APL Apollo Tubes Limited (APLAPOLLO) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to APL Apollo Tube's Q4 and FY26 Earning Conference Call hosted by MK Global Financial Services Ltd. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinion, and expectation of the company as on date of this call. These statements are not the guarantee of future performance and involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the lesson-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. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Akhilesh Kumar from MK Global Financial Service Limited. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Kumar.

Good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome the management and thank them for this opportunity. We have with us today Rahul Gupta, Director, Deepak World Director Operations, Anubhav Gupta, Chief Strategy Officer, and Chetan Khandelwal, Chief Financial Officer. I shall now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Thanks, Achillesh. Thanks for hosting us. And we also have our Chairman, Managing Director, Mr. Sanjay Gupta, on the call. So good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining in. We hope you have reviewed the results and we'll now walk you through the key highlights for the quarter four FY26. It was such an exciting quarter with the roller coaster ride. Things looked so good till 28th of February, and then the Middle East crisis started, which impacted our performance towards the end of the financial year. But despite that, we could pull off with very strong performance for the quarter four FI26. And if you look at the full year results as well, key highlights being number one, 9% increase in our quarterly volume on YY basis, beta per ton at upward of 5,500 rupees per ton for the quarter four, our 37% ROC for the full year, closing FI26, negative working capital In today's environment, the way things are changing, it's becoming very difficult to To predict sales volume on a month-on-month basis, since the war started, there have been a lot of upsides and downsides for the global economy and the Indian economy, which is impacting our business in a lot of ways. Number one being the shortage of raw material steel from From the Indian mills and also the global supply chain got disrupted. Our Dubai operations are operating at 40% utilization right now because of the ongoing crisis there. Then there is a fear of price correction in the romptill prices because steel prices have gone up so much in the last three, four months. So there is a destocking from our channel partners Energy crisis in India did impact our volumes in the month of March, and things have got stabilized, but then there is always a sword which can come up and, like, which can again impact at all the shortage of fuel, et cetera, in the country. And, of course, because of heat and elections, there was labor shortage also for the time being, which also impacted So, our focus right now is to protect our profitability and margins. When we know that volume prediction becomes challenging in this environment, because the APL of Holo is the market leader and because of our very strong brand positioning, we are able to We are able to improve our margins significantly. And this is what we demonstrated in our March numbers as well. Despite the April month being slow in terms of volume, this beginning of May is also kind of similar to what trend we saw in April. But in terms of profitability, in terms of EBITDA per turn, we are doing much better than what we have ever guided for. So, we will try to protect our full-year target numbers in terms of absolute EBITDA, which we had guided in our previous call. And hopefully, things will become better as we move forward. But given the current atmosphere, our focus is on profitability rather than just pushing volumes. And our long-term plan of 8,000,000 capacity by EPA28 remains totally on track. Our KPX commitments, new land acquisition, new product development, distribution enhancement in East India, that everything remains on track so that whenever things recover, we are quickly able to recover Thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

Our first question comes from the line of Neha from Novama Wealth Management.

Please go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon, team. I mean, good morning, team. Just a couple of questions from my end. Firstly, you said Dubai is operating at around 40% utilization. Just wanted to take an update on galvanized tube because last time you were facing some gas shortages. How is the operating level at this point of time in those color-coded as well as galvanized tubes?

So, Sneha, see, I mean, the domestic operations, they were majorly hit for a few weeks in month of March. Then, obviously, things became a bit easy in terms of gas availability, and our plants also moved to alternate fuels. So, things have improved significantly. But, yes, like I said, there is always a sword hanging, okay, when the crisis can again hit the industries. So, I would say, like, because of that fear factor, we would be operating at 80-85%. If we know that crisis is fully gone, then, of course, there could be 15-20% increase in the production from the current levels.

Understood. And Anupaf, you also said about the demand weakness or probably de-stocking. Could you actually bifurcate that into whether it's the actual demand weakness on the ground and has government spending actually picked up in any way or is it the mere de-stocking which is taking place And, you know, we are short, short, you know, looking at a rebound here in terms of demand. So that's one, and any changes in the guidance because of the current situation that you may want to give up.

Good morning, Suneha. Sanjay, this side. Suneha, this type of atmosphere, we can't say this is a de-stopping or this is a demand slowdown. This takes some time to analyze these things. But whatever we give the yearly guidance in terms of volume and the profitability, I think volume full of openness can happen due to the current scenario. But if volume is open, we are trying to keep our margin intact. Margin increase is time. We are not focusing on our volume, we are focusing on margin. When the atmosphere is good, still shortage in the country will Thank you.

Thank you for taking my question.

Sir, one question, I think, obviously, guidance is difficult to give in the current scenario,

but if we look at realizations and obviously the EBITDA pattern, how are we looking at that, you know, given HRC prices have also gone up, but, you know, the risk from Patra also remains, you know, to sort of take away some volumes. So how are we managing the margin bit in this scenario, even though volumes are slightly volatile right now?

First, the paper segment, I'm also talking about the last call also, that the paper segment has reduced the volume in the segment, the test volume has less than 30 percent. Thank you.

Okay. And what is driving this margin? Mainly, is it better realizations that is driving it?

Mainly, you can say that market leadership, product innovation, and supported by the shortage of steel also. Got it.

Got it.

And so, one last question. I think, CAPEX, absolute amount, how much are we expecting to spend in FY27?

