Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q4 and FY 2025 Earnings Conference Call of Jindal Steel and Power Limited, hosted by JM Financial. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing the star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ashutosh Somani from JM Financial. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thanks, Operator, and welcome everyone to the call. I'll first thank Jindal Steel and Power for giving JM Financial the opportunity to host today's call. Without much ado, I'll hand over the call to Mr. Vishal Chandak, Head of Investor Relations, Jindal Steel and Power, to introduce the management. Over to you, Vishal.
Hi, Ashutosh. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Operator. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you very much for joining in for the Q4 FY 2025 and full-year briefing. We have the senior management of JSP today for the briefing, starting with Mr. Sabyasachi, our whole-time director; Mr. Pankaj Malhan, our CEO, Angul Business; our CFO, Mr. Mayank Gupta; and Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Pradhan. So, without much ado, I'll hand over the call to our CFO, sir, for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you all to the Q4 and full-year financial year 2025 earnings briefing of JSP. India crude steel production grew 5% to 152 million tons in FY 2025, and demand grew 12% also to 152 million tons. Chinese steel demand continues to weaken. As a result, exports from China continued at elevated levels, impacting prices globally. China's share of imports in India also remained high during the year. India remained a net importer of steel in FY 2025 for the second year in a row, with 4.3 million tons of net imports. Several countries, including Korea, Vietnam, the U.S., etc., have imposed additional tariffs on Chinese steel imports to provide a level playing field to their domestic industry. The Government of India has introduced a 12% safeguard duty for 200 days on select steel imports, aiming to maintain a level playing field amidst rising global inflows.
This should help curb some inflows of cheap steel, but the duty is not good enough compared to other geographies. During the quarter, domestic HRC and TMT prices saw mixed movement, with HRC prices rising marginally on a quarter-on-quarter basis in anticipation of the safeguard duty, which eventually was brought into effect on the 21st of April. TMT prices, however, corrected marginally after a heavy rise during the third quarter. Coming to our JSP highlights, JSP reported the highest production and sales in financial year 2025. This was driven by record performance from various mills across both Angul as well as Raigarh plants. The company achieved capacity utilization of 85% during financial year 2025, compared to 83% in the previous financial year, driven by operational improvements. Let me start with key quarterly numbers.
Production grew during quarter four 6% quarter-on-quarter to 2.11 million tons due to higher capacity utilization, which increased from 83% in Q3 FY 2025 to 88% in Q4 FY 2025. Sales volume at 2.13 million tons was up 12% quarter-on-quarter, supported by higher production as well as inventory liquidation. Consolidated gross revenues grew 13% quarter-on-quarter to INR 15,525 crore, largely driven by volume growth. We had guided for a savings of $10 per ton for our Q4 coking coal consumption. Our actual cost for coal has reduced by $11 per ton. Iron ore has remained flat sequentially. During the quarter, there were one-offs of INR 231 crore as well due to items which are not recurring in nature and are one-time as a result of detailed review of our balance sheet for past years.
These include provision taken for old JSP input credits, which have not been realized. Provision for aged operational advances and inventory cleanups for past several years. Carbon credit purchase for Australia operations relating to past periods. Balance related to deallocated mines from past. As well as old insurance receivables from past not realizable. Adjusted for the same, along with forex movement, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 2,482 crore, and adjusted EBITDA per ton stood at INR 11,651 per ton, which is marginally higher on a quarter-on-quarter basis. During the year, we also reviewed the value of our overseas assets and have taken an impairment of INR 1,229 crore, that is $144 million, primarily for the Australian assets, which is already under care and maintenance.
With this, we believe that the remaining value of the investment in Australian business is significantly lower than the value of our assets here. Adjusting for this exceptional write-off, our adjusted PAT stood at INR 1,099 crore, which was up 16% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Coming to annual performance, we reported annual production and sales of 8.12 million ton and 7.997 million ton, respectively, which were up 2% and 4%, respectively. Consolidated gross revenues for the year stood up at INR 58,044 crore, largely driven by volume growth and offset by a reduction in blended ASP by 4%. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA, adjusted for both forex and one-time write-offs discussed earlier, stood at INR 9,570 crore. This translates to EBITDA per ton of INR 12,008 per ton.
