Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Jindal Stainless Q2 FY2024 earnings conference call hosted by ICICI Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in a listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. If you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Dixit from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I welcome all the participants of Jindal Stainless Q2 FY 2024 conference call. At the outset, I would like to thank the management for giving us an opportunity to host this call. From the management, we have with us today Mr. Abhyuday Jindal, Managing Director, Mr. Anurag Mantri, Executive Director and CFO, and Ms. Shreya Sharma, Head, Investor Relations. Without much ado, I would like to hand over the call to Ms. Shreya to take us forward. Over to you, Shreya.
Thank you, Amit. Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome on the call. We have shared our Q2 FY 2024 earnings presentation with the stock exchanges, which is also available on the website, and today's call discussion will be on the same line. Please note some of the information on this call may be forward-looking in nature and is covered by the disclaimer on page 2 of the earnings presentation. Now, I'd like to hand it over to Mr. Abhyuday Jindal, our Managing Director. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, and good afternoon to everyone, and I'd like to welcome you all to the Q2 FY2024 earnings call. I would like to first discuss the key business highlights of the quarter, following which Anurag will take you through our operational and financial performance. Looking at the operational performance, we delivered satisfactory volumes in Q2 FY2024 amid muted global demand. On the other hand, domestic volume increased owing to a robust domestic demand due to government's push for stainless steel in strategic sectors. There is also a strong pre-festive demand in the auto segment, besides other consumer-facing segments. On the operations front, I would also like to share, we have successfully commissioned the incremental capacity of our Hot Strip Mill in JUSL. With this, we have reached 3.2 million ton capacity of our Hot Strip Mill in Odisha.
As active contributors to the Make in India mission of the government, it is our constant endeavor to substitute imports in critical areas. To support this mission, our R&D department creates an environmentally friendly product technology for rolled flat plates. These plates are used in industries like petrochemical, thermal power, and oil and gas. On the export front, we are facing challenging macroeconomic conditions, weakened global demand, and pricing pressure. This has affected export volumes on a quarter-on-quarter basis. However, we have maintained sales in certain global geographies with our continuous innovation and efforts to explore new markets and segments. On the import side, the unchecked inflow of subsidized and substandard foreign imports continue to distort the level playing field against Indian manufacturers. Chinese imports have increased by nearly 55% year-on-year.
We hope the government will take notice of the continuous and dumping imports from China, which is hurting the sector, especially the MSMEs, as well as the government's vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat. I'm happy to share that all our efforts and hard work are being recognized and are strengthening stakeholder confidence. CARE has upgraded our credit ratings to AA from AA- in view of our consistent improvement in sales volume are higher than JSL EBITDA per ton, along with steady improvement in debt coverage metrics. Our endeavor is to focus on more innovation and paradigm shifts in the stainless steel ecosystem. To further this vision, Jindal Stainless and IIT Bombay has signed an agreement to establish a chair professorship at the institute. This chair will support and enhance research in industrial processes and product technologies in the stainless steel sector.
It will drive more innovation and research in the field of steel metallurgy and support our goal to create new benchmarks in durable and sustainable infrastructure. Moreover, as part of our Stainless Academy initiative, aimed at skill building and creating awareness about the benefits of stainless steel, Jindal Stainless conducted 25 applicator training programs in various Indian states during Q2 FY 2024. Recently, the Bureau of Indian Standards has also introduced three grades, namely N5, N6, N7, meant exclusively for stainless steel used in utensils and cookware applications. This is an important decision for the welfare of the consumers, as critical issues of health and hygiene are involved in food contact materials. In line with this, Jindal Stainless is among the first to apply for and secure certification for these grades under the enhanced standard.
