Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to HEG Limited's Q3 FY 2026 result conference call, organized by SKP Securities Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and you will be able to ask questions after the management's opening remarks. Should you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Naveen Agarwal, Head, Institutional Equities at SKP Securities Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm pleased to welcome you on behalf of HEG Limited and SKP Securities to this financial results conference call with the leadership team at HEG Limited. We have with us Mr. Ravi Jhunjhunwala, Chairman, Managing Director, and CEO, and Mr. Riju Jhunjhunwala, Vice Chairman, along with their colleagues, Mr. Manish Gulati, Executive Director, Mr. Om Prakash Ajmera, Group CFO, Mr. Ravi Tripathi, CFO. We also have Mr. Vasant Jain, Joint MD and CEO, Bhilwara Energy Limited, Mr. Ankur Khaitan, MD and CEO, TACC Limited, Mr. Hiren Pravin Shah, MD and CEO, RePlus, Mr. Puneet Anand, Group CSO, and Mr. Salil Bawa, Group Head, Investor Relations. We'll have the opening remarks from Mr. Jhunjhunwala, followed by a Q&A session. Thank you, and over to you, Raviji.
Thank you, and good afternoon, friends, and welcome to our financial results conference call for Q3, financial year 25-26. I would like to begin by setting the context on the global steel markets, as its underlying trends are critical for understanding the demand conditions for the graphite electrode industry. As per the latest data published by the World Steel Association, global steel production declined by about 2% year-on-year in calendar year 2025, falling to 1,804 million tonnes, which is 1.8 billion tonnes, from 1,841 million tonnes in 2024, reflecting a challenging macroeconomic environment and subdued demand across major steel producing regions.
China, which is the world's largest steel producer, also recorded a 4.4% year-on-year decline in 2025, with crude steel production reducing from 1,005 million metric tonnes to 961 million metric tonnes. While China's steel production has declined by approximately 7.5% over the last five years, its steel exports have increased sharply over the same period, rising by 78% from 67 million tonnes to 190 million tonnes in 2025 over these six years, significantly intensifying competitive pressures across global steel and downstream markets. In contrast, India continued to outperform, with crude steel production increasing by 10.4% Y-O-Y, supported by strong infrastructure spending, resilient automotive demand, and ongoing capacity additions.
Among other major regions, the United States recorded a 3.1% year-over-year increase in crude steel production, while Japan's output declined by 4% and South Korea declined by 2.8%. The European Union, the European Union, EU, remained at under significant pressure, with steel production declining by 2.6% on year-over-year basis due to very high energy costs and weak industrial activity. Against this backdrop, the global graphite electrode market continued to face challenging conditions, with customer demand remaining muted due to cautious procurement behavior and sustained pricing pressures, particularly from elevated steel export out of China. This demand conditions remained uneven across all the regions. While near-term visibility remains limited, disciplined supply, improving utilization trends in certain markets, and the continued shifts from electric arc furnace steelmaking provide support to the medium-term industry fundamentals.
In this environment, our focus on operational efficiency, cost discipline, and customer diversification enabled us to deliver a resilient performance during the quarter, demonstrating the strength of our model. We continued to operate at the highest capacity utilizations in the industry all around the world, at 85% in previous quarter and 89% in the last three quarters combined, both of which are highest in the graphite industry worldwide. Just to remind you, we have the single location, largest facility in the world, at a place called Mandideep, near Bhopal, with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes. Combined with a cost structure which is among the lowest, positions us as one of the most efficient and cost-efficient graphite electrode manufacturers globally. Just to reiterate, that these numbers are based on a...
These numbers are based on our expanded capacity of 100,000 tons and not 80,000 tons, which was the case until 2023-2024, reflecting a gain in the market share at a time when the electric arc furnace-based steel production is more or less flat. Looking ahead, the global transition towards low emission EAF steelmaking continues to accelerate, driven by climate goals and regulatory momentum. We once again reiterate that this transition is expected to generate incremental graphite electrode demand of approximately 200,000 tons by 2030, excluding China, reinforcing the industry's long-term growth potential. To the best of our knowledge, about 20 million tons of new greenfield electric arc furnace capacities have already been added in the calendar years 2024 and 2025, and we believe another 60 million tons will be added between calendar years 2026- 2028.
So, which is not too long, in the next three years, 60 million tons. And another 30 million tons between 2029 and 2030, taking the total new greenfield electric arc furnace capacity by 110 million tons. It has never happened in the history that the steel industry has added 110 million tons in the last 20, 30, 40 years, probably. This will increase the worldwide electrode demand by approximately 200,000 tons, compared to what it was till calendar year 2025. Construction activity of our recently announced expansion by a further 15,000 tons is progressing as per schedule, and we stand by our earlier target of completing this by early 2028, which will position us well to cater to the incremental electrode demand all over the world.
I once again reiterate that for the last many years, our exports have constituted around two-thirds of our total sales to more than 30-35 countries, covering almost the entire geography. Our composite scheme of arrangement is on track. The NCLT bench at Indore has heard the matter and reserved its order on the first motion application. We expect to receive the order within the next 1-2 weeks. Upon receipt of this order, and in accordance with its directions, we will initiate the process of issuing notices and convening meetings of our shareholders and creditors to seek their approval for the scheme. Once the approval process is completed, we will file the second motion petition. We anticipate that this entire scheme will be approved by NCLT by Q1 2027.
With that, I would now like to invite our CFO, Ravi Tripathi, to present the financial quarters, for financial results for the matter, for the quarter, and then we'll open up for Q&A. Thanks. Ravi, over to you.
Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, everyone. I will briefly walk you through the company's operating and financial performance for the period ended 31st December 2025. For the nine months ended December 2025, revenue from operation stood at INR 1,965 crore, compared to INR 1,616 crore in the same period of last year. For Q3 FY26, revenue was INR 656 crores, versus INR 4,477 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. EBITDA for the nine-month period was INR 623 crores, up from INR 393 crores of the previous year.
On a standalone basis, profit after tax for the nine months of FY 2026 was INR 344 crores, compared to INR 163 crores in the same period of last year. On a consolidated basis, profit after tax stood at INR 455 crores, as against INR 189 crores in the previous year. Our balance sheet remains strong. The company continues to remain long-term debt-free and maintain a treasury balance of approximately INR 1,155 crores as of 31st December 2025. Looking ahead, we are confident that any improvement in the industry can significantly boost our profits. The detailed presentation has been uploaded on the company's website as well as with the stock exchange for your reference. We would now be happy to take your questions. Thank you for your time. Over to you, Naveenji.
In the meantime, I just have an announcement. We just spoke about this NCLT order, which is supposed to be—which was supposed to be coming very soon. We have just a minute ago got this, got this in our hand right now.
Thank you very much.
So, uh-
I'm sorry, sir. Go ahead.
No, no. I've finished.
All right. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on the touchtone 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 questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask questions, please press star and one. The first question is from Rohan Khera, from Singularity Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you very much, and congratulations for declaring great results. I'm very happy to see the utilization that you, the company, has been able to clock. I have three quick questions. If, number one, if Ravi, you can repeat the statement that he made about the NCLT order that just before the Q&A started. Second is I wanted to understand and get a sense of the realization that the company has been clocking in this quarter, and what is the overall realization that is expected for the full year in dollar terms for the graphite electrodes? And third question is, if you can indicate the product mix of the graphite electrodes between Ultra-High Power and High Power, please. Thank you.
You see, the first figure that you are talking about, I mean, obviously, it's a competitive world, and we don't want to give any number. But it's not very difficult. I mean, you know, we know the turnover, you know the capacity utilization, we know the total capacity of the plant. It's not very difficult to calculate that, but don't please ask me to give that number. And your second question was?
Sir, about the product mix between Ultra-High Power and High Power.
It is more or less in the region of 70%-75% Ultra-High Power.
Got it. Sir, the statement that you just made on the NCLT, that you got some intimation about a minute ago.
We just got that. I mean, as I was just saying that we are expecting it soon, it just so happened that while we were speaking, the order came.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Ahmed Madha from Unifi Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My question is on the volume growth. Is it fair to expect our nine-month volumes would have grown by about 20%?
Yes. I mean, I gave you the-
Yeah.
I gave you the utilization rate and our capacity is 100,000 tons, so it's very simple to calculate from there.
Okay, sure. So I'm assuming 20% ± . But I'm asking this because I just want to understand, if we have improved our volumes by 18,000-20,000 tons, where have we gained market share from? Either is it from the Japanese competitors or the Chinese players? Because GrafTech has improved volumes of about 6%, Graphite India has improved by a few percentages. So I'm just trying to understand from which players, which sort of geography have we gained market share, and in which end market, Europe or Middle East or whatever, or India, which geographies you have gained market share? If you can just give some sense.
You see, there are only 4-5 major regions in the world, and the U.S. is the only country which produces more than 70%, 72% of the total steel through electric arc furnace. So that is by far the single largest market after China. And then rest, everybody is like 30%, 35%, 40%. Europe is about 40%, about 45%-50%. So we have gained market share everywhere. I mean, there's no one specific region that we are catering to. We have been catering to more than 30, 35 countries all over the place. So wherever the market is, I mean, we have gained a little bit of market share.
Okay. Would you like to add from which sort of players have we gained share from? Is it fair to assume we've gained from Japanese players or Chinese players?
There are only basically three or four bigger players in this industry now. I mean, there is, there's an American company, there's a Japanese company, and then there are a couple of very small companies. So it's very difficult to give you a particular name because everybody sells a little more in one area, a little less in another area. So obviously, we probably have gained from each one of them a little bit here and there.
Okay, sure. And in terms of your annual pricing arrangement, would you like to give some sense, despite, I mean, all the tariffs and everything, is it fair to assume a broad realization will remain more or less the same or from whatever arrangements or the contracts we have put in for some of the geographies?
You see, a lot of these orders have been negotiated on a 12-month basis, especially in U.S. And in other countries, some companies negotiate on a quarterly basis, others do it on a six-monthly basis. It's not easy to give one simple answer to that. But yes, I mean, I could safely say that at least 50%-60% of whatever volume that we are going to sell in the next year, we have settled everything for the 50%, 60% kind of a number.
Got it. And for that, the pricing sense, will be even more or less similar to what we have done last few quarters, or will there be a major-
Yeah, more or less similar. Yeah, yeah, you are right.
Okay, got it. Another question was, with still with 18% tariff, I'm not sure how much disadvantage or advantage we have compared to other competitors in U.S. market. For our business mix, overall, you have spoken about, I think, 20% in U.S. Americas. That sort of number should sustain in U.S., or will there be a significant business mix shift for us for different geographies for 2026?
Our product mix is not going to change much here and there. I mean, it could be a couple of percent plus, minus, but not, not more than that. We are not going to lose market share in any part of the world because of any reason, and whether it is U.S. or Europe or Southeast Asia or wherever. Of course, to the extent that we'll have to still pay 3% duty, to that extent, there'll be a hit, but, but we don't want to. For the long-term basis, we don't want to lose a customer, so we will absorb that cost.
