Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Jindal Steel & Power Limited Q3 and FY 2025 earnings conference call, hosted by ICICI Securities Limited. 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 star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Dixit from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Amit.
Yeah, thank you, Manav. Good evening, everyone. At the outset, I would like to thank the management for giving us an opportunity to host the call and congratulate them for a good set of numbers in a very challenging quarter. Without much ado, I would hand the call over to Vishal to introduce the management and begin the proceedings. Over to you, Vishal.
Thank you very much, Amit. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you very much for joining us for the Q3 FY 2025 investors briefing of JSPL. I have with us senior members from the management: Mr. Sabyasachi Bandyopadhyay, our whole-time director; Mr. Pankaj Malhan, CEO of Angul Facilities; Mr. Sunil Kumar, our CFO; and I would also like to introduce Mr. Mayank Gupta, our CFO designate. He has been appointed as CFO today. So, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in congratulating Mayank sir. Just to give you a quick background, Mayank sir has an extensive experience at GE, and over the last several years, he has been working with technology startups under the entrepreneurial environment. So we are really very excited to have him on board, and we look forward to his leadership.
And at the same time, I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude and thanks to Sunil sir for his continuous guidance and support. He will continue to be working with us in a different capacity, but we will surely have his guidance continuing going forward. So with this, I will hand over to Sunil sir for his opening remarks. Sorry, I'll hand over to Mayank sir for his opening remarks. My apologies.
Hi, good evening, everyone. I'm super excited to join JSPL, and I'm still learning. I will do my best today to represent the company. In case I'm not able to answer any questions, we'll take a follow-up, and Vishal, our IR head, will follow it up for queries. So I welcome you all to the Q3 FY 2025 performance briefing of JSPL. Global steel prices in the third quarter of FY 2025 continue to be subdued in the key regions, including China, where steel prices dropped below $500 per ton, with 500 per ton.
Imports in India continue to put pressure on domestic prices, which is reflected in declining HRC prices. However, TMT prices, on the contrary, showed resilience as construction season was under full swing. Coming to the domestic steel demand supply scenario, India's steel production for the quarter was 38.4 million tons, which is up 6% quarter-over-quarter.
Consumption grew at a slower pace at 4% sequentially to 38.7 million tons. Exports rebounded with a strong growth of 44% quarter-over-quarter to 1.8 million tons, while imports saw a drop of 13% quarter-over-quarter to 2.8 million tons, as import order bookings slowed after the government initiated an investigation into steel imports originating out of Vietnam. The government has also started investigations on the merit of imposing safeguard duty on steel imports. As mentioned in the opening remarks, despite the headwinds that the industry continues to witness, I'm happy to say that your company reported a strong performance, reflecting adaptability in production, in catering to the customer's need for diversified products, while also maintaining cost leadership in the industry. We continue to focus on value-added sales, which increased 6% sequentially. JSP continues to focus on improving share of value-added products.
In terms of our operating highlights, production for the quarter grew by 3% year-on-year to 1.99 million tons. Sales in the quarter also improved 5% by YoY basis to 1.90 million tons, led by surge in export. Net revenue for the quarter stood at INR 11,771 crores, up 5% on a QoQ basis, largely due to uptake in the sales volume. On the cost front, coking coal prices were down $1.39 per ton during the last quarter, in line with the guidance given in our last quarter briefing, which is partly offset by higher iron ore prices during the quarter. As we look ahead for Q4, we expect a reduction of around $10 per ton in coking coal prices. Our Adjusted EBITDA on a consolidated basis for the third quarter remained flattish at INR 2,133 crores.
Adjusted EBITDA per ton stood at INR 11,209 per ton, which was down by 2% on a sequential basis on higher iron ore costs. Profit after tax increased 6% on a quarter-over-quarter basis to INR 909 crores on the back of forex gain. Our consolidated net debt at the end of the quarter is INR 13,551 crores. The higher net debt is reflective of our projects closing to the commissioning stage and payouts related to the expansion at our Angul facility. Importantly, our net debt to EBITDA is at 1.4x. Our CapEx in the quarter stood at INR 2,857 crores. With this, the cumulative CapEx spent under the current expansion program is now INR 23,612 crores.
