Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Praj Industries Limited Q3 and 9M FY 2022 earnings conference call. 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 the operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anuj Sonpal from Valorem Advisors. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and a very warm welcome to you all. My name is Anuj Sonpal from Valorem Advisors. We represent the investor relations of Praj Industries Limited. On behalf of the company, I would like to thank you all for participating in the company's earnings conference call for the third quarter and nine months ended of financial year 2022. Before we begin, I would like to mention a short cautionary statement.
Some of the statements made in today's earnings conference call may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Such statements are based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Audiences are cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward-looking statements in making any investment decisions.
The purpose of today's earnings conference call is purely to educate and bring awareness about the company's fundamental business and financial quarter under review. Now let me introduce you to the management participating with us in today's earnings call and give it over to them for opening remarks. We firstly have with us Mr. Shishir Joshipura, CEO and Managing Director, and Mr. Sachin Raole, Chief Financial Officer and Director of Resources. Now I request Mr. Joshipura to give his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, and good afternoon. I welcome you to Praj Industries earnings call for quarter three and nine months of FY 2022. Trust all of you had the opportunity to go through our results presented for the quarter ended 31 December 2021. I hope you and your families are keeping safe and healthy. Let me now briefly take you all through the quarterly business highlights and industry developments, following which Sachin will take you through the financials. Recently concluded COP26 Summit at Glasgow has brought a renewed focus on environmental issues and a dire need for climate action. Several nations have pledged net zero target and have committed to energy transition in a constructive way. COP26 was a step forward in creating awareness and generating momentum towards sustainable climate action.
India announced its climate commitments referred to as Panchamrit that plans to bring down carbon intensity of economy of more than 45% by 2030, while achieving net zero by 2070. Inclusion of energy transition and climate action in the Union fiscal budget of FY 2022-2023 as major pillars of development is highly encouraging from our business standpoint. We believe that the efforts towards sustainable climate action with focus on carbon intensity reduction will go a long way in India's journey towards net zero target. The budget has taken due consideration of both. It is the labor-intensive informal sectors like MSME as well as capital-intensive formal sectors. CapEx allocations are proposed at an impressive 4.1% of GDP and around 35% more over last year, which augurs well for propelling growth.
We are very happy on inclusion of future impacting dimensions on sustainable development in this Union Budget. Introduction of additional excise duty on unblended fuel is a welcome step in line with overall direction of low carbon intensity economy. The budget also mentioned that green bonds will be issued for mobilizing resources for green infrastructure which will help in building infrastructure for low carbon economy. Let me take you through the market updates. On the bioenergy front, ethanol blending program continues to gain momentum in line with five-year roadmap achieving E20 by 2025. India has achieved highest ever ethanol blend of 8.1% in 2020-2021, with around 90% ethanol supplied from sugarcane feedstock.
The OMCs have tendered for ethanol requirement of 459 crore liters in the current ethanol supply year and have issued letters of intent for 369.4 crore liters as on January 16. To match and fulfill the requirement of deficit states, OMCs have released separate tender for 95 crore liter quantity of ethanol on January 31, 2022. To give further encouragement for diverting excess sugar to ethanol, the government has also hiked the price of ethanol extracted from sugarcane by up to INR 1.47 per liter for 2021-2022. DFPD announced availability of 17 million metric tons of surplus grains that can be used to produce ethanol.
In what is seen as a big push, government has given green signal to 196 grain-based ethanol projects amounting to ethanol production capacity of almost 859 crore liters per annum. As we go forward, some further favorable developments are expected in form of flex fuel policy, ethanol blending in diesel, expansion of biofuel basket, across different modes of transport, and feedstock differentiating pricing for ethanol. On the international front, the European Commission has revisited its existing energy, transport, and climate legislation in order to align them with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. According to the suggested amendments of RED II, advanced biofuels will have a 2.2% contribution of transportation sector by 2030. Thus, the total EU production capacity for all advanced biofuels is likely to reach 2.75 billion liters in 2030.
This translates to an opportunity of setting up around 100 2G ethanol plants of 200 KLPD capacity each. Moving on to business updates. We signed an MoU with IOCL to explore opportunities in cleaner and greener sources for energy. Together, we will explore avenues such as production of alcohol to jet fuels, 1G and 2G ethanol, compressed biogas and related products. We will jointly work towards forming a 50/50 joint venture and identify partners to form special purpose vehicles under the proposed alliance. We are very excited with this association and believe that this will accelerate the development of biofuel ecosystem in India. Our bioenergy business continues its strong performance with a very healthy order book exceeding INR 600 crores in this quarter too. There is a strong momentum in the market for the capacity creation for ethanol based on starchy feedstock.
Ethanol plants based on starchy feedstock continue to dominate the order intake with around two-thirds of order base. In December 2021, we launched an innovative solution to process sugarcane juice into a new sustainable feedstock, BIOSYRUP, for year-round ethanol production. Praj's first-of-its-kind patented technology for producing BIOSYRUP was successfully demonstrated during the launch ceremony held at M/s Jaywant Sugars. Sugarcane juice is a perishable and seasonal feedstock that cannot be stored for more than 24 hours. If converted into conditioned BIOSYRUP, it has a storability of up to 12 months. This facilitates sugar mills to produce ethanol beyond sugar season, thus helping increase production capacity and maximize revenue. There's been a lot of excitement for BIOSYRUP globally, especially in Brazil. On international front, we are beginning to see good momentum building in South and North America for setting new capacities for ethanol production.
Successful commissioning of two pharma-grade alcohol plants in North America will pave way for new business opportunities in the region. On the 2G front, execution of IOCL project has progressed to 80% completion level, and the execution is on track as per the plan. On the international front, our Celluniti technology has attracted attention from several customers in Europe and discussions have advanced with investor group in Nordic region for deployment of this technology. On the CBG front, our two projects based on press mud as feedstocks are commissioned and currently undergoing scale-up and stabilization. The government has withdrawn subsidy for setting up of CBG plants. Different industry associations have already made submission for its restoration. On the positive side, gas prices are due for revision in April 2022, which will enhance financial viability of the projects.