Sure. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Rajesh, from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good evening, everybody. So, sir, I was wondering about the investment in GrafTech. Now, it is worth half the value that we invested in, and, the stage GrafTech is going in, in another two quarters, that company may actually close down partially, from what I understand. Is that a correct assessment, first of all? And secondly, what do we do with the investment?
No, we don't think so. I mean, there's no scope for any company in this industry to close down, because with the kind of growth in the electrode demand that we are talking about, we are talking about 150-200,000 tons increase in the demand of electrodes in a market where the total production capacity is not more than 500,000 tons. So we are not anticipating any situation where any one of us is going to go out of business. I mean, something, something or the other will have to happen to every one of us. Otherwise, I mean, if you are talking about a 175,000-ton company, which is what GrafTech is, closing down, you're talking about what? About 30% of the total world capacity going out of business. That is-
I'm not talking about full closure-
Unlikely to happen.
Partial closure, because as per GrafTech, cost, cash cost of production, it is now somewhere around $3,700. And from next quarter, the U.S. tariff is also going to come down to 18% for Indian exporters. And they've mentioned in the call that that would lead to lower realizations going forward. So does that mean that the company has a network of-
No, no, no. For U.S., you see, U.S. customers generally decide everything, practically 100% of their needs at the beginning of the year, for the whole year. So the prices and the quantities and everything is more or less frozen for the whole of 2026. So there is no negotiation happening right now in America, especially.
Okay. But assuming prices to remain where they were, and they're already at the kind of peak realization of $4,000, and they're still making about $65 million losses every quarter, which can, I don't see it coming down significantly. So that is a dire scenario for a company with a net worth of just about $450 million. That's why I thought that maybe some capacity. Because we've seen it in, even in GrafTech, that some capacities have gone down or got closed. Is it possible that some capacity of GrafTech gets closed?
I don't see that. I mean, if you heard their conference call and if you saw their reports, they are saying the same thing. Everybody is saying the same thing, that the demand of electrode is likely to increase by 150-200 ,000 tons, and it in the next 2-3 years. And as I gave you the figure recently, I mean, in the last 2-3 years, capacity of 20 million tons of new electric arc furnaces have already been added. So that 20 million ton additional capacity means about 30,000 tons of demand. In the next two years, we have the data for each company, each location of the new plants which are coming in, let's say, U.S.
U.S. is the main country where more and more and more electric arc furnaces are being built, because U.S. is the only one place where 70%+ steel is produced through electric arc furnaces. Minus, without U.S., that average is about 40%-42%. And so, as I said, 20 million tons has already been added in the last two years. Between now and end of 2028, which is only 2.5, 3 years away, we have list of at least 25 million tons-30 million tons, which are coming, and we more or less know which plant is going to be commissioned in which month, in which quarter, in the next two years. And so at least this 20 + 30, which is likely to come in the next 2, 2.5 years, is 100% coming.
Because where 15%, 20%, 30% or 50% work has already happened at the site, and these companies have committed millions of dollars of investments. So 20%, 30%, 40% investment is already committed, work has started, orders have been placed for all the equipment. So all these are bound to come. And so unless there is a total U-turn, and unless there is a total U-turn in the world towards carbon emissions and everything, it is not likely to happen. And all this additional EAF, electric arc furnaces, are only coming because of carbon emissions. As you know, the same steel produced through electric arc furnace versus the blast furnace emits 1/5 the carbon. That's the only reason why new and more and more electric arc furnaces are coming. So that story is not going to go away anytime soon.
Yes, sir. So-
That's a different point, that 100. It is possible that instead of 100, 80 will come. But for this industry, even 80 or even 70 million tons of new electric arc furnace resulting into a demand, additional demand of 125-150 thousand tons, is a very big, huge number.
I understand that in the GrafTech call, they also mentioned that China has a capacity of 800 KT, of which nearly 200 KT odd is coming in the UHP market, and that is also operating at about 50% utilization. So it is, is it possible that the additional demand gets filled by Chinese electrodes? That was my related question actually.
You see, China, of course, produces much more than the rest of the world produces in terms of electrodes, but they are still pretty far away from producing the correct, the right Ultra-High Power electrodes, that we talk about. So while they are taking away the market share from all of us on the small size electrodes, what we call Non-Ultra- High Power, but, they are very far away from, meeting the quality standards that we are able to meet, or Americans are able to meet, or the Germans or Japanese, all the Western players, so to say. So that risk is not there, at least in the foreseeable future.
Right. So, last question on this. So do we increase our investments in—because you already invested about INR 283 crores at a much higher level. So do we increase our investment in GrafTech, or we stay put, or what is the final decision on this?
So we are staying put. I mean, as when we took this view, and started buying some shares of GrafTech, we were very clear that we are in it for a long haul. And we... You see, till that last Friday when the results were declared, these shares were $1.9, $19.
Right.
It went up from current level of $7- $19 over the last 6-9 months. These bumps will keep coming in any industry, but we are really, we are here for a, on a long-term basis. We are not bothered about this. Neither we were going to sell at $1.8 or $18, and nor we are going to sell at the current price, at $17.
Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from Rohit, from iThought PMS. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening, sir. Congratulations on really very strong numbers, and congratulations on the demerger as well. Sir, my first question was, so can you just help us understand how we are, given where we are in the cycle, and you've been talking about it in the last many calls, in terms of realizations being really low, but you've continuously posted very good margins. So, I mean, if you can maybe share some more insights on what is enabling us. Because, if you look at the Indian peer, and even if you look at some of the Chinese company numbers, whatever is available, everybody is, needless to say, GrafTech, but we are sort of a clear outlier in this.
