Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Jindal Saw Ltd Q2 FY26 earnings conference call hosted by ICICI Securities Ltd. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as of the 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 participant lines will be listen only, 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 three zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vikash Singh. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Singh.
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Jindal Saw Q2 FY2026 conference call. From the management side, we have with us Mr. Narendra Mantri, Chief Operating and Financial Officer, Mr. Vinay Kumar, President and Head Treasury, and Mr. Rajiv Goyal, Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance. Without taking any more time, I'll hand over to Mr. Vinay Kumar for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Thanks, Vikash. Good afternoon, friends. Wishing you all a very happy Diwali and blessed festival season. I now welcome all of you to the Investors Call of Jindal Saw Ltd for Q2 of FY2026. On behalf of Jindal Saw Management, we extend our sincere thanks to ICICI for hosting this call. The Board of Directors formally approved the unaudited financial results during its meeting on October 17. The results have been released to the extent of ensuring compliance with the regulatory requirements. Hope you would have had the chance to look at the results. I'll now provide an update on the operations of the company, subsidiaries, etc. As you would have seen, the second quarter of the current year saw significantly weaker performance compared to both the prior year and the preceding quarters. The prognosis of Q2 is, we are providing as Jindal.
The overall macro-level indicators in domestic and export markets remain robust. The company has recorded one of the highest order books, specifically for the water sector, which means the company has secured a large number of future projects related to water infrastructure, reflecting strong leads. This is a positive indicator of the company's growth potential. The total volume of order books for five businesses increased to 1.925 million tons in September 2025, as compared to 1.560 million in June 2025. We believe that this is the highest order book we have seen in so many years for Jindal Saw. Among our recent achievements is a new export contract for the supply of approximately 622,000 metric tons of chemical pipes for a water-related infrastructure project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Manufacturing for this specific order is slated to start sometime in Q3. We are running into Q3.
The margins of this order are in line with the other export business of chemical pipes. The company has commenced a trial phase of its new seamless piercing mill, with commercial production slated to be in this quarter, sometime next month, because this is a technological product and the stability takes time. We expect that the operations can commence or commercial operations can commence in this quarter. This expansion is projected to increase the seamless production capacity to approximately 150,000 metric tons per annum. Our ductile iron pipe facilities in India are fully committed for the foreseeable future, with a current backlog of one year. The wider markets were robust, but extended payment cycles from the water infrastructure EPC companies in India have severely impacted the cash flows and operational stability of pipe manufacturing suppliers like us.
The protracted payment timelines often associated with the government-funded water projects present significant liquidity and project management challenges. We recognize that the current uncertain environment will have an effect on our operations and financial outlook. However, we are managing our strategies accordingly. Overall, our business faced significant challenges during Q2, which limited our performance. While export and domestic market demand remained robust, our tight liquidity and prolonged rain spells hampered our operations and financial results. These factors were the main contributors to lower output, decreased sales, tighter margins, and the rise in inventory. We believe the current situation is expected to be of short term. We gain our confidence from the historically high order books, healthy liquidity position of the company, and disciplined debt management. The company maintains robust working capital lines to effectively manage all operational requirements. Now, let me address the financials of Q2 and H1.
Of course, you have got the results, but just to repeat and recapture. On the 10-year basis, the company recorded a bottom of INR 3,410 crore as compared to INR 3,327 crore in Q1 of FY2026 and INR 479 crore of Q2 of FY2025, where EBITDA for Q2 FY2026 is reported at INR 335 crore as compared to INR 560 crore in Q1 of FY2026 and INR 875 crore in Q2 of FY2025. The debt for Q2 FY2026 is reported at INR 79 crore as compared to INR 364 crore in Q1 of FY2026 and INR 477 crore in Q2 of FY2025. On a consolidated basis, the company recorded total income of INR 4,264 crore as compared to INR 4,103 crore in Q1 FY2026 and INR 5,602 crore of Q2 FY2025.
The EBITDA for Q2 FY2026 reported at INR 482 crore as compared to INR 688 crore in Q1 FY2026 and INR 944 crore in Q2 of FY2025. The debt for Q2 FY2026 is reported at INR 138 crore as compared to INR 415 crore in Q1 of FY2026 and INR 475 crore in Q2 of FY2025. The standalone operations have suffered, but consolidated operations have shown improvement, especially from the UAE operations. The net debt of the company on a standalone basis has increased to INR 3,310 crore as of 30th September, as compared to INR 3,088 crore as of 30th June 2025. The net debt is approximately INR 550 crore only. The net debt of the company on a consolidated basis has increased to INR 3,856 crore as of 30th September 2025, as compared to INR 3,484 crore as of 30th June 2025.
