Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1 FY22 Earnings Conference Call of Praj Industries Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in 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. Sandip Bhadkamkar from Praj Industries. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Good day everyone. We welcome you to this conference call organized to discuss Praj Industries operating performance and financial results for Q1 FY22, which were announced yesterday. I have with me Mr. Shishir Joshipura, CEO and MD, and Mr. Sachin Raole, CFO and Director of Finance and Commercial on this call. Before we begin, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature and may involve certain risks and uncertainties. Documents relating to our financial performance were emailed to you. These documents, along with our quarterly results presentation, have also been posted on our corporate website. I would like to hand over the floor to Mr. Shishir Joshipura for his opening remarks.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to Praj Industries earnings call for Q1 FY 2022. All of you had the opportunity to go through our results presentation for the quarter ended 30th June 2021. It is once again a pleasure to connect with all of you. I hope that you and your families are keeping safe and healthy, and I do hope that most of you have already secured both doses of vaccine. Let me now briefly take you all through the quarterly business highlights and industry developments following which Sachin will take you through the financials. At the outset, I would like to draw your attention to the important development concerning environment. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its sixth assessment report earlier this week.
The report reveals that climate change strategies submitted by nations during Paris Summit are not adequate to contain global temperature rise within two degrees limit, and that we have failed to even reach anywhere near our committed carbon emission. The life as usual scenario is foretelling a completely compromised future before the end of the century. The report precipitates urgency to decarbonize the environment by deploying technology in our daily lives that reduces the carbon intensity of our actions across all spectrums of human activity. The zero carbon future demands an immediate action from all of us. We all know that biofuels have an important role to play in decarbonizing of transport sector. Let me now walk you through the business updates.
On the bioenergy front, advancement of 20% EBP program to 2025 signals India's commitment to a long-term sustainable decarbonization agenda by driving transition to a renewable and cleaner energy source. In the ethanol supply year 2021, our national target is to improve ethanol blending to nearly 8.5%. This represents an increase by nearly 150 crore liters in ethanol volume over the last year. The sugar rich state will exceed 10% blending in FY 2021. State governments too have realized the potential of ethanol and have announced several measures to attract investments in setting up ethanol capacities. The path to EBP 20 clearly demands a 2x and 2.5x additional volume for blending over the next four to five years. This will call for creation of capacities for ethanol production.
Based on current production capacity, this means we have to create additional capacity of 1,000 crore liters per year of ethanol. Several systemic changes in the ecosystem are in the offing. Entry of flex fuel vehicles, E100 vehicles, differentiated blends at the pumps to name a few. All positive for driving demand for ethanol and a sustainable carbon-free future. Pilot project of E100 ethanol dispensing station at three locations in city of Pune was recently launched for the production and distribution of ethanol. On the business front, the first quarter posed its own challenge in terms of a strong second wave of infection, under-vaccinated population, and availability of labor force. As the saying goes, when things get tough, the tough get going. We have delivered positive and encouraging results in this period. This is a reflection of transformation of our promise to performance.
On the operational front, adhering to all safety norms at our sites, factories, and R&D facilities which are now fully functional even as work from home becomes part of the norm for office-based employees. We continue to witness healthy traction in inquiries for the bioenergy, pharma, and engineering segments during the quarter, with the sole exception of brewery segment. Our bioenergy business has delivered a strong performance with a healthy order book. We are seeing development of robust inquiries and leads across different feedstocks in the domestic market. Strong demand in the market can be gauged from the fact that this quarter alone saw ordering of about 135 crore liters of ethanol capacity, which is more than 90% of the ordered capacity in the whole of FY 2021.
We also decided to be prudent in opportunity selection, given an exponential rise in number of inquiries, giving due consideration to complexity, completion timelines, and cost to serve. Praj continues to maintain its strong leadership position with market share of more than 60%. On the international front, the business is now showing signs of recovery post the pandemic demand slump. We have started receiving orders from different geographies and more opportunities are under discussion. Americas market, specifically Canada, is showing us a lot of promise on the back of the positive ethanol blending policy development. Brazil is also showing sign of returning to normalcy over the next six months. The ethanol market is likely to pick up with the second half of FY 2022, and with the help of our local partner, Dedini, we expect to make inroads into important Brazilian market.
On the 2G front, execution of the first three plants in the country is on course, and we expect to start commissioning of the first plant in third quarter of the calendar year 2022. On the CBG front, on the occasion of the World Biofuel Day earlier this week, Honorable Chief Minister of UP inaugurated the CBG plant of M/s Indian Potash Limited. The plant has been commissioned and is now being scaled up. This is the first plant in the country that will process 200 tons per day of pressmud to produce Compressed Biogas. This plant is part of nation's first of its kind integrated bioenergy complex, which when fully commissioned will produce ethanol, biogas, biofertilizer and other byproducts. As for engineering and PHS businesses, we are witnessing healthy trend in business opportunity development and expect this momentum to strengthen in the quarters ahead.
On the zero liquid discharge business, we are on course with execution of the IOCL project in Bhuj, Gujarat. With rising awareness about minimizing water footprints coupled with stringent statutory norms for effluent treatment, we are receiving increasing number of inquiries for our ZLD solutions. On the CPES front, our strategy of F15 focus is beginning to pay dividends. I am pleased to share that we are building an isobutanol to sustainable aviation fuel module for the demo plant of our partner Gevo for the U.S.A. market. Gevo has already announced setting up a very large scale commercial plant in United States, and we are in discussion with them to offer our scaling up services for the same. We are currently working with U.S.-based customers to build modular system for one of the largest hydrogen plants in the world.
We continue to focus on strengthening our relationship with clean tech and green tech companies for delivering modular plant solutions. On the brewery front, although there has been some marginal improvement on the demand side, outlook continues to be weak as the market will still take some time to reach to pre-COVID levels of demand cycles. Across the PHS business, we delivered strong performance in the entire complex injectables and vaccines space. We are partnering with leading Indian pharma companies for fermentation-based solutions. This quarter, we won a significant order from one of the multinationals in the United States for their molecular cell technology plant coming up in India. Overall, there is robust inquiry pipeline that is resulting in sustained momentum in order wins, and our order book is continually building positively, providing sustainability and visibility to our business.
As we look ahead, we are seeing curves coming in both from domestic and international markets. Increasing vaccination coverage, improving economic indicators, and supportive macros such as good monsoons and better agri indicators will provide further fillip to the recovery. We have geared up to meet challenge of increased volume and customer expectations. We are investing in modernization of our stock floors, increasing resources for engineering and technology development, and enhancing site support infrastructure and while increasing our vendor base. Having said this, the business environment is not devoid of any challenges. Continuously rising commodity prices are a matter of great concern as it impacts overall business performance. International travel restrictions, combined with uncertainties in supply chain and resource availability will pose a strong test for the business.
