Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Chemplast Sanmar Limited Q1 FY26 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantee of the future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in 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 touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand over the conference to Mr. Ramkumar Shankar, Managing Director. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, and good morning, everybody. On behalf of Chemplast Sanmar Limited, I extend a very warm welcome to everyone joining us on our call today. On this call, I am joined by our CFO, N. Muralidharan, Dr. Krishna Kumar Rangachari, who heads our Custom Manufactured Chemicals Division, and SGA, our Investor Relations Advisor. I hope everyone has had an opportunity to go through the financial results and the investor presentation, which have been uploaded on the stock exchange's website and on our company's website. In a very challenging market environment during the previous quarter, the company achieved a revenue of INR 1,100 crore and an EBITDA of INR 17 crore. The industry continued to face pricing pressures due to persistent dumping of Paste PVC, primarily from Europe, and Suspension PVC from China and other countries.
While the anti-dumping duties on Paste PVC are already in place for countries like China, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, Taiwan, and Thailand, India witnessed a shift in dumping with a significant flow of material from the EU and Japan. DGTR has since initiated an ADD investigation on these countries, and the process is ongoing. We are confident that there will be action on this in the near future. Regarding the anti-dumping duty on suspension PVC, the Honorable Supreme Court, in May, stayed the Honorable Gujarat High Court's order dated 25th April 2025, which had excluded certain grades from the ambit of ADD. Consequently, the disclosure statement has been issued by the DGTR, and the final findings are expected soon. The demand outlook for both PVC products remains robust. However, price volatility was observed during the quarter due to anticipated policy actions on trade remedies.
Focusing on the business-specific performance, on the Paste PVC side, we are pleased to share that our new Paste PVC plant in Cuddalore has been successfully ramped up to full operating capacity and is delivering consistent operating performance. The demand for Paste PVC remains steady in India at approximately 40,000-45,000 metric tons during the quarter, and encouraging signs are emerging from the automobile sector. On our Custom Manufactured Chemicals business, in Q1, we delivered as per schedule, and dispatches remained on track. The agrochemical sector is showing signs of recovery from the recent slowdown. While the overall business trajectory and pipeline remain strong, sales volumes may reflect timing differences due to prevailing global conditions. As part of our plan to drive long-term growth, we are focused on broadening our customer base.
We are seeing good progress on this front, especially in light of the strategy adopted by global agrochem majors to diversify their supply chains away from China. Construction activities for MPB-3 phase III and civil works for MPB-4 are progressing as planned, with completion expected by Q3 of the current financial year. We remain firmly committed to the segment and are confident in its potential to generate long-term value for the company. On refrigerant gases, we have received environmental clearance for the R32 project. The final decision on sizing and siting of the project will be taken shortly. Our value-added chemicals business portfolio includes caustic soda, chloromethanes, and hydrogen peroxide. Volumes for our value-added chemicals fell by 16% on a sequential basis. This was due to lower caustic soda production at Mettur on account of temporary plant operational issues.
This resulted in lower availability of hydrogen, impacting the sale quantity of hydrogen peroxide as well. Prices of caustic soda were firm, though we expect some volatility going forward. Chloromethanes prices were steady, and this trend is likely to continue. The domestic demand for suspension PVC registered a growth of 4% during the quarter. The outlook for pipe demand remains positive, supported by a strong pipeline of infrastructure projects. Government procurement activity is expected to gain momentum in the coming quarters. We sold 92,849 tons during the quarter, representing a growth of 17% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. This is driven by the destocking of excess inventory that had been built up towards the end of last year. Meanwhile, traders and processors continue to import low-priced PVC from China, capitalizing on the uncertainty surrounding ADD.
This led to an estimated increase of approximately 50,000 tons in imports compared to Q4 of last year. There has been some positive movements on the ADD front. With the disclosure statement having been issued, it is now expected that the final finding on Suspension PVC will be released soon. We are hopeful that we should see the ADD in place by Q3 of this year. There are other green shoots that are emerging. Anti-Involution measures in China, directed towards addressing destructive price competition by reducing overcapacity in that country, are as well for various chemical sectors, including PVC.
