Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the RHI Magnesita India Limited Q1 FY 2027 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 conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on a touch-tone phone. Before we get started, I would like to point out that some statements made or discussed on today's call may be forward-looking in nature and must be viewed in conjunction with the risks and uncertainties that we face. The company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements publicly. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Parmod Sagar, Chairman from RHI Magnesita India Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. It is pleasure to welcome all of you for this earning conference call for the first quarter of financial year 2027. Safety remains our highest priority at RHI Magnesita. We will continue to invest in our safety programs and make safety progress for zero harm and the well-being of our people. We have delivered a strong start to financial year 2027, with revenue growth and a significant improvement in profitability despite a volatile operating environment. This performance underscores the resilience of our business model, the effectiveness of our execution, and the strength of the strategic foundation we have built over the years. Our Q1 performance reinforces confidence in our ability to create long-term value while maintaining disciplined growth. Let me briefly share our perspective on the industry environment.
The refractory industry continue to operate in a competitive environment characterized by pricing pressure, rising input costs, and increasing competition from both domestic and multinational players with greenfield and brownfield expansion. Nevertheless, our differentiated business model, technical expertise, and customer-centric approach position us well to navigate these challenges. Encouragingly, demand across all our key end markets remains healthy. In the steel sector, major steel producers reported steady growth in production and volumes, aided by strong domestic demand and high capacity utilization levels. From a refractory industry perspective, continued investment in blast furnaces, steelmaking facilities, rolling mills, and capacity expansion projects are expected to sustain demand for refractory products. Our production levels and capacity utilization across steel plants typically support both project-related and maintenance refractory requirements. A requirement for advanced refractory solutions to improve campaign life, reduce downtime, and enhance thermal efficiency create opportunities.
The cement industry maintained strong growth momentum in Q1 2027, supported by robust demand and capacity expansion programs. Industry players remain committed to significant brownfield and greenfield investments, reinforcing a positive long-term demand outlook. While the cement industry experienced margin pressures due to elevated fuel, energy, and raw material costs, manufacturers continue to focus on operational efficiency, productivity improvement, and cost optimization initiatives. While the operating environment remains dynamic, the structural growth drivers across our end markets remain intact, and we remain focused on leveraging our technological leadership and strategic partnerships to consistently outperform the underlying market. Our sustainability agenda continue to translate into tangible business initiatives through formation of our joint venture with Khemka Refractories. MINPRO, to establish a greenfield mineral processing facility in Odisha, which will be a subsidiary of RHI Magnesita India Limited.
We see this as strategic investment that delivers both environmental and economic value over the long term. Overall, the progress across these five pillars reinforces our strategy of driving profitability, growth through market expansion, technology leadership, cost excellence, sustainability, and long-term value creation for our customers. Before I conclude, I would like to take a moment to address an important leadership transition for the company. After having the privilege of leading RHI Magnesita India over the past several years and working alongside a highly committed team to build a strong platform for future growth, I am delighted to welcome Mr. Pankaj Malhan as our new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer while I continue to serve as Chairman. Pankaj brings industry experience, deep customer insights, and a strong commercial track record.
His customer-centric leadership style and strategic vision make him ideally positioned to lead the company through its next phase of growth. I look forward to working closely with Pankaj as we continue strengthening our market position and advancing our vision of building a high-quality, differentiated industry solution business for our customers while generating value for our shareholders and all stakeholders. With that, I would like to invite Pankaj to share his thoughts and perspective on the opportunities ahead. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Parmod, and good morning, everyone. It's an honor to address today as Managing Director and CEO of RHI Magnesita India. I am joining a company with a strong market position, deep technical expertise, and a proven track record of creating value through innovation, operational excellence, and long-standing customer relationships. As we look ahead, we remain focused on five strategic pillars that are going to drive our next phase of growth. First, we would love to outpace the market by strengthening our presence in high-growth segments such as iron making, DRI pellets, flow control, and selected industrial applications. We are very confident this will be supported by new order wins and deeper customer relationships. Second, we continue to expand our 4PRO model, moving beyond traditional product supply to deliver tailored solutions and long-term strategic partnerships with strong momentum coming in both the team and team markets.
