us. What about South Africa? South Africa price is also high because of their present problem of power prices. They are facing Because of the Eskom, that thing, right? Electricity charges are hiked by around, in the last two decades, it is around 9%-15%. Recently they have hiked by 12.5%. Also availability of the power is a problem there. That is the main reason for the cost competitiveness problem of South Africa. Can you give a rough percentage, how much more cheaper are we compared to China? How much more expensive is Kazakhstan compared to us? Is there a rough percentage you can give us? At present, I cannot be able to give the right picture, but we are better compared to other countries, except Kazakh and a few more Asian countries. Turkey is also a little bit better compared to our prices. Would these better be by single digits or double digits, sir? Single digits. I do not think we will be in a position because of the volatility in the market and the price, the changes as of the Forex. Geopolitical situation may not be having the current situation. I think that exactness we are not maintaining. Understood. My next question was, once the new capacity comes on board, how would this change the current cost of production? Once our capacity comes into, means you are saying Kalinganagar project? Yes. When the Kalinganagar project comes into operations, the first one is in June 2026 year, and September 2026 is the second one when it gets operational. Initially, obviously, there will be the teething issues which may come in operational. It will take time to fully get scaled up. But at the full scaled-up level, the cost will be what we expect, other than the inflationary matter. It will be more or less similar to the current level, what we are maintaining. Duly adjusted with whatever is inflation. Inflation. We cannot comment much on something which will happen after one and a half years. In the current political situation. My understanding was these activities are more equity. Would we have more operating leverage or efficiency here, so would we see improvement in cost of production for that? That, Suresh, if you can add on. The cost of the production will be in the similar line. Only the logistic advantage we may get at Kalinganagar. Otherwise, the efficiency and the operation parameters will be the similar in line. Is there a quantum you can give me for logistic advantage by reason? It will be slightly. At this moment, we cannot tell those Understood. prices yet. Understood. And sir, are we significantly more cheaper than China or just by a hairline? Yes, substantially, we are at a better price. We are picking the best. Substantial. At least by double digits then. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Before we move to the next question, we would like to remind participants you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Pranav Jain from Agiles Capital and Finance. Go ahead. Hi, how are you? Congratulations for the Q1 numbers. It is great to see the company come back up with great numbers. My first question is, sir, can you tell us the production numbers for this quarter? On the production side, overall. Just a minute. I will just tell you the numbers. Yes. It is, ferrochrome is 65,929 metric ton, and chromite ore is 103,780 metric ton. And sir, what will be our EBITDA cost for this quarter? It is around INR 7,705. Can you give the breakup of it as well? These are a bit of, I will say, strategic in nature. But primarily if you see our overall The costs are in line with whatever marginally it has increased from last quarter by about INR 500, primarily driven by a little bit of higher chrome ore cost and to some extent the repair and maintenance. We had a planned repair and maintenance so that there is a marginal These are the two major costs. There has been a slight increase. Otherwise, it is in line with the overall cost structure of ours. Got it. Sir, looking at your FY 2025 annual report, I was seeing, so in the cost of materials notes. So what does the purchasing number include? Is it met coke or is it something else? Primarily met coke. Okay. Primarily met coke and a little bit of binders like molasses and all. Got it. Lastly, just a clarification from my end. In the previous phone call, it was mentioned that the cost of chromite ore was INR 7,500 per ton. Is it per ton of ferrochrome or per ton of chromite ore raised? It is basically the total chromite ore landed to us. So that we multiply by 2.35 to get the per ton of ferrochrome raised, right? Yeah. Approximately it is about 2.35 to 2.38. It varies. Got it. Okay. That's all from my end. Thanks a lot, and all the best. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Madhur Chaturvedi from MII. Please go ahead. Hello, everyone. Good evening. Congratulations, sir, on a good quarter in a difficult environment, but exceptionally done, sir. Just one question, sir, just to clarify how much ore did we raise this quarter, sir? Sandeep, you can just- Yeah. Verify that out. Yeah. In Q1 we have raised about 104,000 tons of ore. 104,000 ton. And sir, how would that compare to Q1 last year? It was- Last quarter, sir. Last quarter. Q4 or Q1 of last FY? Sir, either one, whichever number you are ready with. It was about 220,000. Got it. This is mostly attributable to the monsoon? It is attributable to two, three things. Monsoon is the number one because this year monsoon is almost three weeks earlier. Yeah. Generally, it comes on 15th of June, but it started in the last week of May. Also, we are having enough stock at our plants and also mine. So about more than four months stock at plants and more than two months stock at mines. That is the one. Got it. Yeah. Got it. This is an anticipation of the Kalinganagar expansion coming on next year. Yeah. We will ramp up our production as per requirement from Q3 and in Q3. Got it, sir. Thank you, sir. All from my end. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vinesh Kariwal, Xponent Tribe. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I wanted to understand the domestic capacity on the ferrochrome and the chrome ore side. If you could give an overview to us, it would be very helpful. Because as per my understanding, we would be one of the largest private chrome ore miners in the country. Because even Tata has closed one of their Sukinda mines, and they have submitted the document for giving up the Sukinda mine. Could you please explain us how is the domestic scenario playing currently? Suresh, you will take that. Yes. You are talking about the domestic capacity. Last year it is around 1.325 million tons. Most of the smelters are non-operational. Now also the figure will be less than that. We are forecasting the production levels in this year will be less. So the capacity utilization is less in this year. The similar kind of figures will come around 1.25 million to 1.3 million tons. Sir, this you are talking about the ferrochrome or the- Ferrochrome. Yeah. Ferrochrome. Chromite ore is around 3.3 million ton production per annum. And sir, who would be the biggest chromite ore miner in the country? Let's say, if you talk about the private player, would we be the biggest chromite ore miner private player in the country? Yes. Sure, sir. Sure. And the public player who is the biggest is the Odisha Mining Corporation. Yes. Odisha Mining Corporation. Yeah. Sir, how much chrome ore do they produce in a year? OMC figures, at present I do not have. But they are published in the SteelMint. You can see those figures. Okay. Sir, my second question was on the line of if you could give us an understanding of the value-added products, like the products we do. Do we do any value-added products like a few players are talking about low silicon ferrochrome, which is used in special steel. Are there any value-added products in our product mix? Yeah. We have started to produce these niche products from the month of January. We are producing low silicon, low phosphorus products with high chromium alloy. Okay, sir. Sir, could you give us a percentage of the total production? How much we are doing this? How much we are A very small amount we are producing. Around 15,000 of production we are making for this niche segment. Thank you, sir. It is around 5% to 6% of our total capacity. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Diksha from Molecule Ventures. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. Am I audible? Yeah. Sir, I just wanted to know what was the cost of production for Q1 for the quarter. EBITDA cost is about INR 77,500 for the quarter. Okay. Our power cost for current quarter? The power cost. Binoy, you will take it? Power cost is INR 5.27. Total cost. Versus for Q1 FY 2025? Q1 2025 it was INR 4.97 paisa. Okay. If you could give a breakup of coal and coke cost for the current quarter. You wanted to know the coal cost? Yeah. Of Q1 FY 2026? For that, yeah. That is coal cost is INR 2.68 paisa. And so- So more or less it is in line with our cost. So it is more or less in the range of around 0.7, 0.68. So the main thing which is that our variable cost is INR 4 paisa, and total cost is INR 5.27 paisa for the quarter. Okay. And sir, I just want to know what is our current cost of raising ore and how it is expected to change when we transition to underground mining for both our mines. So I wanted to understand how it will add up in our operating cost. Sandip, you will take this? Right now our raising cost is about INR 3,000 together of both the mines, and definitely it will increase when we go fully underground. As of now, I cannot give the exact number of what will be the cost there, but it will increase. Any percentage that you can mention? No, actually, it depends upon the type of mine we will be doing, and there are many things that we are not sure of. That is why I cannot say the exact number. Okay, sure. Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all Just to add, the whole expansion plan for the mines will continue to over four to five years. Okay. So at this point, predicting the overall final cost for raising will be a bit of a challenge. So that's what Sandip was mentioning. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, if you wish to ask questions, you may press star and one. The next question comes from the line of Jainam Madreksha from KC Capital. Please go ahead. Hello. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. My question was on the line of last four, five years, we have seen the EBITDA per ton going up massively from the previous historical averages. Is it just because of the realization growth or we had some operating leverage as well? On top of that, if it was an operating leverage thing, on what line items are we getting the operating leverage? Basically, if we see for the last one year, our EBITDA cost has remained in the range of around INR 7,500 only, plus minus INR 500. Primarily, over the year, as you know, the input cost to a larger extent, the met coke cost has to a larger extent reduced. But at the same time, some of the other operational cost has also to some extent gone up. But we continue to maintain a lot of cost efficiencies, specifically if you see our power cost. Power cost, we have done a lot of operating efficiencies, including our various operation costs related to the ferrochrome production. There also, we have spent a lot of initiatives to improve