Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Vardhman Special Steels Limited Q3 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amit Sharma from Adfactors PR. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Sharma.
Thank you, Renju. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of the entire management of Vardhman Special Steels Limited, I thank all the participants present on the call, and I wish you a very warm welcome to be present here for the Q3 and 9M FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call. To guide us through the results today, we have with us the senior management team of the company, represented by Mr. Sachit Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Sanjeev Singla, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. R.K. Rewari, Executive Director, and Ms. Soumya Jain, Executive Director. Before we begin, please note that this conference may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as of the date of this call. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict.
We will commence the call with an opening speech by Mr. Sachit Jain, followed by the financial highlights by Mr. Sanjeev Singla. After this, we will open the forum for the Q&A. With that, I now hand over the call to Mr. Sachit. Sir, over to you, sir. Thank you.
Okay.
Amit, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a very good afternoon to you on behalf of my team and myself, and thank you for showing your interest, continued interest in our company. Last quarter has been very, very interesting. We've had good volumes, but price reduction has happened primarily because of lower prices of raw material. However, the trend has changed in raw material prices, and raw material prices started rising in the last week of December and continued to do so in the beginning of January. The impact of this in terms of prices, some impact may come in the fourth quarter. Otherwise, first quarter of next year, the impact of this cost increase will come in. Overall, availability of raw material continues to be fine. Demand continues to be strong.
And the other significant events have been that we have renewed the third technical assistance agreement with Aichi for the next three years, as well as we have announced our forging project. We had earlier indicated we will decide by January. As things happen, we decided we had a special board meeting in the month of December, and we announced our forging project. Now, a little bit about Aichi's forging abilities. Aichi, as you know, is a Toyota Group company, which is very strong in special steels and automotive steels, as well as they are also very strong in forging. Almost their entire production, and they are the largest forging company in Japan, and almost their entire production is consumed totally by Toyota Group, so partly Toyota and partly by Toyota Group companies.
So all the Toyota manufacturing systems, all the production systems, all those capabilities are part of their skill set, and those capabilities are going to be transferred to the new plant as we are putting it up. The target date of commissioning of this plant is going to be July of 2028, so one year before our new steel plant. So the forging business will start production before the new steel plant. The investment proposed is INR 475 crores, which includes land and buildings. Some extra buildings will be made, but most of this CapEx would also take care of the second line, which will come in. So the second line of forging, which will come in, will take lesser investment than this one. As far as Vardhman Steel is concerned itself, the reheating furnace CapEx is in progress.
It is likely to get commissioned by March, and we should get the full benefits of it from mid-April onwards. So let's say May onwards, we'll get the full benefits of the new reheating furnace. Two benefits that we are expecting from this is, one, a large part of our job work outsourcing will go away and will come in-house. Second, we will be able to improve our yield, and therefore that will add to the bottom line. And third, we will also improve our servicing to the market, which will lead to inventory reductions as we go along. And of course, the entire job work will not go away. Some job work happens because of our bigger size billets, which we don't have the rolling capability, and some job work, excuse me, happens for our bright bar.
Really, the profit that we are passing to our vendors and the transportation costs to our vendors for job work, that and our relative better efficiencies, that is going to be addition to the bottom line, not the entire job work item. If you're expecting that kind of increase happening, it will be part of that job work, which is going to be the increase. As regards the greenfield steel plant, land purchase, we are in the final stretch now. We should be able to complete the purchase of land, all goes well, in this quarter. Discussions with machinery suppliers are going on full swing. We hope to come out with a very robust plan, and we are sticking with our date of July 29 for the commissioning of the new steel plant. The new steel plant is expected to have a capacity of about 500,000 tons.
We believe we'll be able to produce more from it than the stated capacity of 500,000 tons. As of now, it's too premature to say what we think we can produce from here, but definitely more than 500,000 tons. The second, with the new plant coming in, we are going to add to our product mix portfolio. Currently, we are restricted to smaller sizes and medium sizes. For larger sizes, which is 90 and above, which is required for some crankshaft materials and for some specialized gears and for products required for commercial vehicles and off-highway vehicles, we don't have those capabilities. In the new plant, we will have those capabilities. In addition, as of now, we have almost 100% automotive steel business. We don't have the technical facilities to produce non-automotive steels.
