Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q2 FY2026 earnings Conference Call of Clean Science and Technology Ltd. We have with us on the call Siddharth Sikshi, Executive Director and Promoter; Sanjay Palnagar, CFO; and Pratik Bora, Vice President. 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 * then *0 on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Siddharth Sikshi. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Sikshi.
Thank you so much. Good evening, all of you. We are delighted to welcome all of you for this Q2 interaction of Clean Science and Technology. Let me get to the numbers. The standalone business performance. The revenues decreased by 5% to INR 206 crore on a sequential basis, which is a decrease by 5% and 8% on a year-on-year basis. The decline in revenue was primarily led by lower sales in some of our established products. Consequently, stock core products' contribution to standalone revenue declined to 80%, as against 84% in the last quarter, whereas it improved from 70% on a 74% on a year-on-year basis. Despite the moderation in revenue, EBITDA margins remained resilient at 44% for this quarter. The slight margin impact was largely attributed to change in product mix.
Further, when we compared on a YOY basis, EBITDA margins improved by 2% on account of favorable product mix. The standalone EBITDA for the quarter is about INR 90 crore, which is 10% lower on a QOQ basis and 5% on a YOY basis. Standalone PAT for the quarter is INR 65 crore, which is 15% lower QOQ and 4% on a YOY basis. The reduction in PAT was steeper than EBITDA, primarily on account of forex loss. The changing market dynamics in China have led to a cascading effect on our sales volume. We believe the lower sales during the quarter were driven by a combination of the following factors. Number one, for some customers, we observed a sharp decline in price of their end products amidst the competitive intensity from Chinese suppliers. As a result, these customers have slowed down their procurement.
Number two, for certain other customers, there is demand uncertainty in their end markets, prompting them to defer or moderate their procurement plans. To summarize, we believe these trends represent a mix of second-order impact of tariffs and demand slowdown in some end industries, influencing our customers' purchasing behavior during the quarter. On consolidated business performance, on a sequential basis, the revenues were steady at INR 240 crore. Consolidated EBITDA and PAT is INR 87 and INR 55 crore, respectively. For the health segment, we are pleased to report that the monthly run rate volumes for quarter two averaged to about 260 tons per month, representing a growth of over 25% compared to the previous quarter. As a measure to enhance volumes, we are enriching the product portfolio by introducing higher grades of HALS. To that effect, we are pleased to report that we have commercialized HALS 2020.
It is worthwhile to note that the material margins for HALS portfolio have improved to 35% from 31% due to improved raw material costs. A little on CAPEX update. Clean Science invested roughly INR 150 crore during the first half year in CRCL, the subsidiary. The Performance Chemical One is undergoing chemical trials, and the results have been satisfactory till now. We look forward to announcing commercialization during this month. Since we are closer to commercializing, let me share a few highlights about the product. Number one, the proposed new product enjoys synergies with our existing products in terms of cross-sell opportunities and also backward integration for certain of our other products. We have also successfully commercialized barbituric acid by repurposing one of our existing facilities. We have successfully expanded the capacities of some of our food-grade antioxidants.
With this, I conclude my opening remarks and look forward to the Q&A sessions. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press *1 on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press *2. Participants are requested to use hands up 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 Sanjay Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening, Siddharth. Thanks for taking my question. I have a few of them. First, from the established products, what was the volume growth or decline, and what was the realization change versus the previous quarter?
For you on YOY, it's fine. Whatever data you got.
No, so Sanjay, sequentially, when we say that the revenues have declined by 5%. Correct.
2% contribution was volume-led, and 3% was realization-led. This is at the company level, at the portfolio level, rather than speaking about individual product levels. On a YOY basis, we say that the sales have decreased by 8%. Almost around 6.5% was volume-led, and the balance was realization-led.
That's quite clear. Thank you.
Now, what are we doing to see that I know customer uncertainty is causing it, and this is generally transient in nature? Now, for the next couple of quarters, how are we planning to see this difficult scenario of uncertainty?
