Ladies and gentlemen, good day and Welcome to the Q2 and H1 FY 2027 earnings conference call for Galaxy Surfactants Limited. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. K. Natarajan, Managing Director. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. A very good morning, and sorry, a very good afternoon to all of you. It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to the Q2 FY 2027 conference call. When we spoke in our Q1 call, we highlighted that many of these structural actions undertaken over the last two years were beginning to translate into improved business performance. As we look back at Q2, I am pleased to share that the positive impact of these actions continues and, in many ways, are strengthening further. As I reflect on the quarter, what stands out most this quarter is the resilience of demand across our key markets, despite persistent inflationary pressures and an increasingly challenging global supply chain environment. Starting with India, demand trends remain healthy across both Performance Surfactants and Specialty Care ingredients.
This resilience is particularly encouraging given the inflationary pressures that continue to be felt across several consumer categories. The premiumization trend remains firmly intact, with consumers increasingly gravitating towards higher-performance and differentiated products, supporting growth across our portfolio. We are also witnessing healthy traction in our Specialty Care business in India, which is contributing positively to both growth and overall business mix. Equally encouraging is the broad-based nature of the recovery. Growth is being driven not only by our Tier 1 customers, but also by Tier 2 and Tier 3 and emerging direct-to-consumer brands. Following the temporary disruption seen earlier due to elevated input costs in Q1, these customer segments have returned to a healthier growth trajectory and are once again contributing meaningfully to demand. The AMET region is also showing encouraging signs of recovery.
Despite the ongoing geopolitical situation in West Asia and inflationary pressures across several markets in the region, we continue to see improving demand conditions and stronger customer engagement. The resilience demonstrated by customers across the region reinforces our confidence in the long-term growth potential of these markets. Similarly, demand across our rest of the world markets remain very encouraging. Specialty Care demand continues to be positive across geographies, reflecting the investments we have made over the last few years in strengthening our market presence, expanding our customer relationships, and moving further toward differentiated offerings. Coming to the supply side, while demand has remained resilient, the largest challenge in the quarter came from the supply side. Q2 continued to be characterized by significant volatility across feedstocks, both petrochemical and oleochemical, driven largely by developments in West Asia.
Crude oil remained elevated through most of the quarter, averaging above $100 per barrel. Oleochemical feedstock prices also remained buoyant at approximately $2,700 per metric ton levels, referring in this case to lauryl alcohol. The quarter was also impacted by supply constraints in one of our key petrochemical raw materials, adding to the volatility in the operating environment. At the same time, global supply chain disruptions remained a significant headwind. Freight rates across several trade lanes increased sharply, reaching nearly three to four times the historical levels prior to the West Asia crisis in certain regions. Congestion at ports, non-availability of shipment allocations, vessel constraints, and longer transit times impacted global trade flows and affected shipments, particularly from India and Egypt into Latin America, North America, and parts of Europe. However, we do not view this as a structural issue.
We are seeing some early signs of freight rates moderating and supply chain conditions gradually stabilizing. Nevertheless, given the evolving geopolitical environment, we continue to remain vigilant and agile in our response. Against this backdrop, I am pleased to share that the momentum we witnessed in the previous quarter has continued into Q2. India delivered an excellent performance, with volumes growing by approximately 16% year-on-year. Growth was broad-based across customer segments, supported by strong demand from both Tier 1 customers and the wider Tier 2, Tier 3, and the direct-to-consumer ecosystem. This gives us confidence that the recovery is becoming increasingly broad-based and sustainable as we move into the coming months and into the next financial year. The AMET region also delivered a strong recovery, with volumes growing by approximately 15% year-on-year and 16% sequentially.
This performance clearly demonstrates that the underlying demand environment remains healthy and that much of the weakness experienced previously was driven by external disruptions rather than any structural change in the market fundamentals. Importantly, this recovery was supported by strong execution from our operations and business teams. With close coordination across manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, and commercial functions, enabling us to effectively navigate the operating environment and serve our customers well. In our rest of the world markets, volumes declined by 9% approximately year-on-year, primarily driven by the logistic-related disruptions and elevated freight costs. Despite these near-term challenges, demand for our prestige and masstige Specialty Care products remain healthy across regions, reinforcing the strength of the underlying demand environment and supporting a richer product mix within Specialty. Looking at the overall picture, I believe the trends we have seen over the last two quarters clearly indicate recovery momentum.