The company implemented several initiatives to bring down the net working capital by INR 3,146 crore during the year and INR 2,701 crore during quarter four. This has resulted in a reduction in net debt to EBITDA sequentially from 1.40 last quarter to 1.26 this quarter, despite spending INR 2,312 crore on the CapEx during the quarter. Total CapEx for financial year 2025 was INR 10,607 crore. Depreciation remained at INR 2,760 crore. Again, as highlighted earlier, adjusting for the one-offs and exceptional expense, net or provisioning, our adjusted PAT stood at INR 4,248 crore. Update on mining: JSP has received mine opening permission for Utkal B1 mines. The mine has a total reserve of around 148 million tons, with annual EC of 5.5 million tons. The bid premium for this mine was 15.25%.
During the quarter, JSP won the Saradhapur Jaltap East Coal Block in the 11th round of e-auction at a revenue sharing of 10%. This is a partially explored block. Now, coming to update on projects, the commissioning activity for the Angul Blast Furnace II has already begun, with the lighting of gas stoves. We are on track to deliver the first hot metal from the BF2 in Q1 financial year 2026. The rest of the projects, including BOF2, slurry pipeline, and the Shubhalakshmi Power Plant , are progressing well as per the scheduled timelines. Our total CapEx for the quarter stood at INR 2,312 crore. With this, our total CapEx incurred in the current program, including the sustenance CapEx, stood at INR 25,924 crores. The total CapEx remaining under the current expansion program is INR 21,119 crores.
Excluding the JV investments, which are the Paradip Port Investments on the port project, the balance outstanding CapEx is INR 19,137 crore. During early April, JSP acquired Allied Strips Limited in an all-cash deal of INR 217 crores. Allied Strips have a capacity of 0.54 million tons HRPO, as well as 0.3 million tons of CRFH and CRCA. We are in the process of completing the integration modalities. The product profile here will ensure captive consumption of our HR coil from Angul and further value-add products. Lastly, we are restarting our annual production and sales volume guidance. For financial year 2026, we believe crude steel production would be in the range of 9 million-10 million tons. The incremental production will be augmented by both the new BF at Angul as well as increased utilization of our existing capacity.
We are looking to deliver additional 0.2-0.3 million tons from our existing operations at Angul and balance 0.7-1.6 million tons from new BF. In terms of sales, we expect to deliver sales volumes in the range of 8.5-9 million tons for financial year 2026. Since we are restarting annual volume guidance, we would like to clarify that it has been conservative, and we as a management team are committed to exceeding the expectations. On raw material, consumption cost for coking coal should be lower by $10-$15 per ton in the first quarter. Iron ore costs are likely to trend domestic steel prices. The domestic HRC and TMT prices are currently 4%-5% higher compared to Q4 average. However, it's too early to comment about how Q1 will shape up.
In the end, we want to reiterate that we have taken feedback from the investor community and improved our presentations to address key questions. We hope the investors and analysts will appreciate our sincere efforts for the same. With this, I open the floor for Q&A.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Amit Dixit from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. First of all, great work on presentation. And then quite a few data points illustrated over there. I have a couple of questions. The first one essentially is on the repetitive impairment deviation that we have been taking on Australian subsidiaries. Now, if I look at the utility of this Australian subsidiary, I mean, over the last 10 years, it has practically done nothing. And it's like salami slicing every time that we take a little bit of deviation. Still, around INR 5,000-odd crores of investment is left. So I just wanted to understand the future of this. Will we ever get coal from here? It is under care and maintenance. What is the thought process on this subsidiary? Why don't we get out of it, I mean, once and for all, take whatever provision is required?
Amit, thanks for the question. Look, as you rightly said, the Australian mines are under care and maintenance. We have done an annual valuation exercise by independent valuers, and hence, this new impairment has been recommended. The remaining value there is fully supported by underlying asset value, and we are carrying forward a value of approximately $150 million right now, USD, and for the future, we are currently evaluating various options and will update the investor community at an appropriate time.
Sir, my point is that whenever we took any impairment, it was always fully supported by the assets. But that particular goalpost has been a moving one. So that's why I asked the question.
No, fair, Amit. Yeah, look, I think this is an annual exercise we do. And based on the current profile of the mine, based on an independent valuation study by a Big Four, it is the value which has been determined, and we have accordingly impaired the financials. There is still a value left, and we are carrying, we believe, the carried value is lower than maybe the realizable value. And hence, we do not expect any further impairment in the books.