Third, we are accelerating digitization and technology adoption to enhance customer value and operational excellence, including investments in advanced automation and energy optimization initiatives. Fourth, we remain focused on driving cost competitiveness through backward integration, progress in quartzite mining, and increasing recycling rates, which would strengthen both our resilience and sustainability. Finally, sustainability remains at the core of the strategy. We continue with reductions in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. This reinforces our commitment to responsible and profitable growth. With a very resilient business model, trusted customer relationships, a talented team, and very clear strategic priorities, I think we are very well positioned to deliver sustainable and profitable growth over the long term. With that, let me hand over to our CFO, Mr. Azim, who will take us through the financials. Over to you, Azim.
Thank you, Pankaj and Parmod, and good morning, everyone. Let me now take you through our financial performance for the first quarter of FY 2027. We began FY 2027 on a strong note, delivering healthy growth in both revenue and profitability despite a challenging industry environment. Revenue from operations for Q1 FY 2027 stood at INR 1,014 crores, representing 9% quarter-over-quarter growth and 6% year-over-year growth. Growth was primarily driven in steel business, supported by favorable realizations and healthy demand across key applications. Cement segment also recorded a recovery during the quarter, benefiting from seasonal maintenance demand. EBITDA for the quarter is at INR 147 crores, reflecting a strong 42% year-on-year increase. EBITDA margin improved significantly to 14.5% compared to 10.8% in Q1 FY 2026. This improvement in profitability was driven by strong execution across our steel marketing with steel making portfolio, favorable price realization, operating leverage, and ongoing productivity initiatives.
Despite inflationary pressures in raw materials, logistics, and energy costs, disciplined cost management and operational efficiency measures supported healthy margin expansion. In addition, initiatives around recycling, vertical integration, and supply chain optimization continue to contribute to cost competitiveness and long-term margin sustainability. As a result, profit after tax nearly doubled during the quarter, increasing from INR 35 crores in Q1 FY 2026 to INR 65 crores in Q1 FY 2027. Our balance sheet remains strong. Working capital remains well controlled even as we strategically increase inventory levels to strengthen supply continuity and support customer requirements in the upcoming quarters. We remain focused on maintaining supply chain resilience while preserving capital discipline and liquidity. We have cash and cash equivalents of INR 452 crores, and our balance sheet shows a strong improvement in working capital. Our balance sheets remain net cash positive with strong KPIs.
Our confidence in the outlook is supported by the resilience of our business model, strong customer engagement, healthy order visibility, and the progress we continue to make across our strategic initiatives, as outlined by Pankaj. Looking ahead, while the industry continues to face competitive intensity, excess capital, and geopolitical uncertainty, we remain confident in our ability to outperform the underlying market. Our confidence is supported by customer engagement, order book, and continued progress across our priorities. We remain encouraged by the momentum in our business and expect to deliver profitable growth while maintaining disciplined focus on margin, cash generation, and returns. Overall, the quarter reflects the strength of our business model and our ability to deliver profitable growth despite a challenging environment. With that, we conclude our prepared remarks and will now be happy to take your questions. Thank you. Back to the operator.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question-and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone.
If you wish to withdraw 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. Participants, to ask a question, you may press star and one. First question is from the line of Varun Jain from Dalal Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good morning. I have a couple of questions. Starting with the realizations. I think realizations grew close to 12% year-on-year in this quarter. Could you split this in what came from price increases versus product mix versus currency? What is the sustainable realization for this year?
Normally, we do not do this split of what is coming from price increase and other areas. I am sorry, we do not have this split as of now.
On a high level, what we can say is that most of the price increases were nothing but a war surcharge. You can basically say that primarily it is driven by the product mix, if that helps.
Sure, sir. Sir, on the CapEx side, I think we did INR 8 crore of CapEx only in Q1 versus INR 150 crore guidance. We are running slower than the run rate. Do we want to revise the CapEx guidance or is it intact? Can you just give us a split of the CapEx into 4PRO, Dalmia modernization, et cetera?
Actually, the long term, whatever we earlier said, INR 80 crore -INR 100 crore CapEx every year, we are maintaining still the same statement. It includes of modernization of Dalmia plants, some 4PRO machinery, robotic solution, and maintenance project.