The long-term institution debt is only INR 742 crore on a consolidated basis. That is to summarize. Predicting the near-to-long-term outlook is difficult at this point of time, as the business environment is affected by persistent geopolitical challenges and delays in the government funding, etc. The company's order book has strengthened significantly and continues to be strong, with new orders secured across all work business segments. We are also receiving positive market inquiries from both domestic and export sectors. The order book status sets the stage for a progressive strengthening of operations and financial results, starting from Q3. We have a very comfortable long-term debt position. Our standalone long-term debt is roughly INR 550 crore. Of this, INR 500 crore is tied up to an NCD with LIT that will be redeemed in the 2020- 2030 period.
Working capital usage is directly influenced by our business operations and the broader business environment. We are optimistic about seeing improvement in this area as well. In view of this, we may expect gradual improvement of operational and financial performance from Q3 onwards. Now, let me discuss something about our subsidiaries and joint ventures. In our Abu Dhabi operations, the entity has done well as compared to previous quarters. It recorded a sale of approximately INR 607 crore in Q2 as compared to INR 525 crore in Q1 of FY2026. The order book of Abu Dhabi operations stands at INR 235 million, corresponding to approximately 215,000 metric tons of ductile iron pipes. This gives a visibility of Q2 four quarters. This is over and above the order book of approximately 1.9 million tons of what we had discussed earlier for Jindal Saw .
In the USA, the company has marginal operations, which remains profitable in Q1. Total revenue was INR 173 crore in Q2, which is marginally lower as compared to Q1, where the income was INR 188 crore. In the US, we have only small operations, so it is not, in terms of percentage, that meaningful. We have a joint venture with Hunting , which is Jindal Hunting. This joint venture has contributed INR 9.4 crore in Q2 for this financial year, as compared to INR 9.5 crore. The performance remains flat. In previous years, corresponding to the previous quarter or previous year, it was INR 6.8 crore. This year, we are doing better, less than INR 10 crore approximately every quarter. Some updates on the JNJ versus the legal suit with NTPC. Some arguments took place in the last hearing in front of the Honorable Double Bench of Delhi High Court.
The bench has given another date, which is on 27th October. If the continuous hearings happen, we can expect some pronouncement in this financial year. That will depend on how the parties respond and how the date goes on. In terms of some updates on the new projects which were announced in the GCC/MENA region, in the study moved to align with the shifting economic landscape of the GCC/MENA region, Jindal Saw Ltd Board approved three new manufacturing projects in June 2025. These initiatives are actively pursuing economic diversification, away from oil and prioritizing local manufacturing, a trend Jindal Saw is proactively addressing. As a long-standing supplier and an existing Abu Dhabi-based ductile iron pipe manufacturer, this expansion strengthens our competitive position in these key markets.
The investment includes a new seamless pipe plant in Abu Dhabi, a chemical pipe facility, and a DI pipe finishing line in Saudi Arabia. These projects may be completed gradually in the next two to three years, and we will be consolidating these with Jindal Saw Ltd. Subsequent to these projects' overview shared during our last few investors' briefings, we are now actively engaged in key development stages. We are currently finalizing agreements with potential partners, joint venture partners, and advancing the formal incorporation of the new company. Concurrently, we are focusing on securing land and finalizing the financial closure for each of the projects. With this, I leave the floor open for interactive discussions. Mr. Narendra Mantri, Chief Operating and Financial Officer, and Mr. Rajiv Goyal, Senior Vice President, they are with us, with me, and we are happy to take the questions from the investors.
Over to you, Vikash.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. The first question comes from the line of Sailesh Raja, with BNK Securities. Please go ahead.
Sir, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, we have an export order backlog of 800,000 tons, which includes 620,000 tons of job work. You mentioned during the call this is entirely for HR pipes. Typically, our HR orders are only export-oriented. Should we understand that the balance 180,000 tons pertain entirely to HR, or will it be a mix of both HR and HR? If it is a mix, it appears that the visibility of HR is quite limited. Could you please give clarity on this?
Okay. Let me answer the question in a different way. I'm sorry, I could not fully understand the question, but let me answer the question at a high level so that it includes, let's say, a couple of subsets of the question. In totality, in the pipe sector, we have an order of 1.925 million tons. This includes exports of approximately 30%- 32%. The helical pipe order for the water sector to KSA is 22,000 tons, which represents roughly, I think, 12% or 13%. There are orders for longitudinal pipes. There are orders for the export market for longitudinal pipes, for other helical pipes, and even seamless pipes. The reason we mentioned this order separately is that this is an export order and this is a job work order. Eventually, in the job work order, we are not buying the steel only.