As for the engineering and PHS business, we are seeing continued momentum by way of healthy order book and improving inquiry basket. The zero liquid discharge business continues to find strong market traction in the metal sector with a very large order win from a metal major. We see this repeat order win from one of the leading Indian conglomerate as a testament of our technology and delivery capabilities. On the CPES front, business has built a robust order book and a healthy prospect base. Our team is successfully implementing F16 strategy to work with a select group of progressive global customers, resulting in preferred supplier status and a partner of choice. Modularization is fast gaining acceptance with global customers and is clearly emerging as growth engine for the business.
Our growth strategy to become a go-to company for modularization in green tech and clean tech segment is holding forth. We have specially set up a center of excellence for modularization, which aims to offer innovative modularization solutions and partners in energy transition. We executed a very large modules order during the quarter, which will be part of world's largest blue hydrogen project. We also won a repeat order from one of our key MNC customers for setting up an LNG plant in United States. This order holds great significance as first phase of this project was executed by a Chinese supplier, and our win is reflective of China Plus One strategy, which helped us to succeed in securing phase two of this project. On the brewery front, initial signs of revival are visible. However, major greenfield investment decisions are getting deferred.
In this quarter, while we won several orders for brownfield expansions and our apple juice concentrate project is expected to be commissioned by end of this quarter. On the PHS business front, we continue to develop on steady-state growth plans. Leading pharma companies are realigning their portfolios to include complex injectables, and our progress is evident through a large order win for process engineering and equipment supply in this space from a leading pharma company. Our offerings are finding high acceptance in biopharma space from customers sourced in India and abroad. On the operational front, we're very happy to announce that in the first 9 months of FY 2022, we have already crossed order booking, sales and profit for the entire year of FY 2021. We continue to witness rising commodity prices, longer delivery cycles and logistics challenges.
We have taken several steps, such as real-time costing, advanced procurement of critical raw material, development of dedicated engineering vendors to name a few, to deal with the situation. Even though we have learned to live with the pandemic, its resurgence in the last two months has posed several operating challenges. Overall, there is a robust inquiry pipeline and sustained momentum in order wins. Our order book is continually building positively, providing sustainability and visibility to our business. On the back of these developments, we are considering strengthening our execution infrastructure by way of enhancing our manufacturing capacity, plant modernization and digitalization. As a sustainable climate action company through bioeconomy, Praj is contributing to conserving the environment. The Bio-Mobility platform of renewable transportation biofuel solutions helps sustainable decarbonization, while Bio-Prism portfolio of technology solutions for renewable chemicals and materials facilitate carbon recycling.
As mentioned in last quarter, the ethanol production capacity of plants using Praj Ethanol technology reached over 10% of global ethanol production, including China. On the basis of our installed capacity of bioenergy plants worldwide, and I invite you to have a look at this, we have commissioned Praj Climate Action Meter based on the farm-to-wheel principle, which this meter dynamically computes CO2 equivalent emissions disclosed globally using our technology. By the end of 2021, we have contributed to savings of 9.8 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions, including 2.7 million metric tons in India. We have a continued focus on co-product development as part of our Bio-Prism platform of technologies. Our Praj Matrix team has recently dispatched a trial shipment of 1.5 tons of our patented rice bran wax to one of the MNC chemical major.
Rice bran wax is a natural wax that has a variety of applications in personal care, pharmaceuticals and edible coatings. Our trial shipment will be used for test marketing purposes and further development trajectory. Overall, our business environment is developing favorably, and we remain confident of positive business traction across different business segments.
With this, I will now hand over to Sachin for his comments on the financial performance.
Thank you, Shishir. Just to give you an idea about the operations. Total income from operations for the quarter stood at INR 585.64 crore as compared to INR 347.78 crore in Q3 FY 2021, delivering a growth of 68.4%. EBITDA grew by 28.1%, stood at INR 51 crore as against INR 39.78 crore in the corresponding period of the last year. PBT came in at INR 50.25 crore in Q3 FY 2022 as compared to INR 38.78 crore in Q3 FY 2021, up by 29.6%. Profit after tax stood at INR 37.05 crore in Q3 FY 2022 as compared to INR 28.16 crore in Q3 FY 2021.
For 9 months FY 2022, income from operations was INR 1,504.31 crore as against INR 737.57 crore in nine months of FY 2021, up by 103.9%. EBITDA for the period under review stood at INR 127.7 crore as against INR 44.16 crore for the corresponding period. PBT stood at INR 126.83 crore in 9 months FY 2022 as against 39.92 crore in the nine months of FY 2021, and PAT stood at INR 92.60 crore in 9 months of FY 2022 as against 29.05 crore of 9 months of the previous year. Export revenues accounted for 17% of Q3 FY 2022.
Of the total revenue, 76% is from bioenergy, 15% from engineering, and 9% from the PHS business. The order intake during the quarter was INR 956 crore, with 80% coming from the domestic market. Of the total order intake, 64% came in from bioenergy, 30% from engineering, and balance 6% from PHS business. The order backlog as of December 2021 stood at INR 2,605 crore, comprising 78% of domestic orders. Cash in hand as on 31st December stood at INR 488 crore.
With all this, I will conclude my remarks. Thank you all for joining, and we would now be happy to discuss any questions, comments or suggestions you may have.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone wishing to ask a question may please press star and one on your 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.
The first question is from the line of Bhagyesh Kagalkar from HDFC Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Congratulations on the good set of numbers and the overall order book trajectory. Two questions over here. One is the finance minister announced that there'll be extra INR 2 per liter charge on the unblended fuel. Now, as far as the petrol is concerned, there should not be much difficulty barring some parts of the country or for private OMCs to procure ethanol. But on the diesel front, what is the situation? In diesel, we are also working on our solution, which you have stated earlier.
Secondly, on the margin front, can you throw more light for next 1 or 2 years, the trajectory of the margin? Thanks.
Thank you, Bhagyesh. On the unblended fuel side, as you said that yes, to the extent that the fuel that is being sold at the pumps, if it is blended with ethanol as we in the coming year, it will not attract. The important thing is it's not so much about will it attract or not. The understanding is that government is clearly signaling its intention to make sure that we move to a low carbon intensity economy, and that this INR 2 charge is actually indicative of that. I think from that perspective.