Got it, sir. Sir, on this MINPRO JV, sir, what is the planned investment and how will we funding it, commissioning timeline? If you can throw some more light on the entire economics of this.
First two years, we and our JV partner, Khemka, as per the shareholding, 51% we will infuse, 49% they will infuse in CapEx as well as in working capital for first two year. Then the JV will have self-sustainable money, and from that they will do further expansion or ramp up of the facility.
Sir, my question was how much investment is planned and what are the payback period, EBITDA margin, ROC? How are we thinking about it?
It is roughly INR 35 crore initial investment in next two years' time. We believe EBITDA should be around 8%-10%, and payback period should be less than three years or so after production.
Got it. Just the last one, sir. On the volumes front, I think we have a guidance of close to 9% for 2027. Since this quarter we didn't deliver that, we'll need close to 14% for the balance nine months to meet that guidance. Is that much possible?
I don't think I had ever committed 9% volume growth. I normally say 7%-9% and you are taking upper side of it. I can take lower side of it. My dear friend, it all depends upon the situation, dynamic situation like cement season is almost going to be over by end of September. I would say we will be having a healthy run-up equivalent to market growth. I still believe we can deliver 7%, 8% volume growth, but not 9%. I think-
Yeah
it's a bit of stretch, but definitely if we can get some good orders with high volumes, why not? But as of now, I'm not in a position to say 9% is a sustainable volume growth for rest of the year.
Okay, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Next question is from the line of Sahil Sanghvi from Monarch Networth Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Excellent set of numbers, team. Congratulations to the whole team. Secondly, just wanted to convey my best wishes to you, Parmod sir. There was a time when the RHIM team used to say that learn how to do profitable business from Parmod sir. So congratulations, sir, and best wishes. My question is-
Thank you so much, Sahil.
Yeah. Sir, my question is how should we look at margins, sir, for the business? I am more of understanding structurally and over a medium to longer term, what could be the levers for the improvement and this number that we have delivered this quarter. I understand, sir, the price hikes are something which will be renegotiated and depends on how RM cost moves. But if you can also split the margins between the Dalmia business and the other businesses because as we understand, the other businesses are flow control heavy and high margin. So structurally, how should we look at the margins for this business?
Sahil, if I talk about Dalmia and Restwhile RHI Magnesita India, it is mostly Dalmia is flat and the growth has come from IN. Why IN? Because in IN or RHI Magnesita India part, most of the products are flow control products, be it Bhiwadi plant or Jamshedpur plant, and that was the focus area where we could manage to get price increases. So the growth has come from IN, whereas IR remains flat. But else, sorry, I could not get. You have too many questions you asked.
Yeah. So I was asking for a medium to longer term structural view on the margins. Where do we see the numbers or maybe a range, and what initiatives we will work on to reach that range? Or sustainable numbers, rather. Yeah.
Sahil, it's Pankaj Malhan. If I was to take this question, first of all, the team has delivered a wonderful quarter one. We should appreciate this. I think going forward, there are a couple of things that, Parmod, you also discussed about. One, of course, some structural changes coming up because of this MINPRO joint venture that we are looking at. Then, of course, we are looking at some of the mines starting for us. So these are the structural changes that we are looking at in terms of making sure the margin sustain. And we are very positive about the Indian context, specifically in terms of the continuing industry growth rates, the way the CapExes are planned. We are very hopeful going forward the price should also look sustainable over here. So net net, we are hopeful in medium to long-term basis, we should be able to sustain the margins.
Sure. That's helpful. Thank you. I will come back in with you. Thank you.
Thank you, Sahil.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rajesh Majumdar from 360 ONE. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, Parmod sir, Azim , and Pankaj sir. Congratulations on a good first quarter. I just wanted to know a couple of things. One is, what is the impact of project orders in the first quarter results? Whether any project orders are reflected in the first quarter numbers, and if so, what is the quantum of that?
Rajesh, we don't have any project in the first quarter. So there's no impact of any particular project delivered in the Q1.
This is entirely from steel operations, mostly.