If these measures are taken through to their logical conclusion, the overcapacity in China in PVC would finally be addressed, with favorable consequential benefits for the PVC industry worldwide. We believe that we are nearing the end of a long winter in PVC. While the last few quarters have indeed been very tough, we have used this period effectively to build capacity in our specialty businesses, which would act as a springboard for future growth. Now, I'd like to invite our CFO, Muralidharan, to walk you through the financial performance of the company.
Thank you, Ramkumar, and a very good morning to all the participants on the call. Talking about the performance in Q1 FY26 on a consolidated basis, the revenue for the quarter stood at INR 1,100 crores, that's against INR 1,145 crores, representing a drop of 4% on a year-on-year basis, mainly due to lower realization in PVC businesses coupled with lower volumes in caustic soda. This was partly offset by the higher suspension PVC volumes. The company reported an EBITDA of INR 17 crore for the quarter, and the net loss for the quarter was at INR 64 crore. Now, coming to the quarterly segment-wise performance, specialty chemical revenue stood at INR 355 crore, a flat trend on a year-on-year basis. Dispatches from Custom Manufacturing Division were as per plan. Revenue from the value-added chemical saw a small 3% drop on a year-on-year basis at INR 140 crore.
Suspension PVC posted ₹646 crore revenues, implying a growth of 12% on a sequential basis and remained flat on a year-on-year basis. Remediation of unfair trade practices is key to the performance of the company. With the impending announcement of the ADD levy, we anticipate improvement in the performance going forward. As Ramkumar highlighted, we remain optimistic about a positive outcome. With this, we conclude the presentation and open the floor for further discussions.
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 their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. So first question is on the likelihood of the ADD on Suspension PVC. So in terms of spreads, what are the spreads that we are currently making? And once the ADD is in place based on the initial findings and initial rates, what is the likelihood of the spreads post-ADD? So just a broader number. I know that it's very difficult to give a specific number, but on a broader basis. Thank you.
Yeah. Hi, Rohit. Thanks for your interest in the company. As you rightly said, it is very difficult to give a specific number on the ADD. That would be clearer when the final findings come out. The disclosure statement has been issued. The comments on the disclosure statement are expected. The last date for the comments is on the 30th of July. And we hope that by early August, we should have the final finding. And maybe the preliminary duties that were announced sometime last year towards the end of last year may give you an idea about what the final findings could be, though that is only an indication, and that is not really what will actually come. In the preliminary findings, we had duties ranging from $82-$167 on China and around $104-$339 on the U.S..
And on other countries, it ranged anywhere from $50-$200. So this was on the preliminary duties. The final findings or the final duties will be known only by around the first week of August, like I said. The current margins, again, would also be impacted by the stocks that we have, etc. The variable contribution margin would be anywhere from INR 5,000 to around INR 7,000. And obviously, anti-dumping duties should positively impact this.
Sure. That is helpful, sir. Also, second question on the CMCD division. In terms of the project completions and our target of FY27, are we completely on track? And just on a broader basis, given that incrementally, a large part of investments will be directed towards the CMCD part of the business, what are we looking at from a five-year perspective? Maybe by FY30, we want to have this division significantly ramp up beyond FY27 as well. So any such targets that we are looking at? And in terms of investments also, what are the kind of investments which are additional over the next five years beyond the ones that are currently ongoing? Thank you.
This question, I'll take the first part of the question. Yeah, the project completion is going as per plan. We committed to an expansion of the multipurpose block, which we commissioned two years back in August 2023. That phase III is on track to get completed over the next two to three months. And similarly, we have triggered an investment on a civil structure for the next production block, which is also coming towards a completion in a similar timeline. And so both were triggered based on the health of our pipeline, which continues to be strong, and our engagement with all our customers, very active engagement over the past 12 months with a number of visits, audits, as well as inquiries that we are working on. So 2027, mostly on track is what I would say. With respect to future investments, Murali, you want to add?
Like we had indicated earlier, whenever we see visibility for 60% of the current block that we have, we will trigger the next investment. And we have also indicated clearly that our first preference for capital employment is in the CMCD business. So that guidance still holds.