For the next few quarters, I think we are trying to work very closely with the customers to really understand the real need and if there is price reduction needed so that they can be competitive in their end product. This is some of the ways we are trying to counter to increase the revenue and trying not to lose market share.
Got it. Also, just one geographical question along with that. I can see the YOY basis, the decline has come from the U.S. and China, okay. Now, how are we trying to address these two geographies? China, obviously, they are themselves very competitive. The U.S., I thought, is it more of an impact from tariffs we are seeing, or what is playing out in the U.S.?
So China.
Or other Americas. My bad. Americas.
Yeah, yeah.
To China, I think the major impact is one of our products in the FMCG Chemicals segment has taken a hit in the China market. How are we trying to address? I think the customer is slower in picking up the volume, or there is also a possibility that they have backward integrated. In case it is backward integrated, then the volumes will not come back. In that case, we will have to refurbish or re-look at the strategy on a company level. In America.
No, it is just a product, a customer-specific volume, I mean, which he did not lift this quarter. Probably he might lift next quarter, and also because of tariff uncertainty.
Got it. Got it. Next on the new product that we are commercializing, and we have already started the very thick assays. Can you give us the offtake that we are expecting in the second half of this year and next year? I thought we commissioned what, 3,000 metric tons of the capacity in there?
No, no, no. We did not commission 3,000 tons. We have just started with the small volumes right now. The whole point is the plant is commercialized. The commercial samples are out with the customers who are based out of India. I first want to see how are they. I mean, again, there will be validation batches, because ultimately, it goes into pigment yellow. What are the applications? How does it work with their application? Based on it, we will get a clear-cut idea from the customer. How much would they really want to shift to us? Because currently, the entire volumes come from China. Once I have more clarity, probably in the next quarter, I will be able to answer this better.
What is the capacity that you have started with, Siddharth?
We just started with about, less than 1,000 tons. Closer to 1,000 tons per annum, because this is refurbishment of our existing plant.
Yes. Yes, I know, I know. You mentioned that MEHQ, right?
No, no, no. PBQ.
PBQ plants, right?
PBQ. PBQ we moved to.
Got it. Yes, yes, yes. The new product which we proposed, I think it is hydroxyl liquid. Anything you want to talk about it? What kind of capacity are we looking at in the terms and how much can it add?
I think the performance chemical one, the capacity installed is about 10,000 tons. On full-scale capacity, we envisage a revenue of about INR 300 crore with the current prices, which are at currently all-time low prices.
Got it. Margins will be healthy here considering the prices are very low?
Should be a decently product and a decent margin. I think let me commercialize it on the plant scale. Let me get yields norms before I make this statement.
Got it. One last, and I know I've taken a lot of time. On the health side, I know the progress has been quite decent and very nice to hear that we have improved the margins. What is the blended realization? We were looking at moving gradually to 6-8 in that range. I know these new products are quite new. How is the progression happening in terms of customer acceptance, in terms of validation, people evaluating those products? Are they happening in line with what we were anticipating?
If you see the quarter-on-quarter jump is about 25%. However, we would have expected it to be better. At least the acceptance has come up. The plants, our quality is now because this is a combination of a couple of products. Fortunately, all the products are now in line with, in terms of quality, with the competitors like BASF. The product is there. Now we have to just enlarge the market. India, probably, if you see, we are already at 50% market share within India. Our next geographies, if you look at the export data, we have already started exporting globally, including the United States, Europe, Vietnam, Middle East, South Africa. I think quarter-on-quarter, we expect this business now to grow because the product is there, pricing is there. Now we just need to reach each customer and start taking more and more wallet share.
That's great. Thanks, Siddharth, for answering all those questions and the support for the customers.
Thank you so much, Sanjay.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Arun Prasad from Avendus Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. Hi, Siddharth. So my first question is on the subsidiary numbers. If you see this, Rembrandt has improved sequentially top line, but gross margin has come down from roughly 42% to 36% in the subsidiary. Is it the mix or one time some product has been lower or the overall portfolio? How should we look at this?
