Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Jindal Stainless and Jindal Stainless Hisar Limited Q3 FY 2023 earnings conference call hosted by Batlivala & Karani Securities India Private 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 touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajesh Majumdar from Batlivala & Karani Securities India Private Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah. Thanks, Ryan, good day, everyone. Welcome you all to the Q3 FY 23 earnings call of JSL and JSHL. The management is represented by Mr. Abhyuday Jindal, Managing Director of JSL and JSHL. Mr. Anurag Mantri, ED and Group CFO of JSL, and Mr. Goutam Chakraborty and Ms. Shreya Sharma from the IR team. Congratulations, sir, on a healthy set of numbers. I now hand over the call to Mr. Goutam Chakraborty for opening comments. Over to you, Goutam. Hello, Goutam?
I don't think they can hear us.
Okay. Sir, you can take over, probably. I don't think Goutam is connected.
Shall I start?
Yes. Yes, Mr. Jindal, you can start.
Hi. Hi. Good evening, everyone. This is Abhyuday Jindal. On behalf of the management team, let me wish you all a very happy and prosperous year ahead. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Q3 FY 2023 earnings call for Jindal Stainless Limited and Jindal Stainless Hisar Limited. I would first like to discuss the key business highlights of the eventful quarter, following which Anurag will take you through our operational and financial performance.
Global stainless market scenario remains challenging in Q3 FY 2023 as well, backed by ongoing tough macroeconomic parameters in the U.S. and Europe, energy issues, renewed concerns over COVID in China. The distortion in level playing field between Indian manufacturers and subsidized foreign imports continued throughout the quarter, however, strong economic activities in infrastructure that is consistently pulling up the core sector demand has been helpful for the domestic market.
Our agility and adaptability to the changing market dynamics continue to help us align our sales volume to the domestic markets. As a testimony to this, around 95% of our sales volume cater to the domestic customers for the second consecutive quarter. Let me give you a brief about the segment-wide scenario. In railways, wagon industry has been doing quite well. The production of wagon in the first nine months of current fiscal year has already exceeded the full year production of previous year. Our sales to wagon industry has gone up by 12% quarter-on-quarter basis. We expect strong performance from this segment in the coming quarter also. Focus on Vande Bharat train set and metro coaches continue to support stainless steel demand further in the coming future.
In the pipe and tube segment, after a robust Q2, the sales continued to increase in Q3 as well. Our co-branding scheme, Jindal Saathi, has played a major role in improving the sentiments and value creation for us and our MoU partners. For infrastructure segment, outlook remains positive, with strong growth potential in structural applications. In automotive segment, sales of special grades continue to increase, and we expect a stable outlook, especially in four-wheeler segment. As you know, during the middle of the quarter gone by, the government revoked export duty, and we are thankful to the government for the same. During Q3 FY 2023 and the nine month FY 2023 combined, exports stood at only 4% and 10% respectively. With the removal of export duty, we expect gradual ramp-up in exports depending upon the demand in the international market.
We have already started booking export orders, we will be in a better position in leveraging our agile business model and sales planning. I'm happy to share Jindal Stainless is one of the only two companies chosen from the iron and steel industry by the Ministry of Steel to roll out a pilot project with the Make in India branding for steel produced domestically and exported overseas. It will give a push to the government's Make in India ambition and help in fostering innovation across the manufacturing sector. Let me now update you all along that with the Odisha government, we have laid the foundation stone for the stainless steel industrial park in Jajpur, which is likely to be developed in two phases in the next six years.
The park is expected to create a robust ecosystem for the stainless steel industry by strengthening upstream and downstream industry linkages. I would like to share Jindal Stainless acquired Rathi Super Steel Limited. This will further widen our product portfolio offerings by adding long products such as wire rods and bars to our existing portfolio and strengthen our solution-oriented approach. Continuing with our ESG goals, we have signed a contract with ReNew Power to set up a 300 MW renewable energy project. This captive wind solar hybrid solution will meet the power requirement of the current expansion of Jajpur facility. We have also introduced electric vehicles for employees commuting to our Jajpur facility. It gives me immense pleasure and pride to inform you all that P&G conglomerate facilitated us with the Grooming Excellence Award 2022. This is more...