So what has really happened in this cycle that has enabled us to do this kind of divergence? If you can please share that, that will be really, really useful.
How do you want me to respond to that question? I don't know. I mean, I cannot, I cannot talk about my competitors. Obviously, the facts are facts. I mean, you know what is the annual revenue, you know the price of electrodes, and by that, you know what is the tonnage that they have sold and what is the tonnage that we have sold. Obviously, there is a difference in cost of production. I mean, that's the advantage of a plant in India versus a plant in Germany or France or Japan. The second thing is, if you look at all the graphite players, which is GrafTech and the Japanese company, Resonac, and two of us in India, we, we have by far the single largest plant at one location.
Our plant is 100,000 tons. The average of other plants will be like 50,000 tons-55,000 tons. And except Graphite India, who has a plant in India, all other plants are either in Germany or France or Italy or U.S. or Spain, Japan. So obviously, we have a cost advantage being in India. And the size. When you are talking of a 100,000-ton plant located in India versus a 50,000 tons average in Germany or France or U.S. or Japan, it makes a huge difference.
Mm. Got it. So the other question also, I mean, if I look at the realizations, you, you've also mentioned the realizations have been at pretty low numbers for many quarters now. And if you look at the utilization for the industry also, it is much lower. Even GrafTech in this call, they mentioned that they don't see any uptick in realization, and extremely competitive market is continuing. And you also mentioned that for 2026, you don't see much change in realizations. So, I mean, given that there is this consistent overcapacity in industry despite shutdowns, how do you see the.
I mean, at the same time, you've been saying that this, the additional 30,000 tons of electrode market has been there, and another 30,000-35,000 electrode market is going to come in the next two years. So but still the pricing is, is still a challenge. So, I mean, what, what is your sense on that?
You see, this 20 million tons, new electric arc furnace capacities have just been finished, let's say, in the last six months, nine months, 12 months. And that, that's a number which everybody knows. I mean, we, we can give you the names on a, when we, if we speak to you one to one. We can give you the names of this 20 million tons and the country and the size and everything. So, and, and being steel industry, I mean, when you put up a 20 million ton new capacity, it takes two months, three months, six months to stabilize, to reach 80%, 90%, 95%. So gradually, this capacity utilizations are increasing. And as I said, this, this year and 2028, between now and 2028, 2 .5 years, again, we have a list of 30 million tons.
We know the names, we know the country, we know the locations, and we practically know at which—what stage is plant A, plant B, plant C, plant D. Because most of these investments and new capacities are being added by our existing customers. Practically, there is no new steel company emerging anywhere in the world. So all these expansions are happening by all the established names, which are already our customers. So, and since we are a regular supplier to them, we keep meeting them at their work locations. So we know more or less whether they are coming in July of 2026 or 2027 or 2028 or whatever. So if even if it is 20 instead of 30, it's fine. I mean, these things will happen. Six months here and there, delays are bound to occur in any case.
So if 20 has already come in, which will, let's say, stabilize more and more this year, and another 20, if not 30, is coming in the next two, three years. So every ton means, I mean, you need more or less 1.5-2 kilos. So 1 million ton means 1,500-2,000 additional tons of electrodes required. So if you're talking of 20 million tons-25 million tons, you're easily talking of 20,000 tons-35,000 tons of new demand. And the plants which have been closed down in the last three, four years, it will be very difficult to restart those plants. After closure of two, three years in the Western world, to restart that plant is not going to be very easy.
And especially, you, you'll be surprised when I tell you that HEG, we came with, with this plant in Bhopal in 1976, which is at exactly 50 years today. This is the last new greenfield plant put up anywhere in the world. So all these plants that we are talking about, the American company and the European companies and the Japanese companies, they are much, much older than 1976. So it's not easy to. It's easy to close these plants because of their cost structure, because of their size. Again, I mean, if you go through the list of the plants which have closed down in the last 2-3 years, they are all in the region of 30,000, 35,000, 40,000 tons.
So it's simple to calculate a 30,000 ton-40,000-ton plant in Germany or Japan or U.S. or France, their cost versus a 100,000-ton plant in India. We and in fact, despite everything that we spoke about, we just announced about 6-9 months ago that we are adding another 15,000 tons, and the work has already started. We have already placed most of the long-term delivery items, and we are ready. We should be ready by middle to end of 2028, between 2 and 2.5 years from now. So as we keep adding more and more capacity, obviously our cost per ton keeps coming down, and we have this advantage of one large plant, and that large plant being in India versus Germany versus Japan versus U.S.
This is an inherent advantage of any plant in India.
Right. So thank you very much, sir, for that very detailed answer. So one more question was, sir, as this new addition sort of comes through in terms of, C&I, in terms of, end customers putting in new plants and both, both the Indian players almost now at peak utilization, if you will. So do you see that being a very big, reason or that, that could be one contributing, reason for the realization to start inching up? Because as you said, all the other plants are losing money, and it doesn't make, sense to run those plants at these kind of realizations. So does that then probably in, lead to an improvement in realization at some time, as these new plants come in sometime this year and, and, in the next couple of years?
Yeah, exactly. I mean, obviously the demand has to increase. I mean, this 20 million tons, which is already in operation, it may take another six months, nine months, 12 months to reach 70%, 80%, 85% capacity utilization. So this 20 million itself will require 25,000-30,000 tons of electrodes. And then we are talking about another 30 million tons-35 million tons before 2028.
