Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Jindal Steel 's Q2 NH1 FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by ICICI Securities Limited. As a reminder, all participant clients 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 Vikas Singh from ICICI Securities Limited. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome everyone on the Q2 FY 2026 Jindal Steel con call. Without taking any more time, I'll hand it over to Vishal Chandra, who is the Head IR for the team. Over to you, Vishal.
Thank you very much, Vikas, for hosting us. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to the Q2 FY 2026 earnings briefing for Jindal Steel Limited. We have with us the senior management of Jindal Steel . We have Mr. Satyajit Bandyopadhyay , the Whole-Time Director, and Mr. Pankaj Malhan, Executive Director, and Mr. Suresh Agarwal, the CFO. I'm also happy to introduce to everyone our new CEO. Please join me in welcoming Mr. Gautam Malhotra, who has been appointed as the CEO of Jindal Steel . Gautam sir brings in about two decades of experience across operations, supply chain, sales, marketing strategy, finance, M&A. He holds an MBA with honors from Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, U.K., with additional specializations in operations and strategy from Indiana University in the U.S., as well as from IIM Sambalpur . He earned his B. Computer Engineering from the University of Pune.
It's pertinent to note that he's been associated with the company since May 2024 and has since worked closely with the business in all the areas, including mining, production, HR, logistics, technology, AI adoption, and sales. Over the past year and a half, he has played a pivotal role in strengthening the company's commercial value chain along with sales and marketing teams, logistics, IT, and HR. He has been particularly focused on sales generation, go-to-market strategy, logistics support, and HR development and commercial functions. Lastly, I would also remind that we are also joined by our Head of Flat Products division, Mr. Sushil. With this, I would hand over to Gautam sir for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Vishal, for the introduction. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Wish you all a very happy Diwali. I hope you have a wonderful festive season, and I welcome you all to the Q2 FY 2026 earnings briefing of Jindal Steel . Let me start off by talking about the global economy. To quickly brief you on the global economic scenario, the IMF, in its October 25 update, raised the CY 2025 global growth forecast to 3.2% from 3% in the July report, whilst maintaining the CY 2026 forecast at the same level as 3.1%. India continues to remain the fastest growing economy among all large ones, with IMF forecasting the FY 2026 growth rate at 6.2%. RBI has raised India's FY 2026 real GDP growth rate from 6.5% to 6.8% in its recent MPC meeting. Moving on to the steel industry, China's steel output continues to exceed subdued domestic demand.
On a YTD basis for the period January to September 2025, Chinese steel exports have surged 9% to 88 million tons, matching to an all-time high number of 117 million tons annually. The surge in low-price shipments is pressurizing global prices and has prompted several countries to introduce tariff and non-tariff measures to curb Chinese imports. India's crude steel production grew 2% quarter on quarter to 41.5 million tons in Q2 FY 2026, whilst demand increased 6% quarter on quarter to 40.5 million tons. Steel exports increased by 18% quarter- on- quarter to 1.9 million tons, and imports increased 36% quarter- on- quarter to 2.5 million tons. India remained a net importer of steel in the second quarter of FY 2026 for the sixth consecutive quarter, with 0.6 million tons of net imports despite imposition of the safeguard duty. Imports from FTA countries increased from 79% in Q1 to 86% in Q2.
Imports from China also jumped 46% quarter- on- quarter in Q2, despite the imposition of the safeguard duty. The DGTR has proposed extending the safeguard duty for three years at step-down rates of 12%, 11.5%, and 11%. We await the final note from the Ministry of Finance. Coming to the steel industry in India, Indian steel prices corrected in Q2 FY 2026, owing to seasonal weakness. Domestic HRC prices stayed weak due to the softening Chinese steel prices, whilst TMT fell more relative to HRC, which is a seasonal pattern. Steel prices are likely to stabilize post the festive season as the construction demand returns. Now, let me turn over to the key quarterly numbers. Production during the second quarter was down 5% quarter- on- quarter to 2 million tons. Sales volume at 1.87 million tons was down 2% quarter- on- quarter.