The rest of the things are included in this. I mentioned in the briefing that in terms of margin, the margins are comparable to the export business of, let's say, helical or even longitudinal. We have an order book for export, which is varied, which is for every product.
Sir, still, it is not very clear. You said in the presentation, it is mentioned that the 900,000 tons, that includes 600,000 tons of job work, right, sir?
Yes.
Yeah. Also, in the presentation, it is mentioned that the overall exports order is 800,000 tons. In this 800,000 includes 600,000 tons of job work.
Yes.
Yes, correct. The balance is only still 180,000 tons.
Yes, which is longitudinal, helical, as well as some portion of indoor.
In fact, we have a detailed also.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In this case, the HR visibility is very less. That is my question, actually.
Okay, sir.
You want to understand the quantity?
Yeah, you want to understand the quantity of the rest of the product.
Not the quantity, just want to know the visibility of HR pipes.
Okay. Let's say very quickly, the longitudinal for export, longitudinal is close to 115,000 tons for export pipes, which is oil and gas. This is longitudinal, which is where is the ductile in oil?
For ductile or oil and gas?
And for.
Roughly INR 60,000 is for.
Approximately 60,000 tons for export is for ductile iron pipes and seamless pipes.
Okay, okay, sir. Got it, sir.
Okay.
Sir, my second question, if you see GP2 graphs of the EBITDA conversion in this quarter, it stands at only 24% on the standalone ratio. Because of lower volumes, our utilization level is very low at 300,00 tons. That's why it's low at 24%. If you see last year, we have done around 400,000 tons, and our conversion rate, that is graph copy to EBITDA, it is 40%. Assuming that it is normalized at normalized level, we can do around 40% rate. Is there any scope to improve the conversion rate going forward, both to mitigate the impact that we are seeing currently and also to enhance the financial metrics once the recovery begins? If you see the competition numbers, some of the competitors are reporting 45%, 48%. Is there any scope to improve this conversion rate?
Let me.
Let me put it.
Okay, good. Let me respond to it in this way. Now, we have the capacity. If you see the last year, last year we did what? Close to 2 million tons of sales.
Oh, okay.
Okay, close to 2 million tons of sales.
I take six.
Yeah, I take. I mean, okay. We already have the order book of similar magnitude broadly. Correct. We have the capacity. We have the capability to execute the projects. I'm talking about the standalone. We have the capability and capacity, and it has been already demonstrated, number one. Number two, over the last one and a half years' time, we have worked on increasing the capacity in seamless, where the trial operations have started. We mentioned that the capacity would grow by another 1,150,000 tons. We would be ready in the future to take more business in seamless for oil, gas, and other industrial products. To answer your question in a way, these are the extraordinary circumstances which we keep seeing after every three to five years' time. If you remember, 2022, 2023 was a very challenging year when the commodity prices were going like anything.
It was, I mean, even the NSCBSC are now going the way the commodity prices were going when the smoking code had moved from $150- $500, and the iron road price had also moved accordingly. Again, we had a serious challenge in terms of managing the inventories and the business operations and financing and liquidating everything. Today, the scenario is different, primarily because of, let's say, liquidity, which is controlled by the, let's say, the federal and the state government, where the orders are there, business opportunities are there, orders have been issued by the government or, let's say, the end user to the ACC or directly to us. Because of liquidity, I mean, you will be hearing it from everywhere. Because of liquidity, there is a backlog.
We can only speculate, but we understand from the market scenario that it might take a couple of months before the normalcy begins. Now, when the normalcy begins, presume next year. If everything works well, we might come back to what we were doing in the last two years. Rather, we can improve our grid because, and I'm saying it from the perspective that orders are there, there are inquiries. The capability is there in terms of manufacturing facilities. We have invested, and we are investing, and we are doing a lot in terms of cost optimization and rationalization.
Okay, sir. Sir, one last question. After a gap of 10- 12 months, several state governments have recently announced large projects. If you say on 14th October , I think Gujarat announced INR 16,000 crore worth of orders under the Ambu team. I think two days back, the Andhra government also announced INR 10,000 crore of orders. Odisha also, I think, four or five days back, announced INR 1,200 crore for the River Linking projects. Are we participating in any of these projects? At what stage are we in within our qualification process? Can you please explain that?
Mr. Narendra Mantri would respond to this.
I must say that all these things are very recent. The tender will come in due course of time, and definitely, we will be participating in all these orders, in all these tenders. Again, from the announcement to the actualization, there will be some time gap. That is why we are saying that the improvement from where we are currently will take some time. At this point of time, I can only say that we will be doing, hopefully, we will be doing better than the Q2 in Q3 and Q4.