Right. And the capacity that we are putting in, or even what the other Indian company is putting in, would that not, sort of, put a brake on the price increases? Because we will have those volumes to sort of cater to. So, I mean, we can continue to, gain more market share and outprice the other players. So, so what is your sense on that?
Manish, would you answer that?
Yes, sir. See, like chairman said, so the demand which is coming is much larger than what we are adding. So we are talking about 200,000 tons coming up to 2030, and the plant which we are building today, that 15,000 additional capacity is going to come on stream in the first quarter, early, 2028. So by that time, a couple of more electric arc furnace plant would have come up. And we also think that this is, for the last 2-3 years, the scene has been stagnant, declining in some regions, and there will be a turnaround. So we expect that this 15,000 would easily get absorbed.
Right.
And if you
Thank you very much.
And if you, if you follow some of our international competitors and even Graphite India, you will probably hear the same thing. Everybody is talking about the same 20 million tons, 30 million tons, demand increasing by 50,000, 100,000 tons. So, so everybody has the data from the same source, and basically the source is all our customers themselves.
Right. Right. And so sorry, one more question on graphite, just if you, if I can. So, I mean, you mentioned to a previous question that you don't see them going under. I mean, as you. I mean, but just from their survivability, or for them to make even decent amount of profits, the realizations have to significantly go up from where they are right now. So, I mean, while you said that, I mean, I understand that it's not like a year or even two years that you're looking at. This is a long-term investment, and you're looking at the overall industry dynamics. But I mean, clearly they're an inefficient player, given where they are located.
So how do you see their survivability or, or let's not say survivability, but them making even, like, at least half your margins or half your tough margins, forget, peak margins? So, I mean, because the costs are what they are, right? I mean, you can't change them. You can't change where the plants are located, so.
We should not be talking about, them, honestly, or their cost. That is, you missed their con call, which happened few days back. So you're on the wrong con call with this question. We can't say yes, of course, prices should go up for everybody. These, the prices prevalent today are one of the lowest. All these are very right. We have a big plant at one place, so of course our costs are lower than doing India. But, I think we should we would like to avoid answering questions on competitors' costs and all that.
Thank you. We move to the next question. The next question is from Varun Pinto from Negen Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi, sir. Am I audible?
Yes. Yes, please.
Hi, sir. Congratulations on a wonderful set of results.
Thank you.
I just had a few questions regarding the bookkeeping. Currently, the dividends that we get from, you know, like the hydropower assets, in which segment is that reported? Does that come under the share of profit and loss from the associates?
Yeah. My colleague is going to answer that question. Puneet.
Hi, Puneet Anand this side. BEL, which owns the hydro asset, hasn't given any dividend to HEG in last couple of years.
Right.
Whenever the revenue will comes, the revenue will be shown in the other income.
Understood. So the other-
The profit you see on the associate is the profit which Bhilwara Energy has made, and since it's an associate, so we show a proportionate profit in consolidated financials of HEG.
Understood. But then the revenue that comes under or the share of profit that comes from Bhilwara, that's technically from the power business only, right?
Currently, yes, Bhilwara Energy largest revenue is coming from the hydro assets. Apart from that, we have the BESS company underneath that, which will generate the profits in coming quarters. Plus, since Bhilwara Energy is also sitting with liquid money cash, there is other income coming in Bhilwara Energy because of that, which is being in FDs and all.
Understood. Understood. So currently, the other income that we are seeing in the P&L, what does that include?
So other income which you see in the P&L is primarily the income of liquidity and liquid assets which we have in HEG, per se.
Understood.
Ravi, yeah, sorry. Please.
And sir, like, currently, like apart from the hydropower assets, if you are looking at the HEG Greentech business, we have the energy storage, you know, the BESS for the IPP and the BESS for the commercial and industrial use, right? Currently, do we have any sort of revenue from that business?
Currently, the revenue largely is coming from. Yes, we have revenue from our BESS company, which is REPLUS.
Mm-hmm.
But it is not significant compared to the hydro revenue which we are making. You will see the right numbers of revenue from BESS and our IPP business, the C&I, and the BESS tender, which we have already won, and in which-
Mm-hmm.
We are being declared as L1 from, say, the quarter one of FY 2028 in the-
Okay. Quarter one of FY-
HEG Greentech will also hold the anode business, which will also contribute in the revenue.
That will come in probably FY 2029, right?
So, our plant is getting commissioned by Q1 of FY 2028. So we have assumed a certain capacity utilization in FY 2028. But yes, the peak revenue will come from FY 2029, but you will see a contribution from TACC also in quarter FY 2028.
Understood, sir. And sir, lastly, like, post the demerger, will there be any debt in the Greentech business?
Surely there will be a debt, the debt which we will be securing for doing our projects, which is the anode, the C&I IPP. They will be having the debt. So, I think in January, we did a detailed presentation on HEG Greentech, where we mentioned the entire project which we will be doing in the coming two to four quarters, and the subsequent debt along with that.
Understood, sir. Can you just call out the number? What could be the debt in the Greentech business post the demerger?
Post the demerger. So if you ask me, post the demerger, which will be done in by quarter one of FY 2027, the debt will be negligible there.
Okay.