On the ESG front, our efforts towards sustainability and responsibility were facilitated at several industry forums, as we received several prestigious awards for our energy efficiency and carbon reduction initiatives. As we remain committed to a greener, more sustainable future fueled by environmental responsibility, I'm happy to share that Jindal Stainless has also become a member of ResponsibleSteel, a global non-for-profit, multi-stakeholder standards certification initiative. Now, with this, I would like to hand over to Anurag to discuss the operational and financial performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Abhyuday. Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome to the call today. As highlighted by Abhyuday, we delivered consistent performance amid a challenging global scenario. Let me discuss in detail the operational and financial performance during quarter two of FY 2024. During FY 2024, the volume increased by 26% on YOY basis and remained steady on QOQ basis. The standalone revenue rose 50% YOY to INR 9,730 crore. EBITDA and profit increased by 54% and 72% to INR 1,070 crore and INR 609 crore, respectively on a YOY basis. The H1 standalone revenue increased 19% YOY to INR 19,748 crore. EBITDA increased by 54% and 59% to INR 2,188 crore and INR 1,275 crore, respectively on YOY basis.
On the subsidiary front, I would first like to give you an update to our Indonesia subsidiary, PT JSI. Our Board has approved the proposal to explore the option for selling, liquidating, divesting equity stake in PT JSI. The decision was taken due to unfavorable market conditions in Indonesia, which is flooded by Chinese imports. On the other side, Indonesian market is dominated by Chinese players, and therefore, major markets such as U.S. and European Union have levied severe trade protection measures on export of stainless steel products from Indonesia, resulting in lack of level playing field for us. Consequently, in this challenging environment, PT JSI operation becomes unviable. This step will help mitigating the potential operational losses and have positive impact on control results in future.
I'm happy to share that the board has also approved an interim dividend of 0.5 or 50% of INR 1 per equity share for FY 2024. The aggregate payout will be nearly INR 82.34 crore. This will be the third dividend in last six months after the merger of JSL, leveraging the strength of combined balance sheet. On the balance sheet side, as you noticed, there is a considerable improvement in our debt position, with 27% reduction in the standalone net debt to INR 2,149 crore, as compared to INR 2,950 crore opening as on June 30, 2023. This is also being reflected in our leverage ratio with net debt to EBITDA improved to 0.5 and net debt to equity maintained at 0.2 level.
Now on CapEx side, as guided in the previous quarter, the CapEx, including JUSL during FY 2024, expected to be around INR 3,200 crore-INR 3,300 crore. As of Q1 FY 2024, out of this total CapEx, we have already spent close to INR 2,000 crore. If you recall, in our last call, we guided INR 800 increase in debt level over March 2023 level, which is now expected to increase only by INR 200 crore to meet the FY 2024 CapEx of INR 3,200 crore. Earlier we were expecting to close FY 2024 with the debt level of INR 5,200 crore, including JUSL. Now we are improving the closing debt guidance for March 2024 to around INR 4,700 crore.
With our focus on digitalization, I would also like to share that Jindal Stainless has become the first Indian corporate to execute a pathbreaking live shipment transaction through e-BL, powered by public blockchain, involving different platforms of vendors, shippers, and banks to make it completely paperless across geographies. This was kicked off in G20 Trade Ministers meeting between India and Singapore. On the demand outlook, we are confident that domestic stainless steel demand will continue to rise with robust economic activities and infrastructure supporting demand. New project activities in ethanol, petrochemical, water treatment, and nuclear segments will further strengthen in this ecosystem. With this, I would like to end my discussion and would request the moderator to open the floor for Q&A session.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on their smartphone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the questions queue attends. To ask questions, please press star and one. The first question is from Lina Jacob Mehta from BOB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you for giving this opportunity, and congratulations for maintaining the strong set of numbers as well.
Thank you.
I want to understand in terms of your sales mix, which we are currently running at around 2.2 million ton level, how much it is supported by the old existing plant and how much the new plant is now contributing to the volumes?
I mean, it's a integrated unit. We are in the ramp-up phase, which are the expansion that we have just completed in March, and we expect in the next two years to be completed. In terms of, if I can tell you volume guidance, this year we will at least have a 20% volume growth as compared to last year. Because it's a ramp up, I mean, it's a mix of both coming out.
Is it possible to indicate how much volume is supported by the new capacity during the latest quarter?
See, Ketan, actually, we, as you know, it's ramping up, as Abhijit mentioned, the ramping up is happening in a right direction. Only thing is that, because, you know, we do also the slab imports and trading, so we don't want to have a very specific thing. Our overall idea is to improve the sales and margins with that impact. That new capacity is expected to be fully operational, fully utilized by next year. What we guided that we will gradually ramp this up and it's on track for that.