The performance was impacted due to prolonged monsoon season and plant shutdowns during the quarter. We undertook a plant shutdown of approximately one month for the DRI plant at Angul as an example. Consolidated gross revenue fell 6% quarter- on- quarter to INR 13,505 crore due to a reduction in sales volume and weaker steel prices. During the Q1 earnings call, we guided savings of about $1.05 per ton in Q2 coking coal consumption. Our actual coal cost has reduced by $4 per ton in Q2, broadly in line with our guidance. The consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 1,875 crore, and the adjusted EBITDA per ton stood at INR 10,010 per ton. EBITDA was also impacted by a plant shutdown. The total cost of the shutdown, which is non-recurring in nature, was around INR 174 crore. That's for the quarter stood at INR 635 crore.
Coming to our debt profile, our consolidated net debt as on 30th September 2025 was at INR 14,156 crore, which has decreased by INR 244 crore on a sequential basis, primarily on account of efficient working capital management. Accordingly, net debt to EBITDA stood at 1.48x at the end of the second quarter. We reiterate our commitment to cap the net debt to EBITDA at 1.5x, underscoring our position as one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry. Our total CapEx in the quarter stood at INR 2,699 crore. Out of our total announced CapEx of INR 47,043 crore, we have spent INR 30,849 crore since 30th September 2025. The second quarter of FY 2026 was a defining quarter for Jindal Steel .
At Angul, we commissioned two major plants, the 4.6 million ton per annum Blast Furnace 2, which more than doubled the hot metal capacity at Angul to 8.85 million tons per annum from the earlier 4.25 million tons per annum, and the new 3 million ton per annum Basic Oxygen Furnace 2, the BOF2, taking crude steel making capacity at Angul from 6 million tons to 9 million tons per annum. Together, these assets synchronize hot metal and steel making capacities and put us firmly on track to reach the stated 12 million ton per annum goal at Angul within the current financial year. With the current run of expansion, we will achieve 15.6 million tons of steel making capacity by the end of this fiscal year. All other projects are progressing in line with the timelines and remain on track for commissioning as scheduled.
Let me talk a bit about the work done around harnessing the power of AI at Jindal . At Jindal Steel , artificial intelligence is transforming the way we operate, making our processes safer, faster, smarter, and more efficient. We've deployed IoT sensors on critical equipment to predict failures early and enhance asset reliability and prevent unplanned shutdowns. With computer vision and video analytics, we ensure CPE compliance, detect near-miss incidents, analyze coal size and moisture, and also automate billet counting. Our predictive AI models forecast power demand, optimize Blast Furnace operations, and also improve gasifier efficiency, thereby driving higher productivity and lower costs. For the third quarter FY 2026, we expect the coal consumption cost to increase by $3 - $5 per ton sequentially. I&O costs are currently flattish quarter- on- quarter. Whilst NMDC has reduced prices, OMC auction prices continue to be higher despite the soft steel prices.
Domestic steel prices are currently lower by around 2% - 3% compared to Q2. While prices are soft currently, we expect prices to improve post-the-festive season. However, it is a little too early to talk about how Q3 will shape them. With this, I open the floor for Q&A. Thank you.
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 remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets 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 Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Oh, yeah. Hi. Good afternoon and thanks for the opportunity and congratulations, Gautam, in the new role. Just the first question is on cost. In Q2, there seems to be a significant rise in operating expenses as well as the RM cost. If you could just detail out what are the reasons for the same?
Sure. Thanks for the question. As I mentioned earlier, we had planned plant shutdowns, DRI, CGP, and pellet plants at Angul, and these were for around 25 - 27 days each. During this period, we had also purchased some external metallics from the market to make up for the deficit somewhat. Also, it was a prolonged monsoon that also affected the operations a bit and the sector economic parameters of the blast furnace a bit. Putting these together, that's the reason for the cost. Going ahead, we should be in a much better shape.
Would you be able to quantify the impact of the shutdown both on the metallic such cases as well as OpEx?
The overall impact was about INR 250 crore.
Got it. Just on volume, now that the 4.6 million ton blast furnace is commissioned, what is the volume kind of expectation for FY 2026/2027?
We are looking at almost 60% analyzed cases of volume uptake in H2.
60% of the new?
Sorry.
Oh, sorry.
Yes, yes.
For FY 2026/2027, right?
Amit, as far as next year's volume guidance is concerned, we will come back to you in the Q4 earnings call, and then probably that would be a good time to talk about next year's numbers.