As we enter the final phase of the current round of expansion, we are really excited to announce that we are also embarking on the next round of CapEx, where we will focus on cost efficiency, sustainability, increasing share of value-added products, and improving supply chain, which will finally result in unlocking higher shareholder value. With this, I will conclude and hand over for the question- and- answer session. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. 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 handsets only while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have our first question from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good morning. Sorry, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. Just on volumes, I think the first question I wanted to ask is, when do we actually see volumes kind of scaling up to cross two million tons quarterly run rate and go higher, particularly given the commissioning that we are planning on the capacities?
Let me just check it. This is Mayank Gupta. Look, there are two ways to increasing volumes. One, we are increasing our capacity. We are enhancing our productivity in our current facilities. And as you know, a large Angul project, as you shared in the opening remarks, we are moving towards commissioning. And we expect in FY 2026, quarter-over-quarter, slowly and slowly, volumes will start to increase. And hopefully, we will realize our full potential towards the end of financial year 2026.
Towards the end of 2026?
Yeah, end of financial year 2026, yes, and partly early FY 2027.
So you mean to say the new Blast Furnace that comes up will get fully ramped up by the end of 2026, right?
Yeah. So look, there are multiple assets of our steel plant. We expect the Blast Furnace to have commissioning done within this quarter, is what we still expect. And normally, once commissioning is done, it just takes a few weeks to have hot metal coming out. So then there are integrated parts. And we expect within this financial year, on an overall basis, we expect to move towards a very good utilization of that capacity.
I would also request Pankaj sir, who's the CEO of the Angul facilities, to add to this.
If I've understood your question, your question is, when we are going to go past 2 million tons per quarter run rate? Look, I'm very happy to share with everybody that we are on the last legs of starting the commissioning of our Blast Furnace in Angul. And we are very hopeful this quarter the commissioning will come up. And given your question, that 2 million tons run rate, we are very hopeful that quarter one FY 2026, we should be going past 2 million tons run rate.
Okay, sure. And also, I just wanted to check, why was there a drop in realization QoQ in the third quarter? I believe the rebar was up roughly INR 2,000 per ton on an average basis. So could you just explain that also?
That's a wonderful question. If you really look, Angul plant has also started moving into the flat side. We have our hot strip mill and also our cold rolling complex. If you look into the price movement in the previous quarter, flat had seen some kind of dip coming up. While we did tweak our product portfolio, flat has seen a lot of corrections to the level of 9%-10%. That was one of the reasons why there is a slight kink in terms of the blended NSRs which we're looking at.
What is the split between flat and long now in third quarter?
I will just explain. In the third quarter, long is around 59%, and flat is 41%. Last quarter, it was 52%, and flat was 48%. NSR, if you see on the ASP basis, it is basically up by 1%. That is from INR 60,150. Now it is INR 60,931 per ton, 2% per ton.
What are the semis? Are you clubbing semis into long? There are some semis as well, right?
So there is some small portion of semis also, but not to a large scale. But the small portion is of the semis as well.
Amit, if you remember, there is always a system-generated semis which we cannot avoid, and it is always clubbed as part of our long product portfolio.
Okay. Got it. Sure, I'll come back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to take questions from all participants in the conference, please restrict yourself to two questions per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Sumangal Nevatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening. Thank you for the chance. My first question is on the CapEx on slide 27. Now, we are seeing a lot of additions to the tune of almost INR 15,000 crores. That's almost 50% addition to our stated CapEx of around INR 30,000 crores without any addition of capacity. So I just want to know what are the heads where there is a cost overrun and all these sustain and contingency? We were of the understanding that it's already included in our earlier announcement. So it's slightly coming as a surprise. So if you can just elaborate on this point, please.