Fine. One more question in terms of the, sort of, the margin outlook looking forward. We have seen some bit of easing of the metal as well as the raw material prices, and at the point, stainless is also easing. How do you see the margin environment doing over the year, say, three to six months?
See, raw material prices are actually eventually get passed through. Here, here one thing I would like to highlight, last six months, so there is a big anomaly which has happened between chrome ore and ferrochrome. Ferrochrome prices have not increased to the extent that chrome ore prices have increased. Chrome ore prices have jumped up more by more than 30%, while the ferrochrome prices have just jumped up 4%-5%. There was obviously a delay in the pass back to the customer, because that's based on the ferrochrome prices. Margins from raw material perspective, I think to that extent, that pressure remains. I think the largely, large pressure remains what Sanjay covered in his opening remarks, is the Chinese imports, which actually keeps disrupting the pricing system.
Considering that all this we are right, despite that, we are not changing our guidance.
It will be given to the end of this year, around, you can say, INR 20 thousand system.
Right. Just one more-
I'm really sorry, but may I ask you to return to the queue as there are several participants waiting for return?
Sure. Thanks.
Thank you.
Before we take the next question, in order to ensure that we manage to be able to address questions from all participants in the conference, we request participants to please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the question. I have four questions if allowed. Sir, first is Tsingshan JV, what is the progress and the timelines? Second is Rathi Steels, the investment has already been done. Are we looking to up the capacity over here, or what the incremental capacity timelines? First is Shinchan, second is Rathi. Third is JUSL. This is specifically from Mr. Mantri. There is pretty strong cash flow that at level over here, but we do not see the decline in debt. It's only INR 20 crore. I just wanted to understand the cash flow bit. Again, specifically JUSL, how are we looking at the volume challenges for pre-sale from the advance from that point in terms of commission? Lastly, for Mr.
the team on board." * Sentence 2: "Thank you so much." * In Sentence 1, "Jindal" is the first word. No starter conjunction. * In Sentence 2, "Thank" is the first word. No starte
Thanks. Thanks, Ritesh. First two, in terms of our investment in Indonesia with Tsingshan is on track. We expect operations to start by Q1 of FY 2025. Those are on track and it is closely being tracked as the senior team is at right now in Indonesia. I'll have a real report by next week. Everything, whatever I've spoken to them when they were there, everything seems to be on track. Secondly, for our Rathi, we expect operations to start by December. After our investment of around INR 206 crore, we have invested another INR 100 crore or more to stabilize, ramp up, improve the plant efficiency equipments. That will all be completed by December. If your question was, are we further enhancing our capacity in Rathi?
Not as of now. After this, we would like to see how the unit performs. It's not 10 years too long for us. Are we meeting our numbers, our, you know, target market and how the market performs? Only after that we can enhance. There is capacity available to enhance, I mean, space available to enhance there, but that will only be taken once we, you know, really get into it.
On your question of JUSL from cash, you are right. Basically, JUSL earned almost close to INR 400 crore EBITDA in H1, and there was a strong cash generation after paying the interest of around INR 100 crore and the CapEx, CapEx numbers and all the things. As on second customer, as you know, it's a job work model. There was a receivable which got built up from JSL because JSL receivables of JUSL were not paid, and therefore, there is a receivable extending in debtors extending in JUSL book. With that cash, the idea was that because JUSL debt is actually long-term debt of 17 years, and recently their rating has been upgraded to AA-.
Consequently, we will see in the coming quarter that we have got a rate reduction, considerable rate reduction in JUSL now. It's a long-term, low, interest rate debt. Therefore, we wanted to upstream the cash, and I would be happy to say that on 7th October, during the quarter, these receivables were then knocked off and there was a dividend of INR 200 crore, which was paid by JUSL to JSL. That cash has come to JSL thing. Basically, that cash was anyway lying as a payable in JSL books. Formally, when JUSL announced the INR 200 crore dividend, which is completely received by JSL, and to that extent that their debtors have also come down.
The cash has been upstreamed to JSL, and this will also not be taxable in JSL side, because JSL is also considerably paying the dividend, so there will not be any tax benefit. It's a more efficient upstreaming of the cash from the cash generating subsidiary.