The strategic actions undertaken over the last several years are beginning to reflect more consistently in our operating performance, customer traction, and profitability. Coming to our financial performance, I am pleased to share that the EBITDA for quarter two of FY 2027 grew by 68% year-on-year to approximately INR 196 crore, while EBITDA per metric ton improved by 56% to around INR 26,920 per metric ton. With this, EBITDA for H1 FY 2027 stands at approximately INR 448 crore, reflecting a strong 78% year-on-year growth. This performance was driven by robust volume growth in India and AMET, a richer product mix, increasing contributions from Specialty Care ingredients, and a disciplined commercial execution across markets. What is particularly satisfying is that these results have been delivered despite one of the most challenging logistics environments seen in recent years.
The performance reflects not only favorable demand trends, but also the exceptional execution demonstrated by our teams across procurement, manufacturing, supply chain, commercial, and R&D functions. Their agility, dedication, and customer focus continue to be a key competitive advantage for Galaxy. Looking ahead, demand indicators remain encouraging across our key markets. India continues to demonstrate healthy consumption trends, premiumization remains intact, and Specialty Care demand continues to grow across geographies. At the same time, we do remain watchful of developments in West Asia and their implications on global logistics, freight markets, feedstock availability, and supply chain stability. While there are early indications of easing logistics pressures, the situation remains dynamic and requires a close monitoring. On the innovation front, we continue to invest in opportunities that will drive our future growth.
At the recently concluded in-cosmetics Asia in Bangkok, we introduced the Galsoft range of product, namely SunBliss EBD, a next-generation sun care solution, and GalMOL CCC, a naturally derived multifunctional emollient for modern personal care leave-on formulations. These innovations address important consumer trends around premiumization, sustainability, and enhanced performance, while advancing our Strategy 2030 focus on leave-on applications and the beauty segment. They further strengthen our Specialty Care portfolio and demonstrate our continued focus on translating scientific innovation into differentiated solutions for our customers. Coming to the outlook, based on a strong performance delivered during the first half of the year, we remain confident in maintaining our volume growth at the higher end of the guidance of 6%-8% for FY 2027.
At the same time, supported by an improving product. Sorry, at the same time, supported by an improving business mix, continued momentum in Specialty Care, and disciplined commercial execution, we are pleased to enhance our EBITDA per metric ton guidance for the full year of FY 2027 to INR 26,000-INR 27,000 per metric ton. The last two years tested our resilience. The last two quarters have demonstrated the strength of that resilience. While challenges will continue to emerge, we are confident that Galaxy today is stronger, more diversified, and better positioned than ever before to deliver sustainable and profitable growth for all our stakeholders. Thank you all for your continued trust and support. I now open the floor for questions.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may please press star and one on their touch-tone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We'll take the first question from the line of Sanjesh Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon. Thanks, Natarajan sir, for taking my question, and happy Diwali in advance.
Yeah, happy Diwali.
Thank you, sir. A couple of questions. First, on the AMET, you said that this quarter we grew around 15%-16% in terms of volume. What really drove this? Because we were seeing during inflation-
Excuse me, sir.
Yeah.
Mr. Jain, I am sorry to interrupt you. Can you please be a little bit louder?
Can you hear me now?
Yes, much better.
Okay. On the AMET, what is really driving the volume growth? Because generally, we have seen in the high inflationary environment, AMET generally tends to move more local. Is it that the local were not able to procure and we got an opportunity, or do you think these volume growth are sustainable?
First of all, the local Egypt market, obviously, it grew well because there were certain supply constraints. That was a support that was good enough. It is also important that we grew in the markets outside Egypt as well, significantly well. That is something that what we see is that given the way that the feedstock prices are behaving, this is certainly causing, the disruptions are causing certain supply-side disruptions that are benefiting us. At the same time, we do see that the demand is holding up across the market, not only within Egypt.
Got it. In India, again, the growth appears to be much stronger than what our FMCG peers have reported. Certainly, we have done very well in Tier 3 segment, where probably volume growth is higher and the mix is changing favorable for us. Apart from that, anything to call out in India market?
India market, first is, we have had some gain in terms of even an increased share of the volume with our customers. As I said, even in the quarter one, that continues into quarter two, and we expect that to continue in the coming months as well. That is the reformulation that impacted us last year, is turned favorably to us in beginning this April. T hat is an added factor in terms of the way that the India volumes have grown.