Once the demerger is done, it will be negligible. There will be no debt there, per se. But once the company is created and all the projects will be on full go, that time the debt will be coming. So for example, the BESS tender which we have won for Gujarat and the Maharashtra tender, where we are L1, whenever those projects are being or PPAs are being signed, then money will be mobilized for that. Likewise, in anode also today, we haven't taken any debt per se today, as in date. From there, there's a contribution of a large equity from the company. We are utilizing that, but we will be doing it in the next, once the scheme has been done, the money and deployment.
Thank you. [audio distortion] The next question is from Ahmed Madha from Unifi Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity again. My question was on your remarks regarding the Chinese supply, right? I mean, if I quote from GrafTech's con call, they spoke about 2.5-3 lakh tons of UHP coming out of China. So in our conversation, we have always spoken about, you know, five major suppliers, probably having about 6-6.5 lakh tons. What are your thoughts on the Chinese supply, which probably we should account for in terms of supply dynamics? So aren't we competing with Chinese players in Europe and other markets?
Manish, will you take that?
Yes, sir. Let me answer this. Actually, most of the capacity which is in China is geared towards the non-UHP grade. We agree, yes, there are one or two companies which are now making UHP products, but to achieve that kind of consistency and reliability does take time. And at the same time, China is definitely working towards increasing their own electric arc furnace production. So some of this capacity, we hope, will be absorbed inside China and outside China. As you have seen from our results itself, that HEG is also a very competitive company. So we are not as much. We don't worried about their impact of their UHP on us and this, because we can also see the commensurate demand coming.
So it's not that the market year demand is the electrode demand is going to be stagnant and somebody will, Chinese will eat into everybody's share. That we don't really agree. There's a demand also coming within China and from outside China to the extent of 200,000 tons.
In terms of our if I just look at the segmental profitability of the electrode business, excluding the other income, et cetera, the margins have improved over the last three quarters. I'm assuming there is a component of operating leverage with higher production.
That's true.
Is there any advantage on raw material cost?
Not, not really. It's very, very marginal because the key raw material is needle coke, and prices have been pretty much consistent, but takes a while for the high cost, the slightly higher cost inventory to go away. So there's a marginal drop in the consumed raw material. And what you see improvement in margins is basically coming from our operating levels, nothing else.
The size. I mean, now, now that we can add another 20,000 tons from 80,000- 100,000, that gives us a cost advantage. Mm-hmm.
Okay, sure. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Amit Lahoti from Emkay. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations on a good set of numbers. Many of my questions-
Thank you.
have been answered. So as we have settled contract for half of the volumes for this year, would it be fair to take third quarter spreads as the baseline assumption for electrode and needle coke pricing? So basically, just in terms of gross spreads, if they can sustain in the coming quarter.
Amit, for the next two quarters, you can just assume a similar price. There's no. Not, don't expect any uptick in that, so it is just going to be very, very similar. Very, very similar. Of course, everybody hopes for a price increase, but for the next two quarters, we don't see it happening.
Right. Got it. And, then we did, of course, have about 50% tariff impact, to U.S. Even if we take, let's say, 10% as the share of your exports into U.S., there has been a significant impact from that perspective. So now with that going down to 18%, how much of incremental delta are we looking at? If you can quantify some numbers in terms of how much the impact was, and then how much it will be in the coming quarter.
Amit, you, you have to keep this in. Just a minute, Manish, just a second. You-- In fine print, if you see the tariff, how it is applied, there's a provision that, let's say, I'm just giving you an example: If you are selling electrodes to somebody in America at $X, and if you are buying your raw, raw material or anything from America for $Y, so that $Y value, $X. So for duty calculation, they are exempting the portion of the cost that you have already imported from U.S. So-
Right.
So whatever is the selling price of electrode, that portion will be reduced. So to that extent, you save the duty. Now, the duty has come down from 50- 18, we are quite all right. I mean, of course, if this was the case of 50%, then it will have a severe hit on our bottom line. But with 18%, we are not really... Of course, it will hit the profit, but it's not, it is not going to be very significant. It's not going to be significant.
Okay. But even with the duty hit, which was clearly there for the third quarter in entirety, and given that the performance of our peers, like Graphite India and GrafTech, it has been affected by prices, our performance has been pretty resilient. So to that extent, how much of the tariff impact goes away now? If you can quantify that bit.
Sir, quantify. You know more or less, how many tons we are selling in America. You know more or less the price. And I, I give you the formula, if you are importing something from U.S., that is exempted. So 18% is still 18%, but that number is not, not staggering. I mean, of course, it will hit the bottom line to some extent, but we can very easily absorb that. Because we are a long-term player, we are not looking at, the next twelve months only. I mean, we don't want to vacate the market just because there's a duty.
Right. Just one housekeeping question on other expenses. There is a positive delta sequentially with cost reduction in other expenses. What exactly is it coming from? Is it sustainable going forward?
One second. Let me, Ravi is answering this. Our CFO will answer this. Go ahead.
Yeah, correct. In other expenses, as compared to previous quarter, it is reduced mainly because of the slightly sales reduced. In that proportion, the selling cost is also reduced. That's why the other expenses is lower than the previous quarter.
Yeah, because you selling also has a cost by way of commissions and all that. So as, as you can see the top line, the reduction in top line, so there's slight, less volumes, is translated into sale, and that is what you see the corresponding, difference in the other expenses also.
Thank you. The next question is from Satyan Wadhwa, from Profusion Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hi, I have two questions. One, like we were talking about China, so how competitive are their prices versus versus ours, and what is their cost structure like? I'm sure you would know. And secondly, how are the contracts for needle coke structured? So if tomorrow electrode prices were to go up 20%, would the needle coke company try and claim their pound of flesh, or is that a contract linked to oil price?