It's a very, very welcome step. This is first step in that direction, but I think we are very happy with this, that government is clearly indicating that the future is based on low carbon intensity. In a few years, and obviously the moment that statement is made, biofuels have a very, very important role to play across the segment. That's one part. There is no program currently in the country on diesel blending, so there is no ethanol blending going on in diesel.
We are working yet, and when the technologies finally reach the stage of BS-6 engines also being approved as a part of that, BS-4 are already tested and approved. We are still working on that program, and we will let you know. As of date, there is no blending of diesel going on with ethanol in the country.
Okay. And on the margin front?
Bhagyesh, on the margin front, we are maintaining from the beginning of this financial year that there will be a pressure because of the input commodity prices, which are having an impact on the overall margin, one. Two, if you see the composition of our sales, the export and domestic, the proportion has completely changed. As compared to the last year, our exports were almost 29%, and today we are having 10%, and that on the expanded top line. Naturally it is having some impact on the overall margin, if you look at. The question is on the going forward, we are as we mentioned in the opening remarks also, we are taking several measures to work on the margin front. We have taken multiple actions to take care of increasing prices.
The new order book which we are booking, we are naturally booking considering the current impact of the input cost. Of course it depends how the input power cost is going to behave going forward. If it again rises completely the way in which it has been in the last 9 months to 12 months, then the story is different. We are trying to get this margin story under our control.
Just first part of my question, sir. The diesel, next 5 to 10 years, what is the trajectory? Means, okay, in petrol the solutions are there, that it can go up to a 100% flex fuel also. In diesel, there's a difference in, say, biodiesel and the e-diesel. What do you think will happen in the next 5 to 10 years in diesel?
I think the idea to understand is that if we have to blend ethanol into diesel, the normal diesel that is available, we can go to a level between, say, 5%-8% of blending. We know that diesel volumes are almost 3x-4x of petrol volumes. Even at that, it will represent creation of ethanol market equivalent to the entire EBP 20 market. From that perspective, obviously demand will go up. We then, of course, will have to look at other dimensions also as to what the feedstock sources are and from which source the ethanol will be produced, et cetera. Those are the questions that we can answer as we move forward.
Bhagyesh, what Shishir was making a mention about, this is how the diesel scenario is looking like at this point of time. Yes, there is no specific policy announcement which has been made. If you are asking from the cash perspective, we are working on how to have ethanol blending to happen on, in the diesel. We are trying to keep ourselves ready the moment there is any development on the policy front for diesel blending also.
Thank you. We'll move on to the next question. That is on the line of Vikram Suryavanshi from PhillipCapital (India) Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. We really have seen very strong order inflow growth. Just to get more clarity on order inflow, how is the traction, or have we factored in the order from this BIOSYRUP from Jaywant Sugars in this order inflow? Just to understand, like, is there any big order which has really changed or how we see the traction going there?
Vikram, thank you. If you look at the quarter's order booking, around INR 600 crore is coming from the ethanol parts. Even at that strong order book, we are saying that 20% of this comes from our export order booking, so that augurs well for the business. That is a positive development that is taking place in shape of. On the BIOSYRUP side, we just launched it towards the end of last quarter. We'll have to wait and see. There's a lot of dialogue that has started with customers. We just launched this technology. I'm sure that as we move forward, we'll see traction build on BIOSYRUP-based inquiries as well. This order book has no element of BIOSYRUP in it at all.
Got it. One more, because just to take it further on technology side, we have very well equipped in terms of handling any raw material. Now the government support, particularly from sugar side, like B-heavy, as well as directly juice and BIOSYRUP. I was just looking at the opportunity, can we take it further to the next level, particularly on sugar side?
Because most of the production expectation from sugar side in terms of ethanol are coming close to 7 billion liter kind of annual supply. Is there any further scope where we can work on the raw material side for sugar companies like beetroot or sweet sorghum and really increase the working days and expand that capability to produce much more ethanol from sugar side? Any thought on that side?
Vikram, obviously very clearly we have to look at multiple levers, if I could mention that way. Say a sugar company can decide that it wants to add another feedstock to its process plant for production of ethanol. That's one way. They can go to a dual route, if you can call it. Already we are beginning to see some of the leading guys, sugar companies already, customers of ours, they are already putting, in addition to sugary feedstock, they're adding a starchy feedstock train to the plants to utilize it for the full year. BIOSYRUP makes it possible for companies to actually year-round production based on sugary feedstock itself. We already have plants working on beetroot in the world.
For us, given our prowess and our exposure to the international market, having different feedstocks is actually a plus. We are already seeing some movement in the direction. Obviously the first is sugar plus starch feedstock, and I think as we move forward, we'll see some of these combinations play out as well.
Last question from my side about this IOCL JV you talked about. We already have a tie-up with the Gevo for a sustainable aviation fuels. How that IOCL will be in basically in structure and who will be the developers in this case? If you can get more clarity on basically how whole things will work, pan out with our IOCL and Gevo and sustainable aviation fuel and other products.
Vikram, the technology is being offered is the same technology that we had talked about between Praj and Gevo. That's the technology that is being brought forward. The MoU that we have signed with IOCL is a much more broad-based around biofuels. It covers aviation fuels, it covers 1G and 2G ethanol, it covers CBG and other by-products. It's a much larger scope of under the umbrella of the MoU. How the exact model will work out is fundamentally we have said that both Praj and IOCL will explore forming a joint venture, which is a 50/50 joint venture between Praj and IOCL.
That in turn will look for setting up these capacities for biofuels across this entire spectrum that I mentioned to you about. Obviously there'll be an operating partner as well, that will come into play. You will hear about it as we make further progress on this.
Got it. That was really helpful, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in this conference, we request you to limit your questions to two per participant only.
The next question is on the line of Deepesh Agarwal from UTI AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, team. Congrats for good set of numbers. My first question is, in the past you have highlighted that India requires some 10 billion liters of ethanol to reach that 20% mark. Out of this 10 billion liters, how much at the industry level have been already ordered?
Sorry. I understand the question. You're saying how much of the total ethanol is ordered out of the INR 1,000 crore capacity that we talked as incremental capacity we build. Is that the question?