One structural question, Natarajan sir. Even if I look at the result during the COVID, we did very well when supply chain was tight, and when supply chain got eased, most of this benefit evaporated for us, and we came to more normalized level. Do you see that risk playing out probably two quarter down the line when supply chain normalizes, crude prices normalizes? We will grow back to that normal level of INR 19, INR 20 a kg EBITDA?
No, in fact, we are extremely confident of sustaining this particular momentum. The reason I will explain is that the difference between what happened during COVID time and now is that right now, our product portfolio is significantly superior. We have a better mix. Our markets, we have significantly gotten better in terms of our business in Americas, in Europe. We have got a better mix in terms of Specialty Care ingredients. Our operating leverage has gone up significantly. And the way that we are looking at our direct-to-consumer segments, the way we have penetrated in the last five years, all these are things that will enable us to sustain. That is the difference between what happened during COVID and what is happening now.
There have been some benefits we have got because of the supply-led disruptions, but we have innovated more that is going to be structurally different from what it was during the COVID period.
Got it. Got it. And one on the personal care, now that we have started launching the product Emollients and others, how has been the response and when can we see this finally contributing to the growth? Because we are looking at much growth, much higher, assuming that personal care will take off, right?
No, see, the specialty growth has been pretty significant if you look at it in this year, in terms of the way this is additionally what we are looking on the leave-on and the beauty side. We have done these launches, and the response is good from the context of good projects and pipeline that are being built up. And typically, these products will take at least 12 to 18 months for it to commercialize. It is not going to be something that because people have to test it into the formulation, look at stability and all that. But what is important is that there is a good response, and many of them have started initiating projects in pipeline with us.
Now, in the Specialty Care, what is the contribution now coming from the personal care segment?
The entire this thing is from the personal care segment only, no, in Specialty Care.
No, no, we were targeting on rinse-off and leave-on. I meant from that.
Ah, yeah, sorry. Sorry. Y ou are talking about what is coming from the leave-on segment?
Yes, leave-on segment.
Yeah, leave-on segment. Today, if you look at out of this, probably we may be at about 10%-15% coming in from the leave-on segment.
This is Specialty Care, right? Or the total volume?
In Specialty Care.
In Specialty.
Of the Specialty.
In that sense, our non-Specialty category then is not growing as fast as what we think, right?
Non-Specialty means?
Sorry, non-leave-on category or the rinse-off category or the legacy category which we had in the Specialty Care, that it is then it is not growing so fast. I thought mild surfactants and all were supposed to accelerate.
No, I don't I think you don't got it. I replied saying that out of the Specialty Care business, 15% is from the leave-on segment. You're getting me?
Correct.
Their growth that has happened, it is majorly driven by my mild surfactants and my preservatives category, no?
We had leave-on category even earlier. Now we are trying to scale up. Is that how it is?
Yes, of course. Yes.
How has that grown, leave-on category in last one year?
Leave-on category, that has been because we have just started introducing new products. T hat will take time in terms of fructifying. That is why I said the launches that we are doing in line with that strategy, and the projects in pipeline are getting built. They will start contributing in the coming years to increasing our share of business in the leave-on and the beauty segment.
Got it. Got it. That is very clear. CapEx for this year, we maintain that INR 150 crore run rate?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. Any reason to announce the early dividend of INR 18? Generally, we were doing annual. Now are we changing that to biannual?
We always used to give an interim dividend. We used to give that in February. We are giving that now in November because of our first half being significantly superior. We said we should reward the shareholders earlier than normally what we do in February.
That is clear. Thanks, Natarajan sir. Best of luck for the coming quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Khetan from SMIFS Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for taking my questions, and wishing you a very happy Diwali. Sir, my first question is onto the ROW markets. Sir, in H1, we had seen the volumes have been relatively flat. For Q2, there is a high single-digit decline. Just, sir, would like to know what is the outlook for H2. You had also mentioned you are witnessing some supply chain easing and all, but still, in terms of volumes and in terms of demand, how much we can scale up in second half? And for the full fiscal FY 2027, how we see the outlook for ROW?
See, in ROW, what I say first is, what has been superior is our mix has become superior of Specialty Care, which is reflected majorly into our ROW segment. The volumes have got impacted due to the supply chain implications, which majorly happened in Q2, where the major portion of that impact was on the Performance Surfactants. Because they are also something that requires us to be very responsive in terms of reaching material on time to our customers, because you typically cannot stock significantly those items in our warehouses across the geographies where we service these volumes. Moving forward, with the supply chain getting better, we do see that we will start it reflecting in terms of our growth.
