Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to RHI Magnesita India Limited Q2 FY 2026 earning conference call. As a reminder, all participants' 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 touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Rajesh Majumdar. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Q2 and H1 FY 2026 conference call of RHI Magnesita India. We have with us today Mr. Parmod Sagar, Chairman and CEO, and Mr. Azim Syed, CFO of the company, joining us in this call. Kindly remember that any conversation made in this call may be forward-looking, and the secretary notes are there. Without much ado, I'd like to hand over the call to Mr. Parmod Sagar now for his opening remarks.
Thank you. Thank you, Rajesh. Very good morning to everyone, and thank you so much for joining us today. RHI Magnesita has an unwavering commitment to safety first. We are continuously working to improve our safety system, not only in our production sites but also at our customer locations, warehouses, and corporate offices as well, through implementing seven life-saving rules and enhancing the safety with robotics and automation. I'm pleased to report that RHI Magnesita India achieved their ever-highest record quarterly revenue in Q2 at INR 1,035 crore, sustaining that consistent growth momentum. This growth was underpinned by higher volume and notable market share gains across all business segments. Starting with the broad industry landscape, we are observing promising microeconomic indicators, green shoots, across our core and markets. Let me start with the industrial sector. In the last quarter, the steel production increased by 4% quarter-on-quarter basis.
Whilst there was an increase in the production and shipment volume, we saw a contraction in margins, which underpinned the competitive environment that the industrial sector is going through. India is still a net importer, and most of the production boost came from the safeguard tariffs. The outlook for steel production will come from the third round of production-linked incentive schemes for specialty products. On the cement sector, due to the unseasonal monsoon, we saw lower production and squeezed margins. We are expecting further improvement in cement production with the recent GST rationalization, which would boost further demand. Aligning with the government's emphasis on housing and infrastructure development and reducing customer costs, which would provide impedance for further cement production and expansion.
One of the key areas of focus was to ensure that we gain market share opportunity in the areas of steel, and our strategy drives in 4PRO or TRM contracts are yielding results. We have secured long-term contracts that we set out to do. We received price increases in specialized markets and secured market share in some areas of qualitized markets as well. We were able to execute key seasonal cement orders. We are also continuously gaining market share in iron-making, coke oven, DRI, and pellet business. With the current results, we are happy to report that our strategic initiatives are progressing well. We are also pleased to report that we have successfully completed the product transfer of ANKRAL and RADEX cement bricks from our group technology into India. This will provide opportunities that will unlock further value for our shareholders. Our integration with Ashwath Technologies is also progressing well.
Crucially, our growth is not just quantitative. It reflects a deliberate strengthening of our market position. This quarter's result affirms the effectiveness of our business fundamentals to reclaim market share. By aligning closely with our customer needs and executing effectively, we deepened engagement with key accounts. Quarter by quarter, we are gaining momentum, driving growth and navigating a challenging environment with agility and focus. I would like to underscore that while we remain pragmatic about the current headwinds, we are equally confident in the positive trajectory that lies ahead. Our margins are still under pressure, and this is an industry-wide issue with the headwinds that our end customers face. However, with focused cost optimization efforts, ongoing product innovation, an improved outlook on raw material pricing, and a shift toward a better product mix, we expect margins to improve progressively in the coming quarter.
RHI Magnesita India plays a vital role in strengthening the national industrial foundation, facilitating safer and more efficient steel production to advance India's 5- trillion economic vision through resilience, self-reliant supply chains. With a well-defined strategy and a high-performing team in place, I'm confident that our continued commitment and growing customer trust will enable us to transform today's challenges into sustainable growth opportunities. Thank you very much, everyone, and I will now hand over to our CFO, Mr. Azim Syed, to walk through the financial performance in detail.
Thank you, sir. Good morning to all. Let me now walk you through the financial results for the second quarter of FY 2026. Despite market headwinds, we achieved higher quarterly revenue from operations of INR 1,035 crores. This reflects a sequential growth of approximately 8% over Q1 FY 2026 and a year-on-year increase of nearly 19% versus Q2 FY 2025. Shipment volume stood at 141 kilotons, marking a 9% quarter-on-quarter increase and an 18% year-on-year rise, driven by strong underlying demand and significant market share expansion. The main levers for growth are steel industries. In the steel industry, orders from integrated private players as well as from public sector steel producers for new converters and ladle business. The cement industry also contributed to growth, fueled by one-time project orders and seasonal maintenance demand as expected. Broad-based improvements across flow control, coke oven, DRI, and pellet, as mentioned by Parmodji.