Yeah, in terms of capacities. To reach the 20% blending target, how much of the ethanol capacity is yet to be ordered out? Simple question.
As of now, about 30%-35% of this capacity has been ordered out. It's not built yet. It's ordered out.
32. I understood. Our share in this would still be 60%-65%? Market share.
Yes, that is correct.
Okay. Sir, with the incremental orders coming more from the grain-based ethanol, do you think the realization per order will be on an upward trajectory?
Mr. Agarwal, the point is, as I was mentioning in my earlier answer also, we have to see starch is a feedstock, but if it's an add-on train to an existing sugar-based plant, then the capital outlay is different. If it is a completely greenfield project, then the capital outlay is different. If it's a brownfield expansion, the outlay is different. We'll have to see in what form the final capacities actually turn up. Depending on what's the basic construction of the plant, brownfield, greenfield, an add-on train, it will determine the overall capital outlay for the plant.
Okay. Sir, can you give us some sense on how much of your bioenergy would be coming from Bio- CNG or 2G on the order book front?
Sorry, could you please repeat your question?
How much of your order book on the bioenergy could be coming from, say, Bio- CNG or 2G ethanol?
In the quarter, our entire order booking is on 1G.
Okay. Last question. Can you help us understand what is the extent of hit of commodity prices on the margin?
Sorry?
Commodity prices.
The overall impact on the margin because of the commodity prices is around 2%.
2%? Okay.
Thank you. I'll join back the queue.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor & Company. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Namaskar, sir, and thank you for this opportunity. Sir, as you were explaining the impact of higher raw material prices, that has resulted in lower margins. Sir, how is the back to back? Are we doing the back to back
Sorry, Mr. Kapoor. Sir, your audio is not clear.
Am I audible now, sir?
Sir, we requested to use the handset mode while speaking.
[audio distortion]
Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Yes. Namaskar, sir. Thank you for this opportunity. Sir, firstly, you have explained the impact of higher raw material prices in the lowering of margins. Hello?
Yes, please go ahead. Yeah, we can hear you.
Yes, sir. Firstly, sir, how is our raw material basket composed of the key elements? Are we doing any back-to-back arrangement for procuring raw material with the intake of order or how are we covering the same to protect our margins? What steps are we taking for protecting the margins going forward?
Saket, there are several levers that one would use for managing the margins. What has happened in the immediate period that we are talking about and maybe some more time to come is the fact that there has been a runaway and a much faster acceleration in the price rise of the basic, like stainless steel, mild steel. That rate rise has been much more significant. If it is a one point rise, one can manage through the costing, but if it is a continuous rise as you execute through the order, then all the costs come. Because our costs, our contracts are not variable price contracts. They are fixed price contract. That's number one.
Number two, when that acceleration happens, then the only place left is for it to be eating away from your margin. We understand that. These are, as I would call it, these are the transient factors. At some moment in time, in 2 quarters, in 3 quarters, they will start to even out. What's important is what do we do next? That is where I think very important is A, we need to therefore be very, very innovative in our technology, on technology development. This is what we are focusing on. As I mentioned, we are doing real-time costing and engineering to ensure that we as close as possible to the contracting, we are able to manage our cost points.
We are doing several other levers on standardizing, on mass customization to ensure a thorough, quick throughput and therefore, reduce the cycle time of execution so that the exposure time gets reduced. There are several levers that we are using that we'll continue to use. In terms of, you know, a back-to-back agreement, the metal producers in the country have their own business model of engagement and selling, and there is no such thing as protection against future prices on steel. So we'll have to do contracting based on. We are doing several of that as well to buy in advance of, looking at our order book, how much of steel can we buy in ahead of time.
It has its own other issues because there's cycle time issues, there are inventory issues, there's cash flow issues. We are finding a balance between all of these factors to see and minimize the impact of these runaway commodity price increase.
Sir, if we look at your raw material to sales ratio, it is varying. It has increased from one quarter, September quarter of 64%- 68%. Sir, on a normal trend, what should be that and depending upon also on the composition of your order book, if you could give a trend, what should be the ideal raw material consumption to the revenue ratio?
Kapoor sir, as we mentioned, I mean, you know, because we are a project engineering company, and from that perspective, every 2 months or 3 months, the models don't change for us. The mix may have a change because there could be a quarter in which international sales is higher, there could be another quarter in which other sales is higher. Overall, as Sachin was explaining, we are seeing that in this entire year, we see a 2 percentage point difference arising on account of the impact of these raw material increases on our bottom line.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pragati K from Nine Rivers. Please go ahead. Pragati, your line is unmuted. Please go ahead.
As there's no response from the current participant, we'll move on to the next. That is on the line of Kunal Sheth from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my question was regarding the CBG opportunity. You mentioned that, you know, the subsidy has been withdrawn. So, you know, this, any specific reason why this has been done?
Because this sounds quite counterintuitive, because when this was announced that they want to come up with 5,000 plants and, you know, share of gas to increase in the overall energy basket, this seems, logical thing to do. So why suddenly this change in stance, is what, you know, if you can throw some light on this one.
Yeah. Kunal, you are absolutely correct. It is counterintuitive, and that's what I said that a lot of representation is already made to government. There's also an impending price point change end of March for CBG because the initial price points that were declared were only up to 31st March. We have seen how the gas prices have only headed north towards the competing fuel baskets. We are now awaiting what happens to the prices. It should be moving positive as well. What happens, whether there'll be a price adjustment to take care of these, we'll have to see as the time unfolds.
The industry associations are dialoguing with the government to understand what are the next steps that they would like to define to ensure that the policy goals are fulfilled.
Okay. Sir, so how does the subsidy affect the viability? I understand that the pricing will be revised upward and gas prices are going up. In a steady state world, if you know, the subsidies are taken out, how should it impact the viability of CBG plant?
It does impact the IRR of the project, there is no question. An immediate impact is that people will have to stop in their tracks and revisit their decision-making criteria as to what they will do. However, what is also happening is that we have to see in terms of the IRR for the project can also be then offset by a higher revenue realization on the other hand. There are different drivers, and as I said, end of March is when we expect clarity.