Yeah. So this is Mayank Gupta. So look, I think this is first answer is this is a three-year outlook for next three years. The number we have given was for the current ongoing project, which was given a few years ago. On that, around INR 7,388 crores is remaining. And as we are looking for next three years, we want to invest in enhancing the overall capability of the company. So there are enhancements of projects, as you see. We are planning to invest more in value-added engineering products. And the purpose is even it may not show a direct impact on enhancing capacity, but it will help us drive better EBITDA per ton. Similarly, integrated supply chain projects help us control logistics, make it smooth, and have efficiency in our cost. So those are the two big heads. Rest is sustain and contingency. There is no surprise.
Largely, we are on track of what we have said.
Okay. But if you look at slide number six, there is no addition of any downstream units. So any tangible unit which you can share as to any different product or different downstream rolling unit which we are putting, which will kind of help us understand this better?
As an example, we have our CRM project. So now we are adding a color-coated line as well as a galvanizing line. Additionally, another example of a project is a Q&T facility. All of them add to building up value-added engineering products, which enhances our price and stuff.
Okay. And can you give us some capacity? What color-coated line and galvanizing line we are adding?
This is Pankaj. If I'll add what Mayank just said, we are starting with our Mill 2 in cold rolling complex, which is around 400,000 tons. We are in the vicinity of starting in a very, very short term, which could be in a couple of hour basis now. Second, what Mayank added is the galvanizing and the color coating line. So we are about to start 200,000 tons of galvanizing line as of now. And the color coating line would be superseding this and would be downstream of this, would be close to 200,000 tons.
So look, if there are more questions, I would suggest please our IR team can help you connect offline.
Yeah, just one follow-up on overall. We do share a quarter-wise timeline. This time, the presentation doesn't include that. So just want to know where are we with respect to slurry pipeline and BOF-II Blast Furnace-II. Are we on track for the fourth quarter commissioning, as we had kind of shared earlier?
Pankaj sir, request you to take this.
Sorry, I lost your voice. Please?
Yeah, can I repeat? Can you hear me?
Yes, please.
Yeah, yeah. Very well. So I just wanted to know we've not shared the regular quarter-wise update in the presentation for different projects. So I just wanted to know where are we with respect to slurry pipeline, BOF-II, Blast Furnace-II, which was earlier kind of expected to come in fourth quarter, which is this quarter, FY 2025.
So I just want to mention that we are very happy to share the timelines that we are about to commence the commissioning of our Blast Furnace. Most of the project continues to be on the timelines which have been guided before. And that's the reason potentially we thought of holding to the dates that have been promised before.
Okay, got it. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants to restrict yourself to two questions per participant. We have our next question from the line of Indrajit Agarwal from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My question again is on the CapEx. So earlier, you had guided for a mid-teen IRR of the INR 31,000 crore CapEx. Now that we have another INR 15,000 crore CapEx here, so would we stick to that mid-teen IRR on a INR 46,000 crore CapEx total, or does that number change in any way?
Yeah. So look, I would like to, this is Mayank Gupta. I would like to reiterate. This is over next three years. Okay? And this is not, so the balance carried forward from the Angul 31,000 is on the existing list of CapEx is INR 7,388 crores. Rest, as you have gone through in the details, this is going into efficiency and focusing more on value-added engineering products.
No, sir, I understand that. So at INR 31,000 crore and at 15.9 million ton capacity, we could have arrived at, say, a profitability, the implied profitability or the increase in profitability or EBITDA through this CapEx. Now that capacity, overall upstream capacity is not rising. Would that INR 15,000 crore additional mean that that EBITDA per ton will be that much more higher to generate mid-teen IRR?
Yes. So each project, we have shared the capital allocation strategy a year ago to all the stakeholders. And we maintain high teens ROCE for every project evaluation. So all of these projects have gone through that evaluation or will go through evaluation because this is a futuristic outlook. And we will make sure there is already a very, very strong capital allocation monitoring within the company. So each of them will generate enough ROCE as we have committed already to the stakeholders.