As Parmodji informed, we are also seeing strategic initiatives in coke oven, DRI, also delivering tangible results. Turning to profitability, our operating EBITDA for Q2 FY 202026 reached INR 111 crore, reflecting an EBITDA margin of 10.7% on an absolute basis. This marks a 7% improvement over the previous quarter. Sequentially, we have sustained our margin performance. However, on a year-on-year basis, there has been a decline as the year-on-year is not comparable. In Q2 2025, we had one-time release of warranty provisions, and there was a continued impact of elevated raw material costs comparing to the prior year. Despite reduction of cost in alumina, our raw material costs remained flat quarter-on-quarter. This was due to a change of product mix of sales, wherein higher costs of magnesia-based raw material and USD and Euro foreign exchange depreciation.
As Parmodji mentioned, we are expected to better our margins in the upcoming quarters with further lowering of raw material prices, recipe optimization, and future performance bonus expectations. The profit after tax was INR 38 crore, up 9% sequentially from INR 35 crore in Q1. Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio is at 0.45x, which is higher from last quarter, majorly due to working capital tied to revenue growth and dividend payout. We consider this to be manageable, and with continued impact of last year's debt reduction efforts, we expect interest expenses to trend downward in the periods ahead. Our balance sheet remains absolutely robust and liquid. We maintain strict working capital discipline. In short, we have the discipline and resources to fund our strategy without undue leverage. Looking ahead, we remain confident and realistic.
Our order book remains robust for the upcoming quarters, particularly in the steel sector, where major mills have confirmed substantial CapEx expenditure plans. The cement segment also shows strong momentum, supported by upcoming large-scale expansions and scheduled planned turnarounds. We are witnessing positive developments on the raw material front also. While it's premature to declare full success, the trajectory is promising. As Mr. Sagar mentioned, we anticipate a consistent quarter-by-quarter upswing rather than a sudden spike. Our intention is to close the year with EBITDA margins similar to last year's level, and we remain confident in that goal. Business fundamentals have positioned RHI Magnesita India for success through strong industrial demand, solid execution on strategy, and a healthy balance sheet. We believe these fundamentals will enable us to deliver on our FY 2026 targets and long-term goals. Thank you to all our stakeholders for your continued trust and support.
We will now open the line for questions. Back to the operator.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Pankaj Agarwal, an individual investor. Please go ahead. The line for Mr. Pankaj Agarwal has been disconnected. We move on to the next. The next question comes from the line of Ashish Kejriwal. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Good morning, everyone. Sir, quickly, three questions. In your remarks, you mentioned that we are soon going to be margins, EBITDA margins similar to FY 2025 level. So you are expecting that to come in fourth quarter, or you are talking about overall FY 2026 EBITDA margin to be similar to FY 2025, which was around 13%?
Yes. We are expecting the full year number to be the same as last year. We are expecting some one-time payouts, which we received just like in the last year. We will expect this. This will be higher than what our current rate is in the upcoming quarter. Our expectation is that we will end, as we said in the earlier calls, between 13%-14% is what we still are doing for full year 2026.
That's good. Sir, this is being driven by what? Because when you said that we are able to take some price hikes in some of the specialty market, but overall, if you look at the prices this quarter, it was also somewhat lower than last quarter. The second thing is, earlier we were expecting that because of lower alumina prices getting hit in P&L in the second quarter, we may end up with the margins of 13%-14% this quarter only. Now we understand that magnesite cost has increased so much that margins had got affected. My question was, one, how much price hike we were able to take in roughly what percentage of our volume? Second, if you can say about alumina and magnesite cost, how much is this combining with the total cost? Thank you.
Thank you for your question. One is, we were expecting that alumina prices have gone down, and we will have advantage in this quarter, as you said rightly. Unfortunately, our inventory is still at a level of finishing, even in November. The impact we were expecting, unfortunately, could not materialize because the pipeline of shipments was higher already. The order was placed, and when we are in a contract, and as a market leader and ethical company, we were not forcing our suppliers to cancel those contracts and go into a new contract. It hit us badly, but at the same time, we honor our contracts. Secondly, magnesia rate has gone up, which also impacted us adversely. Third one.
How will the margins come back?
Yeah. Margin, we now, as I said, now onwards, alumina prices will be the market prices. Whatever high alumina inventory was there, it will vanish in November. Next 4 months, we will have advantage of lower price of alumina. On magnesia front, we are doing some product optimization, recipe optimization to compensate price increase of fused magnesia and DBM. That will also be giving a dividend or positive results December onwards. Thirdly, we have some product optimization, productivity improvement, and some automation, which Azimj i was saying, which will give us a substantial uptick in coming 3-4 months' time. We are confident because of these 3-4 levers, we will be able to deliver similar to last year's EBITDA.