In H2, you're saying 60% of the new blast furnace is 4.6 million tons?
Yeah, overall, you've received the guidance for the whole financial year. We hold on to that.
Right. Just on the liquid steel and iron making capacity, currently you are at 12.6 million ton liquid steel, but 15 million ton iron making. What is a more kind of, I mean, a better capacity number to kind of consider in the current context?
If I understand your question correctly, I think you should be looking at liquid steel at the moment.
Right. I mean, you are short on liquid steel versus iron making. Just so, 12.6 million tons is what we should look at in terms of your current capacity then.
Yeah, for the current period, yes.
Okay.
Amit, I'll come back to you. Both the blast furnace and SMS are on a ramp-up stage. That's how we should look at it. Eventually, these will match, and once we have the second SMS also, then we'll have a full capacity with that.
Okay. Okay. Understood. Thanks a lot. I'll just come back and pick you up.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parthesh Jonsa from Anand Rathi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Happy Diwali to everyone. My first question is just continuing to the previous participant, wherein you just said that you are holding on to your FY 2026 guidance. That basically works out to an average of about 2.5 million ton kind of a number per quarter in steel optics. If I read it correctly, I think over the last two or three quarters, it's a bit difficult that you have not been able to cross that 2 million ton mark. How confident are you to cross that 2 million ton mark per quarter in Q3 and Q4? I understand that Q4 is a good quarter, but just wanted to understand your take on it.
You've picked up the thing correctly. Q4 is the positive quarter. Plus, we're ramping up a new capacity, so that's also adding it. That's why we're holding on to that number. Thank you.
I just wanted to get your confidence because the last two quarters, we have not been able to do it when a couple of our peers, as well as if you see a domestic, the numbers are decent enough, right? The optic numbers have been picking up over 8%. I just wanted to get your understanding on that.
No, we're fairly confident because the capacities came on very recently only.
All right, sir. My second question is pertaining to the mining activity, whereas I believe in the last quarter, the ramp-up was around Q2. This time around, it's been moved to H2. I just wanted to also understand the iron ore mine, what you had picked up quite recently about a quarter back. I just wanted to get the timeline for that and the volumes from each of these basically, if possible.
We are now in the phase of commissioning the mine, and we told you, H2. Most probably, by the end of this quarter, we should have output from that mine.
What would be the volume from that, sir, and also from the iron ore mine?
Let us enter the mine. I think that's something we can take once you've entered the mine, and we'll be able to give you a better picture then.
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. I just wanted to check on the iron making capacity, which is still in works, the DRI and DO3. Any maybe concrete timelines you're looking at for those in the second half?
I think we've given you the guidance on those capacities. The projects are online, we're on track on those timelines. It should be commissioned in this half year in Q4 of this year.
Okay. In the presentation, when you say compared to 18%, 20% ROC that you're looking at for projects, it's mentioned 9%. Just wanted to understand what is that. Is that for some new projects you've commissioned, or?
I think you're looking at two different things. What that implies is that any new projects that we are looking at setting up over the recent past, the threshold is 18% - 20% ROC from those projects. What you're looking at at the other number is what we're working on currently as an enterprise.
This is talking about the current ROC for the business and that capacity, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Okay. Just one last question. Just on the entire industry, just wanted to understand, in your view, what is going on? Obviously, there has been extended monsoon. You had your own capacity under maintenance. There is some new capacity restart. Generally, very subdued profitability for the entire long sector right now. Is it purely demand? What could be causing it? Are you just counting on demand revival in the second half to improve profitability for the sector? Just wanted to understand, in your view, what's happening.
You picked up a lot of things in your question itself. I do apologize if I did interrupt you. I think you picked up a lot of things in your question itself. It was a prolonged monsoon. Typically, if you look at our history, we would spread out our shutdowns probably over, you know, two quarters. We brought it into the monsoon period. Plus, we knew our new capacities were coming online. We were actually getting ready for these ramp-up phases. Now we're all set to, you know, pick off from here. Obviously, we do expect that now the monsoons are over, the construction activity will pick up. The offtake should get better as well. I hope that answers your question.
Yes, it does. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Ravii from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
I'd say good afternoon. Part of my questions have been answered. I just wanted a more detailed understanding on the incremental cost savings given that the pricing in Q3 is again down on a lower base of Q2. Even coking coal prices also you mentioned has inched up. Even iron ore, there are no savings we are looking at. I don't know what are the cost saving numbers you're looking at which could drive up the margins in H2?