Okay, okay, sir.
All the best, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Praveen Agarwal with IVP Engineers Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone. Once again, happy Diwali to all participants and executives of Jindal Saw. My question is, we have seen numbers, financial figures. How was the production in Q2 as compared to previous year, previous FY Q2? How did we increase or reduce, or was it more or less the same? How are production figures?
Because of lower off-take, the ductile iron or the water sector, we have controlled the production also. That is why the production was lower in Q2 as compared to Q1.
Okay. You don't have a thin stockpile in inventory. It was lower offsite, was met by reducing the production quantities.
No, I'm not saying that inventory has not piled up because the decision-making takes a certain time to reduce. In fact, if you have seen our balance sheet, there is an increase in the inventory level. This will be cut in Q3.
I understand. How has this affected cost per ton of pipe or material your output in this quarter Q2 versus the previous year Q2?
Because of the cost only, we have shown this kind of result. You can understand this.
I understand. Fine, fine. Okay. Thanks for yours.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Radha with B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is that there are 600,000 tons of job work export orders. How much execution are you expecting in FY2026? In your opening remarks, your opening remarks suggested that margins in job work will be good. Assuming current pricing scenario, is it fair to assume that at least INR 500 crore of EBITDA can be done from execution of the entire 600,000 tons of job work?
Okay. To answer your first question, we should receive the first environmental receipt in the next one or two weeks' time at our factory. Number one, the production would start in this quarter itself. We expect that in this remaining part of the financial year, we should be producing close to 125,000 tons- 150,000 tons. The shipment and the same would depend on quoting and the availability of ships. That's one. In terms of EBITDA, we don't want to, let's say, put an exact number. What we have said is that the profitability based on the current estimate and based on the quotations, sorry, core profit given, because this includes the transportation cost also to site of the buyer, the profitability would be similar to what we get in normal export orders. It will be better than the domestic business.
Okay. For the working capital requirements of job work, is it fair to assume that it will be 20- 30 days lower compared to manufacturing?
No, sir, basically, because it is job work. Steel is not being secured by us. We will only be securing only the coating material. This will be the, I mean, the steel is not in our account. There will be no inventory on account of steel in this order.
Yes, sir. That is why I was asking that the overall net working capital subscribed to should be at least 20- 30 days lower compared to if we would have done manufacturing for the same quantity. Considering the inventory issue, just asking.
In totality, yes. If you look at it from this perspective.
Okay. Lower, by 20- 30 days, or much lower than this?
No, it's basically okay, it will depend on how we are executing the order because we would be committing maybe initially one facility, subsequently second facility, also depending on how we are getting the consignment because the steel is being supplied by the, let's say, the buyer. It is meaningless for us from this perspective that how much inventory would be there because the inventory doesn't belong to us. If you're saying that in overall, in blended size, whether inventory will be lower as compared to the sale, it will be lower. In the sale.
Overall working capital.
Yes, overall working capital. That's a thing. Overall working capital, you have to measure with something. If you're measuring the overall working capital with the sale, the sale will include only the job work charges, not the sale of the total pipe.
Hi, yes, sir. I understand that. That is why, since it includes only the job work charges, that's why I'm taking at least lower by 30 days because inventory will not be there. Is this the right understanding?
You can consider it.
Okay. Second question is, I wanted to appreciate, and despite the challenging situation, the gross profit per ton on pipes has been good in this quarter. I just wanted to appreciate because the mix has been maintained by the company. With regards to this, until there is a revival in government CapEx, are there plans or opportunity to export more of ductile iron pipes from India either to the Middle East or to nearby regions?
Okay. We have a very different kind of, let's say, solution, solid situation because we are already present in the Middle East where we have a manufacturing plant in Abu Dhabi. What we focus on in the export on the market from India are the products which our Abu Dhabi factory is either not producing or they are full in that particular site. For example, we already have an export order for ductile, which is going to, again, the MENA region. That is a site which our Abu Dhabi facility is currently not producing. We would be eventually not competing with our Abu Dhabi. We'll be rather complementing that. Having said that, we are looking at various geographies across the globe, wherever Indian pipes can go, which are, at this point of time, not subject to anti-dumping or whatever. We are looking at all possible opportunities.
That is the role of the marketing to see beyond their regular areas and their geographies. It always remains there, and that is why we get the order. We have a better position because we can reach out from India as well as from our UAE operations.