Yeah, Arun, to take this side, for the subsidiary company, the gross margin impact, which you're highlighting, that is on account of the difference in change in stock. For this quarter, there is a lower closing stock. That means we have consumed higher opening stock of the last quarter. That is leading to this. It is more of an offtake. On our portfolio level, as we mentioned, the margins or material margins are in the range of 35% odd.
Oh, okay. Understood. So we should see the subsidiary margins coming back to these 35-40% levels, depending upon which subgroup, right?
That's right.
Okay. Understood. Earlier, I think in one of our commentary, we mentioned that largely we are selling via distributors. Now that the product has stabilized and we have confidence on the quality, is it the time to approach the bigger customers, Siddharth, to.
Yes. We are already doing a combination of both. There are larger accounts which we are catering to directly. There are distributor models as well. India, I think, quite a bit of accounts, all the large accounts are driven directly by us. It is the case in Europe where we have direct contacts. We are working directly with them. The distributor model is also needed. There are a lot of customers who prefer just-in-time because of the need to avoid the large transit time from India.
Okay. Understood. When you say India, I mean, is this actually, if I look at the first half number for 2026 versus 2023, India has, in terms of top line, it has grown by around 13%. As I said, it's not quarterly. I'm looking at the first half. Is this mainly attributable to the HALS or are some other products also there?
No, no. It's only HALS. It's only the light stabilizers.
Okay. Only HALS is contributing to this domestic sales for the 13%.
Yeah, yeah.
Understood. Understood. Earlier, we covered this couple of products, DHDT and BHT. In terms of KPIs, has it reached our internal targets on milestone, or it is still some, or it is reflecting in the P&L, or are it too short of the volumes?
The BHT was our primarily. The market was U.S. because it was for. Same customers who purchase other products for us. Unfortunately, BHT, anyways, it was a $3-ish product, but it got a tariff of 55%. That has slowed down this entire offtake within the U.S. because of the 55% tariff.
Okay. Just to clarify, when you say Americas, again, if I look at the first half numbers, it has grown by 33%. This is something to, and Europe is down by 13%. Is it some kind of a realignment or a shifting focus from, or are we increasing more?
No, it's nothing to do with just a little quarter realignment based on customers' needs and requirements. There is nothing sizable to mention here.
Oh, okay. Understood. Secondly, on your PC1 chemical trial, you mentioned you have moved from water to chemical trial. What are the next milestones we should look forward to, and what are the associated timelines?
See, the next milestone is to start getting the final product out. I mean, that is what in chemical trials, I mean, whatever teething issues we are observing in chemical trials, we are trying to fix them as we move along. The next outcome, because these are large chemical trials where we take all the raw material in and passing it through multiple distillations and crystallizations. The next goal is to stabilize this, stabilize each process, internal individual process, and get to the finished product. The timeline is probably two weeks from today is when we expect to see the final product. However, the optimization of the process will still take about a quarter where you start optimizing yields, when you start optimizing process, when you start optimizing a lot of parameters, process parameters. That could go up to March.
The point is to at least start seeing the end product and start sampling to the customers within the month of December is the target.
Okay. So these two things will go parallel. You will start sending samples by December, but at the same time, optimization throughout March will be happening. Probably a big chunk of volume we should expect by April. That's a right understanding?
Yeah. Q4 also, there will be sales because the process optimization is a process. It will take longer time. It is a very large continuous plant. It will keep happening. The offtake and the sales, we should start seeing in quarter four.
Right. Right. Understood. In your opening remarks, you also talked about capacity expansion of food-grade antioxidant. Is it BHA or some other antioxidant we have available?
No, it is some other antioxidant which also goes into the food industry.