That's number one. Number two, there is also a positive news on the co-product side that the fertilizer that comes out as a co-product of this process has also found a very good traction and has found a much higher price than what was anticipated because the quality of the fertilizer is very high. So eventually it will be a settling down of all these factors, what happens to gas price, what happens to co-product price. I think that will have to settle. Yes, a small bit of uncertainty, but we do expect that in next 1 quarter's time that should get cleared up.
Sure. Sir, my second question is pertaining to competitive intensity. If you can throw some light on how has been, you know, the competitive intensity while, you know, Praj has been the dominant player and, you know, clearly benefiting from this transition. Have we seen, especially in the lower ticket sizes of orders, you know, the competitive intensity, you know, rising and some of the local players being much more active than they were previously, sir?
Well, as you said, you know, as the size of the opportunity increases to a very, very large pool, it does attract higher competitive intensity for obvious reasons, that there is much more food to eat. From that perspective, it does attract higher competitive activities. The key question is then over a period of time, one has to start getting selective because when this kind of an opportunity opens up, one can also end up having a customer we're going to be very, very careful about who are the customer segments that you try to address and work with. That is the kind of focus that we are trying to bring to ensure that we don't end up addressing every single inquiry that comes our way to ensure that there is a
You know, there's always this debate between what happens to the share versus what happens to your pricing power. But more important is to ensure that we continue to work with customers who value our technology. There is a space for everybody, in my opinion, in a very fast and large expanding market.
Sure, sir. Appreciate the detailed response, sir, and best of luck for future quarter. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Sagar Kapadia from Anvil Shares. Please go ahead.
Hello?
Yes, Sagar. Hello.
Yeah. This, our other expenses, they have shot up a lot from INR 73 crore to INR 121 crore. Any specific reasons for the same?
The other expenses has a component of our site-related activity. In this quarter, there was a higher activity which has happened on the site, one element. If you are comparing with the last year's December number, I mean YTD number, naturally last year there was the travel restrictions were there, so people were not traveling, so other expenses were also not taking place. This year, naturally it is back in the action. The components which are sitting in other expenses are mainly related to site activities which were heightened during this quarter. Hello?
Okay, sir. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you, Sagar.
Thank you. We'll move on to the next question. That is on the line of Lokesh Maru from Nippon India AMC. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats on the amazing set of results. My question is more around the order inflow. Sir, basically, given the size of opportunity within ethanol that is there, like we discussed before, it was like the CapEx required is around INR 40,000 crores within this space, and Praj is a leading player in that with major market share. Going forward, what is your outlook given our order book, given the opportunity size, the INR 900 crores of quarterly inflow that we have seen this quarter. This is the highest ever inflow. Do you see this as a starting point in the entire cycle of opportunity?
Do you see that you are at the midst of that opportunity or is it a peak? How would you portray it? Would you expect a higher inflow going forward, or would you expect somewhere in this range? Any outlook or any comments on that front?
Lokesh, and thank you for a very detailed question. Yes, you're right. We are witnessing a clear surge in demand for capacity creation for ethanol based on the back of the E20 program. The order booking is reflective of that. If you see the order book develop over the last 4 quarters, it has continuously been increasing. As I was mentioning in the earlier part as well, that we are right now at 35% of the capacity has been ordered out. We're still to go to almost 60-odd% capacity to be built. The question is how will the 60% capacity be built?
For example, if the sugar companies decide to divert sugar, that means they'll directly convert from, let us say, from syrup to ethanol or from molasses to ethanol. We'll have to see how these equations play out to actually arrive at a number in terms of what crores will actually get spent on the capital side. Will they add, as I mentioned earlier, an additional train for managing grain during the lean period, or non- or off-season? Several of these, how in what combination this plays out is very difficult to predict. I would say that we're not at the beginning of this cycle, but at the same time, we are somewhere, you know, 30%-35% progression of the site .
60%-65% is actually yet to go, right?
Yeah.
This INR 900 crores is not really a peak, but we can expect much more going ahead for FY 2023. Because the entire opportunity is packed until FY 2025, right? That opportunity will be seized within next three years. Is that understanding correct?
Yes. The government goal is that by FY 2025 we should have 20% blending, which would mean the 1,000 crore odd liters to be additionally produced in the country. And as we said, that this will gradually play out. By 2025 we'll need to have that capacity built. You are absolutely correct.
Another question on micro part. Actually we were discussing with a small sugar company. So they mentioned that they're able to complete somewhere around 200 KLPD, expand their existing greenfield. They're able to do brownfield at an incremental cost of INR 110 crore or INR 120 crore for 200 KLPD. So I wanted to understand, is it possible to keep the boiler capacity as it is intact and just change on the distillery side? I mean, how does it work, the brownfield part? Is it possible at such costs? Because even Praj is working at such tight gross margins. It basically was a question for me, which I thought I would get some more clarity from you on this, on brownfield.
Is the question that if somebody wants an existing sugary feedstock plant, they want to expand using grain? Is that the question? Therefore they are saying that we'll just add on a train for taking care of the off-season. If it is,
No.
If that is the case, then on off-season obviously he has the opportunity to operate on a different feedstock. He'll have to then see how his what I would call as his infrastructure is balanced out. Because I would not be able to comment unless I know little more details. Maybe offline we can take this question.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll move on to the next question. That is on the line of Vishal Biraia from Max Life. Please go ahead.
Hello. Are you seeing any inquiries for the 2G ethanol as well?
Sorry, could you repeat your question, please?
Are you seeing any inquiries for 2G ethanol as well?
Yes, as I had mentioned, the 2G ethanol inquiries. Right now, of course, as you know that we are commissioning in different stages of installation and commissioning of the three projects in India. As I was mentioning earlier, we expect traction to start building in Europe. We are already in dialogue with a few customers there, including an investment company to see as to how we can go to next step. They have come and witnessed. I had mentioned this a couple of months ago as well, that they have come and witnessed our trial at our collaborator's place in Sekab in Sweden, where we were able to demonstrate to them exactly the numbers that we had promised to them.
The dialogue is progressing on those lines with several European customers. There are some inquiries which are now beginning to flow in from India as well, especially from eastern part of the country, and let us see how those developments move forward.