Okay, fair enough, sir. And the second question is essentially on the working capital front. Now, very impressive working capital unlocking that we have achieved, particularly in Q4, which normally is the quarter when we achieve this kind of working capital unlocking. Now, I just wanted to understand broadly the initiatives that we have taken, whether the impact of such initiatives would also be visible in the coming quarter or the year. And also, what is the current finished product inventory with us?
So look, we have taken most of these efforts are sustainable in nature. We have relooked at our inventory norms and have a refreshed review of all our assets and liabilities which go into working capital. Of course, given the nature of the business, as an example, during monsoons, you build up inventory. So those are seasonal adjustments. But on an overall long-term trend basis, this is the kind of a permanent improvement into the working capital. Number one. Number two, your question on finished goods, we are currently carrying roughly an inventory of 200 kt of finished goods inventory in our financial books.
Okay, sir. Thank you very much and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kamlesh Bagmar from Lotus Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, sir. Sir, one question on the part of this which is mentioned in the note number five as well. So this is related to disposal of unappropriated inventory of shares under that ESOP, 57-odd lakh shares. So it is mentioned that you have got the approval from SEBI to dispose those shares by 31st May. So are we sure that it will be disposed by 31st May, or further extension is likely from SEBI?
Kamlesh, hi, this is Vishal here.
Yes.
So we had applied for an extension, and we have been granted an extension. The company is confident. I mean, not the company, I would say the trust has to dispose these shares, and these would be as per the SEBI guidelines. We'll do that.
Okay, so that would be in this month?
The timeline is till May. It will be done in that timeline.
Okay. Okay. And lastly, on the, yeah, a lot of appreciation for that guidance as well. But if I see the guidance, if I see in terms of production, your guidance on the higher side, it is 23-odd% growth in terms of production, while on the sales side, it is not that significant. So what is the reason for that?
I would request our Angul CEO, Mr. Pankaj Malhan, to answer this.
First of all, thanks for this question. This question, just like Mayank mentioned, that we are sounding slightly conservative, and we are confident of delivering more than what we are promising on the table. Look, company management would be striving to look into the right mix of the product portfolio to deliver the most out of that. So this is just a guidance, but we are committed to deliver more than this.
No, I was talking more regarding the gap in sales volume and production volumes, not on the guidance part.
Look, we are in the process of ramping up, and while the guidance is there, but the thought remains we would be delivering more than this.
Okay, thanks. And lastly, how much was the HRC sales volume in this quarter?
In this quarter, it was over 350,000 tons.
Okay. Great. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sum angal Nevatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for this chance. The first question is on the Utkal B1 coal block. So firstly, congratulations on getting the crucial mine approved. I just want to understand two things. One is, when do we expect mining to start? And in the past, we've kind of guided that in year one, we can ramp up very quickly to almost rated capacity. So just want to understand what could be the production, say, this year and next year. And I mean, this is one of the mines which was one of the lowest bid, I think around 15-odd%, if I remember correctly. So what would be the delivered price of coal from this mine to our plant?
Thanks for this question. Yes, we have received all the approvals needed to start B1. Right now, we are in the process of opening this mine, and we are fully confident in H1 this financial year we'll open up this mine, and we are committed to deliver the EC limits of this mine in this financial year itself.
Okay, so we can expect somewhere around five million tons production in the second half.
Yeah, of course, we are committed to deliver that. On cost part, I think this is too much of a operational question for me to answer, but that is where our numbers would look like.
Okay, okay. On the delivered cost, I mean, can you help us understand 15% premium? What is the delivered price of this coal?
As a management team, we don't give so many guidances on specific projects. So yes, volume basis, we remain committed to whatever we just now mentioned.
Got it.
I would urge if we can refrain from asking specific pricing and costing-related questions. As a philosophy, we do not discuss the specific questions on the cost and price, please.
Understood. My second question is with respect to our sales and production guidance. There's a big difference of 1 million ton, which was asked earlier also. So are we expecting, I mean, I understand the conservative mindset, but are we expecting a build-up of inventory because there's a significant difference between the two items?
I agree. Yes, you can see whenever you're starting a new facility, there is always a ramp-up phase that the facility has to go up, and there would be slight yield ramp-up also, which happens, which is the quality ramp-up, and based on that, we've been sounding slightly conservative. Otherwise, we're almost there in terms of how the ramp-up goes. We are very confident of delivering more than nine million tons of sales.