Mm-hmm. See, the needle coke is being contracted quarter by quarter, and it's a process of two months for making an electrode. So we are also on the basis... Whatever we book in the market, we make sure that the cost of that required needle coke is already locked, so that if the prices go up and down, we don't take a hit. So that is, let's say, generally, we wouldn't like to take a call for more than six months, but yeah, some markets we can. So that we take care of making sure that the cost is frozen. We know it exactly. Of course, when prices go up for everybody, then the graphite electrode industry will make money. Of course, needle coke suppliers will not be left behind.
They will also increase. But first, it has to come from the market. First, our electrode prices have to go up.
Right. I'm only just trying to understand, like, the last cycle that happened in 2017, 2018, right? When electrode prices just shot up, the needle coke lagged quite a lot, and then they kind of went up. So it. You had this supernormal margins for a little while, and then they compressed because needle coke prices shot up, despite oil prices.
See, super, so supernormal margins came from the simple fact that this, the kind of product we have, which takes two months to make. So there's certain inventories in the system, a certain finished goods, certain work in progress, certain raw material waiting, because it's all getting imported, coming from outside India, something on high seas. So when electrode price suddenly shot up, we did get a question, and it worked the other way around two years later. When the electrode markets fell, we took a big hit. Everybody in the graphite industry had to take a big NRV hit.
Right. Right. Okay.
This is only because of the nature of the industry, nature of the product.
Okay, understood. And what about the Chinese UHP makers? Like, in the last cycle, they weren't really doing any UHP. So now they've got into the UHP market, how competitive is their cost versus our cost in India?
See, we, I mean, no, no one else outside China has been able to really explain how, how Chinese price their products. Because if you sit with a piece of paper, it doesn't work out for any product. So we can help it. We can just speak for ourselves, that we are a competitive company, a large plant, and we have all the wherewithal, the quality, the customer base, the costing, and we can, we can fight it out.
Okay, fair enough. All right. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Rohan Barnwal, from Arihant Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, sir. Most of my questions have been answered. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll move to the next question. The next question is from Rohit Prakash, from Marshmallow Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. It's a fantastic set of numbers, and I always enjoy your calls, given how detailed and how patiently you answer all my questions, all our questions. So, my question is on the steel capacity that you mentioned is coming up in Europe and U.S. over the next 5 years, right? I'm not able to reconcile that data with the current capacity utilization there. So the capacity utilization of steel is, I believe, between 50%-65% right now, which means you have a lot of capacity lying idle. And even though new capacity will come and the numbers that we are discussing is, let's say, quite large in context of the current capacity already there. We're talking about 10%-15% capacity coming.
So where will the demand come from, right? Without the steel demand coming through, we will not be able to utilize our, I mean, the, the incremental electrode capacity also, or, or the incremental electrode demand would not come. So the capacity utilization is fine, but it is coming at a time when the utilization itself is low. So how sure we are, are we of the utilization for the new capacity and the existing capacity? The question that I'm not able to reconcile with the capacity coming online.
No, no-
Okay. It is, it is pretty clear. I, I'll tell you what it is. I mean, basically, what is happening is... As a preamble to that, see, the same steel which is produced through electric arc furnace and the same steel which is produced through the blast furnace. The carbon emission on the blast furnace steel is between 4x to 5x of the same steel, which is produced through the electric arc furnace. So now, for the last three, four years, ever since everybody in the world, every country in the world, is concentrating very strongly, very seriously, to reduce carbon emissions.
So there is this huge movement which is happening for the last two, three years, and in which context I just said that about 20 million tons of the new electric arc furnaces through electric, through, the 20 million, 20 million tons of steel capacity through electric arc furnaces has come up in the last, 12 months in the calendar year 2025.
Another 25-30 are on the way between now and 2028. So these are not additional capacities. They are coming in place of blast furnaces, because a country like America will not allow you to produce steel in huge volumes, where the carbon emission is five times compared to the same steel produced through electric arc furnace. So the demand of steel, we are not saying demand of steel is going to go up by 200 thousand tons, 300 thousand tons, or 2 million tons, 3 million tons. We are talking of demand of electrodes going up because there'll be more electric arc furnaces, which will be replacing the existing blast furnaces.
Right. So do you mean to say that with this capacity addition that is coming for electric arc furnace across the Western world, we are seeing an equivalent capacity of blast furnace shutting down as well, is it?
Exactly.
Okay.
Exactly. That is exactly what is happening. If you, if you go through, some communication and on the, websites of, some of these companies like, let's say ArcelorMittal, I, I don't know the exact. I don't remember the exact number, but they are doing exactly this. They're closing the blast furnaces and replacing them by the new electric arc furnaces, because there is a big carbon tax that every steel company has to pay to the government as a penalty if you have a, if you keep polluting the atmosphere five times more by producing that steel through blast furnaces. So the steel capacity is not increasing, but equivalent amount of blast furnace steel is being closed.
Understood. Okay. So, that was helpful, sir. And, I mean, given your exposure to the Western steel companies, do you have any commentary on, because it's in your initial commentary, you talked about how Chinese steel production is coming down, but the exports have gone up significantly. So how do they see this anti-involution campaign that's happening there? Do they see their impact, and how do you, Is there any thought on how that might evolve over the next couple of years?
Manish, [Foreign Language]
Yeah. I didn't hear the question clearly. Well, the voice was not very clear to me. Can you please repeat it once more? Sorry about that. What were you mentioning with? Are you mentioning CBAM? What exactly are you mentioning?