our operating efficiency. It is a mixture of our input cost to some extent coming down, driven by the cost optimization efficiencies that we have done. But at the same time, even for the imports, the met coke imports, there is exposure to the Forex fluctuation. You would have seen that for a few years from around 78 level, currencies have gone up to 87 levels. That also has, to some extent, impact on the overall cost. There are multiple factors, but more or less, we keep a very close monitor of our cost, alternative cost opportunities, as well as the operating efficiencies to keep the overall cost of EBITDA to around INR 7,700. Okay. If, let's say in future, met coke prices go up, are we going to go back to earlier EBITDA per ton levels or we would be maintaining this level? See, it will be very difficult to say because I say it's a factor of many other costs, not just the met coke cost, coal cost, and all. Overall, the impact can be only measured after we see what is the trend coming on in all the input costs. So it's very difficult to predict for the future. We have seen a stability in the cost structure. We've seen for the last two quarters, and this quarter also, we maintained our cost around INR 7,700. Means it's been INR 7,700 to INR 7,800, INR 7,900. That, we are expecting currently also the cost to remain in this level. But with the current geopolitical volatility, it is very difficult to predict anything for the future. Understood. Just another question on the industry perspective. How are we seeing the Chinese ferrochrome producers? Are any new capacities coming up or have they just cut down the production levels? We know the production levels are down, but are there any plans in future for new capacities? Also, how is the stainless steel supply demand over there? Because that would be the end part that would be driving the pricing over there. So what is the scenario over there? I will just give it to Mr. Venkatesh to give his insights on that. Yes, thank you. Going into China, basically, we are not hearing any more big new capacities in ferrochrome coming up. As far as our knowledge goes, nothing is going to come up in recent times. Going back to the stainless steel industry, in fact, all industries, like Mr. Saunak said, there is a geopolitical uncertainties. There are so many talks of tariffs, which is keeping the entire industry on tenterhooks. So currently, the demand also for stainless steel is weak, and traditionally, if you look at this quarter, which is a monsoon month, both in China and in India, where the demand comes down a little bit, and also in Europe there is a summer vacation. So from the tariff situation, looking at the economies of various countries on tenterhooks. So the demand or the downstream demand of stainless steel is quite challenging at this moment. Okay, understood. But how is the supply demand currently? Are we seeing too much oversupply in China market? I will just put it in another way to answer your question. Many of us have read that there has been a lot of cutbacks in production in South Africa. I am talking of ferrochrome production. We see a little bit of reduction of ferrochrome production even in India. When we see these cutbacks, and like I said, the lower downstream demand for stainless steel. These have kind of countered each other. Otherwise, if the demand was good and there were cutbacks, obviously the prices would have jumped. So this cutback in demand and the weakness in downstream demand have kind of balanced the industry as of now. Understood. On last part, ex-China, there are no new capacities coming in. Is it the case that China would be taking in all the ferrochrome for captive use only, or they would be exporting their ferrochrome as well? As far as China government policy goes, they restrict the exports. There is an export tax on ferrochrome. Their idea is to be kind of self-sufficient or have ferrochrome capacities. The purpose of the government is to discourage exports. There is a 40% export duty on ferrochrome in China. There is no question of any ferrochrome being exported out of China. Okay, understood, sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Joe Shaw from Seven Seas. Please go ahead. Yeah. Venkatesh, now I think my question you will be able to answer better way. Now, for the first time in history of South Africa, Glencore and Samancor, they have asked South African government to levy $100 per ton export tax on chrome ore export. This has happened for the first time. It will help South African government to raise revenue. Very important, significant, $3 billion-$4 billion, which is very important for them. Now this, it will lead to the higher cost of a portion for China by, say, INR 20,000 per ton of ferrochrome. Then all the prices of ferrochrome everywhere will go up, and it would be a very good windfall for India. So now, what is your take about this export tax in South Africa, this $100 suggested by Glencore and Samancor? Although this Minerals Council, they were habit of opposing this, and South African government is not listening to those Minerals Council's things. Because those people, they just want to make money from export of ore without doing any value addition. So now I want your valued views, please. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much for asking that question. I think this was also addressed by our MD during the AGM. Yes. It is the same view as we had heard of this imposition or the planned imposition of export duty around 5 years back, I think it was just before COVID. And somehow it fizzled out. On a plain basis, yes, if there is an export tax, cost will go up and all that what you said is true. But let us wait and see actually what the numbers translate. Yes. As you know, and you have rightly said, there is a lot of dependency on South African ore in China. Most of the ore comes in from South Africa. Let's wait and see. It will be too early to speculate right now what is going to be that impact, because we are not just talking of South African government. The Chinese also have a lot of investments in South Africa. You must have heard about that. We don't know exactly what kind of pressures would come on a governmental level also. Let's wait for the concrete announcement, and then I think, let's take it forward from there. Mr. Venkatesh, my point is, for the first time, not even during COVID time also, this Glencore and Samancor came out with this proposal. This is first time these two giant companies in South Africa, they've come out with this proposal to put export tax. As you know, they are heavyweight in South Africa. And South African government, as we know in the past also, they've passed a resolution to impose a tax on this ferrochrome, this chrome ore export. Now, this is first time this major chrome ore company, they've come out with this suggestion to impose tax. Then it makes big difference between situation in the past and situation at present. My take is, now South Africa is inclined more towards the imposing of tax. And that would change the whole dynamics of ferrochrome price in India and internationally. Okay. We will have to wait for that, but it should not take more than six months time. This is my take. I agree to the change in dynamic, but let us both wait for the Sure announcement to be made. Sure. Yeah. Definitely. Sandeep, I have some questions for you. Yes. Sandip Narade. Yes. Now, number one, I am confused. This quarter Q1 FY 2026 Yes this chrome ore raising has gone down by 50% to about, say, 1.03 lakh tonnes. If you compare it with Q1 of FY 2025 monsoon, same area. In FY 2025 it was 2.02 lakh tonnes, and Q4 FY 2025 it was 2.20 lakh tonnes. Yes This time monsoon is around three weeks early, but it cannot deduct into 50% reduction in the chrome ore raising. What is the main reason for this drastic That is what I am saying. Yes. Actually, in Q4 of last year, we have produced more than our budget. Right. We build the stock like more than four months stock in the plants and more than two months stock in the mines. Right. Right. In the last year, if you will see, the monsoon was quite late. It was not on 15th of June, it was later. This year monsoon started almost by the end of third week. Okay in May itself. Okay. So that was the major reason. Whatever we are producing and dispatching to the plants is for the requirement of the plants and as for our storage capacity in the plant. Sure. We are having that capacity right now, and I said that we will ramp up the production in Q3 and Q4. Sure. Because from our part, we are capable enough to ramp up the production. Sure. Now, one more question. We have been discussing about the critical minerals, the exploration of critical minerals. I want to understand it in more details. The Sukinda Valley, our mining area, is said to have a lot of critical minerals as per the geological survey. Now, in case IMFA wants to export these critical minerals in our own mining area, do we have to take permission of Odisha government, or we can export on our own? And number two- No. Yes. In Sukinda Valley, there is nothing like the presence of critical minerals. Okay. There may be some previous studies like for nickel, and that number is quite very low in percentage. Okay. Which is not manageable also. Okay. And if there is presence of the critical mineral in our own lease, even then we will have to take the permission. Okay. Exploration we can do without taking the permission, but after that, means mining and all those things, we will have to take the permission because our lease is for mining of chromite ore. Sure. I understand. And second thing, suppose the Odisha Sir, I must interrupt. Yes. Can I request you that you return to the question? Okay. No problem. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, before we move towards the next question, I would like to remind participants you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Naman Bhansali from Nine Rivers Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have one question that in the annual report you have mentioned that incrementally 40% of the capacity that is planned would be targeted towards the domestic player consumption. Could you help us understand the dynamics of the stainless steel market in India in terms of the current demand-supply situations, and how much the stainless steel market is growing at in terms of the demand requirement? I am asking this given that our business mix is currently almost 90% export and that can shift towards 70%-75% export as this incremental 40% is used for domestic consumption. How should we think about the impact on realizations or the EBITDA margins going forward? I think, Mr. Venkatesh, you can take this. Yeah, I will take it. I will try to address your question. Stainless steel in India is growing at a healthy rate of around 6% on CAGR growth. What we are witnessing is there is a slight reduction in ferrochrome production in India and there is a good domestic requirement. So our focus going ahead with the expansion is to focus on the domestic market and cater to the domestic market. Of course, the exports will continue. Your second question was pertaining to, I think, the realization part. Realization, yeah. Yeah, that was the realization. See, whether you look at domestic or export, there is a slight lead or a lag, but finally both settle down at similar price levels. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Akhilesh B from An Individual Investor. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I have a few questions. First one was, you mentioned that 5%-6% of our sale is in the value-added product category. So is there scope to increase this percentage? And what is the difference in realization compared to the regular side and consequent impact on EBITDA margin? These are higher margin products. No, we could not hear you properly. There was some disturbances. If you can repeat your questions once more. Am I clear now, sir? Now you're clear. Sir, I was saying in a previous answer you mentioned that 5%-6% of the total sales can be considered as value-added products. I wanted to know, can this number increase as a percentage of our sales? What is the kind of premium on realization we get for such products, assuming these are higher margin products compared to a regular trade? Okay. I can take this. I will take this. Do you want to take this? Anyone. Mr. Venkatesh can also. Okay. When you look at what we call the niche grade, as Mr. Suresh Babu explained, the market itself is limited and there are already entrenched players. Going up above 5% would be kind of difficult at this stage. We are still exploring if we can go up. This product has various categories, so the premium could range all the way from INR 4,000 a ton till about INR 20,000 a ton. Okay. And sir, second thing was you mentioned that in the last five years we have made a lot of progress on cost efficiency, process efficiency. Would like to know where you think we are in this journey, whether there are more gains that are possible to be had on the cost side, on the internal side. I am not talking about met coke price and coal price, et cetera, which are outside your control. But within the company, efficiency-wise, do you have certain targets to further improve or do you think that we are pretty efficient right now and then no more gains are possible on this one? You are talking of the cost efficiency? Again, we could not get your question. Just if you can Yeah, you had mentioned that our EBITDA per ton has been going up also because we have done some cost efficiency internally in our company. I wanted to know whether there is more scope for more efficiency in our internal operations for further gains in EBITDA. Yes. There are more scope. We are just evaluating it out internally, and that is a continuous process for us. All the areas related to the conversion process from chrome to ferrochrome, the whole chain, we evaluating now on individual basis. Last financial year, we implemented the ERP Oracle Fusion also in our system. That is a very high-end ERP system where we can also get lot of visibility. And that also through digital operation efficiency improvement, further improvement initiatives are being taken to see whatever scope we have from the cost optimization and improving on the operationality. That is a continuous process which I said in the beginning of the initial statement, and that is also helping us in driving. There are a lot of actions we are now focusing on ourself more cost efficient when the overall in the market price actually drops. It actually we will see that our margins have been better off compared to our peers. That is the advantage we are having. Yeah. From your position, sir, can you see 1%-2% point possibility through efficiency gains in the coming years? Or if you can quantify what kind of potential you see in these activities. In this, yes, we can. We are trying to identify currently how much we can improve upon, and that's the main reason if you see that overall we have maintained our cost quite efficient within that INR 77,500. As I said, we do not actually make too much estimation beyond one or two quarters. It will be very difficult to say that how much will be the improvement one year or two years down the line. But definitely we are focused on that way, and that is actually a lot of initiatives have been taken, and we are expecting a lot of positives from that. Currently, it will be very difficult to say whether it will be 1% or 2% or more or less. But definitely a continuous mechanism has been put in to ensure that we make a concerted effort to improve our operating efficiency and find out alternative, I would say, opportunities in our input cost to keep our costs down. And sir, one last question. We are shifting from open cast completely to underground mining in Sukinda. What was the trigger to do this? Because it's going to cost more than it did in open cast. Was this some regulatory reason that we had to shift, or what was the reason to completely phase out open cast and get into underground? Sure. That anyway is the capacity, but I will. Yeah. I will. Basically, we do the open cast mining when it is possible to do it technically. It depends upon the depth of the ore body. It depends upon the ore from which depth we can get. That is the basic reason. We have done the open cast mining till now in Band One, and then we started backfilling now in Band Two. We are doing the open cast mining. That will be possible for next four years, four to five years. After that, we have to go for underground only. Otherwise, there will be no ore available for our plants. That is the basic reason. It is a totally technical mining point of view. We have to go for underground. Okay. Understood. Yeah. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Manan Mandur from Walmart PMS. Please go ahead. Thank you so much for the opportunity. My first question is- Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Mandur, your voice is very low. Hello, can you hear me? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. So the first question, what is the cost of chromite ore and coke per ton in this quarter? Okay. This one you are trying to see on this. So we had already mentioned that the chromite ore cost is approximately around INR 8,400 for the quarter. Coke cost, sir? Coke, anyway, we had mentioned that in our total 77,000 cost, after this approximately coming out to approximately 14,500. 14,500. Sir, from Q1 till time, are we seeing that coke cost has increased or it has decreased? No, overall market cost has gone down. Overall in our EBITDA cost, it has some increase, yes. Okay. Currently, the coke cost would be, you are saying, less than INR 14,500. When? In future? Like the current prices and More or less, the prices, whatever it is, we have to guard the bit of coming in the similar range. At least for this quarter, we expect the prices, but again, there is a lot of forex volatility is there. We have to see on the how the landed cost ends of this quarter do it. But currently, the met cost is a little bit similar. And the last question, sir. Other income. In that institute, total of INR 120. Pardon? Out of the total INR 21 crores of other income, is the INR 7 crores of Utkal also included? Yes. So the surplus which we or the profit from Utkal Coal, that is also there. Currently, we are having about INR 910 crores of total amount of surplus, including internal accruals. So the return of the investment, that adds up to that amount, which is approximately INR 21 crores. Okay. Thank you so much. That is just one question. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Joe Shaw from Seven Seas. Please go ahead. Yeah. To begin, I think whatever is happening with Tata Steel is very important for us. Number one, they surrendered this very important Sukinda mine, and they got a notice of INR 1,902 crore from Odisha government. To pay the penalty for the raising of less ore. They are continuing with the Misrimal and Monty mine, where also they have to pay same 95% premium. Tata Steel entirely is becoming unviable, and I understand that the ferrochrome portion has gone down from 50,000 tons per month to just 15,000 tons, and that also they are thinking of getting out of ferrochrome business. That will give us very good opportunity in two ways. Number one, we will get some asset type opportunities. Our management has been saying that we look over to the inorganic growth. And number two, as such inorganic growth opportunity we will get. And number two, is the Indian domestic market when it is improving, it has started improving and becoming bigger. IMFA will be probably the only supplier in India. Maybe we will be getting more of a price premium in Indian market. That also we are yet to see. I would like to know your views on this. Vijayananda, you. Yeah. One thing that Sukinda mines, Tata is surrendering. That is the only one thing that they cannot go for further open cast mining. They have to go for underground. That is why they are surrendering. Okay. We cannot go for that one. Okay? Right. The second one, they are coming out for this one. We do not know. For the timing, we do not know. If any opportunity comes, we will see. That we will report. They have reduced the ferrochrome portion from 50,000 tons to just 15,000 tons. 35,000 tons per month, they have reduced. That is giving us good strength to IMFA. Yes. That's what. Whatever our capacity is there, we are utilizing the maximum. Sure. We are adding the Kalinganagar, but Kalinganagar will take time. Yes Suresh Babu and Venkatesh told that we are focusing for Indian market. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. The last question comes from the line of Vinit from Plus9. Please go ahead. One second please. Hello, Mr. Thakur. Your line is unmuted. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, could you throw some light on the strategic rationale behind IMFA's acquisition of Metallix Aviation, and how do you see it complementing all your existing business operations? So, on the Metallix Aviations, which is a 100% subsidiary which we have opened up, it is basically IMFA has certain helicopters, aircrafts, which is primarily used for its own business purposes, to go to the mines or the Therubali plant and all. So, to make the balance sheet, the core assets are to be kept in the IMFA. The ones which are not directly into the IMFA business, we are just restructuring it and moving it to the separate company. So that is the overall rationale behind that. The company- Okay, sir. Thank you, sir. Got it, sir. Thank you so much. Now we are waiting for the DGCA. We have made the applications to DGCA. It takes about six months to one year to get the final approval to move the assets. Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vinayak Kariwal from Xponent Tribe. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I wanted to understand, we have a stainless steel capacity in the domestic market of 7.5 million to 8 million tons. Let's say if 60%-70% of that is utilized, so 5 million tons of stainless steel is being produced in the country every year. I just wanted to understand, do we have enough ferrochrome capacity in the country, so that we could fulfill the stainless steel production demand? How much of this capacity is actually being used in the domestic market versus being exported? I think, Venkatesh, you will take this call. Yeah, sure. You are right, in terms of the capacity, stainless steel capacity in India, about 7 million tons. And the actual production is around 4 million tons. The requirement of ferrochrome would also depend on the scrap usage by these stainless steel mills. When you really look at that, you