This is among more than 50,000 external business partners. The award recognizes P&G's top performing external business partners annually in the operational, innovation and relationship performance categories. With this, I would like to hand over to Anurag to discuss the operational and financial performances. Thank you.
Thank you, Abhyuday. Good evening, everyone, a warm welcome to on the call today. Before I start, I would like to state that some of the statements made in this today's conference call may be forward-looking in nature and disclaimer in this regard is available on our investor presentation. We have shared our investor presentation with the stock exchanges. Today's call discussion will be on the same line. Global macro scenario continued to be challenging during the quarter, as highlighted by Abhyuday. Continuing from our previous quarter, we have been focusing on our sales and operational planning that helped us to intensify the focus on domestic sales. Enhancement of product mix through development and supply of niche value-added stainless steel grades continue to remain our focus.
With our agile business strategy, we could increase our sales volume significantly during the quarter, catering to all major segments, which, including railways, process industries, infrastructure, pipe and tube, auto and lifts and elevators. With this backdrop, let me now discuss the operational and financial performance during the Q3 and nine months of FY 2023. The pro forma revenue of the combined entity of quarter three, FY 2023 rose by 2% and 5% respectively on YoY and QoQ basis to INR 9,073 crores. Pro forma EBITDA and PAT increased by 37% and 58% to INR 951 crores and INR 568 crore respectively. For nine months, the pro forma combined revenue was recorded at INR 25,817 crores, higher by 13% on YoY basis.
Pro forma EBITDA and PAT for the combined entity for the same period stood at INR 2,477 crores and INR 1,404 crores respectively. Global subsidiaries performance continued to remain under pressure due to tough global macroeconomics conditions, as mentioned earlier. Performance of domestic subsidiaries on the other hand, were remained relatively better. On month FY 2022-2023, the combined EBITDA of all the operating subsidiaries stood at INR 58 crores. As on December 31, 2022, the pro forma net debt of the combined entity stood at INR 2,824 crores, down by 40% against March 20 level and 11% as compared to March 22 basis. Leverage ratios of the combined entity maintained at debt-equity of 0.3x and debt-EBITDA of 0.7x.
This is despite the organic and inorganic expansion during the quarter. I am pleased to let you know that we have acquired Rathi Super Steel, which strengthen our solution-based approach and widening our product offerings by catering to long product segment. I'm also happy to share that honorable NCLT on 22nd December 2022 confirmed that there were no objections to the scheme pending from any person, including the sectoral regulators. We are now awaiting the order of the NCLT disposing of the petition, and we expect the merger process to be completed within the current financial year. In case of JUSL acquisition, we expect the transaction to be completed within the committed timeline.
Our operating and financial performance are testimony to our agile business model, business strategy and a strong focus on the balance sheet, which will continue to remain in future also. With this, I would like to end my discussion and would request the moderator to open the floor for the Q&A session.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone 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. Our first question comes from the line of Amit Dixit from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good evening, everyone. Congratulations for a solid performance in this quarter.
Thank you.
Yeah, I have three questions, sir. The first one is on domestic sales volume. If we see, it was a very sizable jump in this quarter, and this is the volume that we possibly never had in the past. I know it contains a fair element of destocking, but just wanted to understand, apart from the traction from railways and pipes and tubes that you mentioned in your opening remarks, what drove it? Is it possible for you to quantify the opportunity size going ahead?
To quantify it in, sorry, I didn't get the last part.
No, no, the opportunity size that we have.
See, domestic market, we see a good growth. Like we keep discussing every time, domestic market is growing easily at a 7% to 8% stainless steel market, I'm talking about. The way that we were able to meet our domestic volumes is that we as a company were always focused on the higher end, high margin, high quality, high value add, added sectors. After the export duty came in, we were forced to go into the lower quality, lower segment, which we were leaving for the MSMEs, smaller players. We started taking a bigger share and bigger pie there. That way we were able to maintain this volume in the domestic market. In the future, also we can continue to do that.