Okay, how different is the CapEx intensity for 2G versus 1G?
Again, it is highly capital intensive. We are looking at, in 2G's case, again, what is the feedstock, what's the condition or the physical characteristic of the feedstock. You can say, "How can you say that?" That is the truth that these are very high factors that impact the costs in a particular way, in terms of what would happen to the overall cost of a 2G project. 1G is much more standard. There are other factors, whether I will co-locate it with an existing plant for taking care of the infrastructure on the utility side, whether it's a brownfield expansion. There are many factors that will go around determining the CapEx intensity.
A 2G plant will have much more considerations to do before they can decide that, okay, I'm going to put up. Unlike a 1G project where if you get a piece of land, you can probably go ahead and do a grain-based plant in India, but that's not the case for 2G.
Any updates on the biodiesel opportunity as to, are we seeing any demand inquiries for biodiesel as well?
No, we had mentioned that in the past as well, that the biodiesel opportunity in India is very limited because there is no feedstock.
Okay. Very well.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Naushad Chaudhary from Birla AMC. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Just one question I have, sir. Assuming the key raw material prices remain at current level, what percentage of our existing order book will remain impacted in terms of margin?
Some portion of our carry forward order book, which is still not yet executed, which is up to at least June quarter, because after that we started taking measures related to current market prices. We are still carrying some kind of a legacy of that order book, which will have an impact of around 2% on that also.
What quantum of that order book would be percentage of total order book?
Naushad, we'll have to figure it out, but yeah, it. As I said, some portion of up to June quarter order book will have this impact.
Okay. That's it. Thank you so much.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll move on to the next question. That is from the line of Levin Shah from ValueQuest Investment Advisors Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Thanks a lot, sir, for the opportunity, and congratulations on the very good set of numbers. Sir, last quarter, we had spoken about inquiry for 1G, which had gone up by almost 1.5x of the previous quarter. When we look at the quarter-on-quarter growth in the order inflows in bioenergy, then the number doesn't seem to reflect the kind of inquiries we were witnessing. Has there been some postponement of orders or is it that we are looking at much bigger and much larger order inflows in next few quarters?
Levin, in general, I would say that our order booking is keeping up with the inquiry inflow improvement as well. I mean, there could always be a little bit of a deferment between, let us say, December to January kind of a cycle, which will affect. We have no reason to believe that our order book is not keeping pace with our inquiry inflow. In fact, that is not a concern at all for us.
The current order inflow on an average last two quarters we have received close to INR 600 crores kind of orders. Do we see this number moving much higher, or is this the kind of trend that should continue?
As I was mentioning to you earlier, in one of the questions answered, that about 30%-35% of this delta capacity that had to be created in the country is now ordered out, we still have to go through the other 60-odd% to be ordered out. At what pace, at what speed it gets ordered is also a function of many other things, right? The project funding and the land and licensing and agreements with the OMCs, etc. Those factors will play out, but eventually we will have to see if E20 has to succeed, this capacity has to be built.
Okay. Sir, on the even if you look at the order book in the engineering segment, we have received with,
Sir, we are not able to hear you clearly. Can you use the handset mode while speaking?
Yeah. Is it better now?
No, sir, it's still the same.
Just a second.
Sir, on the engineering side of the business, we have received a very good order inflows in the quarter. If you can throw some light, is this a particular large order or we are seeing good traction across in the engineering segment?
No. As I was mentioning that on the brewery side of business, there is still no traction that we are witnessing, so that is a fact that brewery capacities are still not being put up in the country. On the other hand, we did see a large size zero liquid discharge system order as a repeat order coming from one of the customers. That was one. Of course, the important development has been on our business side, where we, as I was mentioning to you and we've been talking about in the past, that there's a focused effort with a set of customers, very clear offering being made to you know, clean tech and green tech companies who want to commercialize their technologies.
As also our efforts to work with some of the leading and the China Plus One strategy being played out, that is being talked about in the newspapers as well. All of these factors are beginning. We saw them play out during the quarter and we have no reason to believe that will not continue to be so. We have mentioned a large order that we got in the last quarter as well. Not only one order, we got multiple of them in the last quarter. Where we had in the first phase of the program, it was a Chinese supplier, but exactly same set of equipment and technology when it came to phase two, we were able to win it over.
Right. Even on the export front as well, we have seen very good. Just a follow-up. On the export order backlog as well, we have seen the highest ever export backlog as well. Now with what you mentioned that export inquiries are also going up, even that business should see pick up going forward?
That is correct, Levin. The thing is that the India opportunity is really at a very high pace. Export is, for exports to keep at that pace is what Sachin was mentioning, that we do find a bit of a lag there because export, while we are increasing significantly, the India opportunity is rising very rapidly. It may be a bit of a difference in speed of both. Both are increasing at good speed, but India opportunity, obviously at much higher speed.
Understood. Thank you, sir. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you, Levin.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Balachandra Shinde from Kotak Life. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. Sir, if commodity prices stay same, how relatively our profitability will change? Because now the most of the orders are at a relatively better steel prices. How our profitability will show improvement over there? Means will we be able to show any operating leverage?
Good question, that's what we are trying to do, Balachandra. If you look at the material prices, it looks like unfortunately it is unpredictable, but it looks like that they are stabilizing now. If you look at this quarter standalone basis, there is a slight improvement in the margin. We are believing that we are in a position to arrest the adverse impact of input material cost on our bottom line. This is what first signal which we are taking post last two quarters negative impact on the profitability. Our efforts or endeavor is now to see how the improvement can happen in this margin.
I mean, it is not what I can say, a predictable kind of a tool which we have, where we can say that, "No, in the next quarter it will reverse." Because again, there are two, three more components which are going to play a part. One, what is going to be the sales composition of our execution, which also includes what we are going to do on a supply side and what we are going to do on a construction side, one. Second one is what is going to be the component of our export orders, which naturally carries a definitely better margin as compared to domestic, which plays favorably on our overall margin. We'll have to see.
We had, a t the beginning of this financial year, we had mentioned that this year is going to be little bit challenging and we are not an exception as compared to what other market elements or other companies are seeing. Still we are trying to figure it out how best we can take care of this. I think by end of March we will have some kind of an idea how this trend is moving forward.