Although I do not see that we will be able to catch up on this close to 7%-8% drop in volume in the coming six months, we will be able to grow in the second half compared to what we were in the previous year.
Got it. Sir, second question onto the AMET market, like the earlier participant also highlighted. Is there any change in some structural levers? Earlier we used to highlight the AMET market was not picking because of higher input cost and the local competition. Has anything changed of this sort which has led to the stronger growth in volumes?
First of all, what happens is that, a portion of it was with regard to what we said, our ability to manage operations well in a very, what do you say, challenging supply-side scenario, which obviously, as I said, it supported our growth in the local Egypt market because of the supply-side issues, but we also could be able to grow our volumes in other than local Egypt. What we are witnessing is that the demand side seems to be holding up. When we talk to our customers there, I think what consistent feedback we receive from them is that the demand is good, and we would like you to ensure that you serve us well. That's what we've been hearing.
Yeah, like local Egypt, the demand has really picked up, and we do see the consumer sentiments to be much better there as compared to what we would witness earlier. Probably we may have a better idea as to what is causing this and what is different from what was happening earlier when consumer sentiments used to be impacted when the raw material prices used to be pretty high. But what is happening is that the demand continues to be favorable, demand situation.
Got it. Sir, my next question is, recently for the last one week, we had seen these crude prices declining by $20 a barrel. How this will change the supply situation and onto the demand side? From the customer side, because prices are declining so fast, they would wait for lower prices and they could defer the volumes. Is this a right understanding? Also onto the raw material side, do customers switch from oleochemicals to crude-based, so petrochemicals, and to the downstream to get better advantage of margins from these players? How things will shape up from this view?
No, obviously, even today, there is a mix between petrochemical and oleochemical feedstocks in every formulation. The switch will happen only when the delta between this is favorable for them to shift more towards petrochemical. What needs to be understood is that the lower crude prices also be reflecting on lower oleochemical prices, because the crude prices have got a linkage with the oleochemical prices. What will change is that the delta that was there earlier in the last year between oleochemical and petrochemical feedstock prices has narrowed, okay? Even today, it continues to be pretty narrow, and we expect this. Our talk with customers tells us that they expect this scenario even if you have the crude prices coming down. It is not going to be significantly change the current mix of petrochemical and oleochemical feedstocks that are there in the formulations.
Then onto the customer side, sir, do they defer the volumes considering prices are moving down in one way?
They defer, but then when they will defer is only when they see the demand situation is not very robust. But when your demand situation is robust, okay, trying to go tight in terms of your operations and not buying is only going to impact your ability to participate in the demand, correct? Today, with the demand being robust, people take the calls. But earlier, when the prices were very steady, if they take a six-month call, they may probably take a three-month call. That's the only difference. But they have to buy. If they don't buy, they lose the share on the shelf. They are part of the share on the shop shelves, correct?
Got it, sir. Got it. Sir, just one last question. Sir, we had completed one bigger capacity expansion. How much volumes from that segment we have built in for FY 2027, and how much from the base businesses?
It's only thing, it's only, obviously, we don't want to be talking separately, but what is important, that was for Specialty Care ingredients, and that particular segment has picked up significantly well, contributing to our numbers in H1, and we continue to see that happening moving forward into the coming months. It has grown significantly. The way I would say it is that really has started getting utilized pretty well, the investments that we had done, and we capitalized that in the last-
This would translate into a higher volume growth for FY 2028, 2029, considering both if start to plan to fall?
It's already reflecting in a specialty growth this year. Okay, it will continue to maintain the momentum.
Got it, sir. Okay. Yeah, sir.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may please press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Arun Prasath from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, Natarajan Ji, and thanks for the opportunity. Just a little bit nuanced breakdown of our top line. If I take your top line and divide it by the absolute volume at the portfolio level, the realization per kg seems to be at the all-time high. In fact, this is, according to our understanding, this is even better than our 2021, 2022 supply-led price increase. Even compared to that level, our current realization at the portfolio level is much higher. Now, with the crude probably going to soften and fatty alcohol prices also probably softening, should we expect this go back to the previous levels?