just address it in a different manner when you look at India's ferrochrome production, like Mr. Suresh Babu had mentioned little earlier, hovering at around 1.3 million tons. And roughly about half of the ferrochrome is consumed domestically and half is exported. In case the stainless steel capacity utilization improves, there is a strong demand for stainless steel, obviously, then what you see is the exports coming down and more and more ferrochrome gets consumed domestically. To address it in another manner is we have the capacity to meet the requirements of the domestic stainless steel manufacturers. That is what my question is. Because looking at the dynamics, I think we have a lot of ferrochrome being imported in the country for fulfilling our stainless steel production. So our capacity, which is 19% being exported. In that dynamics, I guess we have a lot bigger opportunity on the domestic side if we see going further. Because also one of the participants mentioned, lots of ferrochrome capacities are being closed down in the country, and we being the largest producer of chromite ore, and also one of the largest in ferrochrome. How do you see the domestic and export share going forward, like 2, 3 years down the line? Yeah. To address, there was one first point which you made that ferrochrome getting imported into the country. There is very limited ferrochrome which gets imported into our country. There could be certain grades of ferrochrome which may come in, depending on the requirement for that manufacturing, that grade of stainless steel. There could be some imports coming in, but it is no big imports which come in. And to address the second question, we have already addressed it, saying that once the expansion comes up, our focus will be more on the domestic market. I think that addresses your question. Could you give a share of revenue, if you have in mind where could the dynamics go from there? It is a very evolving and dynamic market. Once let the expansion come in, let's do the domestic, and then we can really work out on the share of export versus domestic. But for sure, the direction is going to be more domestic, less of export as far as the expansion comes. So overall, when we look at a ratio of 90-10, that's going to change drastically. Sure. And sir, one last question on the prices of chromite ore raised. I was tracking, and the last quarter, the chromite ore prices which we mentioned were INR 7,500. And this month we are mentioning it as INR 8,400. So how does this fluctuation comes in the chromite ore price? Because that is a captive thing which we have. Actually, on the chromite ore price, compared to the last quarter and this quarter, as we said, due to the monsoon and early coming of the monsoon, the production was lower. But there were some semi-variable costs also in that, which is usually loaded to the overall cost. So that's why the average cost for the quarter has slightly increased. But one should always look into the total annualized value of the chromite ore prices to get an overall sense of how the price is. So you are saying that they are ranged down normally, and they do not fluctuate much because of any other factor which we do not know. No, chrome ore actually would be primarily driven by the average on the production cost and whatever is our declining cost, which we have. All those excesses taken into account. But more or less, it remains in line with what is the total spend we have done and what is the average production we have got from the quarter. So if the production is slightly lower, then obviously the average cost tends to be slightly higher. If the production is higher, like in quarter four, the production was quite high, so the costs were slightly lower. But more or less, it is in the range of INR 8,000-INR 9,000. In the last one year, if you have noticed. Sure. Thanks for the clarification. That helps a lot. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from line of Gautam Rajesh from Everflow Partners. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Sir, one follow-up question. Tata is cutting down their Understood. And sir, also that I just want to clarify, India as a country do not import any ferrochrome, right? We import minimal. If there are certain special grades of stainless steel if somebody requires, and India has a particular standard grade of ferrochrome being manufactured, then there is some imports. Understood. Not like a regular imports, what I mean to say. Okay. Understood. Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Abhishek Savant from Veritas Reputation. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Before Abhishek, I just want to thank all of you who have congratulated our results. I also want to thank all of you for your very insightful questions and participating today. Thanks for it, and over to Abhishek. Yes. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who joined us today in participating in the discussion. We appreciate your questions and continued interest in IMFA. As always, we remain committed to transparent communication and delivering long-term value to all our stakeholders. In closing, on behalf of the board of directors and management, we thank you all for your participation in this call today. IMFA remains focused on operational excellence, financial prudence and long-term value creation. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to us. Look forward to engaging with you again in our future updates. Have a good evening and stay safe. Thank you. On behalf of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys and Veritas Reputation, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you. Thank you