Okay. On the market share side, since we are the oldest player, but obviously the internal capacity addition was not up to that mark, over last so many years. Now the traction has came and peers like other peers like Isgec and other players are actually trying to get involved in this. Are they creating any pricing pressure on the market and do we see any market share impact because of all these things?
Balachandra, the way I look at it is like this. If competition walks in, that's a good sign. That means they are also confident that the opportunity size is increasing, because that's when you actually start to see competitive intensity and action increase. We are seeing that, and I think every company will have to create its own value proposition of what they want to believe in and what's their value proposition to the customer. Some will sell it based on a low cost, some will sell it based on faster delivery, some will sell based on a lifelong high technology, better performance, lower cost of operation, reliability.
Every company will have to find its own value proposition, and we are seeing all kinds of competition. Everybody has their own value proposition to the customer, and for every segment there's a value proposition that works more than others. So that's the way it is working out.
Balachandra, if I may add on what Shishir has said, that if there are some kind of a run-of-the-mill kind of inquiries, we are even not entertaining those. We are not even looking at if there is no technology edge which we are supposed to provide as compared to the competition. We are not even looking at those inquiries. We are trying to concentrate on a very, very specific set of customers who value our technology, who value our engineering superpower as compared to the competition. Yes, there will be some kind of a pressure on pricing naturally, because if you are evaluating two or three different competitors, naturally there will be a different ask from a customer. But our customers understand the premium which we are giving in our product offering.
There is a naturally pricing which we command because of that technology is concerned. If you look at from a market share point of view, it will look very different, but still we continue to maintain our market share at any point of time above 50% of the market.
Okay. Thanks, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lokesh Maru from Nippon India AMC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question again. I just wanted to inquire on the other possibilities, like I was reading on Bio-Lignin that Praj had worked on with a client in Europe. Any progress on that front? Since that is actually one of the promising technologies coming forward in coming years, how big that market could be?
Lokesh, I hope you can hear me right. Hello, Lokesh, I can't hear you very clearly.
Hello. Am I audible now?
Yes.
Yes. I was saying, Praj had come up with biotechnology of Bio-Lignin, right? Which goes into asphalt, had been working with a European client for that, right? So any color on how big, I mean, how big that opportunity like that could be going forward and how big the market is there?
Okay. Lokesh, just to provide some sort of clarification, we have developed a technology for Bio-Bitumen.
Yes.
We had sent a test sample because, I mean, testing first sample and then a larger quantity to an institute in the Netherlands, which is the certifying body for same, and that is, you can use it in, you know, the surface is safe, you can use it on the kind of surface. That has now been done. It's for weather and those test markets. Now we have to start looking at. It's not for lignin, it's Bio-Bitumen. Lignin is a base for creating that Bio-Bitumen, and we are now. You'll hear about it as we move forward in time as to how we plan to commercialize this technology. You'll hear about it.
There are no competition in this segment in India, right, for this?
No. Not to our knowledge.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Keshav from Raksans Investors. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, sir. Sir, my question is concerning Praj, high purity healthcare. I understand that the complexity in biologics manufacturing is far more than your chemical manufacturing. The processes aren't that simple. On one hand you have the equipment process side complexity, and then there is this client-side competence that's needed.
With this background, could you help understand the industry landscape in India a little bit? As in if the current equipment market is largely with the global peers like Thermo, Sartorius, and like how we plan to compete and yeah, the overall competitive landscape?
Okay. Maybe that could become pretty long-winded session, but I'll try and give an elevator speech, briefly one. There are different segments of a pharma facility when this is set up. PHS is currently providing high purity systems. That is high purity water that is required. Water production, purification, storage, and distribution, that is what they do for the pharma companies. They also provide them what we call as manufacturing process systems, which then take the basic molecule that gets produced in fermenters of the competition that you talked about, and then help create a drug out of it. Of course, then there's a packaging section that we don't sort of go into.
What is important is that we are now beginning to position the business also a little differently by leveraging the fermentation knowledge and strength that the parent company has got. That is where we start to play out. We're already building couple of fermenters for some of the leading pharma companies to see as to how we can actually bring value to that part of the business. We are very excited about the future as to what role will fermentation play and therefore the biopharma and so on. That's the short answer for you. We have not stepped into the fermentation space so far on the PHS side of business, but we are beginning to go there now.
All right. Thanks a lot, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll move on to the next question. That is from the line of Vishal Biraia from Max Life. Please go ahead.
Sir, have you received any orders for BIOSYRUP technology yet?
No, we have not yet received any BIOSYRUP technology order in this quarter. That's what Shishir was making a mention. The inquiry basket is strong. See, the next season will start next year, so the requirement actually will come up only in the next year from the sugar mill side for storage of sugarcane juice. That's the reason why we will be expecting. I mean, our expectation is that the order book will start showing some kind of a number starting from next quarter onwards. I hope I answered your question.
[crosstalk]
Vishal, are you done with your question? As there's no response from the current participant, we'll move on to the next. This will be the last question. That is from the line of Levin Shah from ValueQuest Investment Advisors Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity again. Sir, on the CapEx side, so our capacity building, what we had announced last quarter that we are preponing it by a year. If you can throw some light, what kind of investments are we looking at and by when we'll be through or done with it? Post that, what is the kind of execution that we can do with the CapEx that we'll do?
Yeah, Levin. We mentioned in our opening remarks about building up of our capacity because what traction we are seeing on the execution side going forward is very, very of a high nature. We are trying to build up our capacity on both the sides, one on the internal manufacturing capacity and also the outsourcing one. We are right now trying to balance between these two and figuring it out what will be the requirement actually on the manufacturing side. I think we will be firming up our plan during this quarter. By the time we will be sitting next time post next quarter, we will be in a position to give you a number also what we are looking at from the investment point of view.
Understood.
Earlier we used to talk about only on the outsourcing, capacity enhancement, but now we feel that there will be a requirement to build up something internally also. We will not only be able to support the requirement which is coming up on the bioenergy side only through the outsourcing. We will look at something to build on the internal side too.