Over the last four years, we have seen the Chinese steel production coming down.
Okay. Okay, okay.
We have seen the exports go up over the last.
That's right.
Around a bit, right? So,
That's right.
In your conversation with your current customers, and there is talk of anti-involution going on in China in terms of curbing destructive price reduction, and you can see-
Uh-huh.
The impact in the chemicals. Is there any clarity on if you see export production or pricing improvement of steel coming from China?
Okay. Well, now, now, now I have clearly understood. You see that the last five years, the production has declined by 7.5% in China. The problem is, as you keep hearing in the news also, and reading everywhere, that their housing demand has gone down a lot, that real estate consumption of steel has gone down. So despite a reduction in their production, their exports have gone up by 78% from 67 million metric tons to 119 million metric tons , which are a record high. Now, about the pricing, the destructive pricing, etc. , you see, like, for example, EU has a duty on, you know, that Section 232. They have a severe duty on Chinese steel. Now, EU has introduced a CBAM. So a lot of the Chinese steel was finding its way into EU.
E.U. was importing almost 27 million metric tons, and obviously, most of that was blast furnace-based. So they, if they put that additional carbon tax on that, to that extent, they will protect their, E.U. industry. Similarly, there is some duty on, Chinese, imports into India. So, the other countries, when they are seeing low price steels hitting their own, domestic industry, they are, of course, raising their safeguards in whatever way possible, like a Section 232 in U.S., like a CBAM in E.U., like something like a safeguard in India. So, I mean, whatever, we can't say, but so far, we have not seen this destructive or the word which you used, involutionary.
We have not seen that in steel, but yes, we are of course observing how each country is trying to protect their own industry from the onslaught of Chinese steel exports.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to participants that you may press star and one to join the question queue. Next question is from Vijay Kumar from Immersion Learning Limited. Please go ahead.
All my questions are answered. Basically, I wanted to ask something about company's interest to increase its stake in GrafTech, since GrafTech is also having some stake in the company. Any view on that?
Can you repeat the question, please?
It's basically about GrafTech. We have some stake. Do we plan to increase since the prices come much lower, and even GrafTech has taken some stake in that company since the prices crashed way off. Is there any scope of increasing the stake when it's much cheaper?
What was the last line you said? Is there any-
Scope of increasing the stake, that's what he meant. Do you want to increase your stake because the prices have fallen to that level?
Yes. Yeah.
I don't think we should talk about it publicly.
So basically, sir, we have an investment committee who takes the decision on this investment. So, so more than that, we can't discuss anything on it.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Manan Poladia, from MKP Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My question is on the graphite anode business. I think in the last call for the demerger, you had referred to some margins based on power costs, and you've spoken about our power costs being significantly better than our competitors globally. I was wondering if you could throw some color on that and provide some clarity. I think that would be great, sir. Thank you.
So hi, I'm Riju . So last time we had spoken in detail about, you know, that, in the anode project, almost 30% of the cost is power cost. And the state government of MP has given us a real good deal in which, you know, our power prices will remain lower than INR 5, significantly, probably lower than INR 5, for at least five years from today. So that itself, I mean, we don't see anywhere, whether it is China or anywhere else in the world, where you would find cheaper power than this today. So that should be a good advantage to us. And that starts, that power subsidy for us starts from the day of commencement of operations, not from today. So we'll have a good 5 years to take advantage of that. Less than INR 5.
Right. Sir, just a quick follow-up on that. You had also spoken about how you are seeing, like, 30,000-
We seem to have lost the line for that participant. We'll move to the next question. The next question is from Rohit, from iThought Portfolio Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Sir, just one question. So, what is the peak utilization that we can do in terms of the capacity? Is it like 100% or, I mean, what is the correct, practical peak that we can do from the current capacity, 100,000 tons?
I mean, obviously, theoretically, anybody, everybody can go to 100, but see, it's a fairly complicated tech, it's a very complicated technology, and that's the reason that our plant was established in 1976, exactly 50 years ago, and there has not been a new greenfield plant of this product anywhere in the world except China. So the technology is very, very complicated, and just to give you a feel of what the complexity that you're talking about. The minimum time that you take to produce a small size electrode, low-grade electrode, is 5-7 weeks, and the longest time that you take is as high as 5-6 months. So that is the complexity of the technology.
If you are producing something where the process is like 2- 5 or 6 months, anything goes wrong on any particular day or on any of the five or six different processes that we have to handle, it becomes a scrap. That is the only reason that there has not been any new plant in the last 50 years.
But I just want to add one point here, that you see 100,000, of course, can be made, but sometimes you don't get the ideal, the product mix you like from the market. Of course, if I limit ourselves to, say, reduce a couple of sizes, we can, of course, do 100. But just to answer your question or try hazarding a guess, because we will also, I will, I'm also going to see it next year, how far we can push ourselves, but probably 94, 95 might be, you know, in real working conditions. That is the, I think. But we have to try. We are already at a 90 level. Now we'll see whether, how far we can push ourselves to 94 or 95, subject to a certain product mix.
Awesome. Thank you very much. This is very helpful, and all the very best for the coming year.
Thank you very much. We'll have to take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Jhunjhunwala for any closing comments.
Thank you, friends, for joining us on this call today. It's probably been the longest call in the last two, three, four years, and a lot of probing questions, and every, all of you seem to be extremely well informed about this industry. So thanks, thanks a lot, and I look forward to meeting and speaking to you once again in three months' time. Thank you.
Thank you very much. On behalf of SKP Securities Limited, that concludes the conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your lines.