Understood. And just one last clarification from this impairment losses, do we get any tax savings, tax credit? And also, there's a INR 231-odd crore loss, which was INR 231-odd crore one-off at the EBITDA level. If one can explain what was that during the fourth quarter.
So, Shubh Mangal, thanks for the questions. First one, on the Australia-related impairment, we have taken provision in financial year 2025, and we are likely to take this in tax benefit in the financial year 2026 for our tax savings. Of course, these are tax-deductible kind of expenses. On your question on INR 231 crores, that entire amount is booked in fourth quarter only. Again, this entire amount will be tax-deductible. Of course, the year-wise will be specific by each expense, but yes, both these expenses, the Australian as well as these one-offs are tax-deductible.
Yeah, thanks, Mahesh. I just wanted to know what is the nature of this INR 231 crores exceptional loss?
Yeah. So as we shared during our opening remarks, Shubh Mangal, they are like four, five broader heads. I will re-emphasize. They include provision taken for old GST input credits, which are not yet being realized due to vendors' procedural lapses. They include provision for aged operational advances and inventory cleanups for past several years. It also includes a carbon credit purchase we have done for our Australia operations, again relating to prior periods. They are also relating to some balances lying in our books for deallocated mines from past. And lastly, there are some old insurance receivables which are not realizable. We carry this as an annual balance sheet review exercise, and as part of that cleanup, we have reviewed these balances. All of them are non-recurring in nature and are of one-time in nature.
Understood. Understood. Thank you, and all the best to the team. Yeah.
Thank you. Participants are requested to limit your questions to two per participant. If you have further questions, you may please fall back in the queue for more questions. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prateek Singh from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Congrats on the good set of numbers. Just my first question is largely on the finished steel post-expansion. I think the number earlier used to be 13.75, and now it has gone up to 14.45. 14.75. So what is driving the difference here? Is it ASL? Hello?
Yeah, please go ahead.
I'm not sure if you heard the question. I was looking at slide number five, where finished steel, we are saying, is going from 7.25 to 14.45. This number earlier used to be 13.75. I'm not sure if I missed anything, but what's driving this difference here?
I think this is Vishal here. So if you look in the last quarter, from this number, the only thing which has changed is we have formalized the 0.5 million ton, which we had earlier talked about, the plate expansion, which we are revising in subsequent times.
Okay?
So that's the only difference. Previously, we had talked about a 0.5 million ton expansion on the plate mill that we are looking into revising in the coming time. So that's the only difference that we see.
Understood. And the question is again.
I'm sorry to interrupt. Mr. Prateek, you're not audible. Can you repeat the questions again?
Sure. Am I audible now?
Yes, sir. Go ahead.
Yes, Prateek.
Yeah.
Sorry, Mr. Prateek.
Let me come back in the queue then. Thanks.
Okay. We will move on to the next question. It's from the line of Raman KV from Sequent Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Can you hear me?
Yes, sir. Loud and clear.
Sir, I just have two questions, mainly related to the industry, so recently, India has imposed 12% import duty for 200 days on Chinese steel export, but at the same time, the Chinese steel export prices have dropped from the second half to now around 12%-13%, so what are the chances that the Chinese steel prices might still further drop, and that will impact the, that will cross out the 12% import duty, impacting the Indian steel players?
Yes, sir. Good afternoon, and thanks a lot for the question. So you are absolutely right. The Chinese prices have dropped post-safeguard duty, and now hardly there is any margin left to where if any further drop in Chinese prices will take place, then it will have an impact on the Indian prices. However, we are not seeing any further drop in Chinese prices in the near future; it's expected, right? Because it's the other markets, like the European market and other markets, are moving at the upward direction, which will support the Chinese prices. Although they are not moving in that market, but then overall global market prices are not dropping in that level. So in that respect, we feel that current price levels will maintain in the coming quarter.
So my understanding is, with respect to the steel prices, there won't be any substantial decrease in FY 2026, and there will be a good chance of upward movement of prices, right?
We are not providing any guidance for such a long term for the entire year, but at least for the coming quarter, for the current quarter we are in, we are expecting the prices will remain at the current levels.
