Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the RHI Magnesita India Limited Q3 and 9-month FY2025 earnings conference call. 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 the call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Parmod Sagar, Chairman, Managing Director, and Chief Executive Officer from RHI Magnesita India Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to RHI Magnesita India's Q3 and 9-month FY2025 earnings call. Thank you for joining us today. This quarter marks a significant milestone for RHI Magnesita India, as we crossed INR 1,000 crores in quarterly revenue for the first time. This achievement is a testament to our disciplined execution, strong marketing position, and continued strategic expansion. We are delighted with our performance, especially it comes amid tough market conditions, volatility in raw material prices, and increased competition from imports as they continue to pose challenges. We must also remain cautiously optimistic for the short term and remain focused on improving operational efficiency and strengthening cost control to sustain our profitable growth. Before we dive into the details, I would like to briefly touch upon the evolving global and industrial landscape impacting the steel and cement industry at large.
Despite a slow start to 2025 due to elections and off-season monsoons, India's GDP growth is expected at 6%-7%, driven by infrastructure and industrial expansion. Cement demand is projected to grow 4%-5% in financial year 2026. Government planned increase in CapEx by 10% for financial year 2026 on infrastructure spending is expected to boost the demand. India is a net importer of steel, increasing competition for domestic producers. Weaker global demand has led to increased imports of low-cost refractory into India, affecting margins across the industry. Despite this, we have expanded our market share through investment in pricing. In the cement sector, concerns about cement pricing to the end customer continue to pose challenges. Profitability should improve with increased demand and operational cost reduction measures by cement players in the long term. For RHI Magnesita, these factors present both challenges and opportunities.
As a critical supplier of refractory materials to the steel and cement sectors, we are actively addressing raw material security through policy advocacy and sourcing diversification. Our goal of capturing a 40% market share within the next four years remains on track, driven by strategic initiatives in addition to investments in plant modernization and expansion of value-added products. With no additional industry protection in the recent budget, we must remain agile and focus on cost control and operational efficiencies. Looking forward, we remain cautiously optimistic. Our focus on strategic expansion while maintaining financial discipline, vigilant about market headwinds including global demand fluctuations and cost pressures, committed to operational efficiency and cost optimization to sustain margins in the coming quarters. Our priorities remain the same: sustainable growth and better return ratio, and our decision-making will be guided by these principles.
As we navigate this evolving landscape, we remain committed to safety, innovation, sustainability, and strategic growth to reinforce our leadership position. With that, I will now hand over to our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Azim Syed, who will take us through the detailed financial performance of Q3/2025. Yes, Azim.
Thank you, Parmodji. Let me now walk you through our financial performance for Q3/FY2025. I'm pleased to report that revenue from operations for Q3/FY2025 grew 17% quarter on quarter, reaching a record INR 1,011 crores, comparing to INR 867 crores in Q2/FY2025. This strong growth was driven by a 20% increase in shipment. We were able to gain momentum in our top line through reclaiming our market share, delivering one-time cement and iron-making projects, and resumption of production post-customer downtime. Production for Q3/FY2025 stood at 86 kt, maintaining levels consistent with Q2/FY2025. Capacity utilization remained steady at 67%, ensuring that additional market demand was met through plant inventory releases. We focused on disciplined working capital execution and only produced what we needed as per demand. EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 132 crores, reflecting quarter-on-quarter growth of 8% driven by our operational efficiencies.
Despite the margin dilution, even with high raw material costs, our absolute EBITDA growth highlights the strength of our business fundamentals. This was underpinned by our operational efficiencies and expanding market share. As Parmodji mentioned, due to increased competition in the cement sector, even with an increased 7% of shipments, we saw a dilution in our realization rates. Profit after tax increased by 3.5% quarter on quarter to INR 48 crores. Cost optimization measures are helping mitigate some of the impacts. Our working capital intensity improved to 35% versus last quarter, with improvement in DSO, DIO, and DPO. With our dividend payment of INR 51 crores, ECB loan repayment, and with a strong top line, our net debt versus EBITDA remains flat. To summarize, our business fundamentals remain strong.