Because export has again opened up and we see better margins, better potential and over long-standing customers that we have in U.S., Europe, Russia, we want to continue exporting. You know, there won't be any requirement to put so much volume in the domestic market. If there does come a time period, it's very easy for us. Secondly, the sectors where we are quite bullish on, like I already mentioned, one was railway, pipe and tube. The infrastructure sector is really picking up in our country. That is where we see a good amount of stainless steel going to be consumed. They are becoming more, I would say, smarter in their material selection. They're looking at life cycle costing, they're looking at corrosion, they're looking at ESG.
ESG is ESG stainless steel is going to again have a very big play and a very big name there because already as compared to carbon steel and aluminum, our ESG score is much better. Already we are, recycling almost 95% recycling, now going to be backed by renewable power. From a ESG perspective also, stainless steel will be a clear winner as against other materials. Anurag, if you can add anything that I missed out.
Also Amit Dixit, as Abhyuday Jindal mentioned that, sector is going, growing at 7%-9%. To relate you the, our opportunity size, the most of the large part of the growth are being driven by railway and auto, which are our key segments. Most of this growth is being captured by us, not the other imports and the lower end players. That actually creates a much larger opportunity size for us.
Otherwise if all the players shares are 7%-9% size, then it looks, the... In that particular segment, we are almost 75%-80% market share. Therefore, these high-end value-added segments where the quality matters to the customers, that is growing at a faster pace, and most of the space we have been able to capture because of our quality and the product range.
To add to that, there are the new sectors that are coming up also, like you talk about ethanol plants, desalination plants, nuclear power is again being talked about in a very big way. New generation power plants. All your thermal power plants, new generation ones, will have much more stainless steel required in them. These are the other areas also where we see good amount of opportunity coming up. LNG terminals, you know, all of them now require more and more stainless steel.
Okay, great. Thanks for the elaborate answer. My second question is essentially now going ahead. Since export duty is gone now, export volume are also likely to increase. At one point in time, your export volume used to be 30% close to, or close to that number on an average. You already have elucidated in detail that the domestic market looks good. I mean, you can pick and choose. What kind of volumes, I mean, are you looking for in next year, FY 2024, from standalone JSL perspective?
standalone JSL perspective, we will at least look at, regularly month-on-month, 20,000-25,000 tons per month. From, just from JSL perspective, I'm saying.
Okay, great. The third and the last question is if you can let us know the share of imports in this quarter.
Anurag, do you have that figure?
Share of imports in this quarter?
Almost 40%.
Yeah, around 40%. November, till November I have a data. December, Amit, I still don't have the firm data, but, it looks like almost 40 quarter if I put it based on this. It's almost 40% to 42%.
It's been consistent now for this whole, I would say for the last, two years at around 40%, 35%-40%.
Okay, wonderful. Thank you so much for your answers, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder, please, restrict yourself to one question and one follow-up question. Our next question comes from the line of Ritwik Seth from OneUp Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity. My first question is related to the volumes in this quarter in JSL. We have clocked 3 lakh 30,000 tons. I believe it is much higher than our rated quarterly production. Can you throw some light, you know, where is this excess production coming from?
You know, we had extra capacity in our JUSL, in our Austria mill. We got some good opportunity of buying slabs from the international market. Which was at a better rate than we were getting by buying our own raw material. So that way we were able to roll little extra material. There was also demand in the domestic market. We rolled in the extra material, procure slabs from the international market, and that is how you are seeing the volume is a bit higher than our rated capacity.
Okay. Okay. This could be an opportunity going forward, or this is purely a one-off?
No, it is purely based on commercial aspects of it. If it continues to be like this, then we will, we can also look at it on a regular basis. It's not going to be one-off, but it does not have to be regularly month-on-month also.
Okay. Okay. Okay, great. Okay. Sir, despite this, you know, buying slabs from the international market, we are able to do approximately INR 19,000 per ton. Can you give a color, you know, at, would these be at a significantly lower margin or close to what we are doing, when we do the entire process, in our own manufacturing unit?