This is very helpful. Just to understand the numbers that you gave for debt reduction, INR 800 crore-INR 600 crore, is that just because of this or something else, actually INR 200 crore?
No, it's not only INR 200 crore. There was also a working capital optimization due to partly some of the raw material prices have also come down. We actually have freed up almost INR 500 crore-INR 600 crore cash in the system. That has helped us to reduce the debt further. If you recall, last time we actually guided that the debt will increase and will end up the year by almost INR 5,200 crore. Now, with this type of working capital efficiency, I think we can... We are revising our guidance to the improvement side. With all larger CapEx have already been met and it's on track. Maybe around INR 4,700 crore is what the closing number looks like at this stage.
Thank you so much. Just last question from Mr. Jindal. Sir, if you could just detail on the capital allocation framework, I think it's a very strong move by the company. Secondly, we are evaluating the Indonesian assets in which we are there. We have a loss-making entity called Iberjindal. I believe it's the European assets. How strategic is this, and would you look to evaluate it or it continues to run as is?
I'll take the Iber, I'll take the Iber question first. Iber is just been a temporary phenomenon. You know, since the European market has gone down after the war and everything has started, that has been the negative situation actually, that is creating an Iber. Otherwise, we are very bullish, and it has done very well. If you look at the history of Iber, it has always performed well and very profit. It is only the last one and a half years where we've got some, you know, issues there, and the market has just taken off. Even though now it has, now we see already our inventory levels are down there. We are again starting to send some more material to our Iber facility. The minute Europe picks up, definitely Iber will do very well.
Iber is just a very temporary phenomenon. It is not the similar situation like Indonesia. Indonesia, even in future, we said that the performance would not be very strong. That's why we've taken this call for Indonesia. Iber, we're still very confident. The minute market turns around, Iber will turn around also. In terms of... Okay. Yeah, this is capital allocation. Basically, in terms of our future expansion plan, I would still like the next quarter before I announce that, because a lot of new investments we have made, that you know, are actually our expansion Indonesia. We're working on a plan. We are seeing how, you know, export market will again take off. By next quarter, we can announce further capital allocation.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Atique Langa from Stage One Investment. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Abhyuday and the team. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. Abhyuday, with respect to this scrap procurement from importing from outside and then doing the entire process, what is the strategy? Do you want to first build the market and then do the utilization level of our capacities that you have built up, like within the last year?
I think slab, we should see as a raw material, as a raw material for us. You know, we are looking at it. We can either move to a slab, we can bring the slab in, or we can bring scrap and other raw materials in. Depending on what is the price or what is the kind of efficiency or improvement we're getting, that is the only time we are going to bring in the slabs. It is not something that it is a required or it is a must. It is a raw material. We see good benefit coming out of it. That is why we're continuing it. I hope that is your question that you're asking, or what is your specific question on this?
My question was whether we are first trying to develop the market before we do the entire capacity expansion, which we are trying to do in the 2025 calendar.
No, there's nothing like that. Market is already there. The market grow is growing at 7%-8%, so it's nothing to do with the market. It is more from a margin and raw material kind of benefit. That is why we're doing it. Nothing to do with market.
With JUSL, new line has been operationalized. Now, most of the production is happening in the new line, or we are still doing partial mixture?
JUSL, it was capacity enhancement. We were at 1.6, and by adding a reheating furnace and a down coiler, the capacity has gone to 3.2. It is the same line. There's no new line that has been added.
Correct. With respect to this Chinese input, like obviously we know the strengths which company has, because of which you are maintaining the EBITDA margins. A couple of points or three points which you can highlight, it's specifically giving you this confidence of maintaining the EBITDA margins despite this Chinese input increasing Y-O-Y?
One thing that is very important to understand is that where China is hitting us is in the lowest, and it is from volume-wise also it is very low for us, and from margin-wise, it is also very low for us. It actually impacts more on sentiment than anything else, and because they are not able to compete with us in the high-end sectors. In your auto, in your white goods, railway, lift, elevator, all these areas is not where China is dumping and impacting us. It is more in the lower, all over utensils, pipe and tube. These are the kind of areas where they're impacting. That is why, you know, it is our margin, which is not going above 20, is more through the factor of export, I can say. China definitely imports are undulating.