I'm extremely pleased and proud to share that our Chairman, Dr. Pramod Chaudhari, has been inducted on the advisory board of the Europe-headquartered World Bioeconomy Forum. This is the first time India has secured such position, signaling her rising prowess in global bioeconomy. Before I end, I'm delighted to share that AsiaOne magazine has announced that Praj Industries Limited as World's Greatest rand for 2020-2021, and Dr. Pramod Chaudhari is conferred as the Global Indian of the Year 2021. We remain confident that our customer-centric approach, combined with our technological prowess and robust execution capabilities, will help us further capitalize growth opportunities. With this, I now hand over to Sachin for his comments on the financial performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Shishir. The consolidated income from operations stood at INR 386.26 crore in Q1 FY 2022 as compared to INR 129.55 crore in Q1 FY 2021. PBT for the quarter stood at INR 29.8 crore as compared to loss of INR 14.52 crore in the corresponding period of the last year. Profit after tax stood at INR 22.2 crore in Q1 FY2022 as compared to loss of INR 10 and a half crores in Q1 of FY2021. Export revenues accounted for 25% of Q1 FY 2022. Of the total revenue, 72% is from bioenergy, 17% is from engineering, and 12% is from PHS business. The order intake during the quarter was INR 661 crore, with 75% from domestic market. Of the total order intake, 77.5% came from bioenergy, 12% came from engineering, and balance 10.6% from PHS business.
The order backlog as of 30th June 2021 is at INR 2,023 crore, comprising of 83% of domestic orders. Cash in hand as on June 2021 is INR 525 crores. Yesterday in the AGM, members of the company have approved the dividend of INR 2.16 per share. Some comments on the components of the profit and loss account. The contribution margin shows a drop of 7.6% as compared to Q1 of FY 2020. The revenue has a mix of sale of equipment and project activities.
The expenses related to project activities are forming part of other expenses, and in comparison to Q1 FY 2020, there is a saving of 10%. The unprecedented increase in the commodity prices has impacted the contribution margin to the extent of 2% of the revenue. As regard to employee cost, as compared to Q1 of FY 2021, absolute employee cost has gone up by eight crores.
The reason being, last year there was salary reduction in the first three quarters, and in quarter four of FY 2021, salary was restored and provision for various variable pay for all employees was provided. The impact of entire year's variable pay was taken in Q4 of last year. In Q1 FY 2022, we have provided for variable pay for the current year, and the impact of salary revision is not there as the cycle for salary revision is July to June. Major component of other expenses is the cost related to project sites, and during this quarter, there was heightened activity on the projects, and that's the reason for increase in absolute terms in other expenses. Before I conclude, I would like to clarify one of the issues regarding the promoter shareholding in the company.
We noticed that on some social platform, it has been repeatedly mentioned that promoters have decreased their shareholding in June quarter. Let me clarify. As a part of talent management program, the company has a robust ESOP system. Over a period of last five years, because of the ESOP exercised by the employees, the overall capital base has moved from 17.74 crore shares to 18.35 crore shares. This has resulted into percentage-wise relative reduction of promoter shareholding from 33.98%- 32.86%. Their shareholding in number of shares has remained unchanged at 6.03 crore shares, and the promoters have not diluted their shareholding. Let me repeat that promoters' holding is unchanged and they have not reduced their holding in the company. I now conclude my remarks, and I would like to thank you all for joining us on this call.
If you have any questions or comments or suggestions, please you can forward that to us. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their 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 Prathamesh Sawant from Axis Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir.
Hello, good morning.
Sir. Thank you for taking my question. My question is regarding execution, sir. In the CBG business lately, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has initiated the SATAT initiative. They have signed 1,500 MOUs and which are worth INR 30,000 crore. Assuming at least 30% of these things coming to Praj, which is a very conservative assumption given our technological progress. That accounts for roughly INR 9,000 crore of business for the next threoe to four years. Clubbing it with the INR 8,000 crore-9,000 crore of the ethanol business over the next three to four years. I want to understand how is our company ready to handle this kind of a monumental demand? What kind of capacities do we have to handle this kind of demand in the near future of three to four years?
Are we doing any CapEx or planning employee increase or something like that?
Prathamesh, that's a great question, and thank you for that. Yes, SATAT is a very ambitious program, first of its kind in the world. The first requirement, as you know, that India is not a gas-based economy. We are a liquid fuel-based economy, and there is a very conscious effort to improve the share of gas in our overall energy mix at the country level. SATAT initiative is part of that program. Therefore, what needs to happen is that we need to understand that the whole ecosystem, and that starts from feedstock all the way to distribution and metering and monitoring gas, and in between production, will have to be established as a model first. Once the model is established and tested, then one can start replicating that model.
You would have probably noticed that yesterday on the World Biofuel Day on 10th, the U.P., honorable Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, actually inaugurated the first press mud to CBG plant, which has been set up by us at Indian Potash Limited in Muzaffarnagar. The plant has been commissioned by us, and it is under scaling up status just now. As I speak with you, there has to be a gas dispensing station that gets organized around it. The vehicles have to be there. The whole ecosystem is gradually developing. This was also used as a test case to understand where all there could be possible hindrances and how we can overcome them in the overall ecosystem.
I think the lessons that have been learnt in IPL, and many of them have been implemented already, will help to define the future ecosystem component development in rest of the country. We are also building another plant in south of India, which will get commissioned somewhere in October, and then one more in February for Hindustan Petroleum, which is based on rice straw. Now towards the end of the year, we'll also commission one more plant near Pune, which will be based on spent wash. Press Mud, spent wash and rice straw are the three key feedstocks on which we expect 90% of this potential that you mentioned to be established. We have led the market by actually establishing the first plant, starting production there, and helping establish the ecosystem.
As we move through the year, we will see strengthening of this ecosystem, and as we go forward, we will be in a position to move the market to its natural potential, as I would put it. In terms of preparedness to our end, as you rightly put it, we have an absolute state-of-the-art technology which is significantly better than anything else that is available in the market, and we expect will help us make deeper inroads into the share of business as business starts to unfold. We are very positive. As things stand now, as the whole ecosystem starts to develop, and you've seen some policies around that as well, where CGD networks are now being asked to blend the gas inside their pipeline systems, the LOI system of the three OMCs, the OMCs themselves taking lead in setting up the plant.
These are initial steps for a very nascent and new system which is nowhere in the world, but I'm very sure that as we go through the next 24 months, we'll start to see a very different market open up for CBG, and we are very well prepared for it.
Okay. sir, do we have the capacity to handle 400- 500 projects in a span of three to four years?
Yes, that is not a problem for us. We will make sure that we build our capacities and capabilities both in line with the market as it unfolds.
Okay, sir. Thank you. Sir, my second question is regarding our margin profile across these three business verticals, as in bioenergy, engineering, and high purity.