No. We are giving. Because this is, like we discussed, there are multiple grades, multiple sectors, segments, applications. The EBITDA keeps changing because of that. In total combined, we give our guidance, which is around INR 90,000-INR 20,000 tons per metric ton.
Okay. Okay. Sure. Sir, my next question is on the, you know, the expansion. We are nearing towards the end now. Are we confident that we'll start commercial production in Q1 FY 2024?
Yes, absolutely. We are on track with commissioning the plant from Q1 onwards.
Okay, sure. Would you like to give any volume guidance for FY 2024?
FY 2024, we expect a jump of at least 20% from FY 2023 volumes.
Okay, sure. One last question on Rathi Steel, Rathi Stainless. You know, can you just enlighten us with the capacity, the timeline that we're looking to restart the operation?
The capacity is around 162,000 tons per annum. Basically it's still little early because we have just entered and it's a new sector, completely long product for us. According to the market and the numbers that we have calculated, it should be around a five year payback period. I'm sure with us cutting in and with our efficiency that we bring in and brand name we bring in, payback could be faster.
Okay. Okay. Ok. Will we have to invest anything other than this INR 200 crores?
Yes. I believe so. We are looking at, we have to invest some money. Abhyuday Jindal has actually-
Yeah. Immediately, immediately to start the plant, investment would be around INR 60 crore. Then depending on the equipment, which we are just evaluating all the options, but immediately it will be around INR 60 crore investment over the INR 205 CR what we have done.
Okay.
Just to add, as Abhyuday mentioned on the commercial, the wire rod and this long product market has a tremendous potential. Gradually, it's, the projects started demanding assess long products on these type of activities. We could also see a good opportunities here. Right now we are basing on the current estimates of the market.
Okay, sure. I have some more questions. I'll get back in the queue. Thank you. All the best, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder, please restrict yourself to one question and one follow-up question. Our next question comes from the line of Chetan Shah from Jeet Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Just, two clarification. One on the guidance which you said INR 19,000-INR 20,000 EBITDA, that is JSL, JHL combined entity without including JUSL into it. Is that a right understanding?
Yes, that is correct.
Yeah. Sir, second question is you spoke about, a renewable power agreement signed for 300 MW. Can you give some detail that what will be the cost of this and what is the timeframe we are looking at in terms of the CapEx? That'd be very helpful. That's it from my side.
See, in this thing, we will be only taking the 26% stake, and that will be close to INR 139 crore, approximately. Say within the range of less than INR 150 crore. The timeline for completion of their project is close to 16-18 months, for them. That's how, this. What else you want to know?
No, no, that's it. I just wanted to know the cost side and the timeline. That's it.
Yeah.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec India. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. A couple of questions. Sir, first question is on capital allocation. It has a few parts. The first part is, we have given a press release on ReNew Power around 300 MW. Is it possible to give some color on indicative CapEx, and the potential impact it would have on P&L along with the timelines? That's one. The second is, any thoughts on incremental expansion from 3 million tons to 4 million tons, the optionality that we have in Odisha. The third part to the same question is, any thoughts from the management on the payout policy given the shape of the balance sheet is pretty good now. That's the first question, sir. I'll come to the second question after this. Thank you.
I'll take the second part of it. From, I think for 3 million-4 million at least right now, Ritesh, we're quite comfortable with 3 million tons for the next two years. You know, looking at our expansion and looking at the market growth. Only after that, looking at the way the market is growing, the export market, if any government intervention comes or doesn't come, then only we'll be at a better place to take that decision. As of now, for the next two to three years, we are not looking at any volume expansion from 3 million-4 million. Anurag, you can take the first part.
On ReNew Power, Ritesh, as I just mentioned, we'll be taking only the minimum captive stake for us, which will be less than 150 CR for our stake in the ReNew Power. That's what the ReNew Power economics is. Rest of the is completely on the ReNew Power side to raise debt and all these things. It's nothing to us. We have only the captive status for us.
They will only operate the plant. The third question you asked about the payout policy, which we already announced that on a capital allocation, that we will be dividend policy which was approved by the board, that up to 20% in a gradual manner. We surely look for once, hopefully, once this merger is complete, based on that, we will start looking at that allocation.