Some of you who've read my annual reports to the shareholders in my annual reports of 2016, 2017. I have been expressing my desire to get into other specialized steels apart from auto steel. With the new plant, we will have those technical capabilities into the machinery park, which will enable us to get into those areas. Just for your attention, the non-automotive space is a very vast space. I'm not saying we get into all these spaces, but I'm just to give you an idea of what it covers: bearings, railways, defense, aerospace, tool and die steels, oil and gas. A few others: the turbines and the shafts for shipping, shafts for windmills. There are the massive areas which are non-automotive. In fact, globally, the non-automotive steel segment is 60% of special steel.
In India, it's lower, and in Vardhman, it's close to zero. So in the next 10 years, we expect to have a reasonable non-automotive steel portfolio too. This will entail, of course, a lot more thinking, and we'll be ready for some announcements maybe in a year, year and a half's time. But just now, the focus is optimizing the current steel plant to take it up to 300,000 tons of billet making and 270,000 tons of finished product. The second is the new forging plant, and third is the project implementation of the new steel plant. And as I said, management is starting to look for avenues to create technical capabilities into the machinery park to be able to make the non-automotive steels. As regards the solar plant, we are again in the final stretch now. As we had shared earlier, the plant has been ready since June.
The connectivity to the substation was a problem as some farmers had gone to court in between. All those cases have been resolved, and the connection, the last tower has been put, the stringing has been done. So in the next week, 10 days, everything going well, we should have solar power coming in, which will reduce our carbon footprint from 0.73 to 0.48, as well as lead to cost savings on account of the solar power, which is going to be cheaper than our existing power. Anyway, that's a very long update from my side, one of my longest. And I'll leave it to Singla, our CFO, to take you through some numbers, and then we're open to Q&A.
Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Happy New Year. This is the first call in 2026. So on financials for the quarter three, Y on Y basis, we have achieved 55,000 tons of sales as against 52,600 tons if we compare with rolled versus rolled, leaving aside the billet part. And on terms of revenue, it is INR 430 crores as against INR 426 crores, a marginal increase only, because as Sachit sir has explained, it has been mitigated by a decline in prices. EBITDA for the quarter is INR 56 crores as against INR 42 crores in the corresponding quarter of last year, registering an increase of 34%. So this EBITDA per ton is 10,200 per metric ton. In this quarter and the previous quarter, in other income, normally we are having the income from electric duty exemption and GST refund from the state government, which is operational income.
But this quarter, we have interest income received on unutilized funds which were invested by Aichi. And secondly, the interest accrued income which has been booked by us on the advance deposit given to the PSPCL, Punjab State Power Corporation. So these two incomes, if we exclude, then our EBITDA per ton is INR 9,263 for the quarter. And similarly, for the nine months ended, the EBITDA excluding these incomes is INR 8,600 per ton. And as a result, for the nine months, our total PAT is INR 88 crores as against INR 73 crores in the corresponding nine months of the last year. So this is the ever-highest PAT, INR 88 crores for the nine months. And hopefully, after completing this fourth quarter, we will be registering ever-highest profit for the full year also. So that's all on the performance. And now I request for the question-answer session.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone 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 comes from the line of Amit Agicha with HG Hawa & Co. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. Sir, the INR 475 crore forging and machining CapEx, can you just explain the expected peak revenue potential, EBITDA margin, and ROC from this facility?
Those details will come in, but once both the lines are established, we should be able to get a decent return on capital employed.
Sir, second question, what will be the sustainable EBITDA pattern that investors should model, excluding the non-operational income?
We have said that for this year, it was 7,000 - 10,000, and from next year, 8,000- 11,000.
This is 7,000- 10,000, next year 8,000 - 11,000 per ton?
Correct.
Yeah. I'll join back.
26.
Yeah. I'll join back. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I'll join back with you. I have no questions. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Nishita with Sapphire Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello. Yeah. So I just wanted to ask, with all of the CapEx that we are doing, and so how do we see our revenue growth in the next three to four years? And also on the EBITDA front, what margins do we see going forward, and what will be the sustainable margin in, say, once all the capacity is commissioned?
So the sustainable margin as of now will remain at INR 8,000-INR 11,000 a ton. Aspirationally, we have said we like to target 12,000, but we are not ready to reach that level as of now. And once the capacities are fully commissioned, we will have about 8 lakh tons, roughly, of steel production, which will mean about 720,000 tons of finished steel. So this year, we are targeting about 215,000 tons. So we will go up more than three times from the current level as far as steel production and sales is concerned. In addition, there would be forging business coming in.