Okay. Okay. Otherwise, BHA heavy maximum is because if you look at the pricing of your established products, while MEHQ is seeing some decline in the pricing, but BHA is holding steady. I'm assuming this is a reflection of the end category. Have you maximized our ability to push more MEHQ into BHA and running at the full utilization, or still there also we see some kind of challenges?
No, there is no challenge. I mean, we still are running at 70-75% capacity utilization. We still have scope to expand customer base. There is no challenge. Of course, the market has to take up, right?
Oh, okay. Understood. All right, Siddharth. Thank you very much and all the best.
Thank you, Arun.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Akela from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening. Thank you so much. Just one question regarding the outlook. If I may, last quarter, we had kind of spoken about an initial target of maybe around INR 450 crore EBITDA or something like that for this year. Obviously, I understand the market environment has kind of deteriorated in the time frame. Any sort of guidance you could offer for this year or maybe next year, that would be really helpful just from an anchoring perspective for the analysts.
I know, Abhijit, with these. Very tricky. Time situations currently with these tariffs coming up, with all this uncertainty, I think it will be very tricky to mention on EBITDA level at the moment. I would suggest let a quarter or two pass by, let these new facilities also come up. By the time, I would also understand the competitive landscape. I think that would be a better idea to give you a little bit on EBITDA. For now, we are only trying to dabble and understand where are we located amidst all these uncertainties in the global scenarios.
Fair enough. I appreciate that. Just on health, could we share what our growth plans are now at this point in time, now that the volumes seem to have started to accelerate?
See, as we have started growing like 25% quarter on quarter, our endeavor is to keep growing this on quarter-on-quarter basis because as we are growing, it was a new business line. More and more market share we are trying to acquire, getting into newer customers. On quarter-on-quarter, you will see growth happening in the health series. Plus, newer products will also is also started. All this is going to accumulate, I mean, will account for increased capacity utilization and increased revenues over the next two quarters.
Okay. Got it. Thank you so much and all the best.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Kothari from AlphaCurate Advisors. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. First of all, Siddharth ji, I think in an otherwise tough macro environment, it has been reasonably resilient work. So congrats for that. I have just two questions. My first question is with reference to this performance chemical where we are talking about 10,000 tons capacity. And you mentioned that currently the prices are very low and at full capacity, we can probably target around INR 300 crore kind of revenue. So that basically you would assume in the second year?
We are budgeting in this over a three-year period. By fiscal year 2028, we are budgeting to reach this revenue potential.
Understood. When you look at, from the overall pricing environment perspective across the different products, how do you see the Chinese competitive environment?
China is a very, very tricky environment. It is sometimes very, it's like a black box and it is very difficult to predict exactly what is happening there. I think the best part, I mean, what we are trying to do is get as much understanding on the China market because 25%-30% of our revenue still comes from China. I think our prices to China are already at all-time low. I do not know if there is further decline going to happen, but as of now we feel it could be a little steady market, but only time can say how things evolve in China, how the demand picks up, and how are we going to position ourselves.
I see. So when you look at that performance chemical and in terms of when you say that INR 300 crores at the current prices, this assumes primarily how much India revenue and how much export revenue? If any, key markets which you are going to target?
We expect 50-50. Fifty would be domestic market and 50 will be international market.
I see. In domestic right now, it is 100% import, right?
Absolutely 100% import.
This primary import is from China?
China, Japan, and also the United States.
Oh, I see. Do we have anti-dumping duty on China?
Not at the moment.
Oh, I see. When you say that we'll become much more competitive because of the better process and the better yield, currently, the product realization, what is the current realization and how do you see the Chinese versus the U.S. prices when India imports? Is it, when you look at it from the CIF perspective, how the price trends are?
I mean, ultimately, this is all crude oil-linked raw material-based products. We are seeing, as crude oil decreases, these products are also coming down. Of course, due to fierce competition amongst the existing players.
I see. Got it, sir. Perfect. All right, sir. Thanks. Probably I will take it a little bit offline to get a little bit more insights. Thank you, sir. Wishing you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Arun Prasad from Avendus Capital. Please go ahead.