Sure. Just a follow-up, sir. When we say INR 150 crores, does it qualify under group captive? Is that, would that be correct?
Yes.
Okay, perfect. That helps. Just an operational question. Why have the losses at JSL consolidated minus stand-alone actually widened? Any particular reason?
That's because both our power subsidies for Indonesia as well as IBER are into losses right now because of the global market conditions.
Okay. Any, any specific reason? Like, was it inventory losses or something else?
It's both, because one is that the market in Europe is very tight right now. Also they are, therefore Iber had, both inventory losses also because in terms of the inventories or inventory valuation, negative inventory valuation, I must say, not the losses. Because based on their mark to market, thing, because whatever the inventories were lying there, it being a slow, sales on those things, therefore those are also hitting them. Similar is the case with, some of the Indonesia of the difference between the current spot prices and the raw material. Overall, the sales has been low for them. Hopefully, I think, situation should improve in two, three quarters later on, depending on the market. Right now that's what the condition is.
Lastly, sir, I'll just squeeze this one. Specific to JSL and JUSL, and along the merger event that we have, is the timeline, say, two months out, would that be a fair assumption?
Yeah. For JSL, JSHL, you ask?
JUSL.
Sir, for both. JSL, JUSL and JSHL. The merger and JUSL, both.
Yeah. Mostly, both. I think we should be able to complete in March, because JSL, JSHL, we are just awaiting the order, and hopefully, we get the order in a week's time, after that. Also we are on track to complete it in March. JUSL, we set the outer timeline of June, but our endeavor is to complete. We are in the process of doing the process approval with the lenders and hopeful to get it completed in March itself.
Sir, will there be any tax benefits on back of either of the events, which will actually help on the cash flows?
No. JSL, JSHL now the, those losses have already been absorbed. JUSL will have it, but it's not getting much. It's only coming as a subsidy. They will continue to enjoy their low tax period. There will not be any cash tax for JUSL on their own only.
Perfect. If I can squeeze, sir. Anything on PLI? Any projects under that, are we looking at that?
Sorry, any project under?
PLI. Government's PLI scheme. Have we proposed anything as in-
No, not in the current, not in the first set that they released. There are discussions on having another set. In that we might participate.
Sure. This is very helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder, please restrict yourselves to one question and one follow-up question. Our next question comes from the line of Nishith Shah from Veritas Investments. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir, and thank you for this opportunity. Sir, I would like to understand our outlook on power and fuel cost.
Can you elaborate your question further? What is the outlook you mean?
How do we see our power and fuel costs going forward? Are we still drawing power from the grid or are we buying, are we getting, coal from Coal India now?
Jajpur is backed by thermal power. We are getting coal from mainly MCL, which is part of Coal India. We are buying internationally as well, wherever we see good opportunity. Hisar is backed by the grid. Further expansion that we are doing now in Odisha is gonna be backed 100% by renewable power. We are not investing in any more thermal energy going forward.
Is the coal cost coming down for us now?
Yeah, this quarter coal prices are coming down. That's as you know. Let's see. I think it should give us the benefit on our captive power.
Yes. Okay. That's it. All other questions are answered. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Srik rishna from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Good evening. I just wanted to know your view on about basically JSL acquiring JUSL. Like, what kind of synergies you see in this transaction? Like, if you can highlight a bit on that.
JUSL is a hot strip mill, which is also integral part of the entire SS process. It's completely. Earlier we were getting the tolling done. There was a huge related party transaction. All these now with JUSL coming in will go away, and it's a part, integrate part of the stainless steel making process.
Okay. All right. My next question is, how, like, how is your order size for this quarter for auto? If you can basically give a range of order sizes that you got.
Order size means we have guided on the volume side, that this year we will be ending with around 3% to 5% over the last year. It's not like a, the business is not like a long order book sort of business. In fact, we keep our order book always in a range, because to avoid any volatility.
Okay. Okay, thank you so much. Understood.
Yeah.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your touchtone telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Rajesh Majumdar from Batlivala & Karani Securities India Pvt. Ltd. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. I just had a couple of questions. What is the current capacity of, at JUSL in the hot strip mill?