We will continue to strengthen cost controls to manage margin pressure, optimize working capital, maintain financial discipline, drive profitable growth through strategic market expansion. To re-emphasize on what Parmodji said, sustainable growth and better returns ratio will be our guiding principles for our decision-making. With that, we conclude our financial review and now open the floor for questions from analysts and investors. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask questions, please press star and one. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question at this time, please press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. The first question is from Rajesh Majumdar from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good afternoon, sir. And congratulations on a decent set of numbers in a difficult quarter, I understand. So I had some questions on the pricing and the margins. So if you see, realizations have been falling constantly in the last two quarters, and we've seen an increase in the price of raw materials like chromite, sand, and alumina. So have we got a price increase finally on these products? That was the first question.
Rajesh ji, thank you for your question, and thanks for your compliments. Yes, the situation, as you rightly said, is very volatile, very challenging atmosphere. As a matter of fact, we have not been able to get price increases from most of the customers. And I'm sorry to say, even our peers, our competition, nobody is seriously pushing for price increases. I don't know why. So we are leading from the front because we are the leader in the market. So we are reaching out to our customers volatilely to get price increases. But every time we are getting the answer, nobody else is asking for price increase. So this put us in a spot, but we will keep on pushing for price increases, and I hope we will get some success as well.
So as of now, even on alumina refractory, there is no price increase in the fourth quarter?
As of now, no.
But raw material prices have fallen. So I was asking a question on alumina or any other RM. Do we have inventories? Because alumina went to $800, and now it's $500. So how do we look at the price change in alumina, reflecting on our margins going forward?
Rajesh ji, you are talking about feed alumina. Okay. So based on that, aluminum oxide or white fused alumina or tabular alumina, that has reached $1,050, and now it has come back to about $800. But the offer we are getting now, we are already having a high-value inventory, about 2.5-3 months coverage. And now, when we will place order, it will probably take three to three and a half months to reach the material. Placing order, then they will take their manufacturing time, then sea freight, etc., etc. So there is always a lag of about three to three and a half months before actually the low cost or high cost materials start impacting you adversely.
Right. And so in terms of margins, we are 12%-13%, whatever, and your long term is 15%. So will we see it in, what, next year, that margin coming back, or it will take more time than that?
Yeah, I said in the morning also with my interaction with CNBC that second quarter onwards, FY2026, we should go back to the market guideline, which we keep on telling about 15% margin.
From 2Q onwards. Okay. But in the meantime, if you are able to get a price increase, then probably we will see it faster, right?
Yeah, definitely. It will be upside take.
Yeah, and so on the volumes, my question is, on the volume, we had a huge bump up this quarter, so how should we read into the volume? Is there any one-time in it, or what is the stable run rate, like annual run rate of volume we should take in shipments for the company?
Rajesh ji, the thing is, normally, December quarter is the strongest quarter for everyone. Okay. And the third quarter of the current calendar year, which is now January, February, March, is a bit lean period. Why I'm saying so? Because cement is the leanest for this time. Okay. There's no maintenance, no clean and repair, etc., happen in January-February. They start after 15th of March. So this will have a short-term impact, but it averages out in a year. So I would not say we will be able to repeat this INR 1,011 crore in this quarter, but it will not be far away also. We will be decently placed.
And in terms of margins for this quarter, sir, what we have seen that there is some recovery in 3Q. So you were saying that RM prices will be almost similar. So there won't be any margin recovery this quarter also.
Yeah, you are right. I think so.
Sir, last question, if I can. Interest cost has also gone up a little bit. What is the outlook on that?
I can take this. The interest cost is highest purely because of our hedging on the ECB loans. Okay. This is one of the reasons. This is an ECB term loan that we have. This, of course, although we are exposed to the rupee volatility at the moment, we are hedging with the best financial instruments that we can have. But you can imagine it's a three-month hedge normally that we take when we took in September versus December. I think we all know how the rupee had depreciated quite heavily. Yes, we'll continue to hedge at least to minimize the damage.
Okay. But you don't see this worsening further in terms of the hedging losses?
No, no, no. I don't think so. I don't think so.
Yeah. Thank you. One data also. So one more question. Plant-wise utilization data you normally give. Can we have that data?
Normally, as I said, we did 67% total. That's what we did. Let's say RHIM standalone, we were at 72%. DOCL, we were at 63% of the Dalmia IR entity.