Siddharth, one follow-up clarification. You're saying all grew 25% sequentially. What we've seen in the subsidiary is the 45% sequential growth. What is the disconnect?
Yeah, Arun, clarification here. Actually, a good question. We are talking about volume growth of 25%. I mean, the value growth is almost 34%. That is because now we have started selling higher grades of HALS also, meaning 944 and 119, where realizations are much better. Your answer which is coming to 40% is on account of these other byproducts which we are selling when we are manufacturing the HALS. These co-products are also contributing to the sales value.
Understood. Thank you. Thank you, Pratik, for the clarification. Yeah.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Ankur Perival from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity. Sorry, joined the call a bit late. Pardon me if my questions are a repetition. On the health front, if I got you right, 25% QOQ volume growth, 34% in terms of value growth. The margins over here are still relatively lower on a QOQ basis. Any specific reason?
No. On a QOQ basis, there is a slight improvement in margin. What you are seeing is, I mean, the P&L margin, but there is a difference of change in stock which is impacting the COGS. At a portfolio level, there is a slight improvement in the margins. The improvement is slight because the larger portion of health sales continues to come from 770.
Okay, sure. We were waiting for a few product approvals to come in, especially from the global markets for health. Where are we over there in terms of approvals getting for those multiple products?
We have started seeing good approval traction from higher grade of HALS. If you start seeing, I mean, month on month, our higher grade of HALS exports, both, I mean, exports have started increasing. Also in domestic market, these higher grades of HALS have started picking up. I think in the next probably two quarters more, I think we should have almost most of the large approvals what we are looking at.
Siddharth, this is the global approvals that you're looking at, right, across all the products?
All major approvals. They are global approvals.
Sure. Last quarter, we were around 75% share of domestic within health. What will be that number right now?
No, no, no. I said last quarter, we were about 30-40% market share domestically, which we are currently at 40-45%, probably 50% global market share. Our, I think, domestic to export would be 75-25.
that's fair.
Domestic to export was 75, 25, which has now gradually started changing because more and more exports have started picking up.
Sure. If I recollect it right, domestic market in any case is more heavy on the low-end health, the lower realization health product.
Absolutely. They are very high on the low end, whereas international is on the high end, and hence the international pickup is very, very crucial for us, which we are anyway seeing now.
Sure. Second bit on the CapEx front, any timelines or any changes in timelines in terms of commissioning of the project one and project two there?
Project one is already done. Water trials done. It is chemical trials which have started. We expect to have commercial production announced probably in the next few four weeks timeframe. For performance chemical two, we are still sticking to the timeline of starting the facility in April.
When you're saying starting this facility, this is the commercial production or this will be again going through water and chemical trials?
Water trials. The plant will be up and ready. Water trials should start in April and see the commercial production by June.
Sure. The timelines for ramp-up of both these projects will be the same, almost three years from the start of data commissioning?
Typically, that's what we have seen.
Okay, great. Just last bit on the margin front, both on the standalone and on the consolidated basis, I'm looking more on the gross margins there. Any change in trend, any sort of increase in pricing competition which would have impacted the numbers here, or it's purely product mix change?
Largely product mix change.
Largely it is product mix change. And maybe some competition within China, I mean, which I already mentioned earlier on that one of our FMCG Chemicals products which was getting into the China market, the Chinese might have backward integrated, and we would have lost that market share. Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. That's it from my side. All the best for the future interviews. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Dhruv Machal from HDFC AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir, thank you so much. Sir, a bit of confusion in the standalone minus subsidiary that we do. If I look at the EBITDA standalone console, sorry, console minus subsidiary, console minus standalone, it was a loss of about INR 8 million in one Q. The loss is now INR 29 million. On a percentage basis, also the EBITDA loss is higher. Although volumes have grown, and you mentioned that the material margin has improved from 31% to 34%-35%. I am just trying to understand what am I missing.