Yeah, it is operations only. Mainly steel. Industrial was a bit weak because whether it is non-ferrous or glass, there is hardly any project come up in first half of the year, I would say. There are some projects coming up second half of the year.
We were expecting some project orders this year, but nothing seems to have materialized so far. Is that expected to come down the line?
Yeah, we are still expecting in second-
Yeah. Is there
Silica and glass orders will still come through in Q3 and Q4. You will normally see this as seasonal as you are pretty well aware of it. It is easily enough pipeline. This is why we are emphasizing our order book visibility, because these are long-term contracts and we are very confident that we will be able to execute this, and this is enough pipeline. Yeah.
Right. Is there any impact of softer alumina in this quarter in terms of the margin? Because the gross margin standalone has gone up quite a bit. I was wondering whether that impact is positive from the alumina price.
Alumina prices has stabilized from last six months. Last quarter, fourth quarter of last financial year and first quarter of this year, it was static. There is no significant movement, I would say. There is always movement a little bit here and there, but not a significant movement. It is stable as of now.
Right. And sir, what is the outlook for magnesite prices in terms of you already have some price increase in 1Q, but will we see cost increases again in 2Q, which will again be a problem and you need further price increases? Or you think the margins are going to be stable by and large, given the impact of raw material and everything? Yeah.
Magnesite price has already gone up by 6%-8% from, say, last two months or so. We are trying to see how we can absorb this and how we can pass on to our end user. So both way, we are working on how we can further optimize our product processes, recipes, circular economy, and whatever is not possible, how we can go to our end user customers and ask for a price adjustment.
Right. And sir, my last question is, you mentioned in the presentation that the flow control market share has gone up. So what is the contribution of flow control in this quarter?
It's difficult to say what is the contribution, but I can only say in one of the big group, our market share has gone up almost double in last six months or so.
Just to give you a number.
In which group? Yeah.
Rajesh . 35% is coming from flow control business out of total revenue, if that helps.
35%? Okay. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. Before we move to the next question, a reminder to the participants, to ask a question, you may press star and one. Next question is from the line of Rajakumar Vaidyanathan from RK Invest. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats for the good set of numbers. Sir, the first question is, this margin improvement that we have seen in this quarter, is that sustainable?
I will take this question. We have given a guidance of 13%. We still remain firm with that guidance earlier.
Okay. The reason is, I think your parent company, in their commentary, they have said that they are looking at a EUR 45 million EBITDA improvement for 2026, coming from pricing efficiency and product mix combination. I just want to know how much of that will be contributed by the India entities.
Our guidance, our parent company has given for their entire group on the total pricing initiatives that it will contribute to EUR 45 million. This includes all the regions. A part of it is India. However, as you know that very clearly that we give guidance on only two aspects. One is on the volume growth, which we always have said that what our steel segment growth plus 1%-2% is what we have always given a guidance. This is on the volume side. On the profitability side, again, we said 13%, so we continue to remain at 13% year on.
I can only add, out of this EUR 45 million, what the global has said, we are going to contribute significantly. Proportionately, I would say. They are the six regions. So we will be contributing proportionately. Okay?
Yeah. Sir, sorry to labor on that point. Of this EUR 45 million, you said you are going to contribute significantly. Is that already reflected in your Q1, or we will be expecting some more in the upcoming-
No, it is already reflected. Yes.
Okay. So that's going to kind of sustain in the next quarters, right?
Again, I'll go back to my earlier remark. We'll stay at 13%. Of course, if there is any upside in the raw material pricing and the war uncertainty gives us a little bit of a cost headroom, of course, this will be some kind of an upside, but we cannot comment or predict on this geopolitical uncertainty we have. I think we will still, despite all these challenges, despite all these inflationary pressures and volatility in the market, we still firm on what we had said in the last one year that we will still sit on the guidance of a 13%.
Okay. Got it, sir. The second question is, your competitor, Vesuvius, has recently moved into the crucible market through the Morganite Crucible deal to build out the non-ferrous industry exposure. The question is, does RHI Magnesita see crucible or a broader foundry consumable as a wide space opportunity?
Actually, if you talk about our good friend, Vesuvius, they are from the very beginning with Foseco. They acquired Foseco maybe 30 years back, and this crucible business was there throughout. It is not a new diversification, as per my knowledge. We, as RHI Magnesita India, are open to anything and everything. If it fits into our scheme of things, we are really looking at various options.
Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. Participants, to ask a question, you may press star and one. Next question is from the line of Chetan Doshi, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for giving me the opportunity, and welcome, Pankaj, to the board. My first question is regarding in the coming quarters. This quarter, you have performed very well as far as RHI is concerned. But in coming quarters, what kind of product mix you are going to concentrate wherein you will see similar growth? Second is that in spite of the raw material cost and the other challenges, what active steps you are going to take to nullify them? Second question is regarding MINPRO. When actually the production is going to start, and are you the only company to recycle this or any other competitor is also capable in this segment?
Doshi, first of all, thank you very much for welcoming me. Your couple of questions, if I have understood well, first of all, thank you very much for including the participants in the team's performance in quarter one. Of course, we have just touched upon our guidances remain strong. We, [inaudible] , we have just performed that in terms of profitability. Our guidance, 13% for the year would be standing. Of course, we are also looking forward to have some structural changes in the cost, which we have just touched upon, and we are very hopeful we would be able to deliver the numbers that we gave as a guidance. Number two, you spoke about MINPRO. Number two, you wanted some kind of product mix changes. Of course, our independence of management is also there.
In terms of making sure the product mix is always on a richer side, which is of the flow control and the steep technology side. So going forward, we would look forward how we can further enrich our product portfolio and for that is a possibility. Third one, you wanted to understand when to expect the timelines of this project to start. We are very hopeful. We would be looking somewhere towards quarter four of this financial year to start this project.
Do you have any competition in that, or you are the only one to do this research?
Competition is always welcome. We cannot comment on that, but competition is always there, and we believe in healthy competition as always.
Okay. I will join the queue for another question. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Praveen Jayaraman from Avendus Spark Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Congratulations on the good set of number and welcome, Pankaj sir. Pankaj sir, in the opening remarks, you mentioned something on quartzite mining. Can you give a more detailed one on what we are doing there, and what would be the idea here? I could not get that earlier.
Okay. The company is planning to have some backward integration, specifically for quartzite mining. There are two mining that we are working on. One is Pithoragarh and other one is Vikanpatti. We are very close to opening up this mine, and our take is towards the end of this quarter, we should be able to open these mines. This would definitely give us a solid structural benefit in terms of cost structure. The benefit what we expect should start coming up from next quarter.
Yeah.
Thanks for this.
If I may add a little bit. This mine is something that we got as a part of our Dalmia deal. Now we have received all the licenses to operate this mine. This will, as Pankaj rightly said, this is more for supply resilience, Make in India initiative, which we have always harped upon with you. This is where I think it is all coming to fruition now, and this will make us completely self-sustained, and also most importantly, to serve our public sector units steel players, especially.
Understood, sir. Thanks for this. Sir, my second question is on the lines of project orders. We were saying that we did not have any impact on the revenues as of now. In the earlier con calls, I came to know about the coke oven related project orders, which we were anticipating. What is the outlook on the same and whether it will be having impact in this year?
If we talk about glass project, we talk about silica project, coke oven projects. Coke oven project is almost at a final stage of negotiation. There is a bit of pricing adjustment, which we are doing with our customers. It should be concluded any time, and we will restart doing the production from next month. That project is a long-term project. Maybe next 14, 16 months, we will be fully booked for this. The second is glass. Glass, two projects are at a very advanced stage of discussion, so that should also happen in third and fourth quarter of this year.
Okay. We could expect project contributing from H2 with these two coming up on both the coke oven side and on the-
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, sir. Thanks for this and all the best for the management and Pankaj sir on his arrival.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rajas Joshi from ChrysCapital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. I hope I am audible. Congrats on a good set of numbers. My question would be around the growth drivers. Given that we have a net cash balance sheet now, how should one think of incremental opportunities for us outside of the current industries or products that we manufacture and serve? Any other inorganic growth drivers or any other new segments that we can probably enter into? Some color on that would be helpful, please.
We have just concluded this JV with Khemka, so give us some breathing time also. As I said earlier, the global management is also very supportive to expand our business in India, and going forward, the management under leadership of Pankaj will look into various options how we can expand further our business in India.