63%?
63.
63. And what is the utilization at Hi-Tech?
The Hi-Tech is at 68%. Here, we see a sharp increase as well.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.
I see that, sir.
Before we take the next question, a reminder to participants that you may press star and one to join the question queue. The next question is from Jinal Sheth from Awriga Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. Just wanted an outlook in what you hear from our clients in regards to CapEx, whether they are continuing to do that. Is there any slowdown there? What is it that you're hearing and seeing? It will be good to get your views.
You are talking about our customers, steel and cement, right?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Yeah. So it is a mix of feelings. One of the largest steel manufacturing groups, their CEO put on record that if government will not put anti-dumping duty, it will be very difficult to compete in the market because the Chinese steel is coming at a very, very subsidized rate. So we need to think twice for further CapEx. Whatever is in the pipeline, we will do that, but we need to look for spending of money or not, looking at the government policy. So I keep my fingers crossed. As of now, whatever the project is in pipeline, they will materialize for all the big groups.
And the remaining, I mean, whatever CapEx, whatever is in the pipeline, that continues. But these are just comments coming out. I mean, that could be from a strategy, right, saying that, okay, look, they're wanting government to consider the anti-dumping.
Anti-dumping. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.
Right. But okay, so far so continued. Okay, great. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions, please press star and one. Next question is from Akash Sharma, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have a few questions. My first is related to raw material. I guess our raw material costs have increased slightly. So how do we plan to manage these cost pressures? Are these transferable?
Yeah. As you rightly said, the raw material cost has increased, particularly alumina raw material and chromite, sand, etc. The price has gone up. And now, alumina prices also start declining. We are reaching out to our customers to part with this one, but so far, we are not so successful because no one else is asking for previously for price increases. We keep on pushing, and it has impacted the margins, and we have to live with this for another quarter or so before we really push this part through or the raw material prices start coming down. So it is, I would say, to be very honest, this quarter will remain a very challenging quarter like the previous one.
Okay, so is the increase in raw material cost one of the reasons for declining our EBITDA margins?
Is it one of the reasons? But you see, our absolute EBITDA has gone up by 7%-8% if you talk about in crores, right? So our base is bigger. So those percentage-wise, it looks like we have a 1% less EBITDA this quarter. But if you see last quarter to this quarter, our absolute money-wise, EBITDA has gone up by 7%.
If I may add, another one reason what you see is the mixed impact because we have the cement seasonality. There, basically, we have normally the cement during the peak season, the realization rate drops.
Yes. And this is a more unfortunate situation. Some of our peers, our friends are putting up additional capacity and selling the cement bricks at a margin or cost or even in the loss just to enter into the market and finding the market pricing.
Okay, sir. Sir, on the operational side, how have our repayment of ECB external commercial borrowings impacted our leverage and interest costs?
It has not impacted. Normally, this is an external commercial borrowing that we have done, and because it is with different, not Indian currency, it's in euros that we have taken. This was purely a rupee depreciation that had happened for it. Normally, we do hedging. In fact, we have hedged, actually, with forwards and all, we have minimized the impact of it. But let me also tell you, please look at our finance cost on a nine-month basis. It has actually improved because these hedges have actually protected us under rupee volatility, not only in the last quarter but in the previous two quarters. If you look at a nine-month to nine-month comparison, our percentage of our finance cost has reduced quite considerably.
Okay, sir. And sir, on the inventory side, our inventory levels have slightly decreased or improved, I would say. Are we taking any strategic actions to optimize inventory management given the volatility in raw materials?
Yes. See, we have a very sophisticated process where we kind of look at our customer demand quite closely, and we produce what we need. So for example, we were building up inventory so that we can deliver these cement projects or our iron-making projects that we were supplying to OEM. Now we were able to ship it. So yes, the intention is to continue this close monitoring on all the working capital levers, not just on inventory. But definitely, yes. We want to have a better disciplined working capital investment where we need it and how we need it.
Okay. So, sir, lastly, will this number of days level be consistent from now on, or will this improve further? What should we take it as a sustainable level of days?
What days? Sorry, your voice was not audible.
Sir, what should we assume as a sustainable days level in terms of inventory receivables and payables?