Dhruv, so I mean, the maths which you did, consolidated minus standalone to arrive at the subsidiary bit of INR 3 crore. There. Revenue minus COGS minus operating cost. And COGS, I mean, in your maths comes out to somewhere, I think, 73-74%. Right?
Okay.
That is on account of change in stock impact in the subsidiary COGS, meaning opening minus closing stock.
That can only, okay. What I'm trying to understand is, yeah, that is the only, but what I'm trying to say is when you say 31% margin move to 34% margin, that's on a spot basis. I mean, spot basis means on an incremental basis that your margins, say, for example, if to buy the raw material today, that is what the conversion margin that you do. Is that what you're trying to say?
That's a correct takeaway. Yes. That's the material margin on the blended portfolio files as of now.
Got it. We see a difference when we look at the numbers is because of inventory, and that inventory was probably at a higher cost. You had a higher cost inventory which effectively got used this quarter. As you probably buy the new material, which probably sells at the spot pricing, that is what the margin, this margin has improved from at a gross level from 31% to 35% or 34%. That is the core of the understanding. Got it. Got it. This makes sense. Okay. This is done. The second was, I think you mentioned that the volume decline on a YOY basis was about 6%.
No. Yes. I mean, revenue decline is 8%, partly contributed by volume.
Revenue decline is, actually, this is only the standalone business.
That's right. Yeah. Because on a consol basis.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is what I was coming to. Okay. 6% volume decline and primary. Okay. This is done. The next is, we are seeing that there is some domestic disruption in the raw material pricing because of all this. I think restrictions against some of these companies by the U.S. and final prices have started to increase. It is a big product for you. Just wanted to understand how do you manage this disruption? Can you import and be out of this impact, or do you see any impact of this? My point is there is some pricing pressure on the final product side, probably demand pressure, not pricing pressure. We are also seeing some raw material price fluctuations. How does it impact you?
I think, I mean, with tariff, when we are supplying to a customer within India, however, if their product has got 55% tariff in the U.S.
No, sorry. Just to clarify, I'm seeing about the U.S. has put some restrictions on some traders in India because of which there are some price increases.
No, no, no. That has nothing to do. That has nothing to do. There was just spurt in raw material prices for that two-week period. That has, I think, all resurfaced back, and that really has no major impact. Of course, there was impact on prices for those two weeks, but if you see, the prices have further softened, and that impact is no more there.
Got it. Got it. Perfect. The last thing is on the, earlier you mentioned the mix in the health business shifting more towards export. Earlier in one Q, it was about 75-25. This quarter is a bit different. What is this quarter?
No. I mean, last quarter, it was close to 80-20. This quarter, it's close to 75-25.
Oh, okay. Got it. This mix will keep changing as you move more and more towards export, as you get more and more through it and stuff.
Absolutely.
Got it. That you have done the chemical water trials and chemical trials just to start for performance chemical one. I mean, of course, this is too much picking, but I'm just trying to understand based on whatever parameters you see. The path is there, or are there some hurdles that one should be aware of?
The path is there. We are on the right track. Of course, what we anticipated, we are seeing, there are just these teething issues which are taking time, which is a very regular matter when you have such large continuous facilities running.
Got it. Perfect. Great. Thank you so much, Ankur Perival. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Krishnan Parvani from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Two questions from my side. First, on a standalone basis, given we are already almost halfway through the quarter, do you expect volume growth to come back in Q3? And what about QOQ?
Not Q3 for sure.
Okay. Okay. And secondly, when are we expecting decent contribution from barbituric acid, lamivudine intermediate, and Performance Chemical One?
Again.
The timeline.
Q4.
All three? I mean, the barbituric acid, lamivudine intermediate, and Performance Chemical One?
Performance Chemical One, yes. Barbituric, yes. For the Lamivudine intermediate, we are waiting for customers' validation because this goes into pharmaceutical, so they are further dependent on their customers.
Okay. Got it. So net net, Q3 could be flat and probably a full Q with these new products and then some, probably the legacy products. There should be growth in full Q. Is that the right way to understand?
Yes. Yes. Hopefully, yes.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Wish you all the best, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, Krishnan. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Raghav Maheshwari from Kamakya Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, sir. Sir, I wanted to ask a couple of questions. My first question will be on the HALS division. What was the capacity utilization for this quarter?
23%.
Sorry, sir. Can you come again?
25%.
25%. From 20%, now we are at 25%. Am I right?
Yes.
Okay. What is the average margin in this division as of now?
Yeah. So I mean, it's close to 35% is the material margin at the product level.
Okay. Okay.
Sorry, at the portfolio level.
Understood. Sir, my second question was about the competitive landscape. We are seeing companies like Camlin Fine Sciences getting into MEHQ. For Clean Science, we are also facing some volume degrowth. Is there some competitive pressure which we are facing which is giving us this volume degrowth?
Not from these players which you mentioned.
In general, I'm not talking about. Not in particular.
Okay. In general. No, actually, it is not. We are not seeing this because of some competition within India. Probably some competition within China could not be ruled out.
Okay. So nothing from domestic?
No, not at all.
Sir, can you give a guidance on the capacity utilization for HALS unit for upcoming quarters and maybe FY 2027? Or a better revenue projection point of view?
No. I mean, we just outlined quarter three, quarter four, we expect a good growth. I mean, at least a sequential growth, but we do not want to quantify it at this stage.
Understood. Understood. Okay. Thank you so much, sir. Best of luck.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Archit Joshi from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, gentlemen. Just one question on understanding the entire competitive landscape and the second-degree impact that we spoke of. If one could just understand, what would be the sustainability of this given that some competition has emerged in China? Would it be that, because in all, prices have been such significantly lower in the international markets, it was thought of as an opportune thing to get into MEHQ, maybe in the Chinese markets, if we are confirming that? Is that also going in line with or in tandem with, let's say, the second-degree impact that we are facing from the U.S. customers, that they have maybe a second or a third fiddle in the supply chain through China? Overall, maybe it could be transient in nature, let's say, this quarter or maybe third quarter that we are seeing to be flattish.
Have we done any scenario analysis that if these prices or the competition continues to be aggressive at large, what would be the strategy for us to maintain the margins and volumes both? Thank you.
Our strategy would be to maintain the volumes for sure. We do not want to lose market share for sure. So that is a clear thought we have in our mind.
Sure, sir. The part on the competitive intensity of MEHQ, are there any other products also in our standalone business? How did it, I was wondering, how did it suddenly emerge? Is it only because of in-all prices being that low, given that it's such a small market per se?
Archit, just to clarify, we are not mentioning about any product emerging in MEHQ at this stage.
Right.
I mentioned about FMCG product where one of the, of this product has now backward integrated and making this product in-house.
Okay. So MEHQ is largely insulated from this onslaught that we have seen. Would it be a fair assumption?
MEHQ, sorry? Go again.
I asked, would MEHQ be largely insulated from the competitive intensity in Chinese markets? Would that be a fair assumption? That there is no—
For quarter two, we did not see that. Going forward, see, Chinese, as I said, is very tricky to understand. You have to be very agile to keep looking at what is happening. If there is a way, I mean, and of course, if you realize, we will have to change our strategy to look at China market in total.
Right. So just clarifying once again, and sorry for prying on that issue. So it's only from the FMCG segment that we are seeing right now, not the overall standalone portfolio level. Would that be correct? At least in QOQ.
Yes. Yes. At least in Q2, yes, the answer is correct.
Yes. Okay. Got it. Got it, sir. Thank you. All the best for the coming quarters.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. That was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Siddharth for closing comments.
Thank you all for taking your time out and understanding our Q2 numbers. We appreciate the questions and the feedback and looking forward to seeing you all at the Q3 call in January. Thank you so much. Have a good day, guys.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Clean Science and Technology Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.