Now, when we say the new steel plant is getting commissioned on July 29, it will take a few years to reach full capacity utilization unless the government's policies on green steel kick in, which is on the anvil, but it is very difficult to predict when it will kick in, but the moment they kick in, then, of course, there will be a very big pull for our materials.
Okay. Understood. Thank you.
In the next three years, we should reach our full potential of 270,000 tons before the new steel plant comes in. From 215,000 this year, in the next three years, we will reach 270,000, 275,000 tons.
225 this year.
Sorry, 225 this year. Pardon me.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of [Amit Aghija] with Edelweiss & Co. Please go ahead.
Before that, just a clarification. Again, if some of you are new out here, we always give our sales in tonnage, not in rupees, because pricing is in the hands of what is a raw material movement. So if prices go up, the sales will go up. If prices come down, the sales will come down. The turnover will come down. Volume is in our control. And this is why we don't look at EBITDA margin as a percentage. We look at EBITDA per ton. So just for clarification, why we are speaking here per ton, and otherwise, what is reported, of course, is rupees. I hope that clarifies our thinking. Yeah. Go ahead, Amit, for your next question.
Yeah. Thank you for the follow-up, sir. So which export geographies are likely to contribute meaningfully?
Export, as we shared earlier, for us, our direct exports, the biggest market is Thailand. And a little bit exports go to the Philippines, a little bit Indonesia, a little bit Malaysia. So all those are tiny bits. So exports primarily, Thailand is 70% of our total exports, more than 70% of our total exports.
Okay.
As far as indirect exports go, which is our steel, which is getting converted into components at the hands of our customers, exports are going primarily to the U.S. and Europe, some partly even to Mexico, because ultimately, again, going to the U.S. as far as. But that is from our customers, customers like Sona Comstar, GNA Axles, and others. So just to give you an idea of that.
Sir, as far as automotive steel is concerned, I think so we are the number one player in India.
I'm sorry, repeat that. As per green steel?
As far as special steel for automotive segment is concerned, I think so we are number one in India.
No. No. No, we are not. So size-wise, JSW would be bigger, and Tata Steel is bigger. In fact, we are amongst the smallest players.
From a market share point of view?
OEM-wise? OEM-wise, I would still say, as far as we were concerned ourselves number two players in terms of width of OEs. So I would consider ourselves the second best player. Too presumptuous to call ourselves the best. Our target, of course, is after the new plant is commissioned, then we should rightfully, in a few years' time, become the number one special steel player in India. Again, just now we are talking only automotive steel.
Sir, I think so I also heard you were thinking about the non-automotive steel as well. What would be the size of that?
In the next 10 years, I've just put a number out here because we're not even there in that business. But in the next 10 years, we expect to be about 30% of our business, just as a rough guidance, I would say. Please take it as just a very rough guidance, but that's what we would like it to be. But it will take some time because just now we don't have the machinery to make it, right? So that knowledge is there. The technical knowledge is there. IT, our partners have the know-how. We have the knowledge. Our own technical people have the knowledge. We just don't have the equipment to make those kinds of products. And the CapEx required for some of those products is not as much. And for some, the CapEx required is higher.
But again, nowhere near the terms of these large CapEx amounts of INR 2,000 crores. So once we do this INR 2,000-crore CapEx, our incremental CapEx is never going to be in that kind of sizes.
Sir, if I can ask one more question?
That is a strong word, but unlikely to be in that kind of size. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead.
Yes. Can I ask one more question?
Can you just get back to the queue? There's nobody else. You can come back.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Aditi Chavan with Deshmukh Securities . Please go ahead.
Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I wanted to ask, is the reheating furnace project on track for Q4 FY26 commissioning, and what are the expected fuel and yield benefits from it?
So it's on track in Q4. It's supposed to be at the shutdown end of February. It may spill over into March and one month or so of stabilization. So which is why I said in the second half of April onwards, we should get full benefit of the reheating furnace. We have not shared the benefits of the reheating furnace, but a couple of the benefits would be I'll give you an idea, and you can do your own calculations. Currently, our billet size is 4.2 m, and you take some end from both sides that are cut as waste, which goes into scrap, and we reuse that scrap. That billet size is going to go up from 4.2 to 5.2 m. So that's where the yield benefit is going to come in.