Our long-term ambition, which Parmodji has highlighted, was that we need to operate at 30% of working capital intensity on a long-range basis. This is what we would want to do because India is a very growing market. We need to ensure that we are able to support this growth. With this in mind, we believe that on a long-range basis we always want to be at 30% consistently. We will take some time to get there because, as I'm sure you know, in the latest budget also, which is the right thing from the government, is to protect the MSMEs. They have increased the coverage of the MSME suppliers. This will put some pressure on payables. Most of our customers are doing quite a bit of CapEx investment, as Parmodji was saying earlier. That means we need to also have an absolute focus on receivables.
We will invest on the inventory where we have growth areas, where we see this, where our demand is saying that we need to optimize our capacity utilization. We'll do it like that.
Yeah. So let me add here one thing. We are working on our working capital discipline, but at the same time, we are also working on 4PRO or TRM contracts. So we will be adding maybe two, three more TRM contracts in the coming weeks and months to that need inventory. You are managing the steel plant. You are making the inventory. You are handling the inventory. So sometimes it is a business need to keep the inventory. So we will need to have a right balance. So it is not that it is a supply-based only. We are doing this steel part on our basis, long-term contract with steel plants, and two, three are on the table. If it happens, then probably inventory reduction will not be that easy because we have to cater to those customers 100%.
Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you. Next question is from Mayank Bhandari from Asian Markets Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I just want to understand to what price alumina's inventory is valued at in Q2?
Alumina price?
Q3.
Yeah. Yeah. So about six months back, we were getting these alumina products like white fused alumina, calcined alumina at about $680 CIF. Okay? And it went to $1,050. And now what we are getting offered is about $800. So it is still not going back to the normal level, which was six months back. So it will have not that significant impact on our costing, but it will have a small impact on our costing. And we seriously need to pass on this to our customers, which we will keep on pushing. Okay?
Thank you. So the sequential drop in the gross margin is solely responsible due to this alumina thing?
It is one of the components, not solely on the raw material.
Okay. And sir, we have seen capacity addition by Tata Steel and JSW in the last few quarters. So are we indicating our market share has increased in those two customers?
Yes. It is very evident from our last quarter's shipments and revenue. Yes, sir, as I said earlier many times, when there is a new project, we are the preferred supplier. Out of, say, 100 tons or 70 tons, definitely will come to us. So whenever there is a new addition, we are going to have advantage, and we got this advantage last quarter.
Okay, and sir, I just want to understand one more thing. In terms of nine-month performance, what would be your domestic growth as well as the breakdown between domestic and export nine months?
Export is roughly 9.5%-10% only, and it is very static from last few quarters. In the near future, it will remain like that because of geopolitical situation globally. Europe is almost at 25%-30% lower steel production, and it will further go down in coming days. Okay? To Ukraine and Russia, there are still hardly any shipments to those countries. I don't see it will 90-10, you can say, 10% export and 90% domestic sales.
Okay. And roughly, sir, what would be your total refractory management proportion as of nine months?
Refractory management, we are roughly 32%-33% of our revenue.
35% of our revenue, you can assume for your modeling purposes. YTD number.
Thank you. The next question is from Ravi Purohit from Securities Investment Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Parmodji, hi. Just wanted to have a more strategic long-term question, right? I mean, we've been tracking Orient Refractories and then RHI for more than 10 years now. And I've been shareholders for a fairly long period of time, shareholders for a fairly long period of time. So somewhere in 2022, when we did all these acquisitions and all, there has been a significant dilution that we had done. And there was also a big increase in our overall capital net worth in the business because of the acquisitions, right? Prior to that, for the previous 10-15 years, our ROCEs used to be 45%, 40%-45% pretax ROCEs. And ROEs were like 20% plus, 25% plus.
Now, given the current profit numbers, given the current scale, and compared to what capital employed we have in our business, when do we reasonably estimate to achieve even 15% ROE return on equity? Let's say our net worth is INR 4,000 crores. 15% of that would be around INR 600 crores after tax profit. Is there a visibility, or should we assume that this M&A activity that we did in 2022 has permanently kind of impaired our ability to generate high ROEs?
