Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Carborundum Universal Q2FY26 earnings conference call hosted by Kotak Securities. 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, please signal an operator by pressing Star and zero on a Touch-Tone phone. Please note this conference is being recorded. I now hand over the conference to Aditya Mongia. Thank you. And over to you, sir.
Thanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the earnings conference call of Carborundum Universal. From the management side, today we have Mr. Sridharan Rangarajan, Managing Director, Mr. G. Chandramouli, Advisor. Without any further delay, I'll request the management to share with us their opening remarks. Post which, Q& A can follow. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Aditya. Good morning. I am Chandramouli. Let us start the proceedings with the disclaimer clause. During this call we may make certain statements which reflect our outlook for the future or which could be construed as forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are associated with uncertainties and risks as more fully detailed in our annual report which may cause the actual results to differ. Hence, this statement must be reviewed in conjunction with the risks that the company faces. Thank you.
Good morning to all of you and a warm welcome to our second quarter and the first half earnings call for the financial year FY26. Thank you for joining us today. Hope you all had celebrated Diwali with family and friends. Our warmest Diwali wishes to everyone and trust the festive season bring you joy and prosperity. We will begin this call by giving an overview of company's performance as well as the first half. Then open up for questions.
To start with, consolidated sales in Q2FY26 was INR 1,287 crores compared to INR 1,209 crores in Q2FY25. This shows a 6.4% growth as compared to Q2FY25.
Abrasives grew by 7.4% from INR 543 crores to INR 584 crores. Ceramics grew by 7.8% from 280 crores to INR 301 crores. Electro Minerals degrew marginally by 0.9% from INR 402 crores to INR 399 crores compared to Q1FY26. Sales in this quarter grew by 6.6% from INR 1207 crores to INR 2287 crores. Abrasives grew by 15% from INR 508 crores to INR 584 crores. Ceramics grew by 0.6% from INR 300 crores to INR 301 crores. Electro Minerals degrew by 1.6% from INR 405 crores to INR 399 crores. Consolidated sales for H1FY26 was INR 2493 crores compared to.
INR 2,393 crores in H1FY25. This shows a growth of 4.2%. The growth was driven by Ceramic segment which grew by 9.4% from INR 549 crores to INR 601 crores. Electro Minerals grew by 2.6% from INR 783 crores to INR 804 crores. The Abrasives grew by 0.3% from INR 1,095 crores to INR 1,091 crores. Coming to the PBIT performance, PBIT for Q2FY26 was INR 111 crores against INR 154 crores in Q2FY25 compared to PBIT of INR 81 crores in Q1.26. Q2 PBIT grew by 37%.
About INR 51 crores, sorry. PBIT for the first half of the year was INR 192 crores compared to INR 304 crores. The drop is mainly contributed by VAW about INR 51 crores, RHODIUS INR 26 crores and standalone INR 34 crores. Now I go to standalone. Standalone Q2FY26 sales were INR 712 crores with a growth of 1% compared to sales of INR 705 crores in Q2FY25. Electro Minerals grew marginally by 1.2% from INR 210 crores in Q2 FY25 to INR 213 crores in Q2 FY26.
Ceramics was almost flat. Sales in Ceramics moved from INR 227 crores in Q2FY25 to INR 228 crores. Abrasives degrew marginally by 0.1%.
Standalone sales of INR 712 crores in Q2FY26 compared to INR 698 crores in Q1FY26 grew by 2%. The Abrasives grew by 7.5% from INR 286 crores in Q1 of FY26 to INR 308 crores in Q2 of FY26. Electro Minerals was almost flat with a growth of 0.2% moving from INR 212 crores to INR 212.7 crores. Ceramics degrew by 4.3% from INR 238 crores in Q1 FY26 to INR 128 crores in Q2 FY26.
Standalone sales for H1 FY26 was INR 1,410 crores up 3% compared to sales of INR 1,369 crores in H1 FY25. This was contributed by growth in Electro Minerals at 6.5% which moved from INR 399 crores in H1 FY25 to INR 425 crores in H1 FY26. Ceramics grew by 4.9% from INR 444 crores to INR 466 crores. Abrasives grew by 2.8% from INR 611 crores to INR 594 crores.
PBIT for Q2FY26 was INR 87 crores compared to PBIT of INR 116 crores in Q2FY25. Mainly Ceramics contributed to INR 17 crores. Pick up here.