Generally, we don't give the margins for the businesses independently.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankit Gupta from Alchemy Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Sir, my question is regarding the gross margin. You explained that there was a product mix change as higher equipment and projects. Can you just explain that part a bit more? Secondly, I also want to know that most of our projects are fixed price in nature, or are there the clauses of passing on the raw material inflation?
Okay. Let me take your second question first.
Sure.
Most of our contracts are fixed price contracts.
Okay.
There is no technically a passing on mechanism in the contracts. What we are doing right now to take care of the pressure which is coming up because of the commodity prices, we are narrowing the window from the inquiry cycle to the order finalization cycle, which is anyway getting narrowed down in any case. We are keeping the prices open for a very specific period of time with a provision for the escalation if there is any delay in the order finalization. The first level of movement in the raw material prices is getting covered in that process. We are taking care of by managing the inquiry cycle to the order booking cycle. Post order booking, we are taking measures based on the requirement of the raw material, some advanced procurement program, the different mechanism of aggregation of the raw material.
We are working on multiple fronts to see to it that the impact of the increasing raw material prices gets reduced on our margin. To give an explanation to your first question, the revenue, what is getting reported as per the SEBI format, it has the revenue component of all, I mean, in the sense the equipments which we are supplying, the project activity which we are doing. In the cost of material, you only see the cost of raw material which is getting captured, and the project-related activity cost is getting captured in the other expenses.
Yeah.
Which is basically site expenses, labor cost and all. If you combine this together and look at the price, which will be the right way of looking at it, then there will be an impact of almost 1.5%-2% kind of an impact on our gross margin. Which is mainly coming up in this first quarter on account of raw material prices, which have moved completely against us, and mainly on the carry forward order book which we are having of the earlier orders, maybe of last September order book or the December order book.
Got it. For the current order book of around INR 2,000 crores, how much will be these legacy orders, which will have some impact in the future also?
We started this year with what? INR 1,748 crores of order book.
Yes.
Yeah. It will have some component of last year's earlier quarters order book, which might be sitting in this. We are trying to take care of the movement of prices till at least December at this point of time.
Okay. Sir, last question from my end. Sir, our order inflow was around INR 660 crore, which was very good in this quarter. Can you give some color out of which field, how much are the orders, which areas? Some understanding to just understand what are the order intakes.
Basically, you are asking the order intake in the form of bioenergy and engineering kind of a thing?
Yes.
Yeah. Around INR 500 crores is from the bioenergy, INR 100 crores is from the engineering business, and INR 61 crores is from the high purity business.
Sir, out of bioenergy, can you give us detail of grain-based and sugar-based plants?
I will have to get back to you. Maybe you can write me, and I will answer that question maybe, because right now I'm not having that handy information.
No issues. Thank you so much, sir.
Yeah.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to the participants, please limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have any follow-up, may we request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Amish Kanani from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Sir, congrats on a very good quarter. Very was very strong in Pune. Sir, the question is, as we prepare for a 2G technology, my question is, we are leader in 2G versus 1G. If you can give us some sense of, as a leader, what are we doing to convert the market from 1G to 2G, if at all, and what are the premiums that a customer has to pay to buy a 2G technology versus 1G, and whether there is a traction given the premium, and what are the kind of IRRs that our customer is making when he's choosing your 2G technology?
Okay. Amish, let me start by saying that we are leaders in both 1G and 2G and not in only 2G.
Yeah. Sorry, sir. The idea was the competition is less in 2G. Sorry, sir. That was the reference.
Yeah, it's different. There's competition is different kind. 2G, it's not that we expect our 1G customers to convert to 2G. It is a very different feedstock that we use for second generation ethanol. Second generation ethanol is increasingly going to find more and more space, especially at the back of, if you would recall my comments that I made at the beginning of my initial opening remarks, where I said that we have to do something for the climate change. Continuing as usual is not an option, that fundamentally means that we have to keep moving towards low carbon intensity, low GHG footprint technologies, and that's where 2G scores above 1G. That's one area where 2G definitely scores above 1G because of the fact that it uses the agriculture residue as a feedstock.
From that perspective, 2G is going to find a lot more favor. 2G, we are also going to see a traction build-up, and that's where we have two platforms, one for the agriculture residues, and second is for the forest residues part of it. Because there are parts in the world which are not agrarian economies, but which are very rich in forest. We have both the technology platforms available, which we will take forward in time to come. We are working very closely. There are regulation-related issues. There are regulatory environment changes that are required. Europe is an example. For example, we clearly see a move happening towards moving to second generation ethanol as we move forward in the future.
The three plants that we're commissioning in India already, and also because this is so new, globally, this is a new thing, and therefore, there's a lot of attention that the world is focusing on saying, "Let us see one plant commissioned at commercial scale, and then probably we'll start to think of scaling up." Different set of challenges to overcome in 2G, but we are working continuously at it in terms of enhancing the viability of the 2G technology, development of co-products, which could further add value to the customer, both in terms of improving the project viability, but also in terms of improving return on the capital that they employ. We have tied up with a company called SEKAB in Sweden to address and actually develop the technology that they had initially developed and develop it to commercial level for the forest residue part of the market.
Whole host of actions right now underway, which we believe will help us to establish 2G as we move into the mid-term future.
Sure. Sir, second question is, we have seen significant improvement in the ranking in last four to six quarters. In general, Biofuels Digest, this quarter we have AsiaOne magazine, we have World BioEconomy Forum, which is facilitating and inducting our promoter on the advisory board. The question, sir, is, what all that we have done in the last say, maybe one and a half, two years, which is resulting in this kind of accolades. Is it coming mainly from the new technology initiatives that we are just doing, which is at an R&D pilot stage, or it's something different? In the sense of how much of that is macro top-down India's initiative that we are taking at a global stage, versus how much is Praj, which of course would have been the major contribution in terms of reaching this stage.
Is it resulting in a significant pipeline of inquiries on the export market? Thanks.
Amish, first and foremost, it's not an outcome of two years of work. I can very easily tell you that this is a work of lots of people, a vision that has endured test of time, the resilience of the company over the last 37 years.
Sure, sir.
We have sort of got baked in the sun, if I can use that word, over different periods of time and come to this stage. The vision and the commitment and the passion of the founders, the real commitment of people, the focus on technology development. I think lot of these elements, nothing of this happens in two years. Nothing. This takes decades to build. Okay? I think that's what is now. Of course, at one fine day, it does have to come out and show itself on the world stage, and that's probably what you're seeing now. There's also much more heightened, what I would call as awareness today in the world about the need to use a cleaner form of energy, where ethanol has a very big role to play, where Praj's prowess is absolutely undisputed.
All the work that we've been doing over the years and decades is what is now coming to fruition. Our foray into the 2G technology, the three plants that we have built. By the way, from my understanding, today, Praj is the only company that is building three plants for 2G technology for somebody else. A lot of our competition is building plant for themselves, we are doing it for somebody else, that's a huge plus in our favor because others have trusted us to build the plant for them. Look at 2G technology. Look at the whole metrics, our R&D setup that we have, and the kind of technology development work which happens in that day in and day out and over the last 10 years, 12 years on that.
I think it's an amalgamation of several factors that are leading to this kind of thing. Of course, the world is also now much more conscious about the green energy, and we have been saying that for a long time. You say something for a long time, and now somebody wakes up saying, "Oh, you've been saying this for a long time, so maybe we needed to wake up earlier," kind of a situation. That is what is leading to this and what is really helping us, and people have recognized that some of the solutions that we put out in the field are absolutely best in class. We compete with the best in the world, and in fact, in several markets, we are as good as anybody in the world, maybe benchmark also in some areas.
Nearly 8% of the world ethanol production happens from our technology. I think all of this has happened over a period of time, and that is what is getting recognized. Also, the fact that Dr. Chaudhari, who's our founder, has really put his entire being into making this into a cause and not only a business. I think that is where things have started to change, because when he speaks, he speaks from immense amount of knowledge, understanding, and vision, and that not many people can do that. I think that all is coming to get recognized now.
Sure, sir. Sir, any numbers in terms of export pipeline of inquiry, has it changed or will it change or some flavor of sense there?
Yeah. As I was mentioning that we have seen, the markets that we serve, especially South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, not to same extent as other two, have taken a slightly longer time than, say, India has to emerge from the shadows and impacts of the pandemic. We are beginning to see that now. I was mentioning that we expect Brazil to be normalized over the next six months. We are seeing Canada moving the policy of a blending program, Europe moving in a policy direction to notify second generation ethanol over the next 10 years. There are several different regions have different policies that are being brought about, and I think those are critical to driving growth in those markets, and we are very much tuned to those developments.
Our ear is very close to the ground in terms of what is required to be done, and we are taking those steps. Overall, plus that is on the ethanol side of the business. There are other businesses, ours also, which are very focused on export. I've mentioned CPES business. We're building the plant for Gevo. That is almost entirely export focused. They are also building inroads with companies that are wanting to put up these clean tech, green tech plants but don't have the wherewithal. They have the wherewithal to design and engineer it and manufacture it for them, so they are doing that. Our PHS business is going to serve markets where there's a newfound, shall I say, consciousness across the world on local production for critical drugs.
I think that is what is leading to capacity formation in several markets, which hitherto was not very attractive but are becoming attractive. Different drivers for different businesses. We are very sure that as we move forward through time, we will see a healthy development on the export side of the business as well.
Sure. Thanks a lot and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Navin Shah from ValueQuest. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Navin here. Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations, sir, firstly for a good set of performance during this tough quarter. Sir, my question pertains to order book. Like what you said in your opening remark as well that this first quarter, we have seen around 140- 150 crore liters of capacities which have been announced. Now, if you look at the kind of order inflow that we have received, it is much lower than the kind of actual CapEx that is announced. Where is the disconnect, if you can help in explaining that?
Well, no, there's no disconnect. First of all, INR 145 crore is the number for the entire year last year. INR 134 crore is the number for this quarter. Just clarifying the numbers. That's the CapEx. Now, the capacities can come in different ways, right? Somebody can define a greenfield project, and you can also define a brownfield project, and both will have different levels of investments per 1 liter of ethanol capacity that gets added, right? Also, within the setup, what is it that is constituting the cost? For some, maybe land cost gets a very, what I would call as a definitive dimensions to add to the cost. Whereas if lease is different cup of tea. The capital cost of the project construct can be very different.
In terms of market share, as I mentioned, we continue to be at about 60% and thereabout, so there is no change on that. Although we have decided to be prudent in anticipating and accepting orders where we do take into consideration the complexity, the cost to serve, our ability to confirm the timelines that customers may want. Different dimensions that go into decision making, but otherwise there is no change at all.
Okay. Sir, when I do a rough cut calculation that shows that around INR 1,400 crore-INR 1,500 crore worth of opportunity or the target size for us from these orders is what the target market should be. Whereas we have received orders worth INR 500 crore during this quarter.
We don't necessarily do the whole thing for a customer, right? There are very few customers who say, "I've got a piece of land, please do everything." That kind of excel doesn't exist. An existing company is expanding, they already have the wherewithal. They understand what is required to be done. It could be common wall expansion. There are different dimensions. They may not go ahead and order everything on board. They say, "No, I know what cooling tower to buy. You don't need to buy for me." Right? There's some new customers who are putting it for the first time, would probably expect more from us. Those who are putting it on a repetitive basis, they probably have a lot more in us. The scope of work that gets awarded gets changed. This depends on brownfield versus greenfield.
There are many dimensions that come into play, so I don't think we can read it directly saying, There is no . The is not the plant itself, it's something else.
Got it. Okay. Sir, during this quarter, because of the second wave, have we seen some spillover or postponement that may happen in the quarter going forward? Or that's not the case for order booking?
Sorry, what's your question? Could you just please repeat it for me?
Sir, I was just asking that whether due to this second wave of COVID, which hit during this quarter, will we see some spillover of orders in the next quarter per se?
Yes. As I said, we expect for this momentum to be continuing for quite some time now, and right through the year. We do not foresee a slowing down of order book at all. The COVID-related impacts are there in terms of, we do hope that sooner than later, the international travel gets restored because that is limiting our ability to reach out to our customers, not severely, but definitely hampered. In terms of execution, yes, it does pose its challenge. Supply chain may get disrupted, et cetera, and this time we all know that the second wave was very strong and much closer to most of us. From those perspectives, I think yes, it does have an impact. In terms of order book, we don't foresee a problem at all.
Okay, got it. Sir, my second question is on the margins front. Firstly, I would just like to congratulate that even in these tough times, we have been able to do good margins. Now, if you see going forward, like what Sachin sir also explained that the way to look at the margins is that even taking into account the other expenses portion. Currently we are at around 19% or 20%. Where do we see this number for full year and maybe going forward? Any ballpark indication where this number should be?
I would love to give the answer to this question, but generally we don't give any forecast. I can only tell you that our endeavor is going to keep on improving on the margins and take the advantage of leverage which is available on the basis of volume growth which is happening. Despite the challenges which were mentioned by Shishir earlier, our endeavor is naturally going to keep on improving our margins. That's what I can tell you.
Okay. Sir, on this, if you see this other expenses as a percentage of sales, definitely we have come down much lower than where we were historically. Is this improvement going to continue with the increased sales that we may have in the following quarters?
It has component of both cost. Let me clarify. One is the fixed cost and another one is variable. For example, our traveling is sitting in other expenses. The domestic traveling, it has already started to a great extent, naturally, international travel is not at all factored there. Going forward, as Shishir was mentioning in H2, we will see movement happening in international side also. Some of the expenses will start getting triggered, not necessarily all. We will definitely, that's what I was mentioning about the leveraging, which is possible, where on some kind of a curtailed kind of expenses, we will be in a position to have higher turnover.
Understood. Thank you, sir.
We have always maintained that our resources, we have to build anticipating the growth in our business and that's been the strategy of the company because there is no one like us in India and therefore we can't just go and poach some resources from somewhere. We have to develop and retain our resources over a period of time or different business cycles. I think that strategy of that we have continuously kept these resources engaged gainfully as well as developed them is coming handy now because now as the volume starts to grow up, we will be able to leverage what we've built already. I think that also should help you to understand the context of Sachin's answer.
Understood, sir. Thank you, and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor & Company. Please go ahead.
Yes. Namaskar, sir, and thank you for the opportunity. Hello?
Hi. Good morning.
Yes. Good morning, sir. Firstly, sir, what are the key risks to our execution, to the business we are getting to? What are the key risks that are there, and what steps are we taking for mitigating the risks?
Yes, Saket, that's a great question. Very clearly, we have to ensure that since you asked questions around execution and I'm taking the execution means the orders that we already have in hand. If we look at the cycle from orders that we already in, very clearly.
Is the management of resources in a very efficient manner. We may have to induct some resources, we have to train resources, we have to automate our processes, we have to look at our capacities within our own boundaries, create them outside or inside, decide that decision. I think those are the set of decisions that we have to take. Therefore, any risk that could associated with any of those actions is very clearly visible and that is something that we have to mitigate. The supply chain disruptions on account of an unforeseen event, say, for example, touch wood, I don't think that should happen, but touch wood, there's a third wave. We cannot predict right now what kind of disruption will happen.
We can anticipate and then build ourselves to say, all right, I will write out a one or a two-month disruption, and I'll prepare myself, whether it is on the raw material side, whether it's on the vendor side. We're doing several steps. We are diversifying our vendor base. We are taking it closer to our customers. We have tied up some long-term contracts. I think Sachin mentioned about aggregation of buying as against project-based buying, using modern tools of reverse auction, e-bidding, new vendor enlistment. There are different steps that we are taking on the supply chain side to make it more robust and less risky, if I can use that word. That's one dimension.
Fortunately, we do not foresee a risk at all on the side of cash because we are a well-managed company, so our balance sheet is very healthy, and we do not have a problem on the cash side. On the people side, I'm very happy to share with you that we launched a very focused program to vaccinate all our people, including all blue-collar workers that walk into our factories and R&D center every day. I'm very happy to share with you that today 91% of our population is vaccinated. I'm sure that the other 9% will also come in. They're not there for different reasons, but they will all walk in as well. Very focused program on vaccination. We are taking every possible step to ensure, A, our work is not disrupted.
If there is a disruption, we are prepared for it and it is kept to a minimum, and look at every single element in its entirety and define the mitigation measures there. Having said, there are things that I can't control. For example, and we were just talking earlier about it, the runaway rise in commodity costs. That's a risk that is external to us. We can only define a response to that, but we can't control the risk itself because that will happen on its own. Commodity price rise is one dimension. Right now, even the availability of steel is becoming an issue, but we have managed that through long-term contracts and association that we have with our suppliers. There's a problem. The steel supply that used to be in six weeks is now gone to almost four months.
We are looking at an extended cycle of availability on components. We have to take care of that. Availability of labor at site has become a problem because of the pandemic-related migrations that took place, there is an imbalance in the workforce at site. How do we manage that? For that also, we have empaneled a whole host of new vendors and contractors with whom we are working now. We are training them to address the issues at site. On-site, within our premises, outside our premises, our supply chain, our delivery chain, we are looking at every single dimension to define a risk plan and find a mitigation plan as well.
Right. Sir, when you say that 8% of the global market share of ethanol business is from Praj. Who are the other players globally, sir, whom we can benchmark and understand the valuation part?
What I said was that 8% of the global ethanol production is today done using Praj's technology. That's the word that I used.
Okay.
Of course, in each market, there are competition for us. If you go to the U.S., there are competition there. You go to Europe, there's different set of companies. Even go to Southeast Asia, there's a different set of companies. When you go to South America, there's a different set of companies. Because each market has evolved to its own model of doing business. Brazil is very different, for example, than North America, is very different from Southeast Asia. At the same time, we have also established ourselves into those market over a period of time. We have created references which are absolutely global class. There are countries in which we have 100% share of business. For example, every single plant is built by us, for example, Colombia. We have used our own position, our own strategic steps to ensure that we are able to stand and compete.
Please appreciate the fact that today, and when I say this, the only market that excludes from this that we have no idea about is China, because we don't know much about that market. We know that there are two state government-owned companies, state-owned corporations, which actually do most of the production there, but that's a different story. Other than that, Brazil, we are about to enter, as I was mentioning earlier as well. There are different steps for different markets. We compete with absolutely global class companies, and we win against them, and we are able to stand on our own feet because of the fact that we have our own technology, our own R&D, our own prowess, our own experience with which we can go to customer and present. That's what is helping us.
The last point I have is regarding you spoke about 90% of what the annual requirement was for the ethanol plant have come up in the first quarter. Where are the geographies and who are the key players, sir, who are interested in setting up these facilities, sir? If you could give some basic understanding, where are these capacities coming up? There must be the alcohol and liquor players that are now coming up with grains. As you have earlier told that maximum two-thirds will be grain-based on this.
As I was mentioning, the grain movement we expect to start now more or less. There are some orders from the grain that also we have received, but more or less the grain movement is beginning now. Lot of capacities that I talked about is still being built around sugar. There are some big names in sugar who are our customers now, who are expanding their capacities both at greenfield level and brownfield level.
Sir, can you give the breakup for this 90% which you spoke, the 1,200 liter which I'm asking? If you could give us that.
What I said was that if you take the last financial year, in the whole financial year, 145 crore liters worth of capacity was contracted for. Okay? In one quarter of this year, 90% of that got contracted additionally. About 133 crores that got contracted for in the first quarter of this year. A lot of it is based on sugar feedstock, some grain as well, but we expect the grain movement to pick up as we move forward.
Sir, can you give the breakups of a 133, the sugar belt, how much is from the northern part and the other south state, sugar companies have also participated, if you could give some color?
Very roughly 60%-65% on sugar and the balance on grain.
Further granular from the sugar part, how much is North India and other part of the country?
No, I don't have that. We have that information inside us, but right now I don't have in front of me, so I'll send it to you separately if you write to us.
Okay. Sir, I'll come in the queue for that question. Thank you, sir, and all the best, sir. We hope for a new landscape altogether for the company, sir, going forward.
Thank you, Saket. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sandip from asksandipsabharwal.com. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. My question, I think I'm fair to ask you the same question again and again, which so many people have asked. Again, it comes back to margins because I think no one is concerned about your growth trajectory. Everyone knows that you're on a strong growth path. I think this is the best macro in the last 25 years. I started tracking your company in 1999 when I first met Mr. Chaudhary. My point is that at one point of time, you used to have operating margins of 20%. In the first quarter, let's say, externalities and everything was there, but still we are below 10. Do you think that you have an aspiration at some stage to going back there because there was also a program where the company many years back hired external consultant to improve margins, et cetera.
When the orders are so much and you can actually pick and choose, the margin profile actually should be increasing substantially again, because shareholders' returns will be made on profits, not turnover.
Sandip, what you're saying is very valid observation. I think as I said that we have become pretty prudent in deciding some criteria for accepting a job, whether in terms of complexity of job, our ability to finish it in the timeline that is required, the cost to serve the customer. Many of those dimensions we are bringing in, which probably were not there so much in the earlier days when the opportunity was limited. That's not the case now. We are providing some of those filters. There's also a fact that, as I was mentioning earlier, that the international part of our business is something which is right now not at the same pace that we would like it to be.
It's picking up pace, but not at the same pace that we want it to be for the simple fact that there are too many restrictions right now on the international travel and to our ability to be in front of customers. We have found some solutions, but obviously they are not exactly what we want them to be. That's the second part. In terms of moving the margins, I think over a period of time, the markets also have changed substantially. It's not only my ability to get the margin, which is of course, very important, and as you know, we have always believed that we should leverage technological developments for creating higher value for our customers, and then I am sure that customers do not mind sharing part of that value with us, and that is how our value gets created for our shareholders.
Having said that, I think there are also other forces in terms of what's the intensity of competition, what are the other dynamics that are driving the market space, the existing relationships, the existing references. Several dimensions come into play. I think all of what you see is a mix of all of that, the commodity prices that have really had a runaway last six to nine months, which we all know. We do hope that probably we will not see a similar level of hikes again on the commodity price. That's the hope that we have and the dialogue that we've been having. We have to see how the overall ecosystem develops, which will help us too. Obviously, management is also very focused on ensuring that all stakeholders' aspirations and expectations are met in the most balanced fashion.
Sure. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Manish Jain from Moneylife Advisory. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, which stream of business seems most promising to you and looks to offer long-term growth?
Sorry, could you please repeat your question?
Yeah. Sir, which stream of business seems most promising to you currently and seems to offer long-term growth for the company?
As you know that we have always maintained that, yes, bioenergy is core of our offerings and right now we all know that there's a absolute boost to the program in the domestic market for creation of ethanol capacity. We have talked enough about it. We strongly believe that Praj is a string that's built of pearls, and each of these pearls has its own story to play out. The zero liquid discharge business that I talked about, the high purity business that we discussed. In time to come and we have to invest into these businesses. Some of these are developmental phase, some of these are at maturity phase. It's not fair for me to compare saying, okay, let me start a startup business of sorts, like say CBG, and I compare that to our 1G ethanol business. That's not fair comparison.
What we are doing is we are systematically and strategically investing into businesses so that as we move through the timeline, we are also able to grow our businesses to different phases of the economic curve so that we are able to drive overall growth of the company. I would not say right now, the only business around which, as I had already mentioned because of externalities in the situation the brewery business is the only business of ours where I am not able to give you a prediction saying, okay, except to say that, okay, we do not see too much of opportunities arising in that business over the next 12 months. Other than that, for every other business of ours, we are very confident that we are in the right spot and we are moving in the right direction.
Thank you. The second question is, who are the competitors under the high purity segment? How are we looking to increase the revenue contribution from this segment going forward seeing the tailwinds from the injectable and vaccine space?
Again, there it's a highly specialized segment. Depending on the solution form, if it's a simple water treatment, there are companies who compete with them. As we said, that we are also moving to fermentation-based solutions where we'll also be competing with several multinationals. We are very confident that our deep understanding of fermentation and processes within the parent organization will help them to actually move forward. We are very confident that combination of ultrahigh purity water combined with our fermentation and the process system knowledge, we'll be able to create a unique proposition to our customers. We are already beginning to see some acceptance of this idea from customers because they can see value coming to them. As we move forward, we see that developing very positively.
Okay. Thank you. Can you name any peers or competitors?
There are quite a few on the water side. We can answer it to you. We can send it to you, the names. That's not a problem at all. We will be able to send it across to you. There's Cry, there's Adam. There are many.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Deepesh Agarwal from UTI Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. Congratulations to the team for a consistent improvement in the performance. My first question is, have you taken a decision on the business model in RCM? Would you be transitioning to a chemical manufacturer yourself, or would be just selling a process know how? How far are we from the commercialization of most of these products in RCM?
Deepesh, thank you very much. RCM is still a program under development, we've not reached the stage where we need to take the decision. You're right, it is one of the options that we'll have to consider. We are still not at the stage where we need to take that decision. We are still in the development phase of the RCM.
Okay. How far we can expect such a decision?
I'm not able to put an exact timeline on that because as you know, that a new development of a technology can take, although of course, we do have internal timelines for that, but we are not yet ready to come out with those to say, okay, on X date, this will start to percolate. We're still far away from being exact date on that. We have a period of time in our mind which our team is working.
On the hydrogen, draft hydrogen policy of Government of India advocates some 10% hydrogen procurement through biomass route by FY or CY 2030. What is the opportunity for Praj in a biomass-based hydrogen?
I think from what we can foresee right now there is a clear space for biohydrogen. I'll take you back to a discussion I was in yesterday where there was a professor from Brazil who was also my co-panelist, and he has this beautiful model of ethanol molecule that he was showing. He said, "Look here. Look at the number of hydrogen molecule on this hydrogen atoms on this molecule model that I'm showing you. Therefore, ethanol becomes a great carrier for hydrogen." That's one dimension that he mentioned. Of course, we all know ethanol comes from the biomass route. That's one dimension. There's also another dimension on the technology where we were discussing in a little different reference was around the CBG form. What we pump that also is CH4, right? Largely, there are four molecules out there.
We'll have to see what route gets developed, but you are very correct that biomass will have a very interesting role to play, and we are very focused on making that happen because we are very, what should I say, working on a leadership position for both the liquid as well as the gaseous route of the feedstock.
Lastly, what are the commercialization timelines for, say, biodiesel or bio marine fuel or bio aviation fuel? In fact, for aviation, I guess U.S. government has proposed some tax credit for biojet fuel for commercial airlines. How this impact us?
Yeah. Overall, if you look at it, we have talked about the concept of Bio-Mobility. On three modes of transport surface, air, and marine. On surface, we are obviously ethanol and CBG have a role to play, and biodiesel as well, and we have talked about that. Obviously the others are, the SAF is now nearest to the commercialization, and I mentioned, and you're probably aware, we had mentioned it a few calls ago as well, that we have entered into an agreement with a company called Gevo in the U.S., which is the leader in the IBA to SAF route. In fact, I had also mentioned in my opening remarks today that we are actually building a plant for them, which is a demonstration plant for them in the U.S.
They have also announced a large commercial scale project, where also we are in discussion with them to say how to scale that up. That's on the engineering side of the business. On the process side of the business, yes, as I had mentioned in my last call, we have also been part of this Clean Skies for Tomorrow initiative, which was launched by World Economic Forum for India. Praj has been one of the contributing authors to the report that was submitted to the ministry by World Economic Forum and the McKinsey & Company. We will see how the whole ecosystem develops.
Very clearly, we understand that as we move forward, because one of the purpose for SAF to grow is the fact that that has to lead to reduction in the greenhouse gas emission and the CO2 footprint, very clearly, the 2G sugars will have a very important role to play there as we move forward on the SAF path.
Understood. Thank you. All the best for the future.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajamohan Vaikuntaraman, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, congratulations on the business developments as well as the robust order intake. First, wanted to understand on the incremental INR 1,000 crore liters of ethanol capacity for achieving the 20% blend, you have indicated to about INR 350 crore liters from molasses and INR 650 from carbohydrates, starch-based 2G ethanol. There are reports of the financial unviability of the 2G ethanol plants, with some figures quoting one plant costs INR 1,000 crore versus INR 100 crore-INR 200 crore for a 1G and a gas-based plant. Wanted to understand whether it is true, has it seriously deterred investments?
Rajamohan, thank you for the question. That's a great question. Yes, 2G technology is very new. It's extremely new. There is no commercial scale plant in operation as of now. Obviously it is on a different point on the development curve as compared to first generation ethanol, which is based on grain or sugarcane feedstock, which obviously has been there for many years, so the technology is matured there. The challenges are very different. The feedstock costs are very different, by the way, because there at one place you will use a feedstock which is agriculture residue and waste. The feedstock costs, the OpEx can be different. Yes, today, the 2G plants are much higher in capital outlay compared to a 1G plant. No question about it. As I was mentioning, the focus that we have on the technological development side is to see.
At the same time, because you use a very different feedstock, you're also able to create very different set of value propositions for a 2G plant. We are very focused on creating competitive by-product streams or co-product streams out of a 2G plant, which will enable us to enhance the viability of the system. I think this is early days for 2G, but there are different points to be considered. The first and foremost is the fact that a 2G plant has a 90% reduction in GHG footprint compared to a conventional, let us say, crude oil based system. That is the biggest plus point in favor of 2G that we're thinking. I was earlier mentioning about SAF taking a route through 2G and in time to come, the European regulations that are now expected around 2G.
2G is going to be a very different set of governing parameters that will take it forward. Early days. Right now, yes, you are correct that the expenses are more, so no private sector is currently rushing into putting up these capacities. We are also living in a world today, at least, I don't know for how long, but today, at least, where we are paying no carbon tax. Right. If you were to pay carbon tax, the things could suddenly change very differently in favor of 2G. We'll have to see how the whole ecosystem develops. I think the new IPCC report will force a definitive thinking and actions from all dimensions of the value chain, and we'll have to see how that develops. Overall, you're right. The 2G technology will have a definitive role to play as we move forward.
Overall, on a, say, two, three year basis, holistic basis, you feel the cost benefit would tilt significantly towards 2G and with incremental private participation in it in a serious way for the next, say, two, three years?
I would not put two years as a timeframe for 2G to change. There are many changes and things can change. I was just talking to somebody else yesterday and I said, okay, let's say three years ago, I would have told you that we'll sit on a 1,000 crore capacity expansion for ethanol in India, you would've laughed at me saying, "What are you talking about?" That we've seen come to reality now. Things could change. As I was mentioning, there's a whole host of elements that have to align themselves, the new IPCC report, what government elections, the proposed COP conference that is coming up in this winter. I think we'll have to see how the Paris commitments that have been made. I think we will have to see how the overall ecosystem develops for 2G.
Two years is probably a short period of time. It's maybe longer than that.
Understand. Coming to CBG, you have indicated to the entire ecosystem needing serious development. You'll be starting the process in Uttar Pradesh. They've also indicated to it being a INR 175,000 crore opportunity in its entirety. By about, say, 2025-2026, when the ethanol 20% blending gets accomplished, how much of this gas opportunity can seriously get generated on the ground out of this INR 175,000 crore opportunity?
All right. The INR 175,000 crore number came because if we have to set up 5,000 plants, that's the number that we have to incur, maybe more, but not less.
Right.
That's very clear. Will 5,000 plants come, in what kind of time frame? In terms of feedstock availability, et cetera, yes, it's a tick that, yes, it's possible for us to put up 5,000 plants because there's enough and more of feedstock. It also addresses some of the other problems. For example, the winter smoke and smog problem in Delhi and other parts of India. Delhi is, of course, the capital, so it gets focused, but there are other parts of India which have equal, or for the world for that matter, which have equal problem. Very clearly, we'll have to see how the whole CBG system develops. As I said earlier that maybe 24 months is the kind of timeline that we should see for this thing to kick up and start moving.
As I said, the first plant has just got commissioned, and it's not been fully scaled up yet. It's commissioned, it's producing. The gas is being sold right now. If you drive down from Delhi to Dehradun near Muzaffarnagar, you will actually be able to buy CBG and fill your tank with it. People are doing this. They're finding it very beneficial because of its very high quality compared to even CNG. There are positive factors, but I think we'll have to see. This is just the first step. The baby is born, it's taken the first step. It's time for it to run to Olympics. It's still a couple of years away.
Understand. Coming to the operating profit margin. You touched on it, but needed slightly more granularity in terms of, say, from around 7.9% in the last abnormal quarter in terms of material cost increase. Based on pricing revisions which come with a lag, by when would you head back to, say, double-digit operating margins? Would it assume its leverage capability of a yearly increase, operating leverage capability, I mean, of a yearly increase of, say, 200 basis points on an annualized basis, assuming under the assumption that material costs remain in a range?
Okay. On the operating margin, definitely, as I mentioned earlier also, the efforts are on to see how best we can use the entire leveraging mechanism apart from other measures which we are trying to take to contain the impact of raw material prices, which is happening. There are multiple measures. A couple of them I have already mentioned, but there are far more measures which we are right now taking. A couple of things which we also need to understand that currently, because of the growth in the domestic market, the component of domestic business is going to be little on a higher side. Moment our international revenue starts kicking in, we will see some kind of ease on the margin side coming up, one.
Second, once the sizes of projects which are expected to go up in any case because the shift from the sugary feedstock to starchy feedstock, the component of the order book or the order size is also going to change. We will see a shift happening because of those measures on the margin in any case. As I said, there are multiple measures which we are working on. Maybe the standardization, maybe the digitalization, maybe the composite aggregation policy for the procurement, the vendor base management. There are multiple steps which we are right now taking.
Broadly, there will be an operating leverage at play, though I understand the overall dynamics.
Yes, it will be. Please also try to understand what Shishir was mentioning in his earlier comment. We generally prepare for future. For example, today we are ready for taking care of the order book size of whatever is coming right now, INR 2,023 crores. We are already preparing ourselves for the sustained growth in this order book going forward also. We are preparing ourselves on the manufacturing side, on the people side, on the project side kind of a thing. There is some kind of a preparation also going up.
Okay. One final question on diesel.
Sorry to interrupt, but for any follow-up, may we request you to rejoin the queue, please?
Sure.
We can connect subsequently also. No issues, Mr. Rajamohan.
Thank you.
Before we take the next question, a reminder to the participants, please limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have any follow-up, may we request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Aditya from APSK Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Just wanted to know that this order book that you have, it's not grown at all quarter-on-quarter with the entire ethanol hullabaloo that's happening. How is it on the ground, and how are you going to increase the order book manifold? That was the only question that I had. Thanks.
There is a positive movement as is visible. As I was saying, we are very focused. The focus is not only on garnering every single order that's available, because we also have to be choosy about the complexity of the contract, our ability to serve the customer, the cost to serve. There are different dimensions that come into our decision making. What we are very conscious about is also to ensure that A, we are able to manage and maintain our market share and the leadership position, which is very important. At the same time, we also want to make sure that we don't.
I can always run a rat race, which is not what we want to do. We are very clear about improving the value for the customer, helping them understand this transition and the addition to the complete industry structure where, as Sachin was mentioning, the grain as a feedstock, the sugar syrup as a feedstock. These are new feedstocks that are walking in. How do we manage them? What are the issues around those? How do we bring our experience to leverage for our customers' wellbeing? I think those are what will be solid foundations, because nothing less is expected from us by our customers. If they give it to us, they say, "Yeah, please take care of all this. I know that you guys will do this." We'll have to make sure that we do this, and do this in a very good and structured fashion.
As I also said that the capacity creation will happen in line with the market demand. There's also market dynamics for ethanol demand, right? We don't need 1,000 crore liter today. That is not possible because the infrastructure doesn't exist to take care of that. We have to think in terms of the blending volumes, the depots, the logistics, distribution, vehicle population. There are many dimensions to it. As the demand starts to grow and the capacity buildup starts to grow, we will be very actively playing part in it to ensure that we retain the share that we design our share to be.
Sir, actually, you see from quarter three FY 2021, INR 605 crore in your investor presentation, and now we are on quarter one FY 2022, and it's just gone up by INR 55 crores. It's still got just INR 55 crore rupees. Considering all the what the government pushes, et cetera. That's the only kind of thing that I had in my mind.
No, there are dimensions to setting a project, right? If somebody has to put up, they need to get environmental clearances. That takes its own time. Without an EC, there's no point in finalizing a contract, because what can you do with it?
You cannot even start digging a pit.
Okay, sir.
Customers have to get the EC clearances first. As we are mentioning, the grain story is now beginning to be understood, and that's really expanded the base. There are states that are coming up with policies of how to permit setting up a grain-based ethanol plant. Several states have taken lead. Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, to name a few. They have come with state-level policies to attract investments on grain-based plants. There are different dimensions to this. It's not so simple a thing. All right, let's produce 1,000 crore liter tomorrow in one place, and it'll be sold. It won't be.
Let's understand, the order intake in this quarter was INR 661, and the order backlog is more than INR 2,000 crore. INR 2,000 crore is not the order intake for this quarter.
All right. Got it, sir. No problem. That's it. That's someone else's.
Every quarter, yes, while there will be, of course, there's a big push right now for the ethanol. There are other businesses also which are project in nature. Sometimes, for example, in the fourth quarter of the last year, we also had other businesses contributing much more heavily. This quarter, we have seen a much heavier contribution from the ethanol business. That probably will change again. Change in the sense that while the ethanol will remain, some other businesses will walk in with their order book as well. We'll have to see how, for example, in December quarter, there's a large order that we had booked from IOCL for ZLD system. That was a very large value contract. Those won't happen every quarter. They may happen once in two, three quarters.
We'll have to see how that mix also changes at our end.
No worries. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yash Choudhary from Param Capital. Please go ahead. Mr. Choudhary, your line is in talk mode.
Yeah.
Please go ahead with your question.
Can you please repeat the significant orders from pharma that you were mentioning during the commentary, and also the pilot project that you mentioned?
Sorry, could you please repeat your question? I couldn't get it.
Sir, you were mentioning about the significant orders that you have received from pharma company.
Can you please throw some light on it and also the pilot projects that you were talking about in your commentary?
I was mentioning that we have received a very large order from a U.S. multinational, who are setting up a plant in India for a molecular cell process. That's a good one for us, because once we set that up, it will open up doors for us to do similar facilities for others as well. That was about the pharma business. The demonstration plant, I was mentioning that we are building a demonstration plant for our collaborator, Gevo, which will be set up in the United States.
Gevo. Okay. I got that.
For sustainable aviation fuel. Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Faisal Hawa from H. G. Hawa and Company. Please go ahead.
Yeah. How much is the contribution to our revenue in this FY from products which were researched and developed only three years back or in the preceding three years? That's one. Going forward like three years hence, what would be the revenue which will be coming from new products? My second question is on management. Have we done any kind of hiring on upper-level basis, where we can then facilitate the increasing execution that's coming into our company?
Sorry. Are you saying that have we hired senior resources for enabling execution? Is that the question?
Yes. Very senior resource. Top-level management.
We have hired because one, of course, is to grow people from within, but with the very quick expansion of the volume, we have to wherever.
Are you able to give some examples of two or three people that we have hired and from where we have hired them?
That I won't be able to tell you from where we've hired them. That's not fair on my part. Our HR does follow a very structured process of recruiting people. There are different medias, as you know, through social media recruitment, through websites, through consultants, through headhunters. That depends on what the situation is. For example, we have hired people on the technology side. We've hired people for project execution. We have hired people for engineering. We hire across the board. No one function where you said, "Okay, this is only one where I will hire and not in the other." That's not the case. We have hired wherever it's necessary, whether it's for business development India, whether it's business development outside, whether it is large project execution skills in India, public sector.
There are many dimensions that we've got people working with us.
About the new products which have contributed to revenue.
Not so much products.
In the last three years.
It's not so much a product sale for us because it is more project and process engineering that we do. Of course, there are several process engineering solutions that we are doing. Just to give you an idea, in one of our businesses, we would say that almost 30% of our sale is coming from these new processes and solutions that we have introduced over the last three years.
Okay. That's what I meant. That's the answer I want.
We have no plans to have any letup on that.
Okay. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I now hand the conference over to the management for their closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you everyone for your time today. In case you have any more questions, please feel free to write us at info@praj.net, and we will get back to you with answers. Thanks again for your time, and have a nice day.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Praj Industries Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.