So when you calculate that ROCE, is there any kind of spread improvement that you build in your assumptions or you are taking current spot spreads?
Yeah. No, sir, as I said, it has been high teen. So I would suggest if you need any specific details, please connect offline with Vishal.
Okay. My second question is on realizations. Can you just explain it again? How much was NSR increase QoQ, and how did we end up having a decline? I understand the mixed part, but on flats and longs, each, how much was your NSR movement quarter-over-quarter?
As I have explained earlier also, our ASR for this quarter, it is INR 60,931, which is up by 1% over the last sequential quarter basis. Last quarter, it was INR 60,150 per ton.
All right. Thank you. I'll take that offline as well.
Yes.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rahul Gupta from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. I'm very sorry to harp on this CapEx question again. Just to understand this better, so this INR 15,000 crore of additional CapEx that would happen over the next three years, how do we look at the IRR of this 15,000? I understand it would be for sustenance and cost savings, etc. What is the internal math you would have done in terms of benefits both in our revenue side and OpEx side? Thank you.
Thank you so much. I thought we have answered this question. I will refer still back to what we just answered. There's no incremental information we want to give. We are targeting high teens ROCE for each of these projects. For a scale of our company, INR 15,000 crore CapEx in three years is not a significantly material number. We think at the scale we are operating, all our focus is to drive profitability and ROCE up.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of [Pratik Junta] from Anand Rathi. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations, sir, for the new role, so my question pertains to the debt. I believe this quarter, the debt has actually gone up significantly compared to last quarter. What will be your expected exit run rate for the current year as far as the debt is concerned?
Yeah. So look, we have maintained we will be under 1.5x net debt to EBITDA across the cycles. This quarter, as we have shared, we are very, very excited as the commissioning is getting closer. So we have touched 1.40x, but we are very confident to maintain. We will maintain 1.5x net debt to EBITDA across the cycles. So that will be the peak what we will go. And on an absolute number, the net debt actually has gone up from INR 12,464 crores to INR 13,551 crores, which is roughly almost INR 1,100 crores. From a context of CapEx we are investing, still we think it's in a reasonable number what we have already given out.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Sir, my second question pertains to the coal buying. So what was the quantum of coal what we have added this quarter? And are we still on track for the Utkal B1, which was in, I think, expected in quarter four to come on stream, right? So are we still on track?
Let me take this question. Utkal B1 continues to be on track. We have secured the approvals to start the mines, and we are in the process of starting the mines. I'm very hopeful of delivering the mines by end of this quarter.
Sir, what will be the quantum of material excavated during the quarter?
So difficult to say right now, but this mine is roughly around 5.5 million tons per annum.
No, I'm asking for Utkal C, sir.
So it would be just a startup. We are expecting close to 100,000, not more than this.
Okay. Because I believe somewhere you had mentioned in Q2 that you had done about 1.3 million tons if I'm not mistaken.
Pratik, just quickly, we'll clarify on the coal produced out of our captive coal mines in this quarter. Just give us a second. Yeah. So basically, we have the permission of 3.37 million from this mine, and we'll achieve that target in the Q4.
Okay. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Pallav Agarwal from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, Agarwal. Marks had mentioned that the iron ore cost had gone up this quarter. So is it possible to quantify what was the increase and what is the expectation for 4Q, given that NMDC has taken some price cuts? Do we expect some benefits in the fourth quarter? So last quarter, there was total increase of around INR 96 per ton. And coming for the next quarter, we are expecting that INR 100-INR 200 per ton reduction in the iron ore price over the quarter.
Last quarter, there was an increase of INR 96 per ton. Next quarter, 4Q, we're expecting a INR 100-INR 200 reduction in the cost.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
You're right.
How are spot steel prices stabilized at broadly third quarter average levels? Do we expect some uptick happening or broadly flat realization in the next quarter?
I think the way the infrastructure spending and government thrust has come back on track, we are very hopeful of the prices going better than what we have seen. But yes, the Chinese import is something that we are very mindful. And you've seen the impact of the Chinese imports coming to the country and the impact that had on the prices. But the way our government has been sounding very positive about the Indian steel market, we are hopeful of prices being some upward trajectory from here.