Okay. I asked this because a follow-up question which just was asked, how do you started a pro bono anti-dumping duties on ductile iron pipes from India? I just wanted to understand, respect to that, what is the total demand of ductile iron pipes in Saudi and what percentage of Saudi demand is being catered by imports overall and how much of it is coming from India?
Okay. You are aware that we are putting up or we have started working on putting up a ductile iron plant in Saudi, which is a finishing line, considering the demand there. You are right that there is an anti-dumping investigation there. We have said from India, we are only supplementing our Abu Dhabi plant for the sizes where that plant is currently not in a position to supply. We will be either through our subsidiary or the sizes which are not in a position to serve through Abu Dhabi. We are focusing in Saudi only for those sizes. Other than Saudi, the MENA market is much bigger, and we are trying to supply more on the export side for our ductile iron facility in India.
What is the market size of GCC?
It is very, actually, it depends upon the projects announced. We are hopeful, say, as far as the water pipelines are concerned. We expect a lot of work. All these countries are doing. At present, I don't have that figure currently with me that how much is the current demand or what are the new projects that are coming. Considering the market potential, we have announced not only the ductile iron facility, but the helical pipeline also for pipe manufacturing plants. We are putting up both the facilities there in Saudi. You can see that the order we have received from that country for 600,000 ton for helical.
Yes, sir. Lastly, for marketing purposes, I wanted to understand how much CapEx should we take for FY 2027 and FY 2028?
From India perspective?
Yeah, growth perspective.
From Saudi?
Growth and maintenance.
From maintenance, yeah. On Jindal Saw perspective, the maintenance CapEx remains in the range bound of manner, maybe INR 600 crore-INR 700 crore, considering the various locations all across India, roughly 12 locations. Things are moving on account of efficiency and de-bottlenecking. You can take roughly INR 600- INR 700 crore annual maintenance CapEx from Jindal Saw perspective.
Growth CapEx?
Pardon? Growth CapEx?
Growth CapEx.
Growth CapEx is something in India. We are not looking for any growth CapEx per se, other than this seamless activity where we put that additional piercing line, which is now under trial run. CapEx would be over maybe in the quarter. Beyond that, we are not looking for any growth CapEx in India, Jindal Saw.
In the coming quarter?
In the coming quarter as well as in the coming years, in FY 2027 and FY2028, as of now, there is no growth CapEx on board.
Yes, sir. I wanted to understand the bifurcation of the INR 2,600 crore CapEx. How would it be divided between FY 2027 and FY 2028?
For FY 2026, in general, rather, we are doing maintenance CapEx in the range of INR 600- INR 700 crore annually. If you are talking about the new CapEx, growth CapEx, Jindal Saw perspective, where all the three projects, two in Saudi , one in Abu Dhabi, that is something you can take broadly. 2027 would be 40%- 50%, and 2028, again, 40%- 50%, roughly, based on our present estimates.
Understood, sir. Last question. Sir, in Oman, for the Fahud Suhal loop line project, as per the media articles, Jindal Saw has received 193 km of pipeline projects, which is expected to be executed in the next 24 months. Is it included in the current order book? Is it fair to assume that these are for the longitudinal saw pipes and we can do at least INR 50 crore of EBITDA from this?
This order has yet not been finalized. To our understanding, these discussions are going on.
Is this for Elsa or sir?
It will be accounted for by Elsa, but there could be a mixture also.
Okay, sir.
It has not been finalized. It's not included in our order book.
Understood, sir. Thanks, and all the best to you.
Okay.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Rajesh Agarwal with Manure. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hello.
This quarter, the margins are down. Is it because of volumes, or is there any other one-off?
The margins primarily is a function of, let's say, the production quantity as well as the cost. Because the overall production and the sale remained low, eventually, absorption overhead and all these things, the margins are low accordingly. We don't expect that while we believe that this quarter onward situation should improve, that is in terms of overall business as well as the profitability.
Will this quarter, the margins also come back to the old margin?
No, no. That will be a gradual thing because the fall can be sudden, but the improvement will be gradual.
Okay. It is not because the job work has lesser margins, no?
Come again? Sorry?
The job work doesn't have lesser margins than the production margins, no?
No, no, no.
No, no. Okay. The margins are the same. Second, sir, how is the outlook for the DI pipes in India? The old payments are getting released. Any new tenders?
As you can see, we mentioned that our capacities in India are booked for a year. Practically, we have an order book of 700,000, approximately 750,000 tons, and we have a capacity of approximately 700,000 tons. Orders are not a problem. The problem is the liquidity issue because it's a supply chain. We are the last person in the chain. We supply to EPC or directly to the government. 80% of our business is through EPC. Now, EPC is paying the money for almost one year, and that's where their business has also gone slow. Eventually, the governments are working out through the state governments. Let the state arrange the funds and start releasing the funds to the EPC and to the pipe suppliers. It is a gradual process. As we said, as we believe that the disbursement of INR 40,000-INR 50,000 crore will not happen immediately.