That will also help growing the market and our market share. Margin side, it is more because exports are subdued right now. That is why margins are around 19.5-20.
Right. That was my second question, that are we seeing any green shoots in the European side with respect to exports?
Not immediately, but we expect from January onwards, from our market research and our customer discussion, from January onwards to pick up. Already this stocking has started, which was very slow earlier, which is why I was, in my previous answer, I would say that even through our Iberjindal subsidiary unit, that gives us very clear direction how the market is performing. Already because sales have picked up there and we are sending more material to our subsidiary there, market has already started improving. January onwards, it should do better.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mudit Mandari from IIFL Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello, sir. Am I audible?
Yes.
Yeah, regarding JUSL, can you tell how much is the volume in terms of purchase from JSL and third party, and in terms of EBITDA also, how much is dedicated for JSL and for third party? Also going forward, will the % remain the same?
is about 428,850 tons. Outside sale is basically about 1,900 tons, 1,900 tons." Is there any other filler? "Uh, Mudit" -> "Mudit" "the, the, the" -> "the" "in this, in this" -> "in this" "uh" -> removed "uh" -> removed
Okay.
Mainly for internal consumption rather than external processing.
We'll continue on this model only even after this model comes in?
Yes, absolutely.
Okay, got it. Regarding standalone CapEx, can you tell me what is the remaining CapEx apart from NPI, Indonesia, and other acquisition, what is the remaining standalone CapEx that we are to do?
The total CapEx, including JUSL, for this year was. It's around INR 3,200 crore-INR 3,300 crore, of which INR 2,000 crore have already been spent, so remaining is around close to INR 1,200 crore-INR 1,300 crore.
Yeah. I'm just asking, can you just bifurcate how much for which item it's standing?
The standing for some of the NPI facility investment, that will go, then there are some normal CapExes also pending, which are there. Rathi CapEx also part is pending, the ReNew Power equity, that's also pending. It's across, but broadly, the strategic CapEx number which is outstanding is across all the reps, around INR 1,200-INR 1,300.
Okay. Okay, got it.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to participants that you can press star and one to join the question queue. The next question is from the line of Rishikesh from Vana Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, sir.
Afternoon.
Sir, a clarification, in the starting of the call, you mentioned about capital allocation and, you know, talking about plans after the next quarter. Is this regarding some specific CapEx or general plan for FY 2025-2026?
No, this is basically for our further expansion in increasing our stainless steel capacity that we are working on, which-
Okay.
Next quarter is when we'll be ready to announce.
Okay. Okay, great. Okay, thank you. Couple of questions. Firstly, on the Indonesia unit, what's the current capital employed in this subsidiary?
It's around INR 325 crore-plus around INR 331 crore, actually.
Okay. Okay. This could be released and upstream to us. Would that be a fair estimate, or there would be some loss in this?
some of the equipments, are in very good condition." * No, that's worse. * "I need to say we are exploring all the options how to get some of the equipments that are in very good condition." * But "that" is not there. * "I need to say we are exploring all the options how to get some of the equipments are in very good condition." * Wait, "The land over there is also, because it's strategically located in the export zone and the Indonesia, because of their becoming a key manufacturing.
Yeah.
Work out the final sum.
What was the loss in the current quarter or first half from this subsidiary?
The fair loss in this quarter was INR 28 crore.
Okay, okay. One more question on the subsidiaries only. Is it possible to give the split between the subsidiaries, including JUSL, the domestic subsidiaries, and the international subsidiaries for Q2 and H1?
Yes, we can give you. Maybe we can share too many numbers because Q2 and H1, and maybe I'll ask Shreya to send you the numbers.
Okay.
Okay?
Okay. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Kunal Kothari from Centrum Brok ing. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you very much. Look, I would like to know about the CapEx in different strategies. As we will be completing most of our CapEx in FY 2024, what is there to see in-- what will be the possible sustainable CapEx for the entire consolidated capacity? What has been planned for rest of the CapEx in FY 2026?