The prolonged monsoon period hopefully is over. That should drive the demand side of it. Coming to specific cost saving numbers, I think that's something we would not want to get on the call right now. We do expect that at least 2% - 3% of savings would come over Q2 right now, immediately.
Sorry, 2 %- 3% of what?
Overall cost structure.
Okay. And any thought on pricing? Is it all, you know, to do with if domestic demand picks up? What are the factors you're looking at before these prices can, again, you know, there were expectations that with the safeguard duty, prices will stabilize or look up. We are looking both long prices have taken a deep dive and even flats are also down. Even in this quarter, the situation so far has been, you know, not at all conducive. How do you look at the pricing trend?
Sushil, you want to comment on this?
Good afternoon, everyone. We are expecting the demand to pick up from here on, from now by December onwards because the monsoon itself was very long. The good part is that all the festivals will bunch together in the month of October. Now we have five months of clean demand period, which is seasonally very strong for me. A lot of factors, the strong government or private CapEx, which is coming in post-GST cut, there is a good demand revival in automobile, household appliances, real estate, all the sectors, which are further supported by GST deficit. We are expecting the prices to be gone from here.
Okay. This CapEx number, the INR 5,000 crore?
Sorry to interrupt, Rajesh. If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue.
Sure.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, kindly limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Pallav Agarwal from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. Just on a clarification on the debt number, I think you mentioned that, you know, CapEx acceptances are, you know, not in the debt. Are there any revenue acceptances that we have?
Satyajit, can you take this, please?
The revenue acceptance as well. Basically, if we split it, right now we have the revenue acceptance around INR 4,982 crore, and capital acceptance we have INR 431 crore.
These revenue acceptances?
Total.
Yes, sir. Go ahead.
Yes, revenue acceptance is INR 4,982 crore.
Is this all included in the net debt figure of INR 14,000?
No, this is not included in the net debt figure.
Okay. Sure, sir. Yeah, that's it from us.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumangal Nevatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thanks for the chance. First question is on the project update. If you could just share, one is on the slurry pipeline, there's been continuous delays. What exactly is the key bottleneck we're facing and what's the latest expectation? On captive coal, if you can share what is the one-hedge production of captive coal and how much are we purchasing from outside? Lastly, on Utkal B2, just wanted to get the latest expectation as far as approvals are concerned. Also, Utkal C and the earlier coal block, are we looking at extension of the mining capacity?
You've asked so many questions, maybe I've answered some of them. You started with slurry pipeline. Yeah, slurry pipeline, 90% we have completed, and we remain on track to complete that project as per the guidance. Your second question, if I have picked it right, was captive coal manufacturing. Our guidance of H1 basis of our captive mines was intact, and we continue to hold on to our guidances into H2. Third question, potentially, which you asked was about Utkal B. As Gautam just mentioned, we went into Utkal B1, and our productions would be definitely coming up in quarter four onwards. We remain on track to mine in quarter four, etc.
If you can share what is the production of captive coal blocks in one edge in terms of million tons versus what is the external purchase?
Yeah, the external purchase is what? Minimum. Minimum, and I say it would be just legally to non-material levels, which was 3% - 4% level. The rest all was from our own captive mines.
Understood. My second question to Mr. Malhotra, I just want to understand, management churn has been quite high at the top level here. How are we looking to address it and what are your key focus areas as you take up this role for the next sort of year to medium term?
I think I'll take your second part of the question first. If you're talking about the long-term goals of the company, I think we need a separate session. We've charted out our journey. That's something which probably won't be soon, we take too much time on the call. If you want to talk, your first question was management churn. When I walk around the company, I see a lot of people who've been here for more than two decades. I see a lot of people who've been here for more than a decade. I see a lot of stickiness. If I look at the overall retention rates, they're fairly high. That drives a lot of confidence in me to be able to drive the agendas that we've set for ourselves. You see a very rock-solid core management team coming together to drive the goals of the company forward.
I think that should give you enough confidence in our journey going forward. By the way, I tend to stick around.
Great. We are at thanks and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Inderjeet Agarwal from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Just one clarification. The INR 250 crore one-off in form that you mentioned, would the entire thing reverse in three Qs?