PBIT for Q1FY26 was INR 166 crores.
PBIT of Q2 2026 dropped to INR crores. This is mainly due to lower dividend income. PBIT for the first half of the year grew by 7.9% from INR 235 crores in H1 2025 to INR 254 crores in H1 2026.
I'll go to the segment Performance Abrasives. Consolidated abrasives sales of H1 FY26 was INR 1,096 crores when compared to INR 2,095 crores, almost remained flat. Q2 FY26 sales was INR 584 crores with a growth of 7.4% compared to INR 544 crores in Q2 FY25. This growth was contributed by Auco INR 9 crores, RHODIUS INR 25 crores and QME America. Compared to Q1 FY26 sales was higher by 15% moving from INR 508 crores to INR 584 crores. This is largely driven by sequential recovery in standalone rupees INR 21 crores recovery in RHODIUS about INR 48 crores which has seen a loss in Q1 on account of the transition to a new third party logistics provider.
Standalone abrasives in Q2FY26 standard abrasives sales of INR 308 crores remain flat compared to the same period last year.
Sales of H1FY25 was INR 594 crores with a degrowth of 2.8% compared to INR 611 crores in H1FY24. Sequential growth is encouraging and looking forward to it better. RHODIUS Abrasives in H1FY25 achieved the net sales of 30.6 million EUR compared to 33.8 million EUR in H1 of FY24. This represents a 9% degrowth over last year. For the quarter RHODIUS achieved net sales of 17.4 million EUR which is 5.4% growth over Q2 of FY24 which saw sales of 16.5 million EUR. Q2 FY25 sales is higher by 31.6% compared to 13.2 million EUR in Q1 FY25 reflecting the resolution of operational challenges relating to logistics.
In our previous call we had said that we expect the stability of operation to come by end of August.
Almost resolved and back to normal.
And.
We had also said that Q1 performance would impact the full year sales as well. We said that we expect the remaining 3/4 sales would be in line with the last year's sales. In Q2 we are seeing a 5.4% growth. We still maintain the same outlook.
In H1 FY26 RHODIUS has incurred a loss of EUR 2.2 million against a loss of EUR 0.1 million same period last year. This is after the PPA write off of EUR 1.4 million reflecting the loss of sales in Q1 impacting the profitability.
In FY25, RHODIUS made a loss after tax of EUR 0.2 million last year. We expect the loss after tax to be about EUR 3.5-4 million this year. This is after PPA write-off of EUR 2.8 billion. AWUKO achieved sales of EUR 5.5 million for the first half of the year with a growth of 5.3% when compared to the sales of EUR 5.3 million last year.
For the quarter, AWUKO delivered sales of EUR 2.9 million which is a 31% growth over the last year. 2.2 million sequence yield was higher by 12.7% compared to 2.6 million in Q1.26. The losses after tax in H1 versus this year remained flat. At the full year we expect the sales growth to grow by about 20%. We maintain the same outlook. The losses.
Before tax could decrease slightly. Now I will cover the bottom line performance of the segment. Consolidated Abrasives PBIT for the first half of the year was INR 45 crores compared to PBIT of INR 90 crores in H1 25. Margins have declined from 8.2% to 4.1%.
The margins were impacted by RHODIUS and standalone business. Consolidated abrasive PBIT for Q2FY26 was INR 33 crores compared to PBIT of Q2FY25 at INR 34 crores.
Compared to Q1FY26, the PBIT was higher by INR 22 crores. This sequentially, sorry, compared to the PBIT of the same period last year, Q1FY26 was INR 11 crores. This is mainly due to RHODIUS and standalone operations.
Electro Minerals consolidated sales for H1 FY26 was 804 crores compared to sales of 783 crores in H1 FY25. Standalone business.
Foskor's Zirconia helped to grow this standalone business grew by 26%. Foskor grew by INR 20 crores and Wendt grew by about INR 83 crores.
Q2 sales was INR 399 crores compared to sales of INR 402 crores in Q2 of FY25. The growth was on account of VAW.
Sorry, the degrowth was on account of the VAW. Sales in Q2FY26 was INR 399 crores compared to INR 405 crores in Q1FY26. This is also largely arising from VAW.
Standalone Electro Minerals. Standalone Q2 sales was INR 213 crores. This is a 1.2% growth compared to sales of INR 210 crores in Q2FY25. The growth was largely aided by volume while prices remained flat.