Now the business will start, and with some hiccups back and forth, we can believe that maybe in two or three months' time, the business might come towards normalcy.
Can you quantify the from the EPC contractors? How much do you think?
Yeah, 80%, 80%, 90% business is through the EPC. I mean, we don't have the numbers right now for the receivables and all, but 80%, 90% business is through the EPC. That is the norm world over.
Sir, how is the outlook of the oil and gas in the Middle East?
Okay, the Middle East. There are two things. One is the scenario of oil and gas. Second is the scenario of the pipe business for oil and gas. Typically, the oil and gas business is a regular business for the Middle East world over. The issues relating to India buying from Russia or production costs going up and down do not impact the pipe business very significantly because pipe is a large thing when somebody is announcing the new pipeline. This does not impact the pipe business very significantly. It could impact, let's say, if the oil-producing countries are becoming, let's say, cash deficient, they may defer their CapEx, which happened, I think, five or six years ago. At present, they are making a decent amount of money by the sale of the oil, which can improve actually further. There is no impact on the new pipe demand.
The only thing is how they're planning the new pipelines and where these orders are coming. Secondly, now everybody is focusing on the indigenization. They might be maybe two, three, four years down the line, they would ask the global investors and all to put up the facility in their countries. There will be a paradigm shift in the next three to five years' time globally.
Okay. The imports will not come to the Middle East, you're feeling Saudi and all. You'll have a better opportunity.
The imports will happen, but gradually, these will reduce. That is where the producers have to, let's say, people like us or others, they have to focus. If you have to be in the market, then you be present there also, or you lose that market.
Are those CapEx which we announced for the three projects that will continue as usual, or there's a thing over it?
No, sir. Look, now what we have announced in the last six months' time is one project for seamless pipe is in Abu Dhabi. One project of helical pipe, which is primarily for the water sector, is in Saudi. The DI finishing facility only because we have a full-fledged DI plant in Abu Dhabi. To sell in the domestic Saudi market, we are planning to do finishing there. As of now, these three projects have been announced, and we are working on that.
How will the inter this means of finance, how will this CapEx cash flow be met?
These projects will take two to three years' time to, let's say, set up because these countries are very slow in terms of, let's say, doing the things. We mentioned we are close to $350 million, let's say, $400 million or $425 million in all put together for that project, where the equity would be approximately 30%. In one or two small-small projects, we have a joint venture partner. In totality, we may require only $100 million, $120 million of equity over the next three years' time. The rest will be the debt-owned project, which will be from the local market.
Thank you. Mr. Agarwal, please return to the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Shweta Dikshit with Systematix Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Am I audible?
Hi. Yeah, if you can be louder, that would be helpful.
Yeah, sure. Just a second. A couple of questions from the client who are starting with the seamless pipe plant. We started the trial production there. Any outlook or guidance at what is going to be the quarterly number for Q2 and Q3, which we are looking at? What is likely going to be the capacity utilization over FY 2027?
Shweta, in terms of seamless, we did roughly 200,000+ in FY 2025. By putting up another seamless piercing mill, we would be able to increase the production capacity roughly 150,000 ton additional. From Q4 onward, we can see annually, the production levels may increase from 200,000+ to 350,000 something. That is something which you may see numbers in the coming quarters.
If you look at, I mean, the quarterly run rate still comes to be around higher than, you know, close to 90,000 tons of quarterly run rate that we're looking at from Q2 onward?
Yes, yes, yes.
Okay. Secondly, just on the new projects that are announced for the MENA region, I mean, I do understand you said there have been regulatory delays in these regions. Any part of the CapEx that has already been spent, or what is the status of these projects exactly?
Shweta, in terms of amount spent, as of now, we are in the process of identification of the vendors and the land acquisition and all. Not much amount has been spent if we say, let's say, as of 30th September. Hardly anything. That's one. When we say that these territories take time, primarily because not many things are well defined as compared to the other countries, including India. We have experience of setting up a project in Abu Dhabi. We include certain delays in our execution cycle, and that is why we say the project can be executed in a period of two to three years' time. Having said this, these things have been factored. Working is being done on a parallel basis in terms of joint venture agreements.