Current capacity is 1.6 million tons, but it's already in the last phase of expansion. We'll go to 3.2 million tons.
By?
By April.
Okay. My second question was we have done approximately 330 KT including the slab, which we directly imported and used in the hot strip mill. Will that kind of volume continue till we get our expansion plan, expanded capacity online, say from 1 Q?
As Abhyuday Jindal just answered in earlier, I think it's a completely commercial based opportunity which we need to tap. See, all this open blank fab is only for catering to domestic vanilla grade. We don't use this at all for the export market on anything because the quality is what we need to obviously cater it very carefully, both the markets, depending on which segment we are getting into. It will completely be based on the commercial opportunities for us, right? Neither. We cannot say regular, we can also not say it's one-off. It's always we keep looking for opportunity and depending on the best optimization possible in the plant capacity, we will try to keep tapping these type of opportunity.
It is conceivable, sir, that this added volume can come in even after the expanded capacity as your hot strip mill has excess capacity from April in any case, right?
Possible.
Is it possible that-
Possible.
Okay. Okay, thanks. Thank you so much. Yes.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder, please restrict yourself to 1 question and 1 follow-up question. Our next question comes from the line of Saumil Mehta from Kotak Life. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. So taking from one of the previous participants, in terms of the overseas business, now, you know, there have been losses for very many quarters now. To that I understand, you know, the global economy is not doing that well. Can you help us with some of the efficiency measures and if at all, what is the timeline to achieve a breakeven in the overseas subsidiaries? Right.
See, Saumil Mehta, Spain subsidy is more a temporary thing. Otherwise it always remains generally in a profitable zone, right? It's only because right now the offtake were low and that and they had some of the old inventories which could actually expose it. Otherwise, Spain subsidy is generally continue to do well for us in term. In Indonesia, the, we are already we did a alignment to our entire fixed cost model and the capacity. Right now again it's more look more like a temporary because of the U.S. and Europe market pressure. Hopefully, once those goes up, I think, we should be able to bring it back on the track.
Is it safe to assume that, you know, a very high probability of FY 2024 as a full year achieving breakeven in the overseas subsidiary at the EBITDA level?
Yeah. Saumil, your voice is not clear. Can you come closer?
No. Just wanted to check. I mean, is there a high probability on FY 2024 the overseas subsidiary is achieving a breakeven at the EBITDA level?
1978.
It should. See, totally again, like Anurag mentioned, it totally depends on how if there is recession or not. U.S. economy keeps talking about that, how European market reacts. It's still something to wait and watch and see. As for our assumption, I think another two quarters it should take till it's back up to breakeven levels.
Sure. In terms of, you know, taking the further expansion route from going to three, I understand, I mean, from three to four, at the console level, I mean, you have enough capacities to sweat. I believe in the next two years, assuming the demand is good as of now, you'll be achieving optimal utilization. At what stage do we at least start planning or at least start ordering equipment? That itself will take about one and a half, two years, from the drawing board or the actual commission.
Like I mentioned, it's still too early for us. At least for the next two years we will not be doing any of that. Post that, if we see good healthy demand again from all our sector segments, then we will start looking at that.
For the next two years, can we assume a substantial debt payment reduction, given the strong operating cash flow?
Let me put it this way. It's all the moment, we start, our first focus is to reach the optimum utilization. Once we reach to 70%- 80% of utilization of this expanded capacity, then we will start thinking of it. It depend how, if we do the ramp-up faster, it could be much earlier if we do that. Depending on next two to three years when we reach the 70%- 80% utilization of this expanded capacity.
Great. My last question in terms of, you know, so for next two years, given the strong operating cash flows, what kind of debt reduction can we envisage, I mean, assuming it's a normalized environment?
we continue to be focused on a very prudent ratio. As you have seen, even despite, we are doubling our capacity, we are acquiring JUSL, we acquired Rathi. Even on despite all this thing, we are maintaining a ratio at 0.3 and 0.7x. Debt as such is really not a concern for us, and we continue to maintain a very prudent balance sheet management and capital allocation towards it. We will always be weighing between the opportunities and which can actually do the more multiplier shareholder return and the debt repayment. That's how we need to look at it.