Sure, sir. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Ashish. Ashish Kejriwal from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening, everyone. Sir, quickly, two questions. One on the results. We mentioned that we have seen 1% increase in realization as well as we have a benefit of lower coking coal cost also. Whereas iron ore price has increased just by INR 96 or INR 100 per ton. Then why our EBITDA per ton is still lower quarter-on-quarter?
So other than iron ore price, unfortunately, in our Tensa mines, our pellet plant, our production from the Tensa mines was lesser during the quarter, which has resulted in an increase in our cost also.
So that, sir, will that be meaningful? Because if you can say what the overall iron ore consumption cost increase, that will include your Tensa mines also in that.
So basically, this will recoup in our Q4. We are restarting our production from the Tensa mines, and we will stabilize the cost.
That's okay. I was looking at what happened in the first third quarter.
Ashish, just to add to it, as per the mining plan, the production has been lower in this quarter. So in the next quarter, the production will ramp up again, and there will not be such issues.
Okay. I'll take offline then. Second question is we have been underutilizing our pellet plant for more than one and a half years. And because of which, maybe we are unable to fully utilize our steel plant also at Angul. So I was just trying to get a sense of where we are in that pellet plant utilization stage, as well as what gives us comfort that our Blast Furnace, as well as basic oxygen furnace, will be commissioned by March 2025. Because before that, we have to do the hot blast stove Blast Furnace light up. So when can we because these are the things which one should look at. Otherwise, every time we see a delay in the project, which is not taken appropriately by the investors also. So if you can help us giving that confidence, then it will be great for us. Thank you.
I think it's a very long question, but happy to share with you. The utilization rate of the Angul pellet plant is roughly around 90% as of now, so we are operating our pellet plant at 90% and Angul pellet plant is good enough to feed both the existing DRI as well as the Blast Furnace.
Okay. So that means we are operating at maximum capacity. Because what we understood was in the second quarter or maybe November, December, we were operating at 40% utilization. Is that right?
This has started going upwards. There were some technology issues where we have fixed them up. Right now, we are able to self-sustain Angul on that.
That's great. And sir, what about Blast Furnace and basic oxygen furnace?
So this is what we just mentioned. Happy to share that we have two commissioning will commence in this quarter itself.
Okay. And sir, lastly on second one, when we are seeing integrated supply chain project of INR 4,500 crore enhancements of project, all these things. So in last increase in the CapEx also from 24 to 31, we have included a part of the supply chain project, which means that railway rakes and other things. So what exactly we are having in this integrated supply chain project? Because we are increasing our CapEx by 16,000, and I'm not sure how much incremental earnings or EBITDA we can generate on the same. So more elaborate answer on this will be really helpful for us.
So look, steel industry is always we are always evolving. And we are always looking for future enhancement, as we said, towards possibility. So with that context, this specific supply chain is for driving even better port logistics, enhancing our capacity in rail logistics as well. So it is increasing of rakes. It is building port capabilities for a better connectivity.
But sir, these things were already there in INR 31,000 crore. So what extra we are doing here that we are unable to address?
Yeah. No, so there is also our transmission line. There is that will help us drive towards better.
Sir, if I may.
Yeah, please.
So Ashish, let me add over here. If you remember, in our INR 31,000 crore CapEx, we did not include the port CapEx. Okay. Once only very recently, we have started investing in our port project, which is a 51:49 JV with the group company. Okay. So that part of the CapEx is also there. In addition to that, we have increased the number of rigs. Looking at our long-term vision of 25 million- 27 million tons. In addition, there are several other logistics-related projects like coal pipe conveyor, which was not part of our earlier CapEx, and transmission lines as well. So overall, if you look with the kind of new CapEx that we are doing, the ROCE would really move up, and we would be among the best steel producers globally. That's the vision with which we are working.
So just to conclude that, which means that even if we increase our capacity from 12 million to 24-25 in Angul later on, we don't have to spend much incremental on the supply chain projects or.
So Ashish, as Mayank sir mentioned, steel is an industry which is continuously evolving. We don't know what kind of other logistics facilities could be made available to further optimize our supply chain capabilities and reduce our cost. As we foresee, yes, we are trying to work on what is the best available solutions in the market. But if things change rapidly in future, we might look at other options. So we would want to keep our options open. And that's what we are working on.
Understood. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rajesh Majumdar from B & K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir, and thanks for the opportunity. So my first question was, is there any delay in the slurry pipeline commissioning, and when can we expect the cost savings in the slurry pipeline to start flowing in for us? A realistic date for that?
Slurry Pipeline continues to go strong in terms of the erection activities. We are very hopeful of delivering the timeline stated earlier.
Which is what, mid-2026, mid-FY 2026 or somewhere around there?
No. We already promised quarter one of FY 2026, we should be able to deliver that.
Okay.
My second question. Yeah. Yeah, Vishal.
Yes, please. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's the right number. Please continue.
Yeah. So my second question was on the market opportunity for steel structures for transmission towers. I mean, what kind of a capacity do we have in place for this? Because as I understand that there is a huge shortage of demand in this supply in this particular category, the number of approved suppliers to fulfill this requirement of expansion for Power Grid or any other player is very, very less. So are we doing any CapEx on this front, and we are trying to increase the capacity of this particular area?
There is a.
Hi. Good evening. Thanks for the question. I think from the perspective of transmission line towers, we have quite enough capacity to cater to the market. At our profile mill, medium light structure market, we have a capacity of 0.8 million tons per annum, and based on what we see in the market, we have enough to cater to the market at this point of time. Obviously, there are other players in the market, but we are equally poised and if not better.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
So just to add, I think this is a very exciting segment, which there's a strong steel tailwind. We are collaborating with the large customers. And some of our key mills, including our SPM and our UBMs, we are trying to allocate a good percentage of its capacity to address this strong segment.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Indrajit Agarwal from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity again. I just wanted to understand the process for the Blast Furnace commissioning. So once we have it commissioned, I understand technically it will take some more time to get it stabilized, get the ramp up. But on the customer or sales side, what are the steps do you need to first tie up the sales? The customers need to approve the facility, get it certified, etc. So the reason I'm asking is, when can we see it actually contributing to sales volume?
Wonderful question. The day we start getting hot metal, it's getting added to the customer delivery straight away.
So it does not need any kind of certification or approval? Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. I know many questions have been asked on this CapEx. I just wanted to drill down further on this. First, on the enhancement of projects, I believe I heard color-coated line, galvanizing. Can you quantify how much is the expansion for color-coated and galvanizing? And Q&T was anywhere part of when the thin slab cast rolling ACR was changed, Q&T was anywhere put in place? I'm not able to understand why is Q&T a new project in this? And what is the color-coated and galvanizing expansion you're looking at?
Okay. Let me mention about Q&T first. When we talk about Q&T, we are adding 250,000 tons of value addition in the existing efforts. So there are two new furnaces which are getting added, which are at a very high level of commissioning as of now. So that will enhance the value addition in the plate portfolio itself, which means our value addition in the existing plate portfolio will go up by around, I would say, another 10% level. Second, if I was to mention in terms of color-coating and the galvanizing lines, which you asked for, our installed capacities of galvanizing would be 600,000 tons, and color-coating capacity would be around 500,000 tons in Angul.
But Q&T, this was already a part of INR 31,000 crore CapEx.
Sorry. Sorry. There's noise in the network.
Sorry, Pankaj. If I may just add a little bit onto the Q&T side of things. In addition to what is being put in Angul of 250,000 tons, we are putting an equal capacity in Raigarh as well. And that will initially be furnace normalized and quenched material, and subsequently fully furnace normalized and quenched and tempered facility. So equal amount is going into. And in the end of the whole process, JSP as an organization will have 0.75 million tons of total furnace normalizing and Q&T capacity established.