Okay. Sir, I actually joined the session a little late, but can you just give me an overview of industry dynamics with respect to what are the current global steel prices and what are the iron ore costs for the company for the coming quarter? And what is the cost for coking coal prices?
Raman, hi. This is Vishal here. For the industry discussion, we can discuss separately offline because we have the entire senior management here, and we would want to take all the strategic questions. As far as specific costs on iron ore and coal are concerned, we don't discuss specific costs. So for the industry discussion, we can take it offline.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. The first question, as a follow-up to the first question Amit asked on Australian breakdowns, if I heard it correctly, in response, you mentioned that there are various options being considered. Just wanted to understand what broadly the options you have on the table. Is one of the options also for a promoter entity to take on these assets? What options broadly are you thinking of? Because these assets have not been generating much cash for many years.
Yeah. So look, at this stage, we would not like to detail out the options. To address your question, they are not being discussed with any promoter entity. So whatever option will be with the on an independent external party only. So we are debating various options. We will provide an update at the right time.
Okay. Fair. The second question on the CapEx, additional CapEx you had announced last quarter pertaining to color coated, galvanized, plate, some coal rakes and all. Maybe can you provide more details of maybe timeline for some of these initiatives? Because you have the CapEx outline, but how do we what is the timeline for some of these additional things that you're looking for?
Yeah. So look, this time, as we have shared two years ago in our capital allocation framework, we have provided annual rolling forecast year-wise of our CapEx as well, which we have done. It's on slide 37 in our presentation. As far as specific item, what is the specific key milestone? The benefits of each of these products will culminate between FY 2026, 2027, and 2028. All the material projects, for us as a management, the biggest focus right now is to get our BF2 and BOF2 out, which we have provided an update in the presentations.
All the new items that you discussed last quarter, you think there could be some benefit from these in FY 2026 also?
Satyadeep, hi, Vishal here. If you look at Satyadeep, we have started some projects two years ago, which will start delivering benefits from FY 2026 onwards. The projects which we have announced recently will start delivering from FY 2027 and 2028. Between 2026 and 2028, you will see an improvement in the product mix as well with the volumes.
Okay. Just one quick question. If you can squeeze on coal, you had acquired another coal mine. Just the earlier four Utkal mines and Gare Palma, together 15 million tons. And you've acquired more mines. Just wanted to understand the thought process because you're also going green. I thought 15 was already enough. What is the strategy for acquiring more coal mines?
Satyadeep, if I was to take this question, while we've been maintaining that we got three mines and we are looking at some 13 million-15 million tons of mining coming out of these three mines, the fourth one, which we have just bagged, is considering that we are coming up with a new DRI over there, which is almost two million tons. Correspondingly, we really want to go green and we really want to be on the coal gasification side. We would be expanding our coal gasification side, the backup upstream side, I should say. That's the reason why we really wanted to secure our coal. That remains the most important ingredient for making SynGas, which is used for steel making.
Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you and wish you all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akshit Gupta from Oaklane Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yes, sir, you are. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So I wanted to ask on gross margins. I saw on PPT, QoQ, average selling price increased by 4%. And as you said, coal prices were down by around $10 per ton. And the iron ore also remained flattish. So I was seeing gross margins decreased by 300 basis points. So any reason why it decreased?
Yeah. So Akshit, first, I think the answer is our quarter- on -quarter volumes increased by 12%. And our EBITDA is increased by 16%, right? So I would say on the outside, there is an improvement in our and an operating leverage appearing in the business. And I think the way you are looking at it, you should look at it with the amounts do include these one-off INR 231 crores, as we have shared. If you include that, then you will see these numbers. And you can connect with our IR team offline if there are any specific queries.
Okay and also on coking coal, so we are mostly backward integrating our thermal coal for the captive usage, but we are not much focusing on the coking coal for the captive use, so are we planning any inorganic or through auction-based to acquire some mines for the captive consumption?
Hi, Akshit. The management remains very bullish about looking for opportunities which.
This call is no longer being recorded.
Hello? Hello.
Hello.
Mr. Pallav Agarwal?
Yeah. Hello.
Yes, sir. Please proceed with the question.
Yeah. Yeah. Good afternoon. Sorry for the confusion. So I had a question on what percentage of our product mix you would benefit from the safeguard duty. So a portion of flat products has been going up in the mix. So can you assume that most of that will benefit from the safeguard duty?