Purohitji, that's a very important question. Seriously, we are also looking at 15% ROE. Okay? This is our aim as well, but with the product which came along the acquisition, particularly Dalmia's cement plants, etc., it will not be easy, but definitely, our target is to reach there, and we have a lot of discussion internally, and we are working on many areas to improve ROE, but as in the specific subject is talk, so nowadays, I think from last one and a half years, if you remember any talk with you guys, I always talk now about how much cash we are generating, how much is the return ratio. So these are the things we are not only looking at EBITDA, but we are looking at these, and we are working towards that, and I'm sure we will improve, but it will take time to reach to 15%.
But our aim is to reach there along with you.
Just to add a couple of points as it says, our belief in M&A business case has not changed. We believe that it's still a good deal because you can see this growth in some of our growth initiatives. For example, in iron-making, where we are seeing quite a bit of increased revenue that's coming through. It is giving the product portfolio, it's giving the reach, and also the validation with the customer. Just to kind of put a couple of examples, some of the largest iron-making deliveries that we did in Q3 were with the OEM suppliers. Normally, OEM people, they would like to go for preferred names because they don't want to have any failures during startup. So this is also kind of validating our product portfolio that we got with some of our acquisitions as well. So yes, we have a path to go there.
It will be our long-term internal objective for ROE is still at about 15%. We are already improving the profitability in the acquired entities. You are able to see this as well, and also in the market dynamics, nothing has changed, so I think it will improve over a period of time.
So are we referring to 15% post-tax ROE or pre-tax ROE? I mean, see, our competitors, no matter what we say, have actually not diluted their equity for the CapEx that they wanted to do, which effectively means it allowed them to continue reporting reasonably good ROEs, whereas we took the M&A route, right? Now, the thing is we have a INR 4,000 crore net worth, right? 15% after-tax ROE would mean INR 600 crores PAT, which effectively would mean INR 150 crore PAT per quarter, right? We are a one-third of that today, right? So when you say we are.
Yeah. Just to clarify that. And of course, it comes through operational efficiencies, and some of it will also come through plant modernization and realizing our top-line business growth as well. And this will come through some of the initiatives that Pramod already highlighted. This is coming through the improvement in steel production domestically. So this kind of will kind of help us to kind of get this 7% growth in the absolute revenue terms, hopefully in the future, which is what the steel producers are currently forecasting.
Okay. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Pratim Roy from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity again. In the PPT, we have mentioned that there is one-time warranty provision released in Q3, FY2025. So if you can shed some light on this, what is the thing?
Yes, so you are referring to the last quarter provision release. Actually, we had reported this under other income last quarter. So these were some of the in the acquired businesses, we had this warranty that we were able to confidently, after the period of time of the warranty is completed, we were able to release quite comfortably. So this is your product performance warranty that we had provision for earlier post-acquisition. This is basically we had to get the good performance of those products at site, wherein we need to get the certification from the customer saying that it has achieved this contractual performance as well. This has happened post-acquisition with RHI Magnesita. Does that help?
So what is the quantum of that?
Sorry, your voice is not clear. Can you repeat?
So what is the quantum of that particular provision release?
Yes. Yes. This is a one-time release. This is not repeatable.
No, I'm just asking what is the number for that, how much?
That would be around INR 12 crores.
INR 12 crores. Okay. So thank you. And one more question, sir, that last that you just now mentioned that in Q3, we have delivered one of the largest iron-making projects. So is there any such project in our pipeline in the coming days, or what will be the will it be the one-time or we can expect a frequent this kind of projects in the coming days if you can throw some light on this?
Yeah. This is not one-time. This will keep repeating. Only I think mid-January, we got an order of 1,200 TPD in DRI, which is the largest. And the confidence of customers now is so much on our product after one and a half years' performance. We got the biggest order of DRI, biggest TPD. 1,200 TPD is the biggest DRI plant in India. We got that order. Also, pellet order which we got last year, one is under execution, another will start in April or so, so this will also be happening in this financial year, and two, three more projects are in the pipeline. We are very positive about our growth story in iron-making, pellet, and DRI segment.
Yes, sir. Okay. Sir, lastly, just if you get some idea that last quarter or this quarter in Q3, the utilization level of standalone POC that you have mentioned, but just if you compare what is the improvement over Q2?
Actually, in 2Q, I think RHI plant, Dalmia plant, it was 61%. Now it is 63%. And IN plant is almost at the same level. I would say 1% here or there. But I don't have exact number right now with me.