I think you mean the reverse means it won't incur. Yeah, it won't incur. Yes, please, that's the question.
All right. That should be automatically somewhere close to INR 1,000 crore debt status in three Qs?
Yeah, you got that right to the T.
All right. Thank you. That's all from me.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Somaya V. from Avendus Park. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. A few questions. The first one is on the realization of the quarter Q2. If you look at product and realization, it's almost flat. Just to find that the product and QoQ decline, the industry rebar prices, which have been pretty much seen a sharp decline. I mean, anything in terms of exports or value-added products, what is everything has to be more or less flat-ish QoQ?
Sushil, you want to take this? I'll give it a heads up. Yeah, we have very highly focused on value-added sales, and our exports have also gone up. Within exports also, we've been focusing on value-added sales. Sushil, you want to dive a bit deeper into the question?
Good afternoon. There are a couple of things which we have done which make sure that in spite of an industry drop in MSR, significant drop in MSR, we have much more, we have a very large drop. One is that our value-added component is very high. If you look at our last representation as well, the value-added component in this quarter is 73% of our total sales, which is the highest ever, right? We are continuously ramping up our value-added sales. That is helping us. Thirdly, we also have ramped up our downstream business, which is another, it's a value-added business to us. That also helps us in improving our MSR mix, right? Apart from that, even the export also has helped us, the flat product side. Our ramp-up in flat product side is much more, the comparison has changed down to flat. That also has helped us.
If it's a long, if it's flat mix, what would be this quarter versus previous quarter?
Previous last quarter, the long component was 46% of, 44% or 56% of sales. This quarter, it is 51%. Flat, we have ramped up from 44% - 49% because it's a, and we have treated the product mix accordingly based on the market because long side, there was so much more weakness than flat. We have improved the flat side. We continue to work on the product mix side to work on the revision side.
Got it, sir. Also, in terms of iron ore and pellet, our captive iron ore production last quarter and also pellet, our production increased just 10%.
Second question.
You're looking at the exact numbers, what we did in last quarter in terms of our iron ore mines, right?
Yeah, iron ore and pellet.
Our overall pellet utilization, if I was to say, our one pellet utilization was in excess of 75%. Our in-house mines, our capacity utilizations were close to 2 million tons. That's what we mined out of our mines.
We maintained a 70% utilization. This is on 15 million ton capacity.
Yeah.
Let me give you a quick perspective. Our Q1 total share of captive mines and the total consumption of ore was about 29%. We have ramped it up to 45% in Q2 from our own captive mines. That's what you are looking at, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
The increase is largely on account of better production from Kaseya as well as from incremental production from Roida-1 Mines.
One last thing is international efforts. If you can just give us what is the profitability last quarter?
Sushil, you want to comment on this?
Yeah. From the international business, as you know, we have very minimum operations there. Our largest mine, WCM, is already taken care and maintenance. We are operating in Mozambique and a little bit in South Africa. Overall, there is not much contribution from the overseas mine.
Got it, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raman KV from Sequent Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for allowing me to ask you a question. I just want to understand what's our current capacity with respect to the steel production and how much are we planning to add by the end of this year?
You're talking about steel making capacity, right?
Yes, yes, sir.
Our current capacity is 12.6 million tons. By the end of the year, we plan to add another SMS of 3 million tons, which will take us to 15.6 million tons.
From my understanding, we are not able to cross the 2 million ton per quarter mark. Will the production, with the new capacity coming online, increase the production utilization of the existing capacity?
I think you've got two questions over there. One, yes, we are working on increasing the utilization of our current capacity, and that's a work in progress. Obviously, the output will go up as the new capacity come online.
The incremental capital expenditure for this additional 3 million capacity, which will come in the second half, what will it be and how much will it be via debt and internal approval?
If you look at the historical thing, you would have picked up in the debt that we are funding a lot of our capital expenditure for internal approvals only, actually a large portion of it, if not all. The first part of your question was we've given you the guidance on the overall debt, sorry, overall capital expenditure. In my opening remarks also, I gave you the capital expenditure number. What we spent so far is about INR 30,000 crore out of INR 47,000 crore of the remaining capital expenditure that we have.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity again. While you mentioned that the captive iron ore production was 2 million tons, how much was Tensa production out of that?