Yeah. So the safeguard duty is only on the flat product. So the flat product prices will remain stable because of the safeguard duty, which was under tracer previously before this quarter.
Yeah. So a proportion of flats has been increasing. So that should overall be beneficial for a blended NSR?
Yes. Yes, you are absolutely right on that sense.
Sure, sir. And are we seeing enough demand in the market to absorb the increase in prices because of safeguard duties? I know Q4 is traditionally a strong quarter, but are we seeing enough demand in the first quarter as well to absorb these price hikes?
See, if you look at the demand-supply scenario, last year, we were a net importer by 4.3 million tons. So with the safeguard duty, we are expecting that India will not remain the net importer by such a wide margin. So that much the domestic consumption will grow up. The domestic demand from the domestic producers will go up, and that will absorb any additional capacity or any additional production will come up.
Sure, sir. Also, you've stopped giving the EBITDA and production volumes for Mozambique, South Africa. So is it fair to assume that these are no longer contributing materially to the overall EBITDA?
Pallav here, Vishal here. So if you look at the overall scheme of things, the overseas subsidiaries like Mozambique, South Africa are not contributing so significantly. So I think that's why it's not coming on the forefront. But if you need anything, we can discuss it offline.
Sure. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Vishal. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kirtan Mehta from Baroda BNP. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. First question is about the RINL volumes that we have discussed in the past. Are we still expecting any metal coming from RINL, which we can process at our plant?
Yeah. So we do not expect any volumes with RINL. We have updated. And of course, we are doing our own capacity expansion now.
Sure. And the second question was about, could you share your revenue and capital expenditures and how they have changed over the last year? Hello. Am I audible?
Yeah. Just a second. Look, we can take. I'll give you the approximate numbers. So the revenue-related acceptances are in the range of INR 3,145 crores. And the capital-related advances are in the range of INR 660 crores.
Would you be also able to share how they changed over the last year?
On a quarter -on -quarter basis, the capital acceptances are largely in the same range. There is a movement of about just INR 40 crores. The revenue, there's been movement of around INR 150 crores or so, but largely in the similar range numbers. You can connect us with the IR team for any specific question.
Sure, sir, and the last question was about the $150 million realizable value that we are seeing with Australian subsidy. Would you give us broad heads under which this realizable value is accounted?
Yes. Yeah. So they are largely the fixed assets in nature and sells independently through our independent valuer. It's fixed assets and mining rights.
Fixed assets and?
The mining rights.
Right. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Indrajit Agarwal from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. A couple of questions. How much can you expect the pellet sales for the full year?
For pellet sales, it's largely internal consumption that we do. It's a very insignificant sales that we go outside and do it.
No significant sales, thank you. Thank you. That's helpful. Second, can we expect the exit production run rate? I know you have given a guidance of the full year volume, but can we expect that exit production run rate for the key upstream capacities, BF, BOF, would be in line with the nameplate capacity, or ramp-up would still go through in FY 2027?
No, it's a wonderful question, Indrajit, that while we have given the guidance and we always remain very bullish about what would be the exit rate, the management would always continue to strive to the fullest nameplate capacities. So that's what I can say. Thank you very much for your question.
All right, and lastly, there is a difference.
Mr. Indrajit, I would request you to please come back on the queue for further questions.
All right. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. Participants, you are requested to limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Given two questions only. First question, can you give us an update on Utkal B1, and Gare Palma IV/6? Are they already commissioned? If not, by when? Hello?
Hello. Thanks, Ritesh. A lot of things that you've asked. Utkal C, Gare Palma IV/6, they're all commissioned, and we have ramped up those facilities. Whereas I just mentioned a while back, Utkal B1, we have received all the approvals, and we are in the process of opening up that mine. And we are very hopeful. The way your earlier fellow person asked that question, we remain bullish about mining to the capacity in this financial year.
Sir, would it be possible for you to comment on the throughput? Are we hitting the rated ECs what we had earlier indicated, or there is more juice on cost savings that one can expect going forward?
Utkal C, we have already hit the EC rate in the last financial year itself. Utkal B1, which we are opening up now, we are very hopeful and confident of this. Gare Palma IV, we are again very hopeful about this.
Sir, I could not understand Gare Palma what you said.
I'm just repeating. Gare Palma, we have already hit the EC run rate, and we are hopeful of repeating it in this financial year also.
Perfect. For my second question, I think in the presentation, we have indicated with a project ROC of 18%-20%. This is pertinent to annual INR 7,500-INR 10,000 crores of CapEx. ROC of 20% looks quite steep, just wanted to understand what is the underlying denominator and the numerator that we are looking at, or if I have to put it the other way around, if one had to build this number around INR 41,000 crores-INR 47,000 crores of CapEx mentioned on slide 37, again, the ask would be quite steep. Just trying to get a sense on how we arrive at this number of 18%-20%.
Yeah. No, good question. So the first point is we are reiterating. This is not the first time we have said. We have been maintaining this for a long period of time. The philosophy we follow is every project we appraise has to meet this threshold of 18%-20% once the project stabilizes. So this CapEx is planned, and as you shared the year-wise, once it's normalized on a steady-state basis, we expect it to be 18%-20%. This is pre-tax ROCE. Denominator, as you rightly said, remains this CapEx, and numerator will be the return out of it pre-tax.
Sure. And just last one, a clarification. slurry pipeline, I think in the presentation, it says 82% complete. However, I looked at the Q2 presentation. The timeline over there was given Q4 FY 2025. Is there a slippage over here? That's one. Likewise, for BOF2, I think the timeline which was indicated was Q4 FY 2025 in the last Q2 presentation. However, it's a different storyline in the current presentation. So just trying to get comfort, are there any delays? Because you did indicate for all the projects except for the two that you stated, everything was on schedule. So can you please reaffirm the timelines over here for, say, slurry pipeline and BOF2?
Thanks for your question. That's a wonderful question. slurry pipeline, we've been always giving our thoughts to that. 82% project over right now when we are talking about, and we are in the final legs of completing this project. While the commissioning of 200 km of pipeline, you can understand, takes some time, and that's the guidance that we've given in H2 of FY 2026. We should be able to fully get on the top of this project, and benefits would start coming in.
And for BOF2?
BOF2, of course, that project is progressing quite well. We have already started the commissioning activities of this project, and we are very hopeful of seeing the light of day in quarter two of this financial year.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Majumdar from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, sir, and again, thanks for a wonderful presentation this time, so sir, I think you've already highlighted the fact that we will be having some lag between the production and the sales this year due to the ramp-up of the plant. Combined with this, we have liquidated inventory substantially at the end of March, so is it sufficient to assume that the net debt will probably go up significantly this year and then probably fall in FY 2027? Maybe it will go to the higher end of our kind of 2x net debt to EBITDA before it falls again in FY 2027? That was the first question.
Yeah. No, thank you for asking. I think this is an important area for us. As you can see from Q3, we were at 1.40 net debt to EBITDA, and we have really worked hard to get it down to 1.26 now. We are fully committed to keep it below 1.5 across all cycles. As you rightly said, yes, we are in the middle or towards the close of our CapEx cycle with a lot of these projects coming in. So yes, there will be a bit of a stretch, but we are remaining committed that we will remain under 1.5x. There's no point we will ever touch 2, and hopefully, post this, towards the end of financial year 2026, we will start to see this tapering down and numbers getting even much, much better.
Right. That's useful, sir. And secondly, sir, if you could give us a total comprehensive requirement of coal, including the coal gasification that we'll have from, say, FY 2027, and how much of it will be coming from our own mines on the thermal coal side?
While this is a wonderful question, you're looking for a year-ahead guidance. We can only speak about FY 2026 as of now. Overall coal requirement is close to 10 million-11 million tons, and we remain committed to deliver everything out of our own mines. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahul Gupta from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
All right. Thank you for taking my questions. So two questions. First, continuing on the ROCE question discussed earlier. When you say stabilized business ROCEs of 18%-20%, can you help us understand what kind of steel prices and raw material prices you take into account when you derive these numbers? Thank you.
Rahul, so look, nobody can forecast future steel and raw material prices. What the underlying assumption is, there is a base case on prices and raw materials.
Sorry, I did not get you. Can you please repeat?
Can you hear me, please?
Yeah.
Yeah. So the.
Can you just hear me repeat?
Look, we do not speculate for future steel prices or raw material prices. Assuming they stay as they are, which is conservative, that's the baseline assumption for our ROCE guidance of 18%-20% for all the incremental projects we are doing.