Okay, sir, and Hi-Tech, sir?
Hi-Tech, we keep on adding products, and it is improving day by day. I think 58% or so is how much is it?
That's utilization and demand? We have improved from 56% to 68% quarter on quarter.
56%-68% quarter on quarter.
Okay, sir. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you for the visibility.
My bad. 68% to 56%. Apologies.
Thank you. Next question is from Sahil Rohit Sangvi from Monarch Networth Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello. Am I audible?
Sahil ji, you are very clear.
Parmodji and Azim, many congratulations. It was really good to see the INR 1,000 crore mark and in such challenging times, sir. And this has come with a very good mix of product portfolio also. So really good to see that, sir. Sir, would it be possible to give me the contribution from the iron DRI pellet side in our total revenues in, say, 3Q? A percentage or an absolute number, anything possible?
100%. We basically have YTD of iron-making business close to about 12% of our revenues.
12%. Then any sort of comparable number you would have? What was this last year? Was it really present, or this was very negligible, right?
No, no. It is 1.5 times growth from last year.
One-and-a-half?
Because the business was so small, so it doesn't have a serious impact. But I remember in million euros, I started thinking in euros. So it was EUR 29 million last year. And now it will be something like EUR 45 million or so. So it is one-and-a-half times growth from last year to this year.
Wow, sir. This is really good. So, sir, and in this, the products, the realization is usually, we try to say it is lower than the realization of the steel products, the products going to steel making and flow control. Is the pricing lower than?
Yes. It is a very competitive market. And we have to enter this market with the 2%-3%, even a lower price than the market price for the entry. So we are not doing like our competition. They are doing in cement, 20% lower than our price, and we will try to enter. We are just neck-to-neck, 1%-2% lower than that. And with our brand image, people are giving us orders on that. But having said that, the margins are comparatively lower than steel.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Got it, sir. And now that you have told us that you have a few orders which will come on stream in the next few quarters, so this 12% of the top line, what could that number go in next year, say, FY2026? Or what is your target? Where do you want this number to reach?
On long term, my statement will remain same, 8%-9% in volume growth.
Okay. Even on the iron DRI?
We are increasing the portfolio. We are shipping the base, so 8%-9% is a very decent number when the market will be growing maybe 7% or so, so we want to grow a little more than market.
Got it, sir. Secondly, sir, I must congratulate you on the TRM side. In FY2024, we were at 31%-32% of our revenue. We are at 35% now. And you are looking at adding four more customers. So does that mean we are approaching 40% levels on the TRM contracts?
I don't know whether we will reach 40% with these three, four contracts or maybe 38%, but ultimate target is to reach 40% in very short term.
Got it, sir. Got it.
That's the target to reach. Yeah.
Got it, sir. And thirdly, sir, are we a preferred supplier for Flow Control Refractories into all the large integrated steel plants, or has it changed, sir?
One of our competition, and we are a preferred supplier. In one or two cases, we outperform also. Like last quarter, I said in JSW SMS 4, we got the first robotic solution and slag detection system and ladle shroud handling through robots. So that was a very big breakthrough, and it is substantial business, about INR 95 crore business in next five years' contract. So I don't think now there's a much gap between our competition and us. We are the only two preferred suppliers for flow control. And when it comes to converter lining or furnace lining or RH Degasser, we are the preferred supplier, mostly.
Got it, sir. Got it. And sir, when it comes to these new capacities, say, Tata or JSW, whichever have been commissioned recently, most of our supplies to these new capacities are with a lead, as in before the commissioning happens, all of it is supplied, or is there still some supplies that will happen for these new capacities?
Initially, yes, we need to build up our inventory. And we put this inventory in those plants, and they got delayed for two, three months. So we have to live with that. And then when they start, then we need to replenish these inventories time to time. So this is an ongoing process. And I would say every month we will be adding that inventory into those plants. We are running at a decent level. And I assume if China don't do some spoiler game, we will continue to enjoy this growth.
Got it, sir. And my last question would be, sir, sometimes I think it's been time now that we visited your facility, but your R&D center was working on a few new products also, like taphole sleeves, and some bit of advanced nozzles and all of that. What is our pipeline of new products, and what kind of potential do you see in that?