Tensa was minimal in this quarter. What you have to understand is that Tensa, the mine, is at its end of life. We're working on now extracting some more material out of it, but that's only on the boundary walls. It's an end-of-life mine. I think that's the way we should look at Tensa.
Sure. Ballpark 0.1 million ton or lower should be a number to think of on a quarterly basis.
Just off the top of my head, yeah, that would be something close to that. If you want any specifics, Vishal is always available, I think, offline.
Sure, that's fine. Also, on the mix per se, while we did 49% flat in the quarter, now that there will be higher volumes available from the new Blast Furnace from Q3, Q4 onwards, is it fair to assume that you will be doing 55%, 60% flats, maybe in H2 with the higher volumes incrementally being called flats, maybe?
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Flats will go up, yeah. I think that's something we've heard throughout the journey as well.
Sure. Also, this increase in flats would be going to which segments? Because I see that the auto has actually been flat for you QoQ, even though flat share has gone up.
What you have to understand is autos have very long cycles of approval and even plant approvals as well as product approvals. Auto as a segment will take a little bit of time as we get on. By the way, we are getting into yellow goods in a bigger way. Auto is also coming up. You have to give time to auto. It's a longer cycle, that's all.
It will go into construction and engineering and those segments, is it? I mean, in the meanwhile.
Yes, please. In the shorter term, that's how you would look at it. If you want to draw a longer curve, yes, you would see the auto cycle coming up as well.
Got it. That's all for me. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. I just wanted to understand again on the margins of the site.
I didn't get your question. Sorry.
I think we've lost him. Can we take on the next question and we'll move and take him back?
Sure. The next question is from the line of Parthesh Jonsa from Anand Rathi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity again. Sir, I think I lost you in between on the CapEx. What's your second half CapEx if you have just declared it out? Just wanted to get that number.
Suresh, you want to come back on this?
Hello?
Hi, can you repeat your question?
Sir, what is your second half CapEx?
INR 4,699 crores.
No, no. I mean H2.
H2 number is INR 4,925 crore.
Sir, okay.
H2, we are planning. We have already given the guidance of INR 7,000 -INR 9,000 crores. Similar numbers we are expecting that we return in the second H2.
Okay, sir. My second question was pertaining to the Australian subsidiary, right, where I think sources that there is no meaningful, you know, numbers which are happening there. You're carrying a substantial loss on the books. Just want to understand your understanding that you are, you know, you are treating it as a going concern. I just want to understand that at INR 10.7 billion kind of an accumulated loss on that book, how are you going to treat it going forward? Is this subsidiary going to yield some returns? Because if you see the loss has been kept on mounting. I think in the first half, you have done almost INR 600, INR 700 crore of loss, if I'm not mistaken. Just want to get your understanding on that.
Let me explain. We have in March and last year also, we have already impaired this asset. Right now, we are having assets value of around $187 million, which is represented by true value that we have got assessment done by independent valuer. The value that we are carrying in the books is representative of true value as valued by independent valuer. I think we are staying in the pretty impaired in our books.
Oh, so $187 million of our assets you are carrying on the books. That is close to, but that's against the accumulated loss of over INR 1.1 billion, INR 1.2 billion. Are you confident of this subsidiary picking up volume going forward or business going forward? What exactly is your understanding there?
As I have already spoken, everything we have written up, whatever value that we are representing, that is land value there that we have already there. That land value represents the value of $187 million that I spoke. All other loss that we have incurred there has already been written off in the books.
Okay. Okay.
If you look at it the other way around, the investors, there is a loss. We have impaired those assets. Now we are getting a tax break out of those assets that we have written off. That's it. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, I'm I audible?
Yes, you are audience.
Hello.
Please go ahead.
Okay. Sir, I wanted to ask, you know, we have achieved 73% of value-added share, you know, which is almost all-time high. Now that even flat mix will improve here on with the new facilities, how are we looking at the margin profile, you know, for the two segments? Finally, I want to understand that when you say value-added product, are they only based on the application basis or from a margin perspective, the value-added products carry a higher, you know, margin profile?
Sushil, you want to dive into this?
Can you repeat the question, please? My line got disconnected.
Sure.