Understood, sir. Secondly, I think on the call, we have just spoken about how we can enter PSU clients better after having our own captive mine. Just wanted to get a better understanding there of why we were not able to cater to them before so well, and related to that would be, Steel Authority of India Limited has announced a new plant recently. So would we be participating in the same plant, both from a one-time upfront CapEx that they do and then also from a recurring revenue perspective on the same plant that they are setting up?
I think you misunderstood what Azim was saying about PSU linking with the mine. We are already doing this project, coke oven project with the PSU plant. Only thing is with our own mining, we will have a supply resilience and a cost advantage that will improve our margin in a way. We are not relying on third party to supply our raw material for the recovery. So that is what he was trying to say. That is fine.
Okay. Sir, then should one look at this from a perspective that given our own captive mines, we can price our products better, and that should lead to higher volume growth while margins will remain largely stable? Or should one look at it as volume growth should be where it is and margins should improve because we have a captive base.
Second option, margin will improve.
Okay. Understood. On the Steel Authority of India Limited Bhilai plant, if you could just clarify whether we are there in the plant or for the new CapEx that they have announced.
You know, they are coming up with SMS four, so it will still take a time when they will start talking to refractory producers for first fill or CapEx orders. I happened to be there a few weeks back. We discussed in general when it will come, but it is still a way, maybe another six months or eight months when they will start talking to refractory part. Yes, SMS four is coming up. They have a plan of adding about, I think, 6 million tons or 6.5 million tons.
Okay. From a product portfolio perspective, if you look at our parent's product portfolio and basket of offerings, are there some products, per se, which our parent has, which have not been introduced in India yet, and we could possibly introduce them at some point in time, depending on how the market evolves in India here?
Yes. From last three years, we were continuously trying to transfer some technology, some products which we were not producing in India. Some are already transferred, some are in the pipeline. We are working on that. In maybe one year's time, we will have four or five more products being produced in India.
Sir, we have shared this portfolio of what we are transferring. If you go to the investor deck on page number 21 and 22, you can see this, what is our current new product transfer and what we are developing. It will give you a flavor of what we are introducing already or in the process of it.
Understood, sir. This is helpful. Thank you and wishing you all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sahil Sanghvi from Monarch Networth Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity again. Just if you can give some more details on the quartzite mines. Would this scale up to make us self-sufficient on our requirements with respect to that particular mineral? If there is any approximate understanding on how much cost savings can be done or any translation into margins, any kind of details on this front, any direction?
Sahil, it is still work in progress. Our FP&A team is working on how much will be mining cost, transportation cost, royalty, et cetera, landed cost, at what price we are buying from outside sources. So it is still work in progress. We are working on this, and we will reach out to you when we are ready with the costing.
I think this question can be offline in terms of very specifics of the advantages. But yes, there are structural advantages which we are expecting.
Got it. And with respect to Khemka, I understand whatever you have explained in this call till now. But again, is there any kind of quantification possible on how much we can save with respect to our cost structure?
Not exactly we can divulge those numbers as of now, but of course, it is more of supply chain resilience.
Exactly.
What Parmod just now said. I think we are trying to create that kind of resilience in the supply chain. We have seen in this year there were a lot of disruptions because of the geopolitical tensions. We do not want this to happen in future. We are preparing organization from a future perspective.
Got it. Secondly, we are also constantly trying to work on the export story. Any kind of developments or any kind of visibility improving on that front with respect to six to 12 months?
You know, Sahil, it is really unfortunate. From last two, three years, we were trying very hard to increase our export percentage of business. But sometime Ukraine, Russia war, now Middle East war, something or the other is happening. Though we keep on striving, and we did some trials, very successful trials, and we expect at least some flow control, particularly isostatic products export will go up in coming months and maybe a year or so.
Yeah. But the current performance, Sahil, it's actually reduced from last quarter to this quarter. So it's actually reducing at the moment for us.
The larger focus which we really want to be, we are an Indian company and we would love to focus in the domestic markets. So we would be definitely introducing new products like we've just spoken of a while back. But the larger focus is continuing to be in the Indian market.