We are trying to keep on adding new products or products which we are importing from our parent company to India. Now we are working on two, three products for Rajgangpur plant from our global network. And the transfer of technology is in the pipeline. People are coming. People are talking to my R&D team. And probably in the next two, three months' time, it will happen. And then we'll start doing the trial production in those plants. And maybe in six months' time, we will ship everything to India. But having said so, now our local production is about 68%, and import is 32%. It will have an incremental impact. It will go to 70-30, or 72-28. It will not eliminate imports, but gradually we are trying to reduce and bring it to a level of 80%-85% local run rate.
Would you be able to name, sir, these products?
You will not understand this. This is high-end bricks for cement and RH Degasser, and one or two flow control products which we are not at present making in India.
Right, sir. Got it, sir. Good to hear, sir. Wishing you all the best, and many congratulations again, sir.
Thank you, Sahil ji. Thank you very much.
Yeah.
Thank you. Next question is from Jonas Bhutta from Birla Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. I hope I'm audible.
Yes, Jonas ji, you are.
Yeah. Congratulations all on a decent show in a very challenging time. A couple of questions, and I joined the call, so maybe one or two of them may be repetitive.
Jonas ji, the wire seems cracking. Initially, it was okay, but now it is totally cracking. We are not able to hear anything properly.
Is this better now too?
No, I think either you are very close to the mic or what. It is that some.
Clipping sound is coming.
Yeah.
Jonas, if you are on a hands-free, request you to use the handset.
Yeah. Is this better now?
Yes. Much better.
Yeah. So I joined the call a bit late, and one or two questions may be repetitive. But what I heard was that the pricing pressure that we are facing due to the spike in aluminum prices in the earlier part of the year, we're finding it difficult to sort of pass it on to the customer. Just wanted to understand because historically, the industry had a fair bit of pricing power. And from your comments, it seems to suggest that that has gone down. Do you believe that this is more a structural phenomenon given that there's been a fair bit of local capacity addition that has come through, and the Chinese imports are here to stay? So structurally, the pricing power for the industry has sort of reduced?
Jonas ji, I think what you are trying to say is because the competition or the refractory industry adds capacity. So just to fill up their plants, they are not asking for price increase because they need to have production volumes, right?
Yes. And is this structural in nature?
Yes. This is the same thing I also observed that some of our peers who are trying to enter into this market, they just don't have a business acumen to decide the right pricing. So they're small players, but they go all out to sell the product at any price just to be in the market. So we are not into that race. So we have our own strategy. Below certain margins, we will not enter into the business. And I believe all these four, five big players are also on the similar thought process.
Exactly. For example, traders, because they buy on a bulk basis, they need to get rid of this because the cash is also getting expensive. So on the small players, they are also motivated to sell at any cost.
Yeah. Wonderful. And given that our sales mix will be sort of going towards iron-making, you mentioned that it is 12% today. It was significant last year. And probably this further increase was based on what you have in progress.
Jonas, again, the voice is always not clear. We cannot understand the question. The voice is really unclear.
Maybe I'll rejoin the queue. I think I'll issue the hands-free.
Try again, please. Hello?
Jonas said he'll rejoin the queue. We'll move to the next question. The next question is from Harsh from Marcellus. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello, sir. So from the call, I could figure out that there are various headwinds, first being competitive intensity from China, both in our market as well as the end customer market. The cement and the steel folks are also very strict with respect to their business. And the export feed is also not going to fire up in a material way, at least for the next two, three quarters. So in this context, what gives you the optimism that we'll reach again the 15% EBITDA margin mark from Q2 onwards, Q2 FY2026 onwards?
See, in our business, if you look from a long-term perspective, it's always been cyclical, right? One basic phenomenon what we see is that we already see raw material prices coming down. Okay? That's one piece that we have. Second, basically, is that India will continue to produce, and we have this broad product portfolio wherein we also give very high-margin products like flow control. And we also get the seasonality of cement, wherein our margins will get diluted. And we also get projects of an industrial project as well. So I mean, if you look at it from a long-term perspective, and this is where we strongly advise us not to look on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
If you look at it from a long-term perspective, our portfolio, our long-term contracts, and some of our contract structure in terms of how some of our product performance gets paid out, these are the three pillars where we think that we would be able to achieve the 15% margin. Regarding the Chinese import, it's definitely a prevailing threat for us. But most of these people play in the commodity area of the business, which is, again, very cyclical. So here is where we have the threat. We have seen these kinds of threats in 2018, even three years back as well. So we believe that on the long term, our business fundamentals, our product portfolio optimization, and our contracts, we think that we should be able to hit Q2 2026 onwards, that we should be able to go back to 15% EBITDA level.