Yeah, FY 2026, Kunal, as we just announced that we are working on the strategy, and I think we'll see that how we ramp it up. Maybe by next quarter, we'll be able to tell you better that how we'll take our next phase of CapEx. Now, FY 2025 will be as of, based on the current announced CapEx. There would be some CapEx remaining of this, like some of the NPI payment, depending on when we complete the project. Also some of the spillover CapEx. It may not be very high CapEx based on the current announcement. Normal maintenance, maintenance CapEx at a group level, maybe including JUSL, Rathi.
I think our sense is that before what you are running at current levels, maintenance and sustainability CapEx will be close to around INR 500 crore-INR 600 crore on an average going forward.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much.
Because the Rathi capacity could also take initially, so, like, not too much capital will be required into JUSL as such, but I think between Rathi and some of the additions, those are actually always ongoing projects.
Okay. Wonderful. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touch-tone telephone. The next question is from Praveen Roy, from BNT Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. I'm listening to the member, so I have one question. The implementation investment on PTGSA and upstream, so what kind of return are you expect in the near term, if you can give me the item?
NPI payback, once it starts, is expected to be around three years-four years because depending on the ore and the nickel sizes in the pad. I think once it starts, it will take three-four. We are expecting the payback in three years-four years.
Okay, any IRR you are expecting in this particular number?
It's if you see for.
Twenty-five percent.
Yeah.
Up to 25%.
In our capital allocation policy, all projects should take at least a 30%+ IRR. Surely four years CapEx will be higher than this.
It will be construction, you can say, right?
Yeah.
25% IRR.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to participants that you may press star and one to ask questions. Next question is from Ritesh Shah from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, what sort of CapEx do we expect from Rathi? You indicated that we will have the operations running in December. I believe that's after two months. The capacity over there was around 162 million. What sort of EBITDA profile are we looking at over here? How do we approach the market? That is one. Just a second question on Tsingshan and you also indicated that it's pretty much onstream. Given, even if you factor your payback of say, 4 years-5 years, are we looking at around 250-300 kilos of incremental contribution from Rathi, sir? Thank you.
In terms of Rathi, it's still a little early. The way that we are planning is that right now, when we start, it will be little low margin, because, you know, it is a new entry, long products for us, long product, rebar, wire rod is totally new for our company. We want to really enter with the low margin, low quality kind of area. It will be around, I would say, between INR 8 thousand-INR 12 thousand tons per ton. Gradually, as we stabilize, as our confidence in the market, in the technology, in the product picks up, then our strategy is to move to those higher variant, higher margin business. It's a journey, it's a transition.
It is, it's a little too early to give exact numbers, so this is the larger picture. The second question was on.
On NPI, Ritesh, you are right. Like, if you take out, say, $150 or $7 million investment, and 3 years-4 years go close to $40 million, $39 million-$40 million could have grown every year, so INR 250-INR 300 crore.
Sure. Lastly, are we looking at any inorganic opportunities? That is one. Earlier we had indicated that we were open to sourcing for nickel mines. Because of the capital allocation framework that we have indicated in the 18 second IR, will we still be open to looking at particular mine, or it will be on more downstream assets? Thank you.
We are open to all options, Ritesh. I would not like to say that it's only downstream or upstream. Depending on following a capital framework, capital allocation framework, if either downstream or upstream fits into it, we will go for that. Raw material security is always something that is a good thing to have for companies of our size. There is nothing immediately on the cards in terms of any mine or any inorganic opportunity. Now we are keeping our eyes, ears, everything open, and anything that fits into our capital allocation framework, which we have also posted in our website and on our investor presentation, we would like to follow that only.
Whatever NPI, we are keeping an eye open on some of these downstream facilities which keep coming in NCLT framework. We continue to evaluate actively on this.
Sure. This is very useful. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you, Ritesh.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashish Keshav from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity. Two questions from my side. One, if I'm looking at the cash, we think that, you know, there was some INR 1,300 crore, which was limited in non-current investment. I understand that this will be because of Indonesia project as well as what we paid to JUSL. Because JUSL, I think we need to pay around INR 960 crore and INR 600 crore we have paid for Indonesia project. It should be something INR 1,550 crore versus cash, which is just INR 1,300 crore. Is there any other line item where we have put this INR 15 crore or what? Where is it?