Local for local.
I understand. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rajakumar Vaidyanathan from RK Invest. Please go ahead. Mr. Vaidyanathan, your line is unmuted. Please go ahead with your question.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity again. Sir, there was also a commentary, a line about India, which said that there is some India steel market share loss as a deliberate exit from low margin business in favor of 4PRO. I just want to know how much of top line we lost due to this.
I think that's not the right statement, if I understand. Basically, we are not saying that we will prioritize 4PRO. I think these are two different statements. What we said in our earlier calls was that we want to be absolutely disciplined on our profitability or the opportunities that will generate value for our shareholders. What does it mean? Basically, is that sometimes we'll exit low margin business, and if it is not adding any value or any strategic advantage, we'll not go growth for the sake of growth. That's what we said. Now, 4PRO, as we said that this is a different business model, what we are adopting. It's a completely different approach altogether in the way we are selling. Earlier we used to do this TRM or SLS kind of contracts.
Now we are saying that we will provide solutions for our customer wherein we are not just a supplier of bricks or mixes. But here our focus is that we understand the problem statement of the customers, establish long-term relationships, and ensure that we provide the solution that works for them, which could be not just providing refractories or installation, but it also could be automation, digitization or robotics, or managing the supply chain of refractories for them. This is what we said on the 4PRO perspective. Again, on the margin on the numbers that you're asking, we don't usually give that split because it is unfair and it is a competitive sensitive information. We don't give this stuff outright.
Okay.
Last time.
Yeah. This is helpful, sir. Sir, this shift to 4PRO, will it also lead to elongated sales cycle, given that you are looking at providing long-term solutions to the customers?
Exactly right. That is the intention of this long-term partnership because this sometimes if you are putting up robotics or automation or digitization kind of initiatives, it has its own technology life scale from adoption and also maturing this to get the full value of the customer. Second, it also has an investment from our side as well, so the customers very well understand it, and that is our entry point to ensure that we secure long-term relationship with the customers.
Okay. Got it, sir. And sir, just one housekeeping question. So I saw this notification on this auditor's resignation. So any reason there is a mid-year resignation with the auditors, if you can give some color?
I know that you follow our group results also very closely, and I am sure you would have observed a notification that we had a change in auditors in our group. So we are basically aligning with that process. Most importantly, our auditors were also getting rotated already next year. So we are aligning with our group's strategy to ensure that we have same auditors to ensure that we have this. This mandatory rotation plus group also kind of changing the auditor. It made sense for us to have a productive discussion with our auditors. They had said that, and they also had sent their intent to resign, and we will be adopting the same auditors, in the upcoming AGM to ensure that we get the right governance and also synergies along with our group.
Okay. This is helpful, sir. Sir, if you permit me, can I ask one more question?
You are already asking, so go ahead, one more.
Yeah. Sorry about that, sir. Sir, the question is, last quarter you made a goodwill impairment. Do you think that the things have now kind of improved? Will there be a situation of reversal of that impairment? Is it something that we can expect?
Basically, goodwill was one time, and all we can confirm is that all the goodwill of Dalmia is already off our balance sheet now. By the way, just to kind of remind everybody, to the investor, these are all non-cash impairment, no impact on our profitability. It is below EBITDA line. Yeah. We do not think we do not need to anything further because we have it on RHIM/IN some goodwill, but we have enough headroom also if even the situation worsens as well. By the way, this also has a positive impact because it also has contributed positive to our growth.
Got it, sir. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Chetan Doshi, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity again. This is regarding this robotic solution in caster operation. So we have two robots already installed. So since how long these are in operation and we have written that we are flexible on five-year lease. So we are ready to offer them five-year kind of warranty kind of a thing that we are associated with the company and we take care of the maintenance part if at all something goes wrong as far as the system is concerned.
Yes, Pankaj, the contract with the JSW is for five years.
Okay.
And in-
Doshi.
Chetan.
Chetan, sorry. Chetan, it is a five-year contract. It includes everything, supply of refractory, maintaining of robotic part. The maintenance, everything is taken care of when we offer this.