Also, the yield benefit partly will come in our continuous casting machine because of longer-sized billets, and again, cuts down the burning loss when you cut the billets. In addition to this, because of the quality of the reheating furnace, the kind of reheating furnace, the quality of our product is likely to improve, which should reduce our rework and rejections. Now, we don't have any number in mind as to how much will it reduce. It will definitely improve the quality, and hence, we expect the reduction should the rejections and rework should come down. Those are the two improvements, and it is on the back of projects like this that we have raised the guidance of EBITDA by 1,000. From seven to nine, we've raised the guidance to eight to 11. It's on the back of these kinds of projects.
Okay. Sir, thank you. I got it. I also wanted to ask, the Kocks Block operation has been operational for a whole quarter now. So I wanted to ask what improvements are visible in the premium?
So, yeah, very clearly, we are getting all the benefits that we had envisaged. So the first benefit is the roundness of the bars is better, which enables a superior quality, and especially some of the products that we are trying to be targeting as import substitution from Japanese steels. Now, those products will be better served because of this better roundness. Second, we can give exact diameters, so whatever the customer wants. So normally today, a rolling mill, you have 42, 45, 48. If somebody needs 47.3 he has to take 48 and 0.7 is wasted, and their yields go down. Now, we can give exact to the 0.1. So that's the second advantage. And the third advantage is the changer of size time goes down, which increases our flexibility to give better service to customers.
You will see the impact of that in working capital reduction in the future. Within the next financial year, you'll see, within the first half, the working capital, the finished goods stocks coming down.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor & Company. Please go ahead.
Yeah. No, no, no. Sir, thank you for the opportunity. Hope I'm able to.
Absolutely. Go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, sir.
Go ahead.
Sir, firstly, if you could just explain once again the metrics. Currently, our melting shop is inr INR 3 lakh, and then this will go up to inr INR 5 lakh in two years.
No, no. This capacity will remain at INR 3 lakh. We are applying to the government to increase our license to the Environment Ministry. If we get that license, then the capacity, we believe, can go up in a year's time. We have to make some more CapEx for that. But as of now, please take INR 3 lakh as our capacity. Rolling mill, today, our capacity is 210,000 tons. And this will go up to 270,000 tons from April. So the moment the reheating furnace is commissioned, then the capacity will go up to 270,000 tons. Then we will not have the capacity constraint except for the bigger billets, which is 240 by 260 which our rolling mill does not have the capability to roll those products. These have to go outside for rolling or a double rolling process.
In the new plant, we will not have these limitations. 300,000 tons and 270,000 tons. The 500,000 tons we are talking about is the new plant. The 500,000 tons is the new plant. The new plant will come up by July 29.
Okay. Sir, because I think so in the earlier CapEx. In the April announcement, there was about the new billet production capacity of INR 5 lakh was also announced, I think so in the.
In the new plant.
Yeah. It was in April. Correct.
April, yeah.
Correct.
Yeah. I'm referring to the same announcement that INR 5 lakh tons, which is the billet capacity, will come up by July 29.
Okay. So, sir.
Currently, our cap.
In addition to the current INR 3 lakh.
Currently.
Okay.
It's a new plant.
So sir, just to have one more basic understanding, our end product, which we are selling to our customer, is the bright bars. And how do we label that?
What is bright bars? Black bars and bright bars. Black bars. So we call it hot rolled bars. So our rolled capacity, as I said, is roughly a little over 270,000 tons. And then because some part goes into bright bar, so our bright bar capacity is about 50,000 tons.
Okay. Sir, in terms of the.
Go ahead.
Yeah, please. Goes down?
Go ahead. No, the capacity goes down if the diameter of the material coming in becomes smaller. If the trend is towards smaller diameter, as currently we see there, then the capacity of 50,000 tons goes down to about 40,000 tons. So it varies between that depending on the product we have.
Okay. Sir, the tonnages which we have done for the nine months, we are now averaging in this 55,000 per quarter. So this will be how we'll be exiting the fourth quarter also in terms of the deliverable schedule?
Around the same figures. As our target is 225,000 tons for this year, and we hope to make that target.
Okay. And sir, how has this tariff part impacted your customers? You did mention name of GNA Axles, and all. They have been exporting to the U.S. So have there been any offtake?
No.
Yeah.
No, there was a reduction in offtake earlier, but there seems to be covering up now. So slowly covering up, which is why we are able to sell what we are able to sell. Our sales haven't gone down. We are on track with our budget.
Okay. I'll try to.
If at all, if we had capacity, we could have sold another 5,000 tons at least.
Okay.
In the full year, not for this quarter.
Not for the quarter. Okay.
This 225 would have gone to 230.
Yep. That's right.
Okay. Sir, I'll join the queue, sir, again. Thank you.