Okay, so you're saying basically initially it was only Angul, now you're adding in Raigarh also?
Yeah. Initially, we had conceptualized for Angul. There was a plan in place for Raigarh, but keeping the view of the strong market demand and growth in that segment, both domestic and exports, we have decided to put in Raigarh as well.
Okay. On the supply chain one, is it possible to quantify how many rigs are you looking at? When you mentioned this figure, how many rigs? What is that you're looking to do at port? And transmission line, I didn't understand. This is transmission line from the Monnet Ispat project to the plant. Where is this transmission line?
You got it very right. We are talking about two transmissions. One definitely is for iron ore, the slurry pipeline project that we discussed. Second, definitely is the pipe conveyor project that we are connecting our coal mines to our works, be it power plant as well as steel works. When you mentioned about the rigs, the company is looking for a good self-sufficiency in terms of the rig movements within their own control. Our plan is to add close to 67 rigs into our kitty going forward and keep adding as and when the need comes up. That's what our plan is.
Okay. So you mentioned something. I just want to clarify. There is another slurry pipeline in this enhancement project pipeline?
That's a coal pipeline I mentioned.
Yeah. Yeah. So look, guys, sorry. Look, we have changed the format of CapEx this time. And look, we had the lowest CapEx per ton in the industry. And we have built it the fastest. We started it in 2022, and we are in 2025. And we are saying we are getting ready for commissioning. So this is the level of CapEx we are expecting. Overall, we are within the ranges of what we have said. And all this outlook we have given is to ensure that you have a visibility of how the company is thinking. This is an outlook over the next three years, each project with a higher EBITDA margin.
To just reemphasize, all this is being done while maintaining the lowest leverage in the industry and ensuring it is below 1.5 net debt to EBITDA, which is almost the best balance sheet in at least in the entire period. The last thing I would add in this, this includes an element of having opportunistic CapEx as well. That if we see even any other opportunity to optimize the cost or driving value engineering products, we want to avail that opportunity and immediately move towards higher ROC and higher value engineering products. Of course, overall answer, but we want to share with you how we are thinking.
Okay. Thank you and wish you all the best.
I would like to add one more point to that. The transmission line, when we are talking about, there is also the transmission line for connecting to the renewable energy portion for the central grid connectivity in the Raigarh belt.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Somaiah from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hello. Am I audible?
Yes, sir. Please go ahead with your questions.
The first question is on the Blast Furnace utilization. Where do we see by end of FY 2026 the utilization level on this expanded Blast Furnace capacity?
Pankaj, if you could kindly take this question.
Sorry. Your question is, where do we see our Blast Furnace number two capacity utilization by FY 2026, correct?
Yeah. Yeah. By end of FY 2026, if you can just give us the ramp-up timeline.
While I mentioned about the start of the commissioning, we are very hopeful of reaching to the capacity utilization of 70%-75%.
By March 26? Is that right?
The exit of the FY 2026 would be at a full ramp-up. The utilization, what I mentioned, is for the entire year, and the exit should be at the full rate.
Okay. Got it, sir. Second, on the CRM complex, the timeline remains the same. Is it Q1 FY 2026?
Yes. We are holding on to the timelines as of now. The project is going on a good swing. So like I mentioned, mill two, which is 400,000 tons, we are expecting to start anytime.
Got it, sir. So the exit on utilization, if you could just give that number for Q3, and how do you see that for FY 2026?
First of all, we just mentioned about the market dynamics, how the market dynamics played in quarter three, the mix between flats to longs, what was shared to you. We did see the markets correcting for NSR of HRC. So we also tweaked our product portfolio between longs and flats. So the utilization was impacted because of the market dynamics. Of course, it was limited because of the steel availability in the plant too. So going forward, as and when the market looks favorable, HRC utilization would be continued to go upwards.
Okay. So one last question on this CapEx number that you said was INR 23,000 crores. So is this the accrued number or a cash or is it a cash basis that you're referring to when it comes to INR 23,000 crores?