Then when it happens, in case if it happens, how should we look at the margin? Is on a percentage basis we should expect the margin to be higher, or on a per kg basis, the margin should be at a gross margin level, it should be at the similar levels?
No, that is precisely because of this reason. We always guide only on EBITDA per metric ton. We do not look at EBITDA percentage because that will essentially only confuse whoever follows us. To your question as to what is difference between our realization value between, say, 2021, 2022 and now, one is in terms of the way the feedstock prices were. Even at that time, the feedstock prices were high. One of the other reasons why it is even higher than that, just to give you an indicator, is that the mix is now very different now. We have a good mix of specialty ingredients in the portfolio. W hich essentially also talks about a higher realization. T hat is one major. In specialty, you will have a higher price, lower volumes.
If you look at the numerator by denominator, it will tend to pay higher, and that obviously will continue because my specialty portfolio has increased compared to what it was in 2021, 2022. With regard to prices coming down, if we have fatty alcohol prices coming down significantly, it will reduce my realization because my raw material prices have come down.
Natarajan Ji, but this is what, while it is, we are not able to look at it as a contribution from a Performance and Specialty, both on volume terms and revenue terms. It is like it is one-third. Even a decade ago also, it is 1/3. Not able to understand this, the mix change that you are talking about. At least our disclosure is probably is not showing that.
No, see, one is, if you see 2021, 2022, one is the Specialty, within Specialty ingredients, you have your green specialties that have started contribute. What is happening in our Tri-K business in U.S.A.? What has happened in terms of our mild surfactants portfolio thing going up? T he Specialty portfolio within that also has got churned now to higher value-added products.
Okay.
That is why when I am giving the guidance, I guide for volume and EBITDA per metric ton, which essentially incorporates all this into EBITDA per metric ton. My mix impact plus my operating everything included, that is how I guide. That is why I said I will be at INR 26, INR 27 for the full year, okay, and a volume of 6%-8% at the higher end of the guidance for the full year.
Yes, understood. If this mix within the Specialty is going to be here, and it is going to stay at this level and probably only grow from here, shouldn't our long-term guidance or the EBITDA also should be upwards of INR 25 per kilogram?
Yeah, it should be. It should be. We are coming back after two years of challenging situation that we were in. We have started doing pretty well, and that is what I have been telling you for the last two years that a lot of actions are being initiated. The external scenario is not favorable, but the moment the external scenario gets sorted out, okay, all our positive impact of the actions that we have been doing the last two years will start reflecting. It has happened this year, and it will continue to maintain that momentum.
Sir, in the past we used to incorporate the top line, used to incorporate the freight also because of the CIF billing that we do. How much of this revenue growth is because of the higher freight? If freight comes down, should we expect a lower revenue growth?
Yeah, it can happen because, see, now my freight into Latin America and North America is three times what it was earlier. I f it starts correcting, that obviously. I f my freight costs are in the zone of about 10% of my CIF, if you look at it, I think it should be. If it comes down, it will come down by 2% or 3%.
Understood. Secondly, on your AMET commentary, you said that demand in the local market, not only Egypt, non-Egypt market in AMET also is higher. What is the primary driver for this demand, sir?
See, first is, what we see when we talk to customers, they do say that the demand environment is encouraging. That is first. W e have the same question with the increased prices. How is the consumer demand holding itself? A ll of them are saying it is holding up. The major challenge all of them have is in terms of getting certainty of supplies, because it is a very challenging environment in that market. Because my incoming is challenged, the outgoing is significantly more challenged in terms of the logistics there. Okay. What is important is that because if the consumer demand wasn't holding up, most of them would not even be asking for material.
Okay. Right.
Because what we are seeing is that this is a good change, and we do expect that, we do hear from our customers that this particular thing will continue. We also see our, the Tier 2, Tier 3 category is coming back in terms of a good demand in Egypt and outside of Egypt in the Africa, Middle East, Turkey region.
All right. Sir, any further drill down of the demand drivers, like underlying what has changed over the last 12 months in terms of, is it a better per capita income, or is it because of climate-related, more usage of our products? Anything on that line?
No, I am not able to get any specific point. What I could say is that typically what I have seen is that the consumers over a period of time start getting adjusted to higher prices thing, and the Tier 2, Tier 3 customers whom we serve well, I think seems to be gaining shares. Okay?
Oh, okay.