Thank you. Reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Amit Aghija with Edelweiss. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the follow-up once again, sir. Sir, amongst forging, wire rods, and non-automotive segments, which vertical is expected to scale up faster over the next three years or five years?
So forging is coming up in the next one and a half in the next two years. So forging will come up. It's the wire rods and other areas where we are still studying which segments to get into. So we will decide in a year's time roughly as to which segment to enter. So that's further off. So the first thing to happen will be the forging plant. The next thing will be probably the new steel plant, and next would be foray into non-automotive.
Sir, are there any low-margin?
Hello?
Go ahead.
Yeah. Sir, are there any low-margin product lines that the management is considering deprioritizing over time or exiting?
Not really because we are going to be tripling our sales. So when you're tripling your sales, you don't look at exiting any segment.
Thank you, sir. Thank you for answering all my questions, sir. I'll do that for the future. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Samarth with Janak Merchant Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Sir, am I audible?
Yes, Janak. Go ahead.
So, sir, in your opening remarks, you have mentioned that Aichi Forging is the largest forging company, and all production is generally consumed by the Toyota Group companies only. So when we come up with a forging plant in India, will we follow the similar pattern, or will we sell it to other customers as well?
No, no, no, no. We are very clear. We are serving the Indian market. So Indian market, we will.
So for the Toyota and Maruti or everyone else?
Everybody. So primarily in the car segment, that is the first line which is coming is going in the car segment. So Tata, Mahindra. But again, maybe they are served through a Toyota Group company. That's also possible. And then customers like Sona Comstar, all those are part of our target segment.
Sir, can you give any idea about the components, the forging components which you'll be making here?
We are still finalizing all that. In the next six months, we'll give you more idea.
Okay, sir. That's all from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Rohan, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So just building onto the product mix that was discussed sometime earlier, if you could shed some more light on how you see the split in revenue between bright bars and special alloy grades for the next couple of years, FY 2027 and 2028, and if you have any ideal mix in mind, which would be best in terms of our margin profile?
Bright bar is also the same alloys because basically, it is all going into the car segment primarily. Bright bar is basically where a customer is using cold forging technique. When they use cold forging, then they need zero surface quality defect. You do a turning operation before you supply it to the customer. You just remove the one from the surface. It is just a small value addition to the existing black bars. It is not really a different product.
About the special alloy grades, sir?
No, no. All our products are special steel. We are not making any commodity steel.
Got it. No, okay. Okay. So we are not looking at the special alloys as a separate product segment.
No. So what you're talking about is the high alloys, high nickel, high moly, and titanium-based. Those are all what we discuss is a non-automotive process, which will come through the ingot casting route and which will then go into either tool and die steels, aerospace, defense, all those other sectors where we don't have the technical capability, the machinery. It's not very difficult. It's ingot casting route that you put in. It's a process that almost all metallurgists know. Even our organization used to have ingot casting 20 years ago. At that time, continuous casting was seen as an upgrade from ingot casting. And we are now going back to ingot casting because for those very high alloys, you cannot cast them through a continuous casting machine. So ingot route is the route to make those kind of products.
And then for certain absolutely super critical alloys, which go into aerospace, then you require further processing of those, either a billet or bloom that we make or an ingot and do further processing, which is called remelting. So you have electroslag remelting, vacuum arc remelting, or vacuum induction melting. Those are all special processes which are required where the lot sizes are very small and very, very high value alloys and so on. And it's a totally approval-based business.
Okay. Okay.
So that business is what we are examining whether we can get into those businesses. But all that is part of the commoditized or easier non-automotive steels. We might start a bit sooner. But the product that I just described, those kind of products, we are targeting for 2030 or 2032. So it's five, seven I mean, it's about six years away, six, seven years away from now.
Got it.
I'm just giving a futuristic idea. As far as for the purposes of the stock market for analysts to do the valuation models, please don't consider those things. Those are further out of your time horizon.
Got it. Got it, sir. Fair enough. That is what I was looking for, and sir, you spoke a bit about green steel also, so in terms of tangible impact of getting into green steel initiatives, are there any commercial advantages or in terms of getting preference in terms of getting orders? Do we see that sort of advantage?
Yes, so one, there are no commercial advantages as of now. But getting preferential access and so on and getting attention from customers, that has clearly begun more from the European customers, which means either a European OE or an Indian tier one or tier two exporting to Europe. When we talk to customers, there is a lot of excitement. And even our largest car company in India, Maruti Suzuki, has started discussing this more seriously. Other OEs have also started, car OEs particularly, started discussing this. So far, they are not implementing anything. But I have seen one thing: once discussion starts, the implementation is just a question of time. It could be a year or two. It could be three years. It could be five years. I don't know.