All this is in this line item because it goes into the trenches. All both of the items, investments are in this line item only, Ashish. INR 1,300 crore include both transit for JUSL as well as the transfer NPI.
Is it safe to assume that INR 250 crore is yet to be paid in one of the items, but cash flow needs to be delivered later on?
Yeah, I told you that out of INR 3,200 crore, only INR 2,000 crore has been consumed. The balance INR 1,200 crore will come into the next for NPI.
No, no, no. My question was because I think INR 960 crore we have paid for JUSL acquisition or still needs to pay?
Yeah. INR 968 crore has been fully paid for JUSL.
Okay. INR 960 has been paid, and then the remaining this out of INR 1,300, it comes to be, let's know, roughly, you can say, around INR 960. Yes.
Yeah, I think you can.
No, my question was this. In our Note 2 account, we have mentioned that we have paid something like INR 600 crore on Indonesia project also.
Mm.
That's what I was looking at. That's not matching.
INR 600 crore? No, I think-
INR 527 crore we have paid, and then INR 60 crore, INR 80 crore on the investment is there.
Yeah, it's around.
I'll check. I'll check from here then.
Yeah.
Second question was in terms of further expansion. Obviously, we will get more things from the next quarter. Whatever expansion we are going to do, is it safe to say that that will be at least 1.5 years-2 years from those factories? Which means that, you know, by FY 2025, we will commission all of the and all existing factory, and maybe FY 2026 could be a year where we can take a pause, and then 2027 again growth will happen.
Absolutely. I think, Ashish, at a broader level, what you're saying is correct.
Okay, cool. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and 1. The next question is from Vikas Singh from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir.
Good evening.
I'll remove the first "is". * Final check on "Sir, I just wanted to understand". "Sir, I just wanted to understand, when w
It's excluding JUSL. Only for alone JSL.
With JUSL, it should be INR 3 thousand-INR 4 thousand higher per ton gases. Is that the correct assumption?
Yes. Yes.
With JUSL, the EBITDA per ton at consol business will be INR 22 thousand-INR 24 thousand per ton.
Thank you, sir. Sir, my second question pertains to I wanted a thought process on the stainless steel policy. If you could give us some insight into, like, how it's going to help us, it would be really nice.
See, the basic idea is that steel and stainless steel always kind of ends up getting clubbed together. No matter, even though certain specific policies are meant for steel, stainless steel invariably gets added, and then we get the impact. Like one example to share, that is the export duty. When export duty last year was levied on steel, stainless steel, and after multiple rounds of discussion with the ministry, with everybody, they under the table, if I can say, they admitted that stainless steel export duty should have not been levied. Because of the kind of understanding, because there is no separate policy, separate focus on stainless steel, it ends up getting clubbed.
You know, so like, another example I can give is that a lot of questions I started getting last year, I don't know if your prices, that's why all everything went off sync and off track. I had to explain to everybody that as a stainless steel producer, we don't consume a single kg of iron ore. That impact is more on steel players rather than stainless steel players. You know, so having a policy on its own because the kind of applications, the kind of raw material, the kind of quality standards that stainless steel has, is totally different from steel and the kind of sectors that are coming up, like your desalination plant, ethanol plant, LNG terminals, power sector is picking up a lot. All of this requires, you know, stainless steel to be consumed more and more.
With the policy coming up, it will only help in enhancing the market, enhancing the awareness of stainless steel, and giving us our own kind of footing rather than getting clubbed with steel industry.
Understood, sir. Basically, we could get some delinking from the steel industry policies.
Delinking from steel industry is a broader idea.
Sir, just last question, if I may understand. If I just look at the JUSL from a consolidated, then our EBITDA margin seems to be somewhere around INR 10, 19,000. It's up to about 2,800% dip on a sequential basis. Is this because of the inventory loss or which has played into?
It is mainly because of export market. You know, export is a, I mean, export markets are, and we supply mainly to European and U.S. market, which have very good margins. That being subdued in this quarter has led to little dip in our EBITDA percentage. Otherwise, I don't think so. We would have done better on it.
Okay. Any kind of uptick which you have seen on there so with couple of products, sir?