What has happened is, one important thing is that inflation per se and currency depreciation, when it happens, all of a sudden, okay, people take time to adjust. But once it stabilizes, even at the higher level, people have got adjusted, and then the demand starts kicking in properly. If you see here in the last two years, okay, currency has been, many of the countries' currency has been not that very volatile. Currency availability is still in place. Okay. I think the inflation has got taken care by income levels going up. T he consumers are now on a new equilibrium in terms of their buying pattern.
Understood, sir. One question on India. Our India volumes indicate that we will be, on an annualized basis, we will be touching 140 KT in this year, which is significantly higher than probably 100 KT that we did even probably two, three years ago. What kind of a capacity we have in India, and at what point of time we need to put in CapEx to raise this capacity level? The rest of the world will also be coming back. Do we need a bigger CapEx program to accommodate for this growth in the next two, three years?
We will require. First of all, the way that we approach our capacity creation, if you look at Specialty Care, we have already done quite significant amount of investments in the last few years, and they have just started. This year was the year in which they really started getting used in a very healthy way. With regard to Performance Surfactants, our whole approach is in terms of how do we prepare much ahead in terms of our debottlenecking and frugal ways of adding capacities. What we see is that [inaudible] investments moving forward. As of now, we are well placed, at least to see the increased demand that we are seeing for the coming two to three years from both India and Egypt.
Typically, these projects take about 12-15 months for commissioning from the day we kick off the project. We will at the appropriate time initiate so that we are able to be having capacities well ahead of the demand growth coming in. Because once you are not there to pass on demand growth because you do not have capacity, then that gets booked elsewhere. We are very conscious of this, and we will invest at the right time.
Hello?
Sorry, your voice is breaking, Mr. Prasath.
Sorry, is it better now?
Yeah.
I will just repeat, sir. What you are implying is at least for next 12 months, we have enough capacity to grow both our India markets and the rest of the world markets. Understood. Sir, one final question on the leave-on question. For our Strategy 2030 target that we had, what should be the leave-on contribution at a portfolio level, sir? Right now it is around 15%, you said, on Specialty Care, which means that probably at a portfolio level it is less than 10%. But for the Strategy 2030 target to achieve, what should be this number?
We are looking at about. Look, our thing is to go to 25% of our total volumes. That is what we are planning. We are making the sort of work that we are doing is all towards that end. We would have done a good job if we reach 25% by 2030. That is the way I would like to put it.
Understood, sir. Thank you very much and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. You may please press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Palkesh Jain from Jain Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, if I look at the long-term strategy, the company has been investing significantly in innovation and expanding its Specialty Care portfolio. Could you please share some updates on the new products in the pipeline and how is the customer acceptance progressing? Are this innovation translating into meaningful revenue contribution? That's the question, sir.
Yeah, so first of all, if you see, there are some of the projects that fructified in the first half of this year. Very encouragingly, we have a good amount of products in pipeline that are looking at converting. If you look at, we launched about 10 to 12 products in the last four quarters. A good amount of projects in pipeline have built up, and we are seeing some conversions happening. This typically takes time to mature from the sample stage to commercial order. What is interesting is pipeline is getting built, and the conversion, we are able to see picking up momentum. This is good. If you look at it, like last two years, when I say structurally that we have been working to get our specialty ingredients portfolio built up, you are essentially building those pipelines.
Some of the pipelines have got fructified in the first half of this year. Similarly, the way that we are growing with the direct-to-consumer segment in India, where we support them with a good amount of specialty ingredients. All these are contributing to the way that we are building the specialty portfolio and also reflecting in our results.
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you. Thanks for the information, sir.
Thank you. [Mr. Palkesh], you had any further questions?
I do have one question. What is our current capacity in the utilization of our plants? That is one more question.
I think you are speaking on the speakerphone or something. I am not able to hear you clearly.
No, sir. I am on the headphone side, on the headphone only. Now it is audible or clear?
Sir, please remove your headphones and put it on your handset. I mean, directly talk on your mobile.
Now it is better, sir?
Yeah, now it is better. Yeah.
Yeah. Sir, one more question. What is our current capacity utilization of our plants?
Yeah, we are about 65%.
Okay, sir. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah, thank you all. Wishing you all a very happy Diwali. Looking forward to meeting you all in the Q3 conference call three months from now. Wishing you all the very best.
Thank you. Happy Diwali.
Thank you, sir. Thank you, members of the management. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Galaxy Surfactants Limited, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.