And if you ask me, my wish is it doesn't happen before three years because if it happens, we don't have the capacity. So ideally, it should happen four years from now when the new plant is set up, it stabilizes, and then when the demand comes, we are ready to serve the market.
Okay. Fair enough, sir. And sir, it would be fair to say that it's not going to translate into a big difference in terms of premium pricing, but more of a goodwill and a sort of a flagship connotation to it for being one of the green steel suppliers. Would that be accurate, sir?
As of now, yes. But if you ask me, my personal belief, though I will never put that into our forecast and so on because it's all still in the air, my personal belief is the moment the Government of India makes that into mandatory that everyone has to have a minimum percentage of this thing, it will lead to commercial gains also.
Fair enough. Fair enough.
But when will it happen? Three years from now, two years from now, five years from now, ten years from now? I can't say. It depends on Government of India policy. But the fact is this is on the government's agenda, and it is likely to get implemented at some stage. As I said, ideally, four years from now, but who knows when it gets implemented?
Fair enough. Fair enough, sir. Understandable. Thank you for that insight. Just one last question, sir.
This is why we have not included this into any of our forecasts.
Okay. Fair enough, sir. That's well appreciated, sir. Sir, just one last, if you can spare a minute. I missed the early parts of your opening remarks. You may have mentioned this, but for our sake, if you could just shed a little more light on the ongoing CapEx in terms of our new melting shop facility, the status of the modernization projects, and related how the progress is going on that front, sir.
So everything is on track in terms of it's already previously announced CapEx plan. So there is no new CapEx plan. It is the implementation of the early announced CapEx plan. The furnace is already ready, which is the electric arc for the steel-making process is ready to produce 300,000 tons. Today, we don't have the facility to roll it. Now, with the reheating furnace getting commissioned, we will have the capability to even roll the material. Then this next bottleneck comes in terms of non-destructive testing line. That capacity is the next bottleneck, which will get broken by that constraint by June or July. So then even we can produce as much of the high-quality material which needs to be tested on the non-destructive testing line.
Got it, sir. And we...
More and more customers are asking for that. And we will have the capacity by June or July latest of 2026.
Up and running by June or July, sir?
Yes.
Got it. Got it. All right, sir. Okay. Thanks a lot.
That is not a constraint in terms of more production and sales. It is just that it restricts by a small amount, a little bit of product mix which will get released by that time.
Fair enough. Fair enough. Understood, sir. Understood. Thank you so much, and all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor with Kapoor & Company. Please go ahead.
Just a small clarification. You just spoke about June and July. What will be the new product introduction that you were telling the customer?
No. The testing line. There's a testing line, non-destructive testing line. For very high-end users, they need all material to go through non-destructive testing line.
Okay. Okay, so that is more about the product validation.
Yes. Absolutely.
Okay. Okay.
But that will only change the product mix. That is what you are alluding to. That is what the target is also.
Marginally by 1,000 tons a month, kind of a thing. It's a very small impact, but those will be higher margin products.
Sorry, sir.
Not necessarily. Not necessarily. They are more sophisticated products, but depends on pricing and competition in every product. The pricing is sometimes very highly sophisticated products are low-margin products, and sometimes simpler products are higher-margin products.
Correct.
Right, sir. If I have anything, I will ask the IR team for getting in touch later on, sir.
And thank you for the elaborate discussion, sir, which we have and hope for continuity of this thing. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, we have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjeev Singla for closing comments.
Okay. Singla has passed the baton back to me. This is Sachit Jain here. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being here. Really, next year, I'm looking forward to next year because this year has been a year of many, many constraints, and those constraints will be over, and we can start operating freely from next year. This will be a very big edge, advantage. Then our focus on the two projects, both Mr. Rewari and Soumya are fully involved in those projects. That's a very, very exciting time for our company. Thank you very much, and keep on the lookout.
One more thing, interestingly, yes, of course, sorry, I forgot to mention, we are having full support from both our major shareholders, Aichi Steel, which has increased their stake to 24.9%, and have expressed their willingness to invest more money as and when required. Also, Vardhman Group has expressed their willingness to add to the capital whenever we need capital to raise for the new projects. Anyway, thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you. On behalf of Vardhman Special Steels Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.