Okay. Last was the price hike percentage. I can also answer that if that's okay. So we received mostly price hikes in the area of flow control, which is approximately 28% of our revenue. We are, I mean, we basically got, let's say, in single-digit price increases, and these are long-term contracts. We believe that this will sustain over at least for the next upcoming 6 months.
Understood, sir. Lastly, in terms of the market, overall market, are we still seeing intense competition in non-specialties business?
Absolutely. I would say competition is going strong to strong. Many players, small players are just trying to enter, even so small. You have seen the results of one of our competitors who is also listed. They are also coming in many product areas, and just to enter the market, they are also offering a really not sustainable price. It puts pressure on us and other established players also to reduce their prices to just remain in the market. I see there is a heavy thrust on overcapacity. People are trying to now fill up their plant with whatever price they are getting. It is not a healthy situation for the industry overall, I would say. This is the reality.
May I add one more point to top up what Parmodji said? If you look at even our end customers' margin also, there's quite a bit of a squeeze. Let it be steel or cement. You can look at their EBITDA per ton also reducing. There is a buyer's market as well. There are quite a bit of headwinds. We are confident with our strategy in terms of long-term relationship, diverse portfolio, TRM and 4PRO, end-to-end solutions, which will hopefully improve the productivity of our customers. That's the way we will differentiate ourselves because we believe not in a cyclic market, but in a long-term commitment to our customers' performance.
Understood, sir. This is very encourageable that despite this kind of scenario, you are guiding for around 13% EBITDA margin similar to last quarter or last year. That is very commendable. All the best, sir.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Rajesh Majumdar from B & K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. I had a few questions. One was that why has the receivables gone up so much in this quarter? Is it any cause for alarm, or is that position better now?
Rajesh Ji , one of our key accounts, a very big group, they changed their methodology of services contract. Where they have some, you need to give this backup paper to give them what we say is process improvement. That impacted us heavily, and last two, three months, we were not able to get the payments. Everything was streamlined. Fortunately, in October, I think we have recovered everything. It was a record collection. I would not say the number, but it was a record collection ever. Whatever was the shortfall of last quarter, it is compensated now.
We should see second half cash flows going back to normal levels, right? What we've seen in the last week.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Okay, sir. My second question is, if you look at the performance of Dalmia, it is still year-over-year decline. And even after acquisition, after 2 years, the turnover is still nowhere near INR 1,000 crore. What is happening with this asset? If you could give us some more granular idea about where we can see this business down the line in terms of top-line margins and what steps you're taking for the same.
Margin-wise, Rajesh Ji, I would say we are very well placed. It was around 11% plus margin for last quarter.
Thank you, 7%-8%.
Comparative to last quarter, last to last quarter is 7-8%. We have improved. Last quarter, last to last quarter was 8.7% EBITDA. This quarter, it is 11.4%. If we talk about volume, it is 26% growth in volume. Also, this revenue has gone up from.
That has come from standalone, sir. If you subtract the console from standalone, then the subsidiary has not done so well. That's what I was asking you about the subsidiary.
I'm talking about only subsidiary, Dalmia plant .
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Just to give you clarity, the number Q2 FY 2026 was INR 264 crore, and Q2 FY 2025 was INR 216 crore. There is a substantial increase in the revenue. Also on the shipment, as we mentioned, 38 kilotons to 42 kilotons is what we have done. In the EBITDA percentage, if we compare Q1 FY 2026, we are at 3.7%. Now we are back to 11.4%. There has been an increased effort. If you're talking about year-on-year quarterly performance, as mentioned earlier in my speech also, we had a one-time performance bonus in Q2 FY 2025. If I exclude that, our margin percentages are still in double digits, which we have maintained. Bottom line, the main point, Rajesh Ji, basically is that our performance is getting to some bit of a sustainable level.
All the improvements that we have put across, these are kind of paying us now dividends in terms of our performance also.
Also, we are shifting two, three products from our global to India, which will effectively be Rajgangpur, our Dalmia plant. Further growth in this Dalmia plant will happen in, let's say, next 6 months' time or so.
Okay, sir. One last question from my side. Are there any efforts to increase the business from the non-ferrous or glass side or this where you have kind of investment? Do we have any orders which could give us some kind of flip from those businesses other than steel and cement?
Actually, there's a lot of efforts going on. First, let me give the background. Non-ferrous and glass, which is a cyclic thing. Unfortunately, in 2025, there was not a single project of glass and non-ferrous, which impacted us badly. In 2024, it was there. We are expecting two, three projects are coming up in 2026, and maybe five, six projects are coming up in 2027. We can see an upward trend. Projects are coming back, and these are comparatively better margin projects if compared with the normal cement and steel business. We are very positive about this, and we have, I would say, increased budget of these products in 2026 as compared to 2025.