Little bit it has started, little bit, but we expect major uptick to happen from January onwards. They will all go on their winter vacation also. Once they're back, then we should see some uptick starting.
Thank you, sir. That's all from my side, and all the best for future.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Amit Dixit from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. I have a couple of questions. One is on the product mix. What is the product mix between 200, 300, and 400 in this quarter? Did the reduced level of export actually alter this product mix in any way?
Amit, I'll take your question on product mix. I've taken in order of 200, 300, and 400 series. It was 36%, 32%, and 20% for the Q2 FY 2024.
Okay. Since our export level was reduced, so, I mean, had we maintained the similar level of export for that, would the product mix have been any different, or is it some normalized product mix that you're looking at?
"400 CD" in the second, they might be distinguishing between the 400 series in general and a specific type of 400. * If "CD" is "CR" (Cold Rolled), then "400 CR" makes sense. * But "series" also makes sense. * Actually, "400 series" is often just called "400s". * I'll use "series". It's the most common term in this context. * Wait, I'll search for "400 series" and "400 CR
Okay. The second bit is on actually the capacity side. Now we have 3.2 HSM commissioned at, you know, JUSL. Is there a time since the domestic markets look so buoyant, particularly with the railway orders and all coming in? Is there any thought process to utilize this capacity to maximum by maybe rolling in the slab or maybe using it for custom rolling of carbon steel, because at the end of the day, you would like to create the capacity? Is this the right assumption?
That is, that is definitely the topic. Both areas is what we are exploring. First preference would be stainless steel and otherwise carbon steel, but absolutely, we have to utilize all our assets to 100% capacity utilization. These are, like you said, on the cards.
The number that you gave on a volume perspective, that includes or excludes that option?
That excludes that option.
Okay. That is what we're in about. The final question. Yeah. The final question from my side. We have seen the regulatory environment becoming more conducive to the stainless steel, particularly because of some of the investigations that have been instituted in the country. Now, Chinese imports have gone up significantly, though it doesn't impact us directly in many of the segments. But as industry leaders, have you approached the government regarding this influx, and can you give a little color on what actions have been contemplated or what in the process is happening?
Constant, constant dialogue is on with at all ministry levels, you know, from Steel Ministry, which is definitely a parent ministry, Commerce Ministry and Finance Ministry. Continuous dialogues are on, and we are really trying to showcase to the government that more than Jindal Steel is an organization, it is the MSME sector that is suffering. Their capacity utilization is less than 50%. How can a country like India not be dependent on manufacturing? How can we only be dependent on trade? All these kind of dialogues are on. We have taken the support and help of media also to showcase that how much is the trade deficit between India and China, how much is... You know, and not only to these levels, we have also approached through our association to the PMO.
A lot of dialogues are on, but I cannot say with a lot of confidence whether I see something happening in our favor. It is a tough situation, you know, that government is not supporting and listening to the industry despite severe dumping happening from the last 3 years-4 years. Dialogue is on. We are not going to leave this at all. It is something that we are taking up at all levels, like I mentioned already. The fight will be on. We are not going to leave it, but nothing, no change and no new information has come out. I think also being an election year, they might take it up after only.
Okay, wonderful. That's very helpful. Thanks, and all the best.
I can also add that, you know, when we are planning, we are taking this as a status quo. We are not taking duty coming in as any reason to reduce or anything our numbers at all, you know? We take this as a given, that no duty is there, and we perform without it.
Okay, got it. Thanks a lot.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Thank you very much. That was the last question. Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference back to Mr. Amit Dixit for closing comments.
I would like to thank everyone for attending the call and fruitful discussion that we had this afternoon. I would also like to thank the management for taking the time and elaborate explanation. I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Jindal now for any closing comments.
Thank you, Amit, and let me thank everyone else also for attending this call. I would like to reiterate that it is a strong economic activities that are pulling up core sector demand across segments. I would also like to highlight as the National Energy Policy shapes up, we are confident that the per capita consumption of stainless steel in India will increase from the current 2.8 kg in the coming years. I hope we have been able to answer all your questions in a satisfactory manner. Should you need any further clarifications or you would like to know more about the company, please feel free to contact our Investor Relations team. Thank you all for attending.
Thank you very much. On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect.