Ladies and gentlemen, good day, welcome to the Steel Authority of India Q1 FY24 conference call, hosted by Nuvama Wealth Management. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode, 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 0 on a touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ashish Kejriwal from Nuvama Wealth Management. Thank you, over to you, sir.
Thanks, Chiku. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Nuvama Institutional Equities, we welcome you all for this Q1 FY24 post result con call of Steel Authority of India. We are delighted to have Mr. Anil Kumar, Director of Finance, along with his team for him. I would request Mr. Kumar for his opening remark, and then we can open the floor for Q&A. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Ashish Kejriwal. Good afternoon, everyone. It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the investor con call on the financial results for Q1 FY24 of SAIL. Let me begin with the economic scenario. I would like to first apprise you on the economic scenario in which we have been operating currently. The global economic continues to be impacted adversely due to inflationary pressures and the monetary tightening policies by the central banks across the globe. The hopes that emerged from the opening of Chinese economy have also not been fulfilled. On the steel front, as per the data published by the World Steel Association, the global steel output during H1 of calendar year 23 has registered a decline of 1.1% over CPLY.
However, as per the April 2023 Short Range Outlook, demand is projected to grow at 2.3% and 1.7% in calendar year 2023 and calendar year 2024, respectively. By this, it can be inferred that the demand will improve in H2 of calendar year 2023. The Indian economy, however, fared better, registered a GDP growth of 7.2% in financial year 2023. The domestic steel industry also outshined its peers, again, with production growing by 5% and consumption increasing by 13% during financial year 2023 over financial year 2022. The current financial year so far has been and has seen an increase of around 11% in both production and consumption. The financial year 2022-2023 gone by was ruled by higher prices of input, especially imported coking coal.
During the current financial year, the prices of coking coal seem to have stabilized considerably, with hard coking coal of Australian origin in the range of $230-$250 per ton. However, during this period, the steel prices have registered a significant fall of nearly 15% over CPLY. The company performance for the quarter, SAIL has registered its best ever first quarter physical performance during Q1 FY24. The production of hot metal stood at 5.04 million tons, as against 4.69 million tons in CPLY, a growth of 10%. Rough steel production stood at 4.67 million tons, as against 4.33 million tons in CPLY, a growth of 8%.
The saleable steel production stood at 4.40 million tons, as against 4.08 million tons in CPLY, again, a growth of 8%. Now, coming to marketing, the sales volume stood at 3.88 million tons, as against 3.15 million tons in CPLY, which is a growth of 23%. The domestic steel sales stood at 3.74 million tons, as against 2.99 million tons in CPLY, which is a growth of 25%. The exports, however, have declined from 0.14 million tons to 0.14 million tons from 0.17 million tons in CPLY.
On the financial front, the company registered a marginal growth of 1% over CPLY in the sales turnover, which stands at INR 24,093 crore during Q1 FY24, which is again the best ever showing for the 1st quarter. The profitability, however, could not sustain the levels achieved during CPLY due to the declining NSR and increase in the coking coal prices on consumption basis. EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 2,090 crore, while PBT and PAT stood at INR 202 crore and INR 152 crore, respectively. In the area of operational efficiency, the company has been making steady progress for reducing coal coke consumption, increasing the use of CDI, bringing down the specific energy consumption and improving BF productivity. Continuing the drive towards improving the product mix, the proportion of semis production stood at 16%.
By engaging conversion services in and around the plants and the demand sectors, the percentage share of semis in sales has been even lower at 8%. As a responsible corporate, we have been taking several measures for environment conservation over the years by focusing on reduction in carbon footprint. The specific CO2 emission has reduced to 2.48 tons per ton of crude steel during Q1 FY24. At the same time, solid waste utilization has gone up in of 100%. Other drives like Zero Liquid Discharge, eco-restoration of areas, regions around the plants and mines, plantation of trees and saplings, use of alternate sources of energy like hydropower and solar power, etc., will continue as we move towards sustainable and green.
The company has been engaged in numerous CSR activities across the country and primarily in the vicinity of our plants and units. The activities are undertaken in conformity with the Companies Act as well as the DPE guidelines. The company expects to gain some low cost of imported coal procured during the period April to June 2020. Now, with the prices of coal stabilizing and outlook positive for the sustained growth in domestic consumption, we are hopeful the realizations and the consequently, the margin will improve for the company. Further, we are also expecting benefit of price revision of rails by the Indian Railways. This will add straight to the bottom line of the company. With these words, I hand it back to Mr. Kejriwal for opening the Q&A session. I'm sure you all have a lot of queries on the performance. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use answers while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question is from the line of Amit Dixit from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. The first one is on the coking coal cost essentially. If you could quantify the coking coal cost in this quarter, and what kind of decline you are building in for Q2?
coal, the imported coking coal, as per our Q1, is in the range of INR 28,000 and the indigenous coal at around INR 12,000. The average works out to around INR 25,800. We expect in the imported coal, a reduction of around INR 4,500-INR 5,000 in the coming quarter.
INR 4,500-INR 5,000. What could, what could be the blended cost then for INR 25,000?
It's basically, we are, we are having around 85% of imported and 15% of indigenous component in it. We can just say that it can be around about the indigenous will be in the range of 12,500, and the imported at 2,500.
2023, 2024.
2023, we can say. 2023 and... It will be in the range of, should be around about 22,000.
Got it, sir. The second point is that we have seen that debt level has gone up. If I look at the borrowings, it is INR 29,414 crore. While I understand that this might be a quarterly phenomenon because of building up of working capital and all, is it the peak level debt that we can assume for SAIL, at least in near term? Coking coal prices have also come up, and that should get reflected in their profitability.
Yeah. Actually, this, there has been an increase of around INR 3,000 crore in this particular quarter. The basically, what has happened is that, that has gone up, but our payables have come down to that extent. That, the, the reason for the payables coming down is again, what you have also mentioned, that is because of the coal prices. Now, what we feel is that, we, we have also observed one more thing. In the month of July, the, even in the month of June and in the month of July, there has not been much of an increase in the borrowings. August also, we are seeing that the same trend. We are hopeful that the borrowings will come down.
May not be in the second quarter to that extent, but maybe from the third quarter, it will start coming down. We are hopeful that by the end of this financial year, the borrowings will be around about INR 4,000-INR 5,000 less.
From the current level, 20,000 forward?
Nay, not from the current level. We feel that it should be from the, the beginning of the year, from the beginning of the year.
Okay. You said from the beginning of the year, 3, 000 to 4, 000?
In the range of INR 22-INR 23, INR 22,000, approximately. INR 21-
INR 22,000.
Yeah.
Okay. Okay, sir. That's very helpful. Thank you, and over to you guys.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Sowmya Valliappan from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. First question is pertaining to the domestic demand. How are you seeing things on the domestic front, and how is the channel inventory situation, and also, in terms of NSR movements? Are we, you know, close to the bottom for the season, and do you think this can start improving from here? Your thoughts, sir?
od demand for steel as far as local demand is concerned. We have a very good demand of steel. It can be also seen by the figures for the Q1 also, where there has been a jump of sales by nearly 23% as compared to the CPLY. Regarding the NSR, yes, it's a matter of concern. But I think some sort of stability has been seen in the month of July and also in the month of August. Though the July trend was also lower as compared to June, but there appears to be some resilience in the NSR now. Moving down further.
we are hopeful that, maybe from September, August, second second fortnight, or maybe from September, things will start looking good for us.
Got it, sir. The second question is on the other expenditure. On a pattern basis, it has gone up on a QOQ. I mean, any color on the royalty expense, what was it last quarter, and how much it is? I mean, is there any other impact on OpEx that is-
Yeah, actually, the royalty in case of our Bhilai group of mines, actually, what has happened is from middle of May, royalty rates have gone up in case of, in case of, this thing, Bhilai group of mines. Overall, there is a downward trend as far as royalty is concerned, because we have had a, we had an expenditure of INR 1,675 crore in Q1 of 2022-2023, our expenditure is around what? INR 1,411 crore for this. There is some expenditure increase as far as some power and fuel is concerned, and a few other expenses. Overall, if you see our expenditure, our, our expenditure has come down from INR 7,229 to INR 6,814 crore.
There is a reduction of around about INR 400 crore.
Got it. One last question, if I may. Your production target for this year and also your CapEx plan. Thank you.
The production target, for this year is 19 million ton, and our CapEx target is INR 6,800 crore.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Sumangal Nevatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. First question on this CapEx is continuing, out of the 6,800, what would you break up into maintenance and how much are we spending on growth? Also from over the next two, three years perspective, we are not starting any new projects, what is our plan as far as growth is concerned? Because eventually we will kind of max out on capacity and might lose market share. In terms of new projects and expansion plans, if you could just elaborate a little bit.
Yeah. Actually, the, our expansion plans, include, you know, like having expansion in basically four major plants by 31, 32. We have accorded in-principle approval for, for our two plants to the IISCO Steel Plant, where we are, we are in, in increasing, capacity increase by around 4.5 million tons. And, in case of Bokaro also, around 3 million tons. The DPRs are under preparation now, and we expect to come up for the stage one approval of maybe IISCO Steel Plant by, you can say, the third or maybe the fourth quarter. Third quarter or the fourth quarter of 2023-2024. Bokaro also may come out, come up in the similar time, timeline. Durgapur also we are, we are on the verge of finalizing our product mix, for the particular plant.
These three plants will be going ahead with the expansion plan. Regarding these, the expenditure of INR 6,800 crore, what we are initially using, this is basically for our existing schemes and some replacement schemes, like coke ovens and all, which we have to replace over the period. Once this, once the life cycle is over, and we are in, you know, like, going for rebuilding of coke ovens and some other major schemes which are like the casters are there in Rourkela Steel Plant and expansion is there. For these things, our expenditure will be mainly, we'll be concentrating on these schemes for expendi- for incurring our CapEx.
Yes, one thing is there, that, besides these, expansion in these plans, plants, we are also increasing our existing... ramping up our existing capacities to the extent of 3 to 3.5 million tons. This is how we are going to arrive at a, an existing capacity of around 35 million tons by 31, 30, 31. This particular 3 million tons, the, the expenditure for that also starts from this year. It will be carried over for the next few years.
Okay. This, I mean, in terms of maintenance, INR 2,500 crore per year should continue. If I understand-
Yes.
As far as all this entire 15 million tons of growth is concerned, that will be over and about this CapEx. What could be that ballpark number, sir? I mean, what could be a peak CapEx in a year, say, next year? Should, should it be around INR 8,000-10,000 crore?
Yeah, it should be provided, see, what happens is it depends on the order placement. You must be also aware that whenever we place the order in the initial first year, it is around the expenditures, around about 10%-15%, and in the second and third year, it peaks to around about 20%-25%, and then it goes, then it starts coming down after that. That is the normal thing. It entirely depends on how fast we can place orders for our expansion plan.
Understood. Sir, that's very clear. Sir, there was news flow with regards to restart of VISL plant, apparently under some social pressure. What could be the operating losses once we restart this plant?
Actually, the, we are, the what I thought for, like, we haven't got, got any guidance of restarting this plant or anything like that. But yes, there are some losses which we are incurring. In the, in the, in the quarter, we have incurred a loss of around about INR 50 crores.
Okay, got it. Got it. Just, sir, one last question. So we are, we've been carrying this iron ore inventory since long, and over the last many quarters, we have seen we are hardly able to sell anything. There's some INR 4,000 odd crore of non-current inventory sitting on our books. Sir, any plan to write off this eventually, given, I mean, it's been quite a few long period that we've not been able to sell?
See, basically, this inventory, whatever we have got, is not exactly for sale also. Like, it is for our internal consumptions also, for which we have laid out plans for ourselves. For every, the major inventory is in Goa ore mine. These, the inventory which is there in Goa ore mine, it will be basically used for our own pellet and beneficiation plant, which we are planning to set up out there through an MDO. The majority of the consumption will go there. Of course, we will try to, you know, whenever we get a good opportunity, when we get a good price for these, this product, we may try to sell it in the market also. Some clearances are awaited from the from the government, Jharkhand state government.
Once we get that clearance, we'll take a call of how much quantity we can sell in the market.
got it, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec. Before you go ahead, sir, ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, may we request you to restrict to one or two questions. Should you have a follow-up question, we would request you to rejoin the queue. Thank you. Mr. Ritesh Shah, you can go ahead with your question, sir.
Yes, sir. Sir, I have three. I will restrict to two. Sir, first question is, you indicated coking coal decline of INR 4,000 on a sequential basis. Sir, can you indicate how much would be the indicative NSR movement for flats, longs, and on a blended basis?
The future, it's very difficult to predict the future. As compared to the previous quarter, there could be a marginal, so far there is a decline. There is a decline on this thing. Around about INR 800 or INR 1,000 decline is there. Let's hope that, as I, as I, as I was talking about it earlier, the second fortnight of August and September, this things pick up. Maybe we, we may be at par with the Q1 NSR. Regarding this differential of NSR of flat and long, during the previous quarter, there was a difference of around about INR 3,000.
We hope that, the, with the longs being lower and the flats being higher, so we, we are just hoping that as this monsoon gets closed off and orders start picking up, so we may see some, improvement in the NSR of the long term.
Sure. sir, my second question is, do we under Steel Authority of India have any stainless steel assets? if yes, what is the capacity, utilization level, profitability, and what are the incremental plans?
Yeah, we have got a, we have got a same, in our same, Salem Steel Plant. We have got this stainless steel building capacity. What is happening is, see, it is around 180,000 tons. It's not only, it's not only just for stainless steel. We also have we also roll mild steel out there. That product is also being produced out there. The overall, we have incurred a loss of around INR 60 crore in Salem Steel Plant, Salem Steel Plant for the Q1 2022, 2024.
Sure, sir. Thank you so much. I'll join back with you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Kirtan Mehta from BOB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for giving this opportunity. You have mentioned about the improvement in the CDI and the blast furnace productivity. CDI has actually improved from 85 kg/ton in FY2022 to 104 kg/ton. What are the steps that has been taken to improve it, and how far we see this improvement continuing? What could be the target range for FY2023?
... before in 25 or the CDI consumption?
Yeah, the CDI, basically what has happened is that last year there were some challenges of getting CDI. This time we have got some good tie-ups for CDI. We have got our some resources from Russia also, resources from Russia. We have we, we are planning to increase it further. Actually, our operation budget has specified that it will be in the range of 110-112, and we are operating at 104. Basically the target is that the larger blast furnaces, whatever we have, we would like to maximize the CDI so that the operating efficiency of the blast furnaces go up.
We have, we feel that this target of 112, it can be fulfilled for the financial year 2023-2024, which will be a quite a big jump, and this will subsequently have an impact on the coke rate, which will come down to a very large extent because of that.
Thank you, sir. The one more question was about the CapEx, debottlenecking CapEx for 3 to 3.5 million tons. In terms of the project approvals and order placement, when do we expect that to start? What could be the timeline of delivering on this 3 to 3.5 million tons increase at the existing projects?
Yeah, the time, the time span for this is 3 -3.5 years. We have quite a few projects which we have already sanctioned at the board level. Like we have also sanctioned the increasing the capacity of the blast furnaces at Durgapur and Bokaro, and besides that, having the casters at Rourkela Steel Plant. These are all sanctioned at and also, of course, having stamp charge batteries in some of our plants. All these we have already cleared, in-principle approval has been given by the board, and they are under tendering. Most probably, we should see that by the end of this year, we can place orders for them so that the cash flow, cash outflows for them start from next year.
Would this come after 3 to 3.5 years, or would it come in sort of the phases?
It will come in phases, because, there'll be some, you know, which will be commissioned probably in, let's say, there, there'll be in a span of 1-1.5 years, and some, like a stamp charge battery, which will normally take around about, 30-36 months to have it commissioned. It will come in phases.
Thank you, sir. Thanks for this clarification. I'll go get back in the queue.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Vikash Singh from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir, and thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I just need a little bit clarification. In previous calls, you have always said that you would go by plant-wise plant in terms of new CapEx, and would not try to do everything in a one go. Right now, you just said that from 3 Q and 4 Q, your IISCO plant Bokaro, as well as the debottlenecking CapEx would start. This is like 12, 13 million tons in a one go for running concurrently. Just wanted to understand, is there any change in our approach to CapEx or, we are understanding it differently?
No, no. It's absolutely what you're saying, that we will continue going in phases. See, what happens is, see, the moment we have this... For example, we take this IISCO Steel Plant. IISCO Steel Plant is not coming up immediately, probably even like we get this phase one approval by, say, the end of the third quarter or in the fourth quarter, and we start tendering for that. It's a very big CapEx, where we'll be having 4.5 million tons. The order placing of that will take substantial time. At the same time, Bokaro, where there is a, you can say, a brownfield sort of project, the time play, time for that, for placement of orders will take less maybe.
The maybe Bokaro plant, expansion will start immediately, and the IISCO Steel Plant will start maybe a bit later. Overall, if you see, there'll be a 6-8 month to barely 12 months, lag between all these things. Overall, our objective is to complete all our, the expansion of all the 4 plants by 31.
Understood, sir. Sir, is this debottlenecking plan also includes that the pellet capacities which we wanted to put to use our iron ore points, or those are separate? If, if you can give us some idea about the status of those projects.
Yeah. Actually, we have got our pellet plants. We have envisaged at basically three or four locations now. One is at Bhilai, where we have already placed the order for a pellet plant of 1 million tons per annum capacity on on BOO basis, where the operator will come and install the plant and then give us the pellets. Then we have envisaged one more 4 million ton plant, which will be at Goa mine. This is also on an MDO basis. This we expect that by by you can say by 2024 mid or something, we should be able to place order for the MDO.
When we come to the there is another 2 million ton plant, which we are envisaging at Rourkela Steel Plant. This also is in the tender stages. These are the three plants which are there. When we are having these expansion plans, when we are having these modernizations, we are also contemplating plants in IISCO Burnpur also. Maybe also if you find, we find there is a shortage for pellets, maybe either in Durgapur or Bokaro.
Understood, sir. Since there's one second question, sir, this pertains to our provisional pricing of INR 1,768 crore, which we have taken. This is benchmarked to what period, basically? Just wanted to understand if this pricing is as per with current spot prices or lower or higher, and what's the gap, basically?
Are you talking about the rail prices?
Yes, sir. This, fourth number of, basically.
Okay, okay. I'll just explain it to you. See, what happens is, that, the rail pricing, it is normally, finalized by the railways with us. The time lag between the, current, the financial year for which the prices are to be fixed and the actual price when it is fixed by the railways, there's a time lag of around one and a half years. What happens in between is, that at the beginning of the year, we approach the railways to give us an ad hoc price. When we ask for this ad hoc price, that is the price which is approved by the railways, and based on that, we do our invoicing to them. This amount is basically on that.
For the current year, 2023-2024, they, in the, in the year, in April 2023 or May 2023, you can say, they fixed up a price for 20-23 and 2023, 20-23. That price is still carrying on in 2023-2024. That is why it is mentioned out there.
That's what I understand, sir. I just wanted to know whether this benchmark prices or the ad hoc prices which was given to you is lower than the current spot prices or higher?
It is much lower. It is much lower.
There is a provision for getting extra money into today.
That will straightaway improve our bottom line.
Sure, sir. Sure. That's all from my side. Thank you for answering my question. Bye.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Pallav Agarwal from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon, sir.
Yeah.
Sir, I had a question on the employee cost. This quarter, we've seen a lower employee cost compared to Q4 and even compared to last year. What is the guidance for the full year that we have?
Guidance will be that probably it will be in this range only around, you can say by the year end, we may have it around about INR 11,500 or something like INR 11,500-INR 12,004.
Okay, sir. Probably might be lower than last.
You must have compared it with the last quarter. In the last quarter, normally what happens is we take some, we do the actuarial valuations, and at that point, the actual actuarial valuations are done at that point of time. Sometimes there is a higher impact of that. That was the reason why in Q4 of 2022-2023, the salary and wages were higher to some extent.