Exports continued to perform well in this segment compared to Q1 FY26. The sales in this quarter was almost flat.
Sales for H1FY25 was at INR 425 crores with a growth of 6.5% compared to INR 399 crore H1FY25. This growth was aided by volume and price. Export definitely helped a lot.
VAW sales in local currency in Q2FY26 degrew by 37.2% compared to Q2FY25 from RUB 2.4 billion to RUB 1.5 billion. In INR sales the de-growth was 27%.
The exchange rate used in Q2FY25 was 0.94, compared to the exchange rate used in Q2FY26, which is about 1.08. Sales in local currency degrew by 15%. That is RUB 1.8 billion to RUB 1.5 billion compared to Q1FY26. WA delivered a profit after tax.
RUB 222 million in Q2 FY26 against 466 million during same period last year and RUB 71 million in Q1 FY26.
In local currency H1FY26, the sales was RUB 3.3 billion compared to RUB 4.9 billion in H1FY25. This is a decline of 31%. We communicated this expectation earlier. In INR terms the sales decline was from INR 459 crores to INR 364 crores resulting in a decline of 21%. H1FY25 profits were RUB 294 million compared to RUB 753 million during the same period last year. This is a decline of 61% in terms of H1 profit from 70 crores, it declined to 31 crores.
With respect to the full year performance at VAW, we had earlier communicated a drop in volume by about 25%. We maintained the same guidance. Now.
Foskor Zirconia for the quarter sales was around ZAR 114 million compared to sales of ZAR 82 million in Q2 FY25. The loss after tax was ZAR 24 million compared to loss after tax of ZAR 21 million in Q2 FY25.
Sorry to interrupt you, sir. So there is lot of disturbance coming from the background from your end.
We don't have any sound coming from our end. Nothing is there. No one talks. Nothing is coming.
Okay, I will just check.
Got it.
Because there is a lot of like vehicles and things coming out from backend. No problem. I'll just look into it. Sorry. You can please continue.
All right.
In Q1 FY26 sales was ZAR 121 million. In Q2 FY26 the sales was ZAR 114 million. In Q1 26, the loss after tax was 18 million Rand compared to the loss after tax in Q2 26 of ZAR 24 million. In H1 26 sales was ZAR 235 million compared to H1 25 sales of ZAR 203 million. In H1 26 loss after tax was ZAR 42 million compared to 30.32 million in H1 25.
I move to Ceramics business.
Consolidated sales for H1 FY26 were INR 601 crores compared to INR 549 crores in H1 FY25. This is a growth of 9.4%. Growth was driven by standalone operations and the Australian subsidiary.
FY26. The sales was INR 301 crores compared to INR 280 crores in Q2 of FY25. This is a growth of 7.8% and was driven largely by our Australian subsidiary.
Standalone Ceramics Q2 sales was INR 228 crores which is flat compared to Q2 FY25 compared to Q1 FY26 sales in this quarter degrew by 4.3%. Basically INR 238 crores or INR 228 crores. Sales for H1 was INR 466 crores. This is higher by 4.9% to INR 444 crores in the same period last year. We covered the PBIT of the segment consolidated. PBIT for Q2 FY26 was at INR 62 crores compared to the PBIT in Q1 FY26 of INR 75 crores mainly due to product mix and volume. Consolidated PBIT of H1 FY26 was INR 137 crores compared to INR 144 crores in H1 FY25. Standalone Ceramics PBIT decreased by 3.8% to INR 107 crores from INR 111 crores in H1 FY25.
There was no debt in our standalone books. Total debt at consolidated basis was INR 210 crores at the end of Q2 FY26 compared to INR 170 crores at the end of Q1 26 and INR 103 crores at the same period last year. The debt to equity ratio is 0.06 at consolidated level. Cash and cash equivalent at the consolidated without cash in VAW is about INR 215 crores which means that net debt is zero.
During the H1FY26 our CapEx investment was INR 162 crores against INR 124 crores in H1FY25. This is against our full year plan of INR 350 crores as we communicated during the last call. So we are progressing as per the plan.
At the standalone level, the Capex was INR 120 crores compared to INR 16 crores same period last year. Now I'll provide an update on the outlook for the current year. I maintained the outlook shared last time, which is as follows. Consolidated sales growth could be 5.5%-6.5%. Consolidated Ceramics growth could be 16%-18%. Same as earlier. Communicated EMD growth cadence is about 1%-2%. Same as last time. Communicated abrasive sales. In our last call, we communicated 4%-5% growth for the year. Margins at consolidated level, Ceramics section, we communicated 23.5%-23.7% on a full year basis. Maintained the same EMD. In the last call, we said 4.5%-5.5% abrasives. Last time, we said PBIT margin could be 6%-6.5% on a full year basis. We said that last time. The overall PBIT margin could be 8.2%-8.5%.
We maintain the same CapEx side. We would spend about INR 350 crores. We spent about INR 162 in H1. So we think we will meet the CapEx.
So that's broadly my opening remark and I think I will open up for Q& A. Thank you.
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 Touch-Tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself on the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
The first question is from the line of Ravi Swaminathan from Spark Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi sir, thanks for taking my question. My first question is with respect to the standalone segments of Abrasives and Ceramics and Refractories. The growth were subdued during this quarter. So if you can give a bit more granularity in terms of quality of growth in Abrasives in the retail side and industrial supply side. Similarly for Ceramics and Refractories. Between the wear Ceramics, Metallized Cylinders refractories, how the individual subcategories were growing. That would be great sir.
Thank you. I think.
So the growth in the standalone segment, particularly Electro Minerals was about 6.5%, Ceramics 4.9% and Abrasives degrew at 2.8%. But the growth sequentially in Abrasives at 7.5% is encouraging. We expect that trend to continue for the second half. That's the broad outlook that we have. And as far as the Ceramics is concerned the H2 will be strong largely because of the way the order books were built and some of the projects requirement are coming along. So we expect that there could be a H2 will be heavily loaded compared to the H1. So hence the.
Compared to the H1 versus H2 will be different.
Electro Minerals will continue the trajectory that we have been committing to. That should continue. That's what we're broadly aiming to.
And within the subcategories, any flavor, sir. So for example, Ceramics and Refractories. How Wear had performed, how Refractories had performed, how Metallized Cylinders have performed.
Yeah, so Metallized Cylinders and Engineered Ceramics have performed over 20%. And.
I think the main challenges basically on the wear Ceramics side, both in wear and some other refractories side. The project-based dependence there is a delay which would pick up in the next quarter. We should see overall growth at a high single-digit level. We are at about 11% growth. We expect that would pick up. Okay.
Which sectors would these wear Ceramics be catering to? Where this delay is, is it like steel, cement?
So the steel, cement, glass. All these sectors. There are some project delays.
Understood.
And similar flavor on Abrasive side. Retail versus industrial supply, how it is doing, any flavor on that.
I think industrial and precision are doing fine. Retail is a bit subdued. But the encouraging thing is that the inventories at the dealer level have really come down, which means that, you know, Q3 and Q4 we should see a pickup. A lot of festival pickup helped to move their inventory level. That is something encouraging to look at Q3 and Q4.
Got it, sir. And my final question with respect to the Electro Minerals business. You had highlighted that there is a bit of Chinese competition in.
Aluminum oxide and.
How it is panning out. So is there increased competition which is there or is it maintaining?
Any views on that?
It is maintaining, and no difference that we see at this point.
Got it, sir. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Harshit Patel from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity, sir. So my first question is on standalone Ceramics. I think the margins over there have been the weakest we have seen in last four years. About 20% or so. You have highlighted adverse product mix. That's one of the reasons. What could be the other factors over here? Also we had expected a strong revenue growth as clean energy sales to the U.S.-based customers are reviving. However, we have posted only flattish sales. So if you could explain correlate these things, that will be very helpful.
So, I think product mix and the other one is the top line. You know, there's base level fixed cost absorption needs to happen. So, since there's a top line is bit soft. So, that's why we expect the H2 we could pick up. I mean, we will bounce back better in the H2 and that should start showing the margin pickup. And, that's why even in the overall margin guidance I still maintain what was earlier said.
Right. Just a follow up to that, sir. When our Metallized Cylinders and engineered Ceramics are doing so well, which are obviously the higher margin businesses for us, whereas the wear Ceramics and Refractories. Shouldn't the product mix be good for us? Should that not be an accretive product mix?
It does and that is why it is helping us a bit. But if you look at that, the wear plus the fired refractories business, they are not bad. Their margins are also very encouraging margins. But the volumes that they hold to the total business when it is not growing, it will thus have the impact of the mix. And that's why we use the word mix.
Understood. So my second question is on the subsidiary level Electro Minerals business. Here the sales came to be very strong despite the continued sanctions on VAW. Margins have also improved on sequential basis. So how have we achieved this improvement in the past?
No. So I think if I look at it, abrasives, we have done fairly well. Outside of course there's a domestic abrasive pickup, equally Foskor's Zirconia top line pickup. These two are helping us in terms of our overall pickup. But you have also a fall of almost 83 crores in the top line as far as VAW is concerned. But the eliminations, you know, the intercompany eliminations are lower compared to the last year because we no more source from VAW. So that benefit also accrues to us. So that is how the overall, we're in better shape as far as Electro Minerals is concerned.
Just lastly a bookkeeping question on our other segment wherein we combine the results of Foseco as well as the IT business. Here we have posted the positive PBIT after consecutive losses of 14 quarters. Anything you could highlight here?
I think.
I don't want to track individually these smaller businesses, but I think all of them are doing fine, so all of them are fine, well, and that is the basic reason for that.
Understood. Thank you very much sir for answering my questions. I'll come back.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Amit Anwani from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you sir.
Thanks for taking my question. First question on VAW again. So obviously you have highlighted that there would be 25% reduction in volumes. Wanted to understand any development which has happened on sanctions. And in case of sanctions continuing, what kind of volumes are we expecting? Any strategy or any hope of sanctions getting lifted? How should one think of this business? Slightly medium term?
Yeah.
No, look, I think this is a very.
Tough area to guess because.
This is a geopolitical question. I would like to stay away from that. I think you are as good as mine or more than mine in terms of knowing the geopolitical situation as everyone reads instantaneously as everyone tweets.
I feel that our focus at this point in time is to stay within the ambit of what we can do.
That I think is what we will stay.
What is helping us is a debt free company and also.
Highly focused way of running the business. Helps us to stay afloat.
We hope, you know, sooner some.
Better prospects would come.
Turning to the two subsidiaries, AWUKO and RHODIUS, would love to understand are we on track for breakeven and when are they happening. And second, with respect to what is driving the demand, I understand there's a lot of sales, they're global in nature. So just wanted to understand.
What is the situation on demand side for this subsidiary and there's some improvement which has happened and we are expecting H2 to be slightly better, so updates on that?
Sure, so I think.
The rawest drop in Q1 is a one-off event largely driven by the, you know, the way the logistics was handled. But they are out of that and they are back to normal. And the demand, I would say.
It is good and it is continuing the way we are planning as far as RHODIUS is concerned and we as I said that we continue to look at RHODIUS as a good.
Company would get back to.
The profitability even after PPA soon. That is what we are broadly looking at as far as AWUKO is concerned. We feel that getting to about roughly about EUR 12-14 million top line for this year is the first milestone that we should hit so far. It looks like the trajectory is towards that. And then at the end of the year we will again update you in terms of how we are looking beyond that. So by and large both are traveling as per what we are looking at.
Lastly, sir, on the new product developments, last time I recollect you highlighted the high-performance SiC pilot plant is on track, though we do not expect the volumes in FY26, FY27, so any update on that? And apart from that, I think a lot of activities happening on semiconductor. CGCRI installed the plant, and even L&T is talking about it. So and we also talked about some Ceramic-based products for semiconductors. Just wanted to understand with respect to product developments what one should look at in near- to medium-term which can materialize in two, three years.
Sure. So semiconductor.
Basically, Ceramics for semiconductor fab equipment is what our focus area, and that facility is coming up pretty much in line, and we expect.
You know, these would start benefiting in the next year onwards, which is what our earlier cadence also. So that would continue, and the defense program, aerospace and defense program investment is also very much on track. The investment on HPSiC is also very much on track. All the programs that we broadly talked about as far as our long term strategy is concerned, everything is pretty much on track. That's why you see a strong CapEx spend which is very much in line with our spend as well. In fact, the INR 160-odd crores is probably the highest at this point in time, so we are progressing based on our long term trajectory.
Are we seeing any contribution coming in from these projects in next two years or it will be beyond years?
So as far as the.
Semiconductor, we expect that it would start contributing from next year.
And then aerospace and defense partly next year but mostly year after. And then as far as the HPSiC, we said two years we need to wait because these are all seeding time which is what we are currently doing.
Thank you so much sir and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rupesh Utwani from Nayan M. Vala Securities Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Hi sir, am I audible?
Yes, you are audible. Thanks Ritesh.
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my call. I just would like to know that, you know, over the past two three quarters if I am to look at your other expenses, they are on a standalone basis they have grown, you know. They have grown on a higher trajectory which has been affecting your overall margins. So if you could maybe just shed some light on what is causing that increase, that would be really helpful.
I think other expenses, what you call it as unallocable at the consolidated level is very much comparable at H1 to H1 level. And you know, standalone level there is a marginal increase about INR 10 crore. So I see that it is very much in line. We don't see abnormality except there are some dividend income movement which is like we also disclosed that close to some INR 68 crores plus is the dividend that we had, you know, kind of one-off dividend which other than that I think if you exclude that, I mean as we exclude those we see that it is very much in line.
Okay, sir, and I just wanted to confirm that you had said that in this project said that VAW is not, you know, exporting raw materials to the Indian subsidiary for, let's say, from the Electro Minerals perspective. So, I mean, would that affect our margins anyway in the abrasives or any other segment?
I don't think we had any link to the domestic abrasive business. We never sourced for our domestic abrasive business and has no connection to that and we are not sourcing. I mean that that stopped. Yeah.
Thank you so much. I'll join back.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhavin Vithlani from SBI Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir.
Good morning, Bhavin.
So the question number one is with respect to your comment to the earlier.
Where I also was observing a 35% increase in capital expenditure. If you could help us what is the planned outlay for the current financial year and the next, and if you could also give us break-up between the key projects that we are planning this capital expenditure?
Yeah, so Bhavin, I think we did gate INR 350 crores of CapEx at the full year level. That is what our guidance is, and we have spent about INR 160 odd crores now.
Second half, we will have the rest, and this is as per our long term strategy program that what we have worked on. So it is very much in line. Individual project details will be difficult to share, but these are coming for, let's say, semiconductor facilities.
You know, facilities for aerospace and defense, investment in HPSiC facility, investment in thin wheel relocation, all that is, these are the programs that we are working on.
Pardon me for harping on this. What would be the total planned outlay for the semiconductor, for the aerospace, defense, Ceramics and HPSiC over a two to three-year basis? The total planned outlay for getting the project up and running in the phase one of our plan.
So, Bhavin, I think it is a reasonable facility and based on our expected returns and the top line is the normal way that we evaluate and put individually. We are unable to share, you know, how much is this etc. But we rest assured that it is based on anchor customers programs that we have in place to support that and that is how we are making these investments.
Sure, my other question is on the Electro Minerals and when I look at the subsidiaries' performance which standalone minus.
The revenue run rate that I see for the quarter is about INR 186 crores, and prior to the sanction it used to be about INR 190-200 crores, so it's not very different despite the sanctions.
And this is a continuous process. The VAW is a continuous process business. So could you help us understand?
Is the impact that we are seeing largely the driver realization where we've been able to push out the volumes maybe at a lower margins and in this quarter also we've seen a remarkable improvement on the profitability front. I mean if I look at the EBIT of the division where it was negative in the previous quarters about two-three crores and it is about INR 13 crores positive. The effort that we are putting it will be helpful to understand and what transpired such a improvement despite the sanctions.
So, first of all, sanction does affect. It is not that.
It is not affected. So it is told that at H1 level we have an INR 83 crores of impact on the Electro Minerals business. So it does affect but what helps us is the standalone growth. Growth in Foskor is helping us to large extent to offset this. So that is what I would say rather than anything else.
And obviously that helps us also to some extent a margin stabilization. And so.
I think, had VAW performed at its normal level, we would have enjoyed far more better results than this. Hope to see that day soon. Sure.
If you could, if possible, what would be the plan? Assuming these sanctions go on for years, what is the plan of action for the company to get to alternative markets, alternative?
Customers?
See, I think.
I'm sure this is very difficult to even.
Walk through a simulated experience of answering this question because.
It's very tough.
From our side we have an approach where focus highly on what VAW can do with the limitations what they have. So that's number one, make sure that we run this in a way which is within the framework of what is possible.
Highly focused on cash conservation, making sure that they have reasonable.
Margins and able to survive.
At the same time, thinking beyond how can we do beyond this.
Very very difficult task. Bhavin, you know we have limitations of what we can do. So definitely as a group we will not do what is not possible.
So my last question is on the abrasives front as we've highlighted there are three broad segments retail, industrial and precision. Retail is where the pressure was. But I also understand that within the precision and the industrial, automotive as a sector has a greater salience and as we are seeing pickup in the automotive production.
If you could just give us an outlook in terms of do we see rate of growth for the standalone abrasive improving because yesterday our competitor also reported and they reported kind of a 6% growth, so your outlook over the next three four quarters given the automotive pickup and how do you see will be helpful.
I think.
As I said that our own reading is that the H2 for the abrasive is going to be better. First of all, look at Q2 versus Q1. We are seeing a pickup in terms of growth and we have grown about 7.5% plus and.
We expect Q3 and Q4 will be better on few things. One, our own retail network, the kind of inventories with them is kind of far more thinner at this point in time because of what they had experienced in the last quarter. So the benefit of GST plus.
The festival growth, etc. We should see this coming up.
In Q3 and Q4. So I would say that our expectation for us is definitely better in H2.
Thank you so much for taking my question.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Viraj from SiMPL . Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi sir, thanks for the opportunity. I joined the call a little late, so pardon me if my question is repetitive. So my question is largely on recent developments at Vent. So post exit of 3M we are primarily the de facto promoters in the company and in the past we have seen transfer of talent from Vent to CUMI as well. And recently we have seen exit of top leadership as well from Vent. So question is what is our play here now with the entity and what is our aspiration and expectations from that company and what will help us achieve those.
So thanks for this question. I would stick to commentary on the performance of CUMI here and I'm sure you appreciate our constraints on that. We should talk about CUMI and I encourage you to focus on CUMI.
Understood, sir. And sir, second is more of a feedback. You know the group is known for being investor friendly, stakeholder friendly and are a benchmark when it comes to investor communication and practices. But sorry to say we are disappointed with the approach here at Wendt. We as long term investors even participated in AGM, registered our speakers, put our queries, but it's been more than three months to say there has been no reply. Worse, the subsidiary has been reporting poor numbers and we have no idea what's happening in that business. So this is very unlike Murugappa Group company. So you know, how do we rectify this? Because as long term investors we are still waiting for the opportunity to get our queries addressed.
Sure. Thanks for expressing your sentiment. I would take this back and probably convey this to the Wendt team and they would get back to you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Mongia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. So see I just wanted to check with you sir. Standalone business.
Started to kind of grow over the last 34 years. Mid to high, single digit more towards mid than high. Talking overall business.
Could you give us?
A sense of what needs to change to accelerate to higher levels? That's the first question linked up to that is of the INR 350 crores that you are spending in, is.
The split a lot more towards existing businesses or is it a lot more towards new lines of work?
So I think so your second question is not audible. Could you be clear on that?
Sure. What I was asking was that in that INR 350 crores of Capex is it more inclined towards existing lines of work or is there a fairly meaningful share of new lines of work?
Okay. Okay, good. So I think what needs to happen to.
Having higher growth is the first question. As far as the standalone business is concerned. So I think this is the program that we have for a five-year horizon from now till FY30 is where.
The LTS work that we have prepared ourselves.
I think each of this business have come up with a set of actions which would take the growth from the current level to a higher growth rate.
We feel that each of them.
are definitely working towards that. I think we broadly shared last time around that I think the abrasives is largely going to focus on.
Sharpening the go-to-market, introducing newer products through the NPD program. Similarly, we also have a program of how do we source and scale, and these are the programs. And of course there are specific geographies today we are not present or our market share is lower, so how do I make use of those? So these are the opportunities that we should see and pursue this. In the Electro Minerals we said that scaling up in alumina, move more towards the treated grains whether it is seed treated or silane treated or sol-gel treated, blue treated, Zirconia treated grains, thereby increasing our alumina portfolio. At the same time focus on the value-added products through additions of Zirconia, thermal.
Stabilized Zirconia, etc. And getting into new areas like Thermal Spray Powders, etc. These are the programs as far as Electro Minerals is concerned. As far as Industrial Ceramics is concerned, our focus is largely in terms of how do we serve in newer areas like semiconductors, electronics, aerospace and defense. And how do we prepare ourselves for that? Which is what is the program that each of them are working? And in terms of the Refractories, it is mostly to scale up on the Monolithic Refractories. Just broadly summarizing it. These are the programs which will help us to accelerate the growth. What you have observed as there is a pickup, but will it pick up further? The answer is yes. And these are the programs that we would work on of the INR 350 crores. Are you investing in new areas and if so, how much?
I would say a majority of this investment goes into newer areas.
Is what I would, you know, shared with you.
Understood, sir. I think those are two questions from my side. Thank you so much for response. Thank you.
Good. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit Pandey from Citi. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, sir, and thank you for the opportunity. The first question is on Metallized Cylinders. So I believe you mentioned in this quarter there has been 20% growth. So just wanted to understand what are the capacity utilizations there now and are there any expansion plans here? The end market does look like growing quite smartly here. Yeah, that would be question number one.
Yes, I think you are right. I think the end market is going really strong. And I shared over 20% growth, which is what we are telling. And we are also parallel looking at how do we prepare ourselves for an accelerated growth. And so clearly we have a program to address that.
All right, sir. Secondly, on the Aerospace and Defense Ceramics, is it possible to share more color around your offerings here? Where exactly which sub segments are they likely to find applications in? And.
Have you already entered into any partnerships with any defense customers for R& D for them or how are you thinking about this?
Good. The two broad areas that we work on is Armor, basically vehicle protection and body protection. These are the two broad areas that we are working on. And.
So our strength is to prepare ourselves and supply the Ceramics needed for that. For which we have some collaboration with DRDO and CGCRI, which are very much in place and the capabilities are very much there. The third area is certification in terms of various international certification in terms of their penetration. So those are also fairly. We have got about four different levels of certifications that we have got for our.
Products and we are working with some of the leading.
Customers, leading suppliers for aerospace and defense in India, and definitely these are the four broad kind of indicators that I can share. This is how we are working on.
Just to clarify.
So this is not just domestic opportunity, this is possibly international. Because I understand you said about some certification.
No certification is required even to supply to the domestic market, and hence you require, because that's basically.
You need to make yourself qualified to supply. And that's the basic threshold. So that is what we are doing. Our focus is domestic to start with.
Okay. Yeah, sir, and last question is more near term. So, Ceramics you mentioned in 2H, you're looking at on standalone Ceramics. If you could give more color around whether this is based on certain order backlog that you already have or.
What.
Should drive this pick up into edge in Ceramics. Standalone.
Right. This is based on the order backlog and the project execution time from the customers, so those are the basis for the estimation.
Okay, sir, thank you and all the best. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you. The last question is from the line of Anupam Goswami from SUD Life.
Please go ahead.
My first question on the Ceramics. How do we look at in a little long-term growth? We had good run until now and kind of supporting the other segments. So from here onwards, even beyond, let's say FY 2026, 2027, 2028, how is the market turning up for us? How is the newer product doing and how do you see the growth sustaining?
In the Ceramics? I think I was just talking a little bit earlier. The growth trajectories are. So there is an existing set of business and their own growth trajectory, which is basically either engineered Ceramic products or Metallized Cylinders and the VAL products. That's the growth driving. The second is the newer investments that we are making, which is basically in terms of.
Semiconductor, electronics, aerospace, and defense. So that will help us to accelerate the growth currently what we have. So these will be the two broad engines which could drive the future growth of Ceramics.
So till now we had about 20%-22% sort of growth in Ceramics. Shall we take or can we take this number going forward? Do we have that conviction here?
So we have been gated individually, but we have shared a broad cadence two calls back in terms of what we are looking at in the long term trajectory. I think those should help you to make your projection. But we are quite upbeat about what we are trying to do.
Okay, sir, last on the new areas, where do we see the revenues coming in and how much of a contribution we can see from that? What is the scale of we can look at?
I think we broadly gated the overall company level, you know, two times in this period of.
The next five years. That's what we are broadly gated. So individually we haven't shared any guidance, but programs we did share about that.
Okay sir thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. That was the last question, ladies and gentlemen. I now hand over the conference to the management for the closing comments.
Good. I think, thank you all for participating. I would summarize. Number one is what we have been gaining for this year. We are very much on track. CapEx program is very much on track. Balance sheet is strong, and the trajectory that we all looked at for the LTS 2030, we are progressing well towards that.
You know, I would say that.
In terms of some of the specific items like issues on VAW, we need some resolution at the geopolitical level which will help us to take this forward, but other than that, we are very much on track in terms of the programs that we are looking at. So thank you and all the very best.
On behalf of Kotak Securities. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.