We have started finalizing those in terms of land identification so that that is a long lead item in terms of identification of the vendors so that we can immediately, the moment we are in the process of incorporating the companies, the moment the companies are incorporated, the accounts are open, we can start placing the orders. All these things are happening. I believe that this year, by the end of this financial year, which is March 2026, we would be in a position to, let's say, place the orders for the equipment. The companies would have been incorporated. Land would have been acquired because everywhere these are leasehold lands, unlike in India where these are the freehold. Broadly, from there, you add, let's say, two years plus when the production can start.
2027 and 2028, starting 2028, 2029, we can have some operations in the seamless facility as well as in the helical facility. Ductile can start earlier because that's only a finishing facility.
My question, again, comes back to the point when you talk about the seamless that is existing that we are doing, even having a brownfield expansion has taken quite some time, then having a similar project of the same scale, setting it up in a new, in a greenfield capacity. Is it, I mean, it seems unlikely to be, you know, generating, in fact, operationally contributing in FY 2028?
2027, 2028, I said that 2027, 2028, the period of implementation. Nothing will come in FY 2028 because 2026, we are completing. Right. 2028, 2029 also, we expect that partial operations can start in seamless and in helical. Now, to answer your question, because these are the greenfield projects for this, greenfield projects can be actually faster also in terms of implementation because in the brownfield project where we are doing expansion and all, you have to do a lot of accommodation within the same premises and doing all those things. It is, let's say, adding a floor onto the house or creating a new house. Adding a floor is more complicated rather than making a new house. Having said all these things, we don't expect any contribution from even sale or profitability from seamless and helical in 2028. 2028, 2029, we can expect some production and contribution.
Profitability, we can't count right now, but we can, of course. Secondly, in case of seamless, there will be a process of approvals and accreditations from the different authorities and the buyers and all. That is also a process which we have to count. In case of helical, it might not be an issue.
Would these certifications and approvals run parallelly, or would it be one process?
Yeah, yeah. It can only initiate and start after the trial run has started because the product becomes worse, and it's a process. There are not, unlike the ductile, when you have, let's say, huge market, in this case, there will be very handful of the customers. Let's say the government approval, the standards approval, and the approval by the potential buyers. This process will be parallel the moment the production commences.
What can be the typical approval cycle here?
It's difficult to say because it's in for this territory, we will be doing the seamless work first time. If we had that, let's say it could take three to six months' time, maybe more.
Understood. The last question, just your thoughts on this thing that Saudi is initiating anti-dumping investigation on imports of DI pipes from India. This is something which all the companies, at least the domestic producers, have been very positive about. There's a lot of demand from that region. Now, what's the domestic capacity? What's the internal capacity over there? Is there a risk to this business overall from the, overall industry perspective? What has been the reason why certain plants?
Let me answer it in a different way. Currently, the domestic ductile capacity in Saudi is not much. There are only two ailing plants. Having said that, both the ailing plants have some, let's say, stake from the government. Of course, they will try to protect them. Secondly, the Saudi government wants that the manufacturing and the in-country value addition should happen in Saudi. They are following the Indian Prime Minister, they are following Trump. They are also trying to do like, you should do production in Saudi. There are norms which they are setting up for the in-country value addition. They will mark for that. Gradually, they would reserve the domestic production facilities for giving a right of first refusal, giving protection for the tariffs, giving protection for pricing, and all those things. It's a process which is happening in almost all the industries.
We won't like to comment on the initiation of the anti-dumping duty because we are a producer in Abu Dhabi. We won't like to comment on that matter, primarily because, as you said, there are Indian exporters to that jurisdiction. We will refrain ourselves from commenting on that matter because we are an interested party in supplying pipe from Abu Dhabi to Saudi. Saudi has good potential for the overall water sector, including the ductile pipe, including the helical pipe, and other pipes. Because geographically, they are expanding everywhere within Saudi. Currently, we are not selling much in the Saudi market from India.
Thank you. Mr. Dikshit, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Bhavik Shah with Invexa Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you, sir.
Thank you.
First question is, we saw a decline in volumes in the current quarter, and it is mainly said due to the DI volumes being decreasing in domestic. What gives us confidence in the next two quarters these volumes will pick up? Have we seen any traction over there?
Okay. Our confidence comes from the perspective. Let's divide the question in two parts. One is quantity. Second is the price and the profitability. There are basically some demand has started coming back from the domestic buyers. A little bit, it's lower as compared to a regular demand. Where the discussions are happening is when the pipe can come and what would the current terms and the pricing. This is basically an opportunistic scenario for the buyers where they are trying to, let's say, renegotiate some of the positions. Now, state governments have been asked to arrange the funds and, let's say, start making the payments. State governments are making their own arrangements from the different multilateral and domestic institutions. This is where basically we believe that the things are on improvement. The profitability can take a bit last quarter like it took a hit.