Okay, sir. Also on, you know, on the the sales volume for this quarter. You mentioned that demand, you know, continues to remain strong. It seems, you know, we have built up some inventory in the quarter because our saleable steel production was higher than the sales volume. You know, what kind of inventory, finished steel inventory, are we carrying right now?
It's. Yeah, it is around about 1.4 million tons. It's around 1.4 million tons. Always what happens is that, at the year end, there is a lot of emphasis on clearing the stocks, and people are also interested in buying to achieve their annual targets. The inventory normally comes down by the year end. There is a stock build-up. There is a stock build-up of around 3.5 lakh tons in this particular quarter. We are confident that we'll come back to the levels of March 2023, by March 2024.
Sure, sir. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Raashi Chopra from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Just coming back to the realizations, could you just give us the NSR for the flats and longs in the quarter versus the fourth quarter, please?
For this quarter, the flats were in the range of INR 57,700 odd, and the longs were in the range of INR 55,000. For Q4, I'll just try to get the figures, I will give it to you after.
Okay. You indicated that in the current quarter, which is 2Q, the prices, hopefully should be lower by about INR 1,000. The coking coal prices should be lower by about INR 4,500-INR 5,000 on your imported coal side. Essentially, we are talking about an, a reasonable EBITDA put on expansion. Is that a fair assumption?
You can say so.
Okay. Okay, just on the CapEx side, out of the INR 6,800 crore that you mentioned, how much of that is, or do you have, like, a breakdown on how much of it is maintenance, how much of it is going into the debottlenecking?
The maintenance should be around about INR 1,500 crore-INR 2,000 crore, which is normally the maintenance which we have. The next, the remaining should be in debottlenecking. Besides this, this figure, whatever is there, this also includes the expenditure, because this is a target which is fixed by the ministry for us. This is our MOU target, where the expenditure incurred by our JV is also forms a part of it. Our, our proportion of the, the share in the JV, to that extent, the CapEx, whatever is incurred by the JV, is also shown as a part of this. There, there is some component of the JVs also, which is also in the INR 6,800 crore.
Is that a significant number or?
Not much. Not much.
What, what was the CapEx in the first quarter, sir?
920 odd. 920.
Yes, just last question for me. Just in terms of the expansion, for the moment, there is sweating over 3, 3.5 million tons. IISCO, 4.5 million tons, 3 million tons at Bokaro, right? That's what's in the pipeline.
Yeah.
Okay, thank you. That's it from me.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Aditya Welekar from Axis Securities. Please go ahead.
Let this be the last question, please.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity, sir. In terms of these expansion projects that we are planning, any thoughts on raw material integration means particularly on coking coal? The proportion of backward integration, will it remain the same currently what we have, or you are planning to explore more in terms of coking coal exploration, as we go for higher steel production targets in, in the coming decade?
See, we have got Katra mine, which is in that Jharia, Jharia belt. The board has cleared the proposal for that, for having it run by an MDO. This is basically a place from where we'll get around about 1.6 to 1.7 million tons of coking coal. This is one area which we are, which we are planning to get additional indigenous coal. Of course, we are also on the lookout of getting much more coal from BCCL, and requesting them to set up washeries or, you know, to have it converted through washeries and supplied to us.
Basically, if you see, our target is around about at least 50%, 20% of indigenous coal in our entire coal mix.
Understood. Sir, the next question is, from a, as we are going for a CapEx intensive phase again, so from a capital allocation perspective, any de-leverage in target you have in mind, in the medium to long term?
This time, we expect the balance to come down around about INR 4,000 crore. INR 4,000. We are expecting that much. The thing is that, of course, it again depends entirely on how the coal costs move during this quarter and also the NSR. Otherwise, we are optimist that we should bring it down by INR 4,000-INR 500.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question of our question and answer session due to time constraints. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ashish Kejriwal for closing comments.
Yeah. Thank you. I understand, there was a shortage of time, and three, four people are still in the queue. I'll request them to reach out to us or, to investor relations in SAIL for the, for the question. Any op- any closing remarks that you want to give?
It's just that the company remains committed towards improving operational efficiencies. With the markets expected to be more benevolent in the coming quarters, I'm hopeful that the good times await us and our investors. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of Nuvama Wealth Management, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.