Sure. Okay, Anurag. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ashish Kejriwal from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, my question is on, are we looking for any inorganic opportunities also in India and overseas? If yes, whether it will be confined to stainless steel or we can go for some mining projects also? That's my first question.
Ashish, absolutely now as a company, because we have the capability, we are going to be looking at inorganic opportunities domestically, internationally. Nothing as of now is on the cards or we are involved in anything. We just finished the acquisition of Rathi Super Steel. Yes, same way from mainly be stainless steel assets, and we would also like to look at some mining opportunity if it does come our way. We are open to them, but there is nothing immediately on the cards or that we are working on right now.
Sure. sir, I guess one thing-
Ashish, just to add further to what Abhyuday Jindal mentioned is that basically when we say mining, it's more a backward integration related to our-
Yeah.
...stainless steel, minerals, and raw materials.
Our own raw materials.
Yeah. Also we will not be doing mining on our own. It will be more like a tie-up because it's not that we want to go out and start becoming a mining company. Idea is not that. It's more to create a linkage which actually do clear value addition to our business. Not become like a miner, but more as a arrangement with the miners.
Understood. One thing we can be rest assured of that whatever we will do, we'll do within India, and that too is related to stainless steel only, not other sectors we are trying to get.
No, it's backward integration, as Abhyuday mentioned, could be outside India because backward integration, is India is only the chrome ore opportunity. Nickel, is only outside India.
Okay. Okay. Secondly, is it possible to share what's our volume breakup? Because now, in industry-wise, because we have been highlighting again and again that railways and autos, that's, we have 75% market share. How this market share or, you know, product mix or your customer mix has changed over the last three years in terms of industry I'm looking at?
Sure. I think segment-wise, we can always share with you. I think, I would say Goutam and Shreya to share with you separately the segment-wise.
We are part of almost 30, 40 segments, so it's very difficult to, you know, say on the call like this.
Okay. I'll take it from here. Thank you and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kunal Kothari from Centrum Broking. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, can you share the sales volume breakup on grade-wise?
Yes, we can give you the sales volume breakup. I think, Shreya and Goutam will give you separately. I can tell you the broad % I think.
Yeah, percentage please.
Of that we can always tell you the. You want for the last quarter or nine months?
This, last quarter.
Last quarter, I think. Last quarter was, the 200 series was close to, say 35%-40% range. 300 series was another 40%, similar range. 400 series was close to 20%, 22%, 25% range.
Okay. Thanks a lot, sir. That's it from my side.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Amit Dixit from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my follow-up. There are just a couple of questions. The first one is, were there any price hikes in this quarter?
Sorry, Amit, what?
No. Did you take any price hikes in this quarter? Price hike.
Price hike. See, stainless steel. Abhyuday Jindal, you want to mention about, say about this?
I mean, again, it is totally, raw materials driven. Like now in the month of December, moly, molybdenum, which is one important raw material for us, that went up sharply. At that point we do. We increase the price only if our cost and raw material cost goes up. Otherwise there has been no hike despite that.
Okay, got it. The second question is, I mean, while you give the export break up in terms of shipments, you know, percentage-wise, is it possible to share the export revenue in this quarter?
No.
Export strategy.
Export revenue. Sales.
Revenue. Okay. Anurag Mantri.
Yes, sir. We can give you the revenue.
7%, for the quarter for both put together JSL and JSHL.
No, no. I'm asking only revenue, export revenue for JSL.
Only for JSL it was 4%.
No, no. 4% you are saying in terms of volume. I want in terms of revenue. Value.
In terms of value also it is around, 4% only.
Okay. Fair enough. Great. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question- and- answer session. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing remarks.
I would like to thank everyone for attending this call. Our agile business strategy and product mix has been helpful for us to mitigate challenges, and we will continue to strategize business as per market dynamics. I hope we have been able to answer your calls satisfactorily. Should you need any further clarification or would like to know more about the company, please feel free to contact our investor relations team. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of Batlivala & Karani Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect the lines.