Awesome. That's helpful. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you, Rohit.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harsh Shah from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir, thank you for the opportunity. So my first question was on the PVC side. So what is the current demand-supply outlook globally? So has China seen any recovery, or maybe Europe has seen any recovery which can restrict low-price imports to India? And the second question was on the CSM bit. So you mentioned customers seeing a sign of recovery. So have we seen any new LOIs there, or have we seen any increase in inquiries there? Yeah, thank you.
Morning, Harsh. This is Ramkumar here. I'll take the question on PVC. As far as the demand-supply globally is concerned, it is still at the same level. There's no great improvement in the demand front in China, but there are some movements on the supply side in China. There has been some recent action by the government there to address overcapacity across multiple sectors. They have identified the destructive price wars arising out of overcapacity as a big problem for their own economy. And therefore, their government bodies have started looking at these overcapacities and studying them. So this is likely to, if they take it through to completion, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, this could rationalize the excess capacity, especially in China. And that could have an impact here in India. But we have to wait and see.
As far as demand is concerned, in China, it really hasn't improved by much. The rest of the world, also, there is stable demand. There's no great improvement. Europe is actually going the other way. Europe recently saw one announcement of a plant closure as well, of a PVC plant closure with a capacity of around 225,000 tons. India demand is strong, and India will continue to be strong given that the potential here is much, much higher.
Okay. Fine. And so you expect more plant closure announcements to come in India. So there has been a lot of news flows that the chemical industry in Europe has been going through a tough time. So are there any other players which are likely to shut shops in Europe?
Possible. That is what everybody expects, but we can only wait and see. Over the last year and a half, there have been three plants for PVC that have been shut down, or at least announcements have come, and one chloro vinyl plant, which is caustic soda up to VCM, which has also been. They've said that they have a plan for shutdown by end of 2027. Europe closures are likely. You're likely to see more announcements going forward. At least this is my view.
Helpful. Sir, on the CSM bit, so since you mentioned that Chemplast is witnessing recovery, so have you seen any increase in inquiries there or any new LOIs we have signed during the quarter?
This is Krishna here again. The inquiries, the pipeline continues to be healthy. We are actively engaging with the innovators, and we do see a lot of traction. While the recovery, yes, the turnaround in CMCD is happening. We believe sometime next year onwards, again, the speed of the inquiries and the number of inquiries in general will start accelerating and increasing further. Overall, our engagement continues to be on traction.
Okay. Yeah. That's all from my side, so thank you, sir.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Bharat Sheth from Quest Investment Advisors Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Hi sir, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, you have given color on this PVC. Can you give a little more color on Paste PVC? What is happening? Because I understand last year some anti-dumping was already introduced from certain countries, and rest were under again investigation. So what is happening over there? How do we see Paste PVC demand, supply, and our positioning?
Good morning, Bharat. So that's a good question. In fact, the total market for Paste PVC in the country is around 170,000 tons. And as you know, we are by far the largest producer of Paste PVC in India. We have a capacity of around 110,000 tons, including our latest expansion at Cuddalore. And there is one other producer who makes around 10,000 tons or so. So that is where that is the demand-supply in the country, and the demand is expected to continue to grow at around 7%, 8% a year as far as India is concerned. On the imports coming into India, you are right. Last year, there was anti-dumping duty that was announced on a clutch of countries: China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Norway. And the numbers ranged from anywhere from $247-$707 per metric ton.
Unfortunately, when this was done, the dumping shifted to the European Union, to producers from the European Union, and the imports that were coming in from the European Union, which in 2023, 2024 were only around 20,000 tons, in 2024, 2025 jumped to 36,000 tons, so that is really what has resulted in that earlier set of anti-dumping duties not really giving the full benefit that they should otherwise have given, so as an industry, we have filed a petition for anti-dumping on producers in the European Union and Japan. This was initiated in January this year, and the investigation is ongoing, and we are confident that before the end of this calendar year, we will see some action on that front.
So, sir, can you give some color on what is currently our capacity utilization and our spread in Paste PVC as well as suspension PVC, with the expectation of how do we see anti-dumping coming in, it can play out?
Yeah. Our current capacity utilization is at 100%, very close to 100% in both of these products. We do operate fully. As far as spreads are concerned, like I mentioned earlier on suspension PVC, the variable margin that we have is somewhere depending on the level of stock of the earlier inventory that we have. It would be between INR 5,000 to INR 7,000 right now because of the pressure from imports. And how much this will go up to really depends on what is the level of anti-dumping duty. And I think those are matters that we'll have to wait and see.
When we see the final finding and when that gets finally notified, then we will start seeing the benefit of that. As far as Paste PVC is concerned, today the variable margin would be around INR 24,000 to INR 25,000 per ton. That again, depending on the level of anti-dumping duty that comes in, we should see the benefit. It would be difficult to hazard a guess at this point in time.
Okay. And last question, sir, how is the pricing of the input cost and how that is playing out, availability as well as pricing of input VCM?
Sorry? Can you repeat that last bit, please?
So I mean, how is the pricing of ethylene and VCM?
Okay. All right, so the pricing, the VCM always tends to follow the prices of PVC. Therefore, the margin between PVC and VCM usually holds good. There could be a lag of maybe a few weeks, but other than that, they would normally follow closely together. Therefore, that is not really a concern for us. Availability is not an issue. Our requirements are tied up.
Ethylene prices?
Ethylene prices have been reasonably soft. They are continuing where they are. We are not a very large buyer of Ethylene, but Ethylene prices are not too strong. Let me put it that way.
Now coming to plant commissioning, the caustic soda outlook and its derivatives, pricing, and spread?
Caustic soda in India is already a long market because the capacity for caustic in India is around 6.3 million tons, and the demand is a little under 5 million tons. But then the operating rates of people who are not the caustic producers who are not integrated on the chlorine side would be less than 100%. It will possibly be around 75%-80%. Therefore, the country is balanced with around 500,000 tons of exports from India. So over the last couple of years, India has moved from being a net importer to being a net exporter.
And this length in the market is likely to increase with two large projects coming in between 2026 and 2027. And with that, while the demand will also increase, obviously for a period of two years, there could be excessive length in the Indian caustic market. That will have to be addressed by increased exports from the country. But caustic is a regional product, and most of this new capacity is coming in the western region. In the southern region, it is a little better balanced, I would say. We are able to sell all the products that we make.
Thank you, sir, and all the best.
Thank you very much, Bharat.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhruv Muchhal from HDFC AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir, thank you so much. Sir, a question on the European Paste PVC market structure. So if you can share any insights on what their capacity is, what their demand is, are these players integrated from the Ethylene or, I don't know, from PVC to Paste PVC? And as you mentioned, there are some closures that you see from Europe. Are they also likely in the Paste PVC segment? Because I'm assuming they would also be under pressure in the Paste PVC.
All right. Good morning, Dhruv, and you had asked a question about how much does Europe have as a Paste capacity. Just give me a second. I'll pull out that number. Paste is around 900 million tons. That is the capacity on paper.
I'm sorry, your voice is. I don't know if it's my end or your voice is going a bit low.
Okay. Paste capacity in Europe is around a million tons. This is largely across three, maybe four producers who have the capacity. The difficulties that European producers face are likely to be there in Paste PVC as well because the difficulties are around the cost structure, etc., the energy costs, and so on. The demand is also muted there because one of their large markets is Ukraine and Russia. After the hostilities broke out there, that market is not available for them, which is the reason why they're looking to export into India. The closures that have been announced so far are not in the Paste side. They have only been in the suspension side. Therefore, we do not know whether there are any closures that are on the cards or on the Paste side.
One million tons is the capacity in.
On paper. That's right. A little less than that, but around that.
Okay. Around that number. Got it. And what's leading to that change in supply chain? Got it. Sure, sir. That's helpful. Thank you so much. Thanks. That's all. And all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sanjesh Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, sir. Thanks for taking my question. I've got a few of them. First, on the R32, one of your peers said on the call that the new capacity which is coming in will unlikely qualify for the quota. We are among the last to announce the capacity. How do we make sure that we get the quota allocation and this CapEx is safeguarded from a long-term value creation perspective?
Okay. Sanjesh, good morning.
Good morning.
It would not be my part to comment on some other company in our call, so I will refrain from doing that. But the question that you raised is valid. We have taken enabling approvals right now. We have the environmental clearance. We have the investment approval. But the actual sizing and the siting of the project, the decisions on those have not been taken yet. We will take it very soon, and we'll let you know. Obviously, we are as much sensitized to the fact that we should put capital to the extent that we can get the quota approval. So we will keep that in mind, definitely.
But your thought on the quota allocation, because last quarter, we were confident of a larger quantity. How do we see this? How do we ensure that whatever we put, we get the quota? So can you help us understand the quota regime itself?
The quota regime is dependent on two things. One is, first, 65% of the HCFC production that was there in the period 2009-2010, the total carbon emissions during, that will be calculated based on the production. We all know the carbon dioxide units. Then based on the actual HCFC production between 2024 and 2026. These are the two components based on which the quota will be allotted. Obviously, those who are producing HCFC-22 back in 2009-2010 will qualify. Therefore, there is some claim that we also have on that basis. Those who produce HCFCs between 2024 and 2026 will have the balance entitlement to quota.
In that sense, then the capacity, what we can get is not very big, right? We had only 1,700 metric tons of R-22.
But the carbon dioxide equivalents are very different. There is a multiple. HCFC-22 has a higher carbon dioxide equivalent as compared to.
Even the multiple is three, if I remember it right. Even if I take 65% and three times, that doesn't cause a 5,000 metric tons.
Right. And therefore, the quota is also for the country. That is, it's not for companies. So it is for the country. And obviously, the country's need is going to be higher than the available capacity that could be sized. Like I said, these are all the factors that we are looking at, and we will consider all this while deciding on the appropriate sizing, come and submit to the calculation that we will.
The second question was on the S PVC side. It appears that there is an additional hit this time because we have taken an inventory restocking, which we held last quarter, probably in anticipation of ADD. The prices have only fallen from those levels. Is it fair to assume that the underlying spreads were better than what we have reported for this quarter in S PVC because of the inventory restocking?
Yeah. First of all, we didn't take additional inventory because we wanted to keep it back. We generally don't do that because these kinds of commodities, you don't try to add risk by trying to anticipate these things. It so happened that last quarter, because of all the uncertainty on pricing, there was the offtake itself was muted, and therefore, inventory built up. Then this year, during the peak period just before the monsoons, there was good demand. And again, because of the uncertainty on QCO and all of that, there was some lull in the arrival of imports.
And therefore, we were able to liquidate most of the inventory that we built up. And that, of course, because of the higher cost of the inventory that we did, our variable margins did drop. That observation of yours is right. Without that, if you look at the current margins between VCM and PVC, that is coming to somewhere around $180-$190 right now. So the margins are healthy. We just need to ensure that the volatility comes down.
Yes. One question on the specialty side. Sequentially, there is a INR200 crores of drop in the revenue. What explains such a sharp decline in the revenue on a sequential basis?
Primarily bunched up dispatches in the CMCD last quarter. That's what accounted for it. In the last quarter, we had significant dispatches in CMC.
To the tune of INR 200 crore?
Yeah. It's definitely skewed towards that. And of course, there have been some changes in Paste PVC price, which also impacted the overall specialty sales.
Got it. Got it. And just last on the Paste PVC, this quarter, I think there was a problem you said initially in your remarks, Ram, that there was a problem with the caustic plant. That means we imported a lot more EDC than what we produced, right? Was that the scenario? And hence, even the standalone specialty spreads were much lower than what was expected?
I wouldn't say that. Actually, if you look at the last quarter of last year and the Q1 of this year, our spreads on Paste PVC were actually slightly better. The EDC prices actually also fell towards the end of the Q1. So it wasn't a bad time to import feedstock. So that wasn't the reason.
Got it. Got it. That's all from my side. Thanks for answering all those questions so patiently and best of luck for the coming quarters.
Thanks, Sanjesh. Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. As a reminder to the participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Dhara from ValueQuest. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. Am I audible?
Yes, please.
So in your opening remarks, you had mentioned about anti-involution in China. So if you can please elaborate on what are the regulatory steps or the steps taken by the Chinese government that is directed towards maybe consolidation on capacities on the chemical fronts, including PVC or other chemicals? If you can throw some more light on that.
Sure. Thanks, Dhara, for joining the call. See, involution is actually a pretty new term that it was new to me, at least. And this is something that is being spoken about a lot, especially with reference to China. And it refers to destructive price wars, cost because of overcapacity. And therefore, to address this, this came about in the electric vehicles category, came about in photovoltaics. And then they have looked at various other sectors and realized that in petrochemicals and chemicals as well, this is something that is a problem. And therefore, there is a new anti-involution campaign that has started in China from the government. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China is the nodal ministry. And they have recently issued a draft policy where they have said that they would look at plants that are over 20 years old.
Earlier, they used to say that 30 years of age is when they will start looking at these plants. Now, they have reduced it to 20 years and said that any plant over 20 years of age, they will look at it, take a hard look based on energy efficiency, based on carbon footprint, and then decide whether, especially in areas where there is overcapacity, and then decide whether there needs to be some rationalization or some other form of integration or improvement of the plants itself. So I think that is where they are right now. They have announced this. They have come out with some target industries as well. And that was what I was referring to.
Understood. But there are no specific regulation guidelines that they have mentioned for the chemical sector, per se?
They have come up with a draft policy where they have said that these are the points that they will be looking at. And this is what they will be studying while taking the decision on rationalization of capacity. So that needs to now be taken through to its logical conclusion. We'll have to wait and watch.
Understood. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from Kiran Gadge from Knightstone Capital Management LLP. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. So for BIS, it was supposed to be implemented in August 2024, and then it got delayed to December 2024, and then June 2025, and now December 2025. So it has been delayed a lot of time. So one of the five manufacturers is anticipating further delay of six months. So are you anticipating the same?
It's a billion-dollar question. I would have no idea, but all I can say is this. The delay was largely to ensure that there is enough capacity available to meet the requirements of the downstream industry in India, and even in June, we did have around 11, 11 and a half million tons of capacity that had been certified against the Indian demand of around four million tons, 4.3 million tons, so there was enough coverage. But by way of abundant caution, I guess the authorities decided to give six more months of time for other capacities worldwide who were in the queue to get their plants certified, and since that extension, there are a couple of large producers, one in the U.S. and one in the MENA region, have got certified.
One more large U.S. player, I believe, has had their plants audited, and therefore, they are on track to get certification. By the time December comes around, I think that we should have at least 14, 15 million tons of certified capacities worldwide. Given that our demand is around four million tons, that should give enough comfort for the authorities to enforce the QCO from then. Of course, we'll have to wait and see what happens.
Okay. Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from Abhijit Akella from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Just a couple from my side. One on the R-32 expansion. If you could please just help me understand, in the event that we decide to enter into, let's say, long-term supply contracts with global customers in that business, say, I mean, just people based in the U.S. or Europe or something like that, would we still require to have a consumption quota allotted to us or even a production quota, or would that not be necessary in such a construct?
Good morning, Abhijit. For you to produce, you need to have the production quota. So that is a fundamental starting point.
Yeah. But on the consumption quota?
The consumption quota is for the country. So that is not for individual company.
Okay. So I mean, is there a way for us to produce sizably more than we would otherwise be entitled to just on the basis of what we are entitled to, given our historical track record of HCFC, etc.? Is there a way to maximize that quota allotment?
The fact that we are exporting is not going to drive the quota. We will have to get us, like I said, the starting point is getting the production quota.
Okay. Okay. Fair enough. And then just on the China anti-involution drive, in your assessment, does it apply primarily only to bulk commodity chemicals, or could it also apply to specialty chemicals such as, say, agrochemical intermediates, etc.?
It's a good question. I am not very sure which is the full list of chemicals it is working on. I saw definitely that they are looking at the polymers. They're looking at something. They're looking at caustic soda. I saw that they are looking at resources like coal and steel, of course. But on specialty agrochemicals, I'll have to see. I really don't have information yet.
Got it. Thank you so much, sir. I wish you all the best.
Thank you, Abhijit.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bharat Sheth from Quest Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the second-time opportunity. One question. Earlier, we were looking that on the Paste PVC carbide-based capacity may be discontinued from, say, by 2030. So what is the intent in China? So what is the progress on that, if you can give some color?
Welcome back, Bharat. So this entire thing about carbide PVC, the question, I guess, relates to the Minamata Convention, to which China is also a signatory. As for the Minamata Convention, the usage of mercury in industries is to be phased out. Where it comes to PVC, mercury is used as a catalyst in the manufacture of VCM in the carbide process. And while they have not given a specific hard date for stop, what they have said is that it will stop within five years of an economically viable alternative being identified. However, while these protocols start like that, usually the phase-out dates are advanced. Even without sometimes they will try to accelerate the phase-out. The mining of mercury, however, there is a hard stop. And the mining of mercury hard stop is the end of 2031.
Since China accounts for around 90% of the total mercury mined in the world, you will have very little mercury available after 2031. That could be a date that we could keep monitoring. Meanwhile, the carbide PVC producers are trying to find other alternatives. One alternative that they've come up with is gold, but not everybody may be able to use that. It's not a drop-in substitute to all of the existing plants. A new plant may be built using gold as a catalyst, but not all the existing plants that are there in China can use gold as a drop-in substitute for mercury. Therefore, that could become an issue for them. There is no hard date yet, but we'll have to watch what happens after 2031.
Thank you. Thank you and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Madhur Rathi from Counter Cyclical Investments. Please go ahead.
Sir, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I wanted to understand regarding our renewable power projects. Sir, what kind of cost savings can we expect from that, and what portion of our power requirements will be met through this PPA?
I think your question was slightly feeble, but what I understand is you want to understand more about the Green Power Initiative that we have signed. Is that correct?
Yes, sir. On the cost savings, we can expect from that.
That's right. Actually, we have currently covered roughly around 40% of our total power requirement, between 35%-40% of our power requirement. And I don't want to get into the specific tariffs, but it will give us a significant saving compared to the grid cost of power. And I think on the company as a whole, the estimated saving is somewhere between INR 50-60 crore by this contract.
Sir, INR 50-60 crore, right?
Yeah.
Sir, if I compare our competitors, Finolex and their PVC segment, sir, they have captive power plants. Sir, can we expect their margins to become much more stable and similar to what Finolex does? I'm not comparing, but is that one of the reasons why our margins are much more volatile than them?
Our margins are currently volatile basically mainly because of the pricing pressure. It's not because of the power cost. Power cost, we are currently using the grid power and coal-based power. And those have been reasonably stable. As you would see, coal power prices have been reasonably stable, and grid power has been reasonably stable, though there have been some increases. So I think it's more to do with the pricing pressure, and it's not because of the power cost per se.
Got it. Sir, that was from my end. Sir, thank you so much and all the best. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Archit Pandit from Green Portfolio Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir. I want to ask for the upcoming R32 project. Could you share how the CapEx is being funded between internal accruals and debt? Also, how much of the planned spend for this year has already been incurred by the end of Q1?
See, on R-32, like I mentioned, the exact sizing of the project is yet to be decided by us. Therefore, the total CapEx on that will be decided when we decide the sizing. So right now, whatever we have taken is only an enabling approval. On the actual CapEx for the year, it doesn't protect us.
Yeah, there's only one project which is ongoing, which is the multipurpose block phase three of custom manufacturing, and that is going as per plan and as per approved CapEx levels.
One more question.
Yes, yes, yes. No, go ahead, please.
With the ADD implemented from March for six countries, are you now seeing a price floor in the domestic market, or are any new rules or circumvention tactics emerging that may dilute this protection? Have you seen any price floor related to this?
In which product, please?
For the year in which the ADD was implemented, which was basically FY 21.
Yeah, paste PVC. Okay.
Yes, yes, yes.
Paste PVC, the anti-dumping duty was implemented on a few countries. There is no circumvention as such. It is not like producers in those countries routing their production through other countries. It is more that the producers in those other countries, which were not covered by the anti-dumping duty, and their market suddenly fell off because of geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and therefore, they grabbed this opportunity to dump their product in India at unfair prices, so it was not a rerouting, but it was a shifting.
Okay. Thank you so much, sir. That's all from my side.
Thank you, Archit.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand over the conference to management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us today on this learning call. We, as always, appreciate your interest in Chemplast Sanmar Limited. And if you have any further queries, please do contact SGA, our investor relations advisor. Good day.
Thank you. On behalf of Chemplast Sanmar, this concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.