Understood. Sir, just last question on the CBG front. We have executed already two orders, which are now under commissioning, which are already commercialized. Is there any other order that we have in our order book from CBG?
We mentioned that two orders based on press mud are already executed and plants are commissioned. They are under scale-up and stabilization at this point of time. There is one more order which we are executing, which is based on biomass for HPCL. There is third order which is under execution at this point of time.
Okay. Going forward once like we are expecting that by March or April the this clarity over the subsidy emerges. Post that, we will start seeing in new inquiries and orders, right?
Yeah. The ecosystem, we believe that should actually come up in a more clearer way in the next quarter, and we will see movement on the CBG also. Yes, you are right.
Understood. Okay, sir. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you, Levin. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raja Mohan Venkataraman, an investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations again on a good set of numbers. In one of your public conversations, Mr. Joshipura, you had indicated to a very tough American customer in pharma grade alcohol, whom you had satisfied post initial inhibition. Are you seeing the multiplier effects in that region play out? Say post 2025, when we reach somewhere close to 20% ethanol blend in India, would we move the export leg in a much bigger way, taking up the slack, whatever slack happens in India? By, say, 2030, where would we target exports as a percentage of total revenues?
Raja Mohan, two, three things. One is on the tough customer, or a very demanding customer from United States. Actually, it just so happens that we've just received the. I always say that this is the final test when a customer actually does that. He, we had given him a performance bank guarantee and he and he's returned it back to us saying, okay, I'm happy with your plant. It just. Sachin Raole was telling me in the morning today that this just came back late last night. That's the proof of concept that the plant has been commissioned. Customers are very happy. In fact, he's written to me as well that, you know, we would like to work with you guys in future as well. That's the good part of it.
Now that the plant is commissioned, we have a showcase in United States to show a very high-end plant to be shown to our customer. In fact, we've commissioned one more after that as well. I'm sure that will help us to build traction in that part of the world when we go and show customers saying, you know, "We've got a grassroots-based plant which can actually meet the best specifications of the alcohol in the world." From that perspective, I think we are expecting that we will start to use and leverage that plant that we have commissioned two of them now in United States. Did I understand your question correctly when you said that by 2030, India will start to export ethanol?
No, what I was trying to understand was by post-2025, India won't move at this rapid pace. By that time you would have your several use cases in the export market also on play. By post-2025, would we see exports growing more rapidly? By 2030, would we have some internal targets from, say, 17%-20% currently of export revenue to the total revenue? Would we be reaching, say, 30% of the total revenues for Praj?
Yes, Raja Mohan. Two things. One is post 2024, we expect two more elements to emerge, which currently are not visible to everyone, but in India itself. One is what happens to the ethanol blending program for diesel, and we are pretty hopeful that that will come into being. If that comes into being, it'll give an equal size opportunity again.
Right.
The second one is about what happens with the aviation fuel, and I think that's where we know that there will be a traction that will build, especially more towards 2028, 2029, 2030, in that three-year period, where we believe an ethanol could become a very good base molecule for conversion into sustainable aviation fuel. Those are two developments that we see could happen in India and more likely to happen. The flex fuel vehicle policy will also drive the demand beyond EBP 20. Those are three things that will happen that we believe on the India front.
Coming to the international side of the business, you're very correct. In fact, I am asking my team and we are focusing on increasing our, i n fact, as I was saying, and somebody also made an observation, that our order books on international business have also started to grow. It's just that they are growing at a slightly different speed compared to the very high speed of the domestic market just now. We are building international markets, do take a little longer time to build, but we are very focused on building international business, and you are absolutely correct that our effort is to see how we can increase the share of international business in our overall pie. Absolutely correct on that one.
Understood, sir. Since you talked about diesel, since we already have a 5%-6%, 5%-8% was mentioned in this quarter, blending technology capability in diesel , could we expect policy announcements to happen soon, say by the next 1 or 2 years? Praj's progress on diesel R&D, are we seeing light beyond even the 5%-8% blend possibility in diesel?
Yeah. Thank you for that. Yes, we do expect that in a couple of years' time we should see an announcement. It is also our expectation. That is number one, because eventually it does bring down the overall. It meets all the goals that the petrol blending program meets, right? Why should it not happen on the diesel side? In fact, the environmental benefits could be even more enhanced on the diesel blending side. That's one clear thing that we see as we move forward.
Right. One final question. In the last call, you had indicated to generating positive IRR on starchy feedstock due to the tireless work Praj engineers have been doing. Has it seen any further progress? How close to the sugary feedstock economics have we reached? Any guesstimate on when will starchy feedstock economics match sugary, considering even economies of scale?
Mr. Raja Mohan, I think the sugar and starch are pretty even right now. The third one that I talked about was a lignocellulosic feedstock, which is based on these straws and grasses and things like that, where there is a challenge of getting the IRRs to the same level as a sugary or a starchy feedstock. A lot of work is happening in the direction I was mentioning earlier. We do expect actually that commissioning of the plant will be a very, very important event, which we are expecting towards latter half of this year, when we'll commission the first plant in the country. The world is watching because that's the only plant in the world where a technology supplier is commissioning a plant for somebody else. The user is different from the technology supplier.
Everywhere else in the world, there are technology suppliers who are developing their own plants, but that's different. Now I'm doing it for somebody else, obviously the endorsement is much higher. There, the challenge of getting the IRR. I don't think the challenge is to get it at the same level. The challenge is to get it at a level by which it starts to attract the private investment. We are beginning to see some initial traction now that we have done a lot of work. We have improved it from a negative two-digit number to a positive two-digit number. That travel has already happened. We are continuously focusing on also developing some co-products that could also not only enhance the value but will also help to improve the IRR.
That work is going on. We expect that we should see over the next 3-5 years is the travel time that we need to give to this technology to actually come to its full potential. Because then the question will be very different, because there's a feedstock availability question that this technology will address, and right now that feedstock is just being burned, and then we'll be able to put it to good use.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the last question. I now hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Hello?
Yeah. Thank you everyone for your time today. If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to Team Valorem. Also, you can write us at info@praj.net. Thanks a lot for your time, and have a nice day. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Praj Industries Limited, that concludes this conference call. We thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.