We'll talk about calendar year just to be perfect.
Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Mayank Bandhari from Asian . Please go ahead.
The line for Mayank Bandhari has been disconnected. We'll proceed ahead with the next one. The next question comes from the line of Yasha. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yes, sir. You are audible.
I'm audible. Yeah. Sir Parmodji, I would say Yasha, yeah, this is Yasha from YPH PMS. We have invested in the company since the last 11 years. We have seen multiple cycles of the company. One thing is very clear. Before the Dalmia acquisition, I would not like to go into the verticals, but before the Dalmia acquisition, we had almost reached a PBT of around INR 100 crore per quarter on a very low turnover, say around INR 750 crore or INR 800 crore turnover. With this acquisition, we are nowhere near to it. Like earlier, the EBITDA margins were 15%. If you see them now, it's coming to around PBT margins are now coming to around 5%-6%.
Plus the equity dilution, which we spoke around, I guess, 15 months back, that the equity dilution was opted because the promoter company had debt on its book instead of going for debt. The equity has gone up so much, and the profit has not stayed up to the mark. That has been clearly reflecting in the share price as well over the last three years. Yeah, that is it. Are we looking for good times ahead? Are the bad times still going to prevail for some more years? How is the business picture looking overall?
I tend to agree with you. Yes. Standalone, RHI Magnesita India before acquiring Dalmia, we were doing exceedingly well. If we check that segment, we still are doing exceedingly well. There's no doubt about that. With this Dalmia, we wanted to increase our footprint in industrial area, non-steel area, which successfully we did. We entered it. In iron-making area, we were zero. In the last two years, we entered into it. Only thing is this. We did not convert this or we could not convert this market gain in good margins because the market of these types of products, like cement or DRI or other iron-making products, which came along with Dalmia acquisition, are low margin or volume products.
Right.
Somebody is there. What we are doing now is we are bringing products which are having high selling price with high margins from our parent company to Dalmia Group companies, which is now RHI Magnesita India Factory Limited. I would say, I would not say bad time or good time. I would say the challenging time is almost over. Still, the market is so dynamic, over capacity. Everybody is putting up capacity in India without seriously thinking of what will be the replication of these capacities. This is impacting. If you will check, I would not take the name, but other listed companies, refractory listed companies who have declared their results in last two days or three days, everybody's EBITDA has come down. We still could manage to maintain EBITDA of last quarter and in absolute value, 7% increase in our EBITDA.
If you check the other, so it is headwind for everyone.
Just to interrupt, just to interrupt. If you say that the business has been good, if the PBT on a quarterly basis was INR 100 crore before the Dalmia acquisition, if it has come down to INR 50 crore, it can be only because of two reasons. Either the Dalmia business is making losses or the current business margins have gone down. There cannot be a third reason, right?
You know where is that huge part which deposition is playing that we cannot ignore because of this buying price or whatever you say.
Let me do this.
Yeah, please. I would like the CFO to pitch in. Yes, please.
Yeah. So basically, the first thing is that if you look at our realization rate before 11 years versus now, it has dropped quite significantly. Okay? I'm talking 11 years before because what we have.
I'm thinking that three years back when we started the INR 100 crore profit PBT. I'm just asking that INR 100 crore is now INR 50 crore. That can be only because of two reasons. Either the realizations have gone down of the existing business that we used to do, or the new business is becoming a drag on it, right?
Okay.
I just wanted that. What is the, why has that gone down? Because Sir says that the business is going still, it's doing good. At least it should have a 70-80-90 INR crore PBT. If the Dalmia business is doing poor, then that is dragging it down to 50 INR crore.
Yes. Can I ask?
If you have the figures, yeah. If you have the figures, please.
Okay. Basically, the first element, basically, I see we look at it from a business perspective. From a business perspective, as you know, with the PPA that we paid, it carries a depreciation cost. If you look at our Dalmia entity, there are some approvals that we are doing from an indirect perspective wherein we have some losses there, which we will get after 2 years. Okay? You will see quite a bit of profitability coming back in 2 years once we get these tax credits that will flow through.
After 5 years of acquisition.
After 5 years of acquisition. This currently, you are not able to see in our P&L.
Okay.
The second part, so there is a little bit of a profitability. If you look at it, if you kind of put it back ahead, you will come back to the closer number where we are performing now. Now, the second thing is that you can.
Can we have some numbers on this profitability figure, which we might get after 5 years?
I mean, we don't give some long-term guidance, as you basically can see. If you are happy, we can send some, if you can send some assumptions that you would like to make over an email, we are happy to confirm or deny those assumptions.
Yeah. It is substantial amount. That's what we can say.
Exactly right.
Okay.
The second part, basically, what we are also talking about is, let's see, the reason for acquisition of business. I mean, the rationale behind acquisition was the following, right? Number one, basically, is that we want to gain our cement market share. So we grew from 17% to 43% because of this, which basically means we are ready to serve the growing, ever-growing capacity expansion on the market. This will give us further accretive profitability that we didn't have before. Having said that, this also is a drag on the realization rate on this is much lower than what we were doing the steel business because of the nature of the product mix that we set. This will come through also in the future. The third thing, and all the depreciation that we are carrying forward will be fully absorbed once this capacity flow through.
This is what you are seeing quarter-on-quarter, our improvements in the Dalmia business.
Okay. Fine. As you are saying, sir, how much time can we take to get back to a PBT earlier figure that you used to have? Not considering the tax figures, maybe 2 years more or 3 years more?
Two to three years is a good time frame for your assumption, sir.
Okay. Thank you, Parmodji. We are investors in the long term. We are future investors, but look for good times, right? Thank you so much for taking up my questions.
Thank you so much for being a long-term investor. We appreciate it.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Mayank Bandhari from Asian Market. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on, like you spoke, as Azim Sir spoke about the flow controls contribution, 28% of the total revenue. Is this for the quarter or for the first half?
For the quarter, sir.
What would it be for the first half?
For Q1, it was close to about, okay, for 29.6%, I mean, 30%, you can assume.
Just checking out what would have been the growth in the flow control for you if we look at YoY for the first half?
Basically, last year, I mean, our percentage remains.
I would say the growth in the first half of this year was flattish. We get a market share gain from July onwards, right? So its market share, I would say, in one of the groups was from 22%. It is 30%+ now, market share in one of the biggest groups. Okay? Likewise in other groups also. There is, I would say, 8%-10% market share gain in flow control in the second half of this year, which will continue till, say, end of June before we have to go for again negotiation, etc.
Yeah. The volume as such has not grown, but your gain market share is what you are telling.
Yes. Actually, flow control is not a volume gain. It is more of a piece gain. So even if you get a 10%-11% market gain, it will not reflect in thousands of tons. It is a few hundred tons.
Okay. Because one of the competitors has highlighted issues with the small furnaces, small blast furnaces, which we are facing in the Indian market. I was just checking, I mean, how flow control has grown. Basically, it is flat YoY, as you are telling.
Till now, first half, it was flat. July onwards, we got market share, but you are talking two different things.
Yeah.
Blast furnaces had nothing to do with flow control. Somebody is either not clearly telling you that story or blast furnaces, mini blast furnaces, small blast furnaces. I think you are talking about induction furnaces. Induction, right, induction furnaces, flow control, I think our competitor is entering into it in a way. That market is sluggish, I would say, in the last four or five months, out of, say, 500+ customers, 150 customers have reduced their production temporarily because of monsoon and cheap import from Vietnam, Thailand, China, etc.
Exactly. Just to give you a little bit of a, I mean, if you do year-on-year comparison, probably you will not get the right figure because to know what is the significant gain that we have made, if you look at, okay, previous two quarters versus last two quarters for us. For example, previous two quarters, our average revenue was close to about 27%. Now we have done 28%, again, with good margin increase. quarter-on-quarter, we have done 11% increase. That gives you a little bit of the momentum and velocity that we are talking about in terms of what we have. This is despite the sluggishness in the induction furnaces, which basically states that we have gained some market share in some of the large steel mill providers, producers.
Hello?
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Pankaj Agarwal, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. My question is with respect to the recent news on the production capacity decrease by Chinese steel companies and expected price increase so that Indian steel industry comes at par with Chinese steel production industries in the next two years. How is RHI Magnesita India going to benefit from this? Are there on-ground capacity enhancements by Indian companies in the view of expected price increase in steel in the next two to three years? Thank you.
Sir, actually, the situation is this. The government of China has decided to reduce their steel production 2% every year. By 2035, they want to reduce their steel production from 1 billion to 700 million-750 million tons. Their own consumption is much lower than this. In spite of reducing 2% steel production every year, it will not have any impact. Still, they have overcapacity. Still, they are keep on exporting the steel at a very cheap price, subsidized price, not only directly but through Southeast Asia countries to the Indian market. As Azim said, we are still net importer. Import is coming more than what we are doing export. The specialty steel, 12% safeguard duty, which was given by the government of India about, say, 6 months back, that is also over. From 30th of October, there is no safeguard duty for steel industry.
That's why their margin has squeezed. One of our biggest customers, he showed us the results that at present, steel pricing, sale price of steel is lowest in the last 5 years. They are under tremendous pressure. Even today, I was reading somewhere, one of the groups is going to have 50% of their one plant is going to have a joint venture with some Japanese company. They wanted to sell off 50% of their steel plant. It looks like the growth is happening very fast. Actually, against the number, which is a capacity number, enhancement is 8%-9%. Actual growth is 3%-4% only. With the lower margins, I do not see in the very near future we will have a bumper steel sale with good margin. In turn, we will also get very good price increases.
In near term, I would say it will be gradual growth. We are thinking we will be growing more than the market growth.
Understood. If I may highlight that a few of the steel companies in India, they have started giving the outlook for their capacity increase in the near future. Does it look like a very long-term strategy of 5-6 years or a near-term strategy of 2-3 years?
No, no. It is long-term strategy because when they are saying, for example, if JSW Steel is saying we are putting up a 5%, 5 million tons, it will be in Hajar. That capacity they will create in the next 2 years. To utilize that capacity, to ramp up the production from 0 to 5 million will take maybe 3, 4, 5 years. Capacity is increasing, but utilization, capacity utilization is a gradual process.
I appreciate the clarity given by the management on this aspect. This was a very big question in the entire industry as of now, I think. Thanks a lot.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Mayank Bandhari from Asian Market. Please go ahead.
Sir, I also want to understand about our export strategy. I mean, if you could highlight how much is our export revenue currently. I mean, we look at your parents' release, and it says that the demand of refractories in Europe could spike up because there is some import, sorry, import duty cut in Europe, which is slated to happen. If you could highlight on that.
As of now, our export is somewhere like 9%-10%. It is hovering quarter to quarter. I will not say somebody sometimes you have an order in this quarter or somebody in the next quarter. It is better to say here. Year-on-year basis, we are around 10% of our total capacity if we talk about, and it is primarily flow control products. If we take the standalone RHI Magnesita India Limited, our exports are to the tune of 24%-25%, which historically we were doing. With the consolidated Dalmia put together, everything, it is around 10%. I would say we will be growing gradually. We have a business plan. We did trials in the last one year at various countries, successful trials, I would say. Now it will be a semi-commercial trial.
In next year, we will have an uptick, substantial uptick in flow control area. When I am saying substantial, maybe it will go from 10%-12% because it is overall. If we talk about RHI Magnesita India Limited standalone, maybe it will be 5%-6% increase in one year's time from now onwards. Europe, the steel production as of now is still declined. Recently, the European Union has put a sanction on Russia. We will not be able to sell anything to Russia, which we were selling. It will impact globally everybody.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Sahil Sangari. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, sir. First of all, very commendable numbers on the top line. Very well done. Must congratulate the whole team. My first question is, sir, as I have been looking at this industry for a couple of years now, I mean, more than 5 years now, we used to expect a good 18%-20% margins in flow control and maybe some lower number in the commodity products before. Now, with the rising competitiveness in the market overall and with new capacities coming in, where do you think these margin levels can stabilize, just product-wise, if you can help me understand?
Sahilji, thank you very much for your kind words. First of all, flow control, as I said earlier, to answer to somebody's question, we are still good. The Q1 2026 was about 21% margin. And now this quarter, it is 23% margin. We do not have any issue. We are comparable with the best in the class, right?
Right, sir.
The other products, be it high-alumina bricks, magnesium bricks, magnesium carbon bricks, castables, these are commodity businesses where too many players have entered into. They are trying to sell at any cost. That is giving headwind to everyone. Maintaining that double-digit margin in that segment is a challenge. Still, we are trying to maintain that. As you can see, Dalmia was telling, 11.4% margin, which is purely a brick and mortar business, castable and bricks, mix of high-alumina and magnesium bricks. We are still trying very hard to see how we can reduce our production cost, how we can reduce our scrap rate, how we can use more circular economy recycling in our recipes. The actual factual thing is this. We do not have any issue with flow control. We have a headwind of margin with the commodity business.
Right, sir. Right, sir. I understand. Thank you for this answer. Secondly, if you can help me with the Dalmia numbers again, you said that the shipment has increased to 42 versus 38 YoY , right? 38 kiloton YoY .
It is a quarter-on-quarter basis, I think.
Quarter-on-quarter.
We are talking about the last quarter of this quarter, 35,000 tons versus 42,000 tons quarter-on-quarter.
Yeah. Margin is roughly 8% has gone to 11%.
Uh, 8.7%-11.4%.
Okay. Revenue, you said, has gone from roughly how much?
It is 20% growth, 25% growth, I would say.
[crosstalk].
INR 208 crore-INR 264 crore.
Right, sir. Right, sir. This is really a good improvement, sir. That is really commendable. Lastly, on the CapEx that we aim to do at Dalmia, I mean, the refurbishment and all that, is that largely on track, and we should expect some positives out of that refurbishment say next year?
Yeah. CapEx is on track. The problem is the lead times. We have placed an order for a technique press. It is 14 months lead time. By end of, say, 2026 calendar year, it will be commissioned. Some mixers are 8 months delivery time, some 6 months, some 1 year. It is on track. One of the presses which we ordered last year is under commissioning in Rajgangpur plant. Some will come in next 2, 3 months' time. Some will come end of 2026. It is on track, I would say.
Because of all these new press machines, refurbishments, can we expect some efficiencies to come out? I mean, some benefits on the cost, some cost benefits?
Absolutely.
Absolutely. Absolutely. It will. Definitely, it will improve our productivity, reduce labor cost, reduce rejection level, improve quality.
Yeah. We do not do any projects, especially in the acquired plants, if the payback period is not less than three years, right? That is the way we look at this. Yeah. Also, we have a very strict ROIP reasoning, and we basically aim at least to do it in double digits. These are the two conditions on which we do the investment side.
Perfect. Lastly, my last question is, your CapEx spend for, I mean, absolute numbers, the CapEx that you wish to spend this year and next?
We are budgeted INR 150 crores. We have spent INR 60 crores in H1. We aim to do the rest in H2. As we said, it is more about phasing of spending, which normally happens in Q3 more versus in Q1 or Q2. Yeah. Something will also spill over to next year.
Yes. Next year should be roughly INR 100 crores or should be less?
Should be. Should be INR 100-INR 190 crores.
Exactly. As we said that this year would be the highest CapEx spend that we are doing. Again, because of specific investments that we are aiming to do. Again, for next upcoming years, it will be to the tune of INR 100 crore is a good assumption to make.
Perfect. Perfect. Thank you so much, and wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Shania Jen, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir.
Hello.
Just two questions. First, could you outline the margin outlook for H2, FY 2026, and FY 2025? What factors are expected to drive improvement going forward?
I can take this. Basically, for the full year, we are saying that we'll still be around 13%-14%. The main reason we were saying this is that one is we would have a natural raw material price decrease because we do average inventory pricing. Basically, the average inventory price for alumina and magnesia, we expect to subside in the upcoming quarter. This will give us a natural profitability increase. The second part is we are also expecting a better product mix because in the current quarter, we had cement high volumes. This will also help us to improve our realization rates better. The third part we are expecting is that we gain significant market share in the ladle business. We are expecting the performance bonuses to come through in the upcoming quarter.
Fourth thing, we have some industrial orders, which are naturally higher margin percentage orders. These will also come in the upcoming quarters. With this, we are absolutely confident that we will go back for the full year to the last year performance, what we are expecting.
Oh, nice. Nice. Just one more.
Also the effect as well. My apologies. I forgot to mention the effect because we were actually FX weighed quite heavily on us this quarter because we purchased most of the materials from China, and we used USD or Euros. As you know, there was a significant depreciation on the euros. It has gotten better already in October. If this continues, we are also getting some relief on these expenses as well. Financing costs or other expenses should be better as well.
Thank you for the detailed clarification. Just one more question. Could you share an update on the performance of each segment, like the steel, cement, industrial, and flow control during the quarter?
We do not give those individual good things, but what we are happy to share is the split of business we have. For example, steel, including flow control, we do about 80% of our revenue. Then we have the second highest revenues, our cement business, that is close to about 14%. The rest comes from the project order business. Total revenue, we normally have 25%-28%, again, depending on the quarter, we have flow control business. Normally, flow controls are our highest margin business that we operate at.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Weber Gupta from Aware Advisory. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Am I audible to you?
Yes, sir. You are audible.
Yeah. So my first question is, if I'm not wrong, our capacity utilization has been reached around 72%. Could you please tell what kind of optimal utilization that we are thinking of?
Although we can hear you, your voice is not coming out clearly. Can you please repeat the question and maybe a little bit away from the phone? That will help.
Mr. Weber, could you just increase your volume?
Hello. Am I audible right now?
Yes, you are, but not much clearer.
Hello.
Now it's good. Loud and clear.
Yeah. So my first question is, if I'm not wrong, our capacity utilization has been reached around 72%. Could you please tell us what kind of optimal utilization that we have been adding? Is there any plan for capacity expansion or demotivating?
I'm sorry. We still can't hear you clearly.
Mr. Weber? Mr. Weber?
Hello.
You were asking the question. You sound muffled.
Hello. Am I audible right now?
Yeah. Loud and clear now.
Okay. So my first question is, if I'm not wrong, our capacity utilization has been reached around 72%. Could you please share what kind of optimum level of utilization that we are thinking of? Are there any plans for capacity expansion or demotivating of capacities?
Yes, you are right. We are planning to reach to a level of 80%-85% capacity utilization in next year's time. As of now, we will not do any capacity expansion. There can be in some bits and pieces in some particular product range where we feel that it is reached to our optimum level and we need to increase. That will be add-on type of thing, adding some press or some mixer or some dryer or some kiln. It will not be add-on a new plant. Okay?
Okay. Okay. My second question is, what is the revenue contribution coming from our transform product like UREX, RESISTAL, or Eco green bricks? And how this contribution is scaling up in the coming quarters?
It is a very initial stage as of now. Eco or green, these are trial stage things. It will not have a material impact on anything. Maybe it will take another 2 to 3 years when we have a substantial business of these type of products.
Yeah. It's also.
Can you quantify it, sir?
Sorry?
Is it possible for you to quantify what will be the outlook, let's say, next 2, 3 years for this product?
Most of the, see, we are talking about transfer of technologies here, which basically means we are getting this, some of the businesses already we have in our revenue run rate. Because today, what we do is that we are exporting this, sorry, we are importing this from our group company or group plant. The benefit of this technology transfer, the way we can unlock the value for our shareholder is, one, once we import this technology, that means it will increase our capacity utilization, thereby absorbing some of the fixed costs. Second, it will also help us hugely on our working capital because we will produce a product down.
Third, also it will provide quite a bit of a margin improvement as well because we will be able to produce it in India, which has a lower cost versus what we get from either from Europe or other locations. That is the unlocked value that we will have. The upside maybe is there because we can probably sell it to more customers. As Parmodji mentioned, it is at a very early stage, and we do not give product-wise details because, I mean, these products have quite a bit of competitive movement as well. Coming specifically to green bricks also, I mean, we need to, I am talking specifically about the green technology you mentioned.
This is completely we have the products, and it's up to the appetite of our customers if they want to do it because, as you know, the green product has quite a bit of cost attached to it. It's the appetite of the customers. We are ready to provide a green product, and if they are able to take it in their portfolio, we will welcome it. We will see a greater growth, but we are ready for the future.
Okay. Okay. My last question is, how has the demand trended across the steel and cement sector post monsoon? What is your outlook for the second half of this year?
Demand, after talking to many big players of steel and cement, should be hovering around 4%-6%. Outlook is almost similar to, I would say, first half. There will not be any substantial change in the outlook. I do not see it. We ourselves believe that we are better placed than first half.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Fair enough, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Rajesh Majumdar. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. One last question I had was, since we have seen alumina prices so low now, does it make sense for us to kind of build up an RM inventory? Because three years ago, we did that before the Beijing Olympics. I remember we had built up a huge magnesite inventory. Does that same kind of strategy make any sense now for us to build up some kind of alumina inventory, RM inventory?
It's a very good question. We deliberate this question quite importantly because raw material costs are such a huge component of it. As you know, we leverage the scale of the group, which means that we produce, I'll give an example of FMF. We are the 80% consumer in the entire world, Rajesh. Same similar, I don't want to give the percentage for alumina because there's a lot of different numbers that will pop up. If we start buying in a bulk thing, we will actually either favorably or unfavorably impact our global alumina price. It causes a catfish impact or, sorry, cat trying to catch its tail impact. We don't like to gamble. We say that we will hedge, and we will be more protective of how we deploy our capital in a more judicial manner.
That is why we do not bulk up because the question is, is this the lowest or further can it go lowest? It becomes a very tough game for us. What we do is that we use market insights because we buy it at large scale. We understand China, we understand Africa, we understand India, what are the prevailing prices. We select, I am talking specifically about alumina, we select the right strategy for us, right quantity for us. We did it. Beijing, we did it. I remember because I was there on the other side of the table at that time. It was purely a supply risk that we would like to avoid, especially coming from post-pandemic when there was quite a bit of a supply constraint that we had. Hence, at the moment, we do not see a supply constraint in any of the products.
Hence, we would like to deploy our capital in the most efficient manner.
Just given your inventory policy, we would see the high-cost alumina prevails for at least three quarters. The current low prices should prevail for at least two or three quarters?
I tend to agree with you, but we cannot predict authentically. Yes, it looks like it will remain like this. Moreover, now, in the last few months, two or three players have come up in India also with this alumina raw material. That will give some stability to this product, not only for us, but I think everybody.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you, Rajesh.
I think that was the last question, right, Dr.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Parmod Sagar for closing comments.
Thank you very much, dear shareholders, analysts, for participating in this call, for your support as usual. We will keep on striving to improve our margin, improve our market share, and unlock the value for you, shareholders. Thank you very much once again.
On behalf of RHI Magnesita India Private Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you.