Okay. Thank you. My second question is, with various projects like slurry pipeline, conveyor belts, and Coal Blocks getting activated sometime during the year, can you help us understand broad range of cost savings that would come over the next couple of years? Thank you.
Yeah. So look, we will not be able to give specific numbers. We have already given the guidance on production and sales volume. What we can say is that these projects are progressing well, and likely benefits start to accrue from the second half of this financial year. And all of our focus is to get production up and focus on value-added products as well as keep optimizing our costs.
No, that's understandable. I'm asking specifically from the cost savings view. Slurry pipeline, conveyor belts, and are already coming sometime during the year, right? And with you using captive coal through the year, what kind of internal estimates have you done on the cost savings? Any broad range would be fine. Thank you.
Yeah. So look, we do not give any specific cost or EBITDA guidance. In fact, based on the feedback, we have started giving our production and sales volume guidance, and we would like to stick to that.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raashi Chopra from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Just one question. Again, on the captive coal, how much captive coal did you get? Thermal coal did you get in FY 2025? Even though you achieved the EC limit, but the actual amount of captive coal in the year?
Captive c oal.
Good, Nair. Hello. Raashi, thanks for your question. You wanted a specific number, so to be very specific on the numbers, we mine close to 7.5 million tons of thermal coal in FY 2025.
All right, and you were expecting that to go to how much in FY 2026?
We don't want to give you a forward guidance, but with the B1 coming up, which I just stated, our volumes would be much higher.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead. Mr. Amit, your line has been unmuted. Please go ahead with your question. As there is no response, we will move on to the next question. It's from the line of Somaiah V from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thanks for the opportunity. Hope I'm audible. First question is on the efficient utilization. What would be the current level of utilization? And also, as you had earlier said, 40-60 is the mix in terms of flats and longs. Where do you see this for FY 2026? Hello.
Yes, sir. We can hear you. Just a second.
Yeah. So look, our current utilizations are in the range of 85%, as you said. And the mix, I'll let my colleague Sushil Pradhanji answer.
So when we'll have the full commissioning of all the facilities will take place, I think at the exit, we will have almost 70% of flat and 30% of long.
This is when the entire 14 million ton, 14.5 million comes into. That's the time frame, right? When we are saying 70-30?
If I was to take this question, Somaiah, look, business remains very volatile these days, and management keeps striving to realign the product mixes as per the market needs. So while you rightly said in FY 2025, our numbers were 40-60 in terms of longs to flat, and of course, they are expected to go up. But looking into the market mix, there could be changes to align our strategies with respect to the market needs. So that's how the numbers would look like. But yes, on a capacity installation basis, we would be over 70% in terms of flats and 29%-30% in longs going forward. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, sir. So second question is in terms of pellet. If you could just share the number in terms of pellet production for FY 2025, and what is the expectation for FY 2026 with the new capacity, and then how would it kind of ramp up? Just on the pellet numbers for 2025 and 2026. Thank you.
Again, a very specific question, but since you've asked, we did close to 2.5 million tons of pellet production in our Angul pellet plant, and going forward, it's going to only go up. Our exit was much higher than this. Thank you.
Got it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nirbhay from N Square Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, sir. So last year, India had roughly 10 million tons of steel import. Do you see this falling substantially post safeguard duty?
Yeah. We expect the import to drop. However, for the entire year, providing a guidance will be too tough at this point of time. We have just said the start of the year, but import will fall down.
Also, any thoughts on medium-term outlook for coking coal market? Because coking coal prices have fallen substantially, which has been a relief. So how do you see? I'm not looking for guidance, but any possibility of a significant reversal?
So look, as you said, we can't give a long-term guidance. But for Q1, I think we've already shared, we're expecting coking coal to be lower by $10-$15 per ton.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today's conference call. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Financial year 26 will be exciting times for JSP, with several facilities commissioning, including BF, BOF, Shubhalakshmi Power Plant , and other related plants, which will catapult Angul to one of the leading single-site production sites with a vision to become the largest single-site steel manufacturing globally. Our investments are not limited to only capacity expansion, but encompass the entire value chain from mining, logistics, manufacturing, and sustainability. This resonates with our philosophy of chasing value rather than chasing growth. We thank you for the trust, reposed in the company, and will continue to work in the best interest for all stakeholders. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of JM Financial, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.