And this is where we are also thinking that the market will cool down on the raw material pricing. The expensive inventory will go out. We can have a larger play in terms of what material to use, what to supply, and so on and so forth. Hope that answered the question.
Yeah. And how much of a total top line is from this alumina chromite-based refractories where we are seeing this R&D volatility?
It is about 30%-32% of our total portfolio.
Okay. So a meaningful part of the portfolio. And any other raw material where we are seeing this sort of volatility apart from alumina?
Yes. Now, after Chinese New Year, this fused magnesia also has gone up by about $40-$45. So it will have an actual material impact after four months or so when the materials start coming after ordering to India, to everybody, not only us, to everybody. So we now have a visibility that this is going to come up, and how we are going to mitigate that risk of further dilution of margin by circular economy or looking at various project optimization at the same time, reaching out to our customer well in advance for price adjustment and all those things. So this is easy one. We can correct it because we know now that this is going to happen. But Alumina prices every week are going up like anything.
Okay. This $40-$45, how much would be the increase in percentage, sir?
About 3%, 3.5%.
Okay. Got it. Thank you. That will be it for my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, our request to participants is to please limit your questions to two per participant so that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference. The next question is from Sanjay Nandi from VT Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good morning, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, can you just share the numbers for the flow control in our entire sales mix?
Normally, flow control is about 25% of the total steel portfolio. Okay?
Okay.
70%-75% is the lining business. 25% is flow control business in any steel plant, roughly.
Very good. That is all my side, sir. Wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Chetan Doshi, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Congratulations, sir, from all the team for the excellent set of numbers. First time we have reached a milestone of INR 1,000 crores. Now, the presentation this time doesn't highlight as to how you are going to sustain this figure in coming months or coming quarters. And the second question is that from the parent company, we were expecting a lot of support in terms of technology transfer, but nothing is there. This kind of presentation, I'm not at all happy with the kind of inputs given.
Chetan ji, thank you very much for highlighting these two issues. One is, in previous questions, we answered this, that we are looking at a similar type of sustainable growth with some seasonality. As I said, cement in monsoon season is at its lowest level. There's no maintenance, etc. So there will be a dip from that angle, I would say. But yes, we could have put it in our presentation. And parent company, when you're saying in every call, we keep on appraising all the investors, the analysts, how much product we are shifting. Even now, in this call, about two, three questions back, I explained that we are bringing more products to Indian plants from parent company. And in the past, also taphole sleeve, porous plug, taphole clay from Brazil. So we keep on bringing those products, and we are sharing on call.
But we have not put in the presentation, but we are sharing all the information very transparently to all of you.
Chetan ji, just to set example.
The products are getting well accepted in the market. Sorry?
Just let me complete, Chetan ji, if you allow me. One, basically, is that normally we give the exhaustive presentation in the half-year and full-year presentation. So I know that you are referring to all the products like laser part and other things that you were mentioning earlier. So this kind of exhaustive presentation, we will definitely do in the first half and second half full-year presentation. You'll see a very comprehensive view. To answer your question on these kinds of products acceptable, as Parmod ji mentioned earlier, we are one of the first companies where we have implemented the robotic solution in the whole of India. So these kinds of products are getting accepted and approved, but it also goes through its own validation period from an acceptance perspective, so on and so forth.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you very much. That was the last question in queue. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Parmod Sagar for closing comments.
Yeah. Thank you very much, all the investors and analysts, for a very interactive discussion, very intriguing questions also. So it's very good to have a real interaction. And we try to be very transparent, open with all of you as usual. And we'll keep on transparently sharing all the information with all of you. Thank you very much for your support as always. And looking forward to your support in the future as well. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. On behalf of RHI Magnesita India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your lines.