I'll repeat the question. I wanted to understand when you say value-added product, you know, how do you define them from a margin? Do they also carry a margin perspective, or is it more about the application or industry where they apply to, given that we are now at 73% value-added product share and now even our flat share is expected to go up from 40%-45%?
Right. We define it both ways. One is on the application side, which are very critical applications like high-strength steel, low alloy, high-strength steel, that type of steel, or then segment-specific as well, like defense or, let's say, windmill applications and those types of applications, both ways. The important thing is that as the criticality of the application increases or the criticality of the steel increases, so does the value increase. We check it in both terms in terms of how it gives us the contribution per hour or the value per hour and also in terms of the application. We have set defined parameters based on this, which we decide what is value-added steel. That's consistent. When we say 58% - 72%, 73% journey, it's based on those.
How would that be driving your margin profile? This is what I wanted to understand.
That would need a much more detailed drive. If you can get that separately, because that will need a lot of explanation, right? I can't give you one or the other example.
No, that's okay. We'll certainly discuss this separately. Yeah, just thought of, when the prices are soft and if the margins of the value-added product in the flat mix is improving, can we expect most of the impact of these soft prices to be compensated by that?
Okay.
Great. That's all from my end. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vikas Singh from ICICI Securities Limited. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Sir, I have just two questions. Firstly, you mentioned the AI . I just wanted to understand what kind of the cost savings you have actually incurred or expected to incur through that AI thing which we have talked about?
I think it's too early to talk about the cost savings coming from AI . We actually are doing a lot of stuff on it, a lot of interesting stuff. We're working on efficiency, as I said. We're working on productivity. We're working on safety across our shop floors. That's a very important parameter for us. Apart from that, we're also introducing GenAI tools for all our senior and mid-level executives to be able to capitalize where all the information is available at the tap of a button. I think all those factors over a period of time will reflect, but it's, I think, too early in the journey to start putting a dollar value to it.
Noted. The second question regarding our presentation, if I look at slide number four, there is still a mismatch between nickel steel versus pellet steel. I just wanted to understand your view, by what time do you think that this mismatch would get nullified, basically?
Which mismatch? Are you talking about 12.6 and 15.6?
12.6 versus 13.25. We would still be making less steel in the steel, right? The similar kind of bottlenecks we have experienced in the last three years and have not been able to achieve even 8 million tons of sales despite talking about a 10 ton, 10.5 million ton of steel capacity.
See, if you apply the EBIT factor on it, the numbers would be close to this. Plus, we have other things also, other sales also that we can do.
Noted, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity again. On acceptances, I see that the number was getting close to INR 3,000 crore in March. Right now, the number that he gave is almost INR 5,000 crore. It has gone up by almost INR 2,000 crore. What would be the reason for higher acceptances given that coking coal has actually gone down and your production volumes have also been flattish during this period?
Hi, Amit. This is basically, since we have started new facilities, for the working capital requirement there for procuring the coking coal, all these STIs we use for that purpose. This is for the new facilities that we have started majorly.
Got it. What is the policy that you would follow for acceptances generally? How does it work if you could just explain that a bit?
This is for imported LCs that we procure from the international market. You know, coking coal is basically imported from outside internationally. We have to open the LC at the right time, and cycle time is much more, around 45 to 60 days. For all these reasons, this quantum has come back.
Yeah, what I meant to ask is, is there like a number of days kind of a thing which you have in mind when you kind of do this acceptances arrangement?
I'm putting 45 to 60 days cycle time is there for procurement of coking coal.
Okay. Sure. Thank you, that's all.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, this was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to management for closing comments. Thank you and over to you.
Request Gautam sir to.
Thank you, everyone, for your questions. FY 2026 has been a landmark year and is a landmark year for Jindal Steel . This quarter, we achieved two major milestones with the commissioning of the second Blast Furnace as well as the BOF 2 at Angul. Significant steps that strengthen our growth journey and reinforce Angul's position as a world-class steel-making hub. The rest of the facilities are on track for commissioning as per schedule. As we move ahead, our focus remains on operational excellence, value creation, and sustainability, along with Industry 4.0 MEI, ensuring that our growth is both responsible and resilient. We appreciate the confidence that stakeholders have in us and look forward to building on this momentum to deliver consistent, value-driven growth ahead. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of Jindal Steel , that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.