Look, this is a three-year outlook. So as we get closer to the year, we will again form it up. But this is kind of a three-year outlook.
Sorry, sir. My question is on this so far, what we have spent. You have mentioned a number. So I just want to understand, is this accrued or is this a cash flow number that you have actually spent this number? Or it's something that's still remaining to be spent as payables or something that still remains?
No, no. So this is on a cash flow basis. The only thing it doesn't include is, let's say, any import GST credits. And that gets counted separately, but that is, we get credits. So this is on a cash flow basis is what we are projecting for next years.
Okay. So I added a small query. I'll take it off. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Thanks.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rahul Gupta from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity again and thanks so much for providing additional color on the new CapEx plans. Just one question, so this new plan will run through until fiscal 2028. So when can we expect a next leg of crude capacity expansion? So what's the roadmap of moving from 2016 to, say, 2025 or beyond fiscal 2027? Thank you.
Look, that's a great question. We are all very excited, and that's our vision. We are still forming our plans. At the right time, we'll come back to you.
Great. Thank you so much and all the best.
No, I would say we are all excited about the next level, and I would say the next Blast Furnace, we are almost finalizing the details, and we should be coming back to the market very soon on that. Thank you.
Operator, can we please take the last question?
Last question will be from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. So thanks for the opportunity. Two quick questions. One is, anything that you would like to highlight specifically on raw material integration, both for iron ore and coking coals now and going forward?
Sorry. Can you please repeat your question?
Yeah. Hi. My question is pertaining to iron ore and coking coal, raw material security. Are there any specific variables or strategic roadmap that you have for both of those to increase raw material sufficiency?
Sorry, sir. May I request you to take this one?
So currently, in terms of the iron ore segment, we have our own captive mines in Kasia and Tensa. And the rest of the requirements, we are filling from the mines in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. That's primarily our sourcing for the iron ores. And we have linkages, and then we participate in the auctions, open auctions as it happens. In terms of the coking coal, we have a good reserve in our own mines in Mozambique. And other than that, based on the needs of different varieties, we get it from the reliable sources that we have already been able to establish our connections with.
Right. So my question was, are we looking to increase the percentage of captive sufficiency for iron ore and coking coal going forward versus what we have right now?
At this point of time, we are under discussion on those things. It's not that it is off the desk. It's just a matter of time and opportunity that we are looking.
Okay. So this is not part of the INR 15,000 crore CapEx when we say value addition strategic initiatives. This is something which should be over and above that?
As the mind clearly suggested, it's an evolving situation, and the way we look at it is based on the need of the country and overall direction of the steel business growth, and depending on how we position ourselves, we will take those calls as time comes, and we will keep on updating you.
Sure. That's helpful. And last data question, if it's possible, if we can quantify how much was a metallics purchase on a nine-month basis and given Blast Furnace is mill five up, what is the incremental cost savings that we are looking at? Because we will look to substitute this. Any indicative numbers that we can work with?
Sunilji, can you take that call, please?
Just if you can repeat the question.
Sunilji, the question is, over nine months, how much was the external metallics purchase we had? And given as we are looking for Blast Furnace commissioning, which is quite soon, what is the incremental cost saving which will come as we substitute the feed with captive furnaces?
So let me answer. So the first question itself is, it's practically zero. It's practically very negligible amount.
We didn't have any metallic purchases in nine months. Is that what we are seeing?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. Sure. Thank you so much for the answers. All the very best.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today, and I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for joining today. Look, I'm very excited. Pardon me as I'm learning in. In case there are any still follow-up questions, do connect with us and our IR team and with Vishal. We will be happy to answer. We are very, very excited as we enter the commissioning phase. And we are trying to be having a long-term strategic view to build a higher ROCE and focus on value-engineering products and saving and optimizing our costs. Very happy to have the best balance sheet in the industry. And on that note, thank you very much, and we'll close the call.
Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining in, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you very much. Have a great evening, everybody.