The profitability can start improving from here. As I said, it is not like it has because the profitability has come down from, let's say, above 15%, 16% to, let's say, in the range of 10%. The improvement will be a gradual process. The good part is that we are a multi-product company. If there is a problem in one product, the other product is taken care of. This is kind of a hedge what we have. In the last two years, we saw that all the cylinders were firing. This year, one or two cylinders have been challenged. Once the situation will start improving, we hope that we would come back to the same scenario. It will not be in one, two, or three quarters.
Right. When we say our order book is INR 1.9 trillion, of which INR 750 billion you said is of ductile iron pipes, this order will get only executed as and when the payments get released. Ideally, what should we take as the execution timeline of this order book? When can we see the order book getting executed?
Okay. Basically, the total order book for pipe right now is close to 1.925 million tons, in which ductile is about 0.75 million tons, approximately 0.75 million tons. If I invite your attention to what we were doing last year, FY 2025. FY 2025, first six months, we sold close to 0.33 million tons ductile pipes, right? On a live basis. That was the time when the Sathwana facility had just started. Today, we are capable. If everything is well, we collect money on time, everything is there. We believe that we can do 0.7 million or even more than 0.7 million tons of production and sale in India or from all over three blocks connected. The capability and capacity is there, which we have demonstrated in the past. The only thing is that we don't want to sell when we don't have conviction of collecting in time.
Eventually, every buyer is also having the same problem because they don't want to do additional work for the, let's say, the corporations or those unless paid for the old running bills. This has become a bit vicious. This is getting sorted out. As you know, because a lot of chaos has happened in this process, it will take time for settlement of the invoices of their bills. They are making payment to us, and then they have to actually start working for the new project. [Foreign language] ये ट्रैफिक जैम हो गया थोड़ा सा। इसको जो है थोड़ा टाइम लग गया क्लीन अप होने में।
Right, right, right.
Everybody is suppressed already. Even the government is suppressed.
Understood. What is the one-time write-off which we have taken, sir, in GITS? I think we were, like, what my understanding was, we have already written that all fair and no cash outflow will be happening, right?
This write-off, we'll see. We are showing the comparative numbers. We are referring to our presentation, which we have uploaded. This was, I think, 2023, 2024, not in this year. In this year, there is no write-off. This year, even last year.
Okay. This year, there's no write-off, right? Okay.
No, no, no.
When we stay off the job work, we'll actually only recognize revenue to the extent of conversion, right? We'll not take the entire revenue and entire cost of goods sold. Our actual increase in revenue will not be much, right?
Yeah, yeah. The total order value for this job work is, let's say, close to $180 million, $190 million. Only that will be the income in the top line.
Okay. Okay. Understood, sir. Regarding the CapEx, you told INR 600-INR 700 crore is the CapEx for FY 2026. This is the consolidated CapEx, right? This will include investments in subsidiaries in Saudi and places, right?
No, no. This is standalone. The CapEx for the subsidiaries in Saudi and in the UAE will be on top of it. In the current year, as we mentioned for the earlier question, up to September, there is no or no meaningful amount which has been spent. We would see what we can do in the next six months' time, which will be, let's say, some advances to the suppliers, some letters ready to open, and some civil work. This year, we don't expect much, maybe $20 million, $30 million. Next two years will be happening here. That will be on top of what we mentioned, INR 600 crore, INR 700 crore bill, which is only for Jindal Saw. India is standalone primarily because we have 12 facilities. We are trying some upgradation, modernization, some capacity improvement, bottlenecking.
Everything we are in parallel so that the impact should be seen when the situation improves.
Next year.
This is in the new expectations.
Next year, the CITS should be much lower, right?
I think next year also will be in the similar vicinity. After that, you can expect much lower CapEx in India because you don't have every day, you cannot have the same maintenance CapEx. As per our accounting, the ductile molds are also part of these CapExes, which is actually not a CapEx. This is how the accounting is done because the utilization or consumption of the mold is life-based. This also includes the molds which are used for pipe making for all across three locations in India.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. Due to time constraints, we have reached the end of the question- and- answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Vikash Singh for closing comments.
On behalf of ICICI Securities, I would like to thank Jindal Saw Management for giving us the opportunity to host the call. I hand over to Mr. Vinay Kumar for his closing remarks.
Thank you very much, Vikash and Koral, and to all the participants on this call. We hope to see you in the new year FY 2026 for the next quarter's meeting, 100 days and as an announcement prior to that. Thank you very much for attending the call.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities Ltd, that concludes this conference. Thank you.