Chetan, if I was to just add, I think you know the world is opening up to data centricity, which is I would say a layer of automation, robotics, and then of course, artificial intelligence. Your company, RHIM, is strongly looking into this side of valuation to the customers also going forward.
Oh, that is great. That is great news. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of P Yogesh, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Sir, my simple question is, in let's say over three to five years, apart from our core business, recently we have new contracts with 4PRO and we are doing so many things again and again. Is it good for shareholders? I'm just simply thinking, as per our understanding, apart from the refractories business, what we can do few more to jump up the top line and what could be the basically services business and product business going forward. Roughly, based on your understanding, because you know the client better and because the scope of automation and improvement everywhere in India and everywhere in world as well. Based on your understanding, what could be the possibilities?
I'm not asking you a target, anything, because this market is new to me and everyone to be frank, because I've not seen all these kind of plants. Probably, where we can add value, where we can actually do consultancy or maybe AMC income or maybe other any product like recently, Vesuvius India acquired Foseco Crucible, and they are basically non-ferrous kind of thing. I don't know whether we can do that part also or not. Just a hypothetical comment. I'm not asking you very straightforward answer.
It's a very forward-looking question, Yogesh, and it's a brilliant question also. Look, the company has always been trying to add value to the customers, and we would be going all the way in terms of making sure we engage with the customer. When we say engage, it is going beyond the selling of the products. We really want to put ourselves into the shoes of the customers and see what exactly we can add values with here. Now, this can actually span out of some kind of automation, digitization, or even going up to an AI layer, which can add value to their processes. Net net, if I was to say, the company would be striving to move from a product selling to a solution selling, definitely next three to five years basis.
Second, of course, the opportunities I can't predict as of now what would be there in future, but our company remains open to exploring whatever comes on the way in terms of attractiveness of the business.
Okay. Anything on for non-ferrous side?
Sorry?
Anything on non-ferrous side?
Non-ferrous, we are already there. We are into cement, we are into aluminum, and we will continue to look. We are into copper. So we will continue to strengthen our position in terms of non-ferrous going forward.
Okay. Just the last question on my side. Sir, I agree in a volatile kind of situation, it is very difficult to predict anything. I am asking, well, let us say this year, how do you see for steel industry as per your understanding and because you are in touch with customer also, and obviously, you have some basic idea how things are turning, and there is a lead time to supply goods and services. I am not asking exact number, but outlook wise, how do you see this year could be better than last year based on because most of the auto production and basically infrastructure, everything is going up. Just asking you simple, because last year was X scenario, whether this will be 1.2X kind of scenario for this year.
We very clearly outlaid our strategy elements with you that we are looking to outpace the market growth. That is where the management is working out with. Of course, there would be customer engagement coming through 4PRO model. Definitely, we would love to adopt more of technology and digitization that I discussed upon. Fourth, of course, we are looking into structural changes in the cost structure itself. So all these initiatives are there. There is lot of strategic quotient to this, which as a team we will continue to work on and take it forward.
No, sir. I am asking the environment because see strategies we can decide internally.
The environment if I was to say. We all know steel is growing very great in the country right now. If we look into the numbers, the way Indian steel sector has grown in H1, it was 7% to 8% growth. That actually puts us into a very good sweet spot with the growth of our end-consuming industry. Sea bank, of course, continues to grow at a good pace, and we are hoping the India story could be tapped going forward. The way we are looking at the CapExes announced by lot of steel companies and their commitment to their CapExes, I think if I just do a very broad cut number, not to be exact, but I think steel sector itself would be seeing a CapEx nothing less than INR 50,000 crores-INR 60,000 crores coming up this financial year. That also gives us lot of headroom.
Going forward, the growth rate of steel sector is going to be great, at least for next five to eight years that we look at. Refractory industry should be tagging in line with the growth rate of steel sector.
Sure. Thank you very much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Parmod Sagar for the closing comments.
Thank you very much. Dear valued shareholders and analysts, thank you for your support as you people are doing for many years. Thanks for your trust in the management, and we assure you we will do everything possible to exceed your expectation under this volatile situation. We cannot comment, confirm everything, but intention is to grow more than the market, and we will continue this. We look forward to your continued support. Thank you very much, and all the very best. Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
On behalf of RHI Magnesita India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.