So, our target is 5-600 crore, especially early capex, total our capex plan pending for 8 million ton is around 14-15 hundred crore capex plan total pending, so next 2-2 and a half year, we will complete it in the next 2-2 and a half year, for 8 million ton.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Vikas Singh from ICSA Securities, please go ahead.

Good morning, sir, and thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a decent set of numbers in a very challenging term. I just wanted to understand the sustainability of 5,500 ton margin going forward, considering that the patra and the primary gap is higher, and this quarter you would have benefited from the shortage of material in the galvanized segment. So, what, and plus, Dubai is also not picking up. So, could you give us a little bit more insight into this?

I can't say anything right now. But 5,000 to 5,500, we are quite sure now in the future, we will continue with this margin.

Sir, any portion of the inventory gains would have been involved in this because the prices rise so sharply?

Pending orders, OEMN export, pending order, so I can say that free inventory is a free inventory of your 14 days, so there is a gain and a loss.

In the past, we have seen when the prices rise so quickly, we usually had a problem securing the raw material, so anything, that sort of problem you are facing right now? Also, considering that some of the capacities would have been curtailed, like Archulamittal.

So, we are also trying to push our volume. Let us see, too early to say that what will happen, but I doubt about the government and the guideline I have no doubt.

Notice, the last capital allocation policy is the question of our cash generation, so what will we increase? How will we increase the dividend? So, we can expect good dividend going forward for this year.

I can say yes.

That's all for my friend, and all the best for you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and one on their touch room telephone. A next question comes from the line of Bharat Shah from BCS Capital Ideas Limited. Please go ahead.

Namaskar, Sanjay. Namaskar, Bharat, bhai.

Namaskar. Namaskar. I have been thinking about the gap now.

Sanjay Ji, first of all, most delighted this quarter results. More than the quantum of the growth, it is the outstanding quality of the growth, which is really, really impressive, I must say. I think the focus on the profit pool, focus on maintaining the hygiene and strength of the sales, which has been there for the last several quarters, is finally showing up in a remarkable green and have operating results. But what really impressed me was end of December quarter, our net cash on the balance sheet was 550 crore. And end of March 26, it is 1,510 crore or whatever, which means 1,000 crore almost cash has been added in a single quarter. While profits have been net profit of 350 crore in the quarter, but net 10% on the balance sheet has been almost 1,000 crore. I think this is truly remarkable. Thank you, Baba. Thank you. Anupam, would you like to throw light on that?

Sure, Bharat Bhai. So, there are two, three factors. One is that during our Q3 call, we had said that we are taking some steps to further rationalize our inventory churn. Okay, so some of the SQs we wanted to start manufacturing at a single plant rather than being spread out, which leads to inventory holdup, raw material inventory holdup at multiple plants. So that strategy actually worked pretty well, where we could We could almost reduce our absolute inventory in terms of tonnage by 30,000-40,000 tons. I mean, if you look at the inventory levels as at 31 December and 31 March in absolute value, there is a 250 crore reduction, despite the fact that seal prices went up. So you can imagine that in terms of absolute volume, the reduction is much more. So that strategy of inventory rationalization actually worked. And yes, there were some better payment terms from the creditors that also helped our cash flow generation. And then, yes, like you said, 350 crore of cash flow generation for the quarter four, which helped in kind of filing above the cash.

No, truly remarkable. I must say this, and the whole team deserves congratulations because the single quarter cash addition of 1,000 crore is a really, really remarkable number, and even also a lot has happened in a quarter. I mean, these days, a lot happens every day. So, in a quarter, so many things have happened, and the business has delivered. This is really remarkable. The target after the residual 500 crore liability, once they are retired, maybe in the first quarter or so, in the current quarter, I think the target to reach negative working capital remains intact, right?

That's right. Okay.

And finally, when you say the year in entirety, the targets remain intact. So, just to refresh my memory on that, are we saying about 20% volume growth, which, if I'm not mistaken, we were...

I tell on the last note, 15 to 20% growth, and 20 to 25% EBITDA growth, and 25 to 30% PACT growth.

Okay, fantastic. Okay, so that is the guidance that we are talking about.

Yes, yes, yeah. I think that we are targeting 15%, but margin point of view, we are very confident that we can achieve much better.

Absolutely. I think that focus on maintaining and enhancing actually the quality of the performance rather than just the control.

This is our main focus area.

Yeah, it is really remarkable, and 40% plus ROC, which I think will go even higher until fiscal 27, net cash balance fee, and yet, giving global size addition to the capacity, and through the challenging time, achieving all that, truly remarkable. Hearty congratulations, Sanjay Jai.

Thank you, Bharat Bhai.

Thank you, sir. Our next question comes from the line of Akshay from AK Investment.

Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my question, and first of all, congratulations for the great set of numbers. Sir, my question is currently, for the application-wise, our segment, housing is contributing the maximum at 64%, and the second number is the commercial buildings, and the third number is infrastructure, 13%. So, over the next 2-3 years, do we expect that infrastructures and commercial buildings will be higher due to the government effects and all these things?

So, definitely there should be some improvement in infrastructure and commercial. Now, commercial has been doing pretty well for last 2-3 years, so that mix continues to improve. Infrastructure from the government side has been on slowdown for 2 years. That's why the residential sales mix improved in the overall pie. Yes, we do expect government to start spending heavily, and if it does, there could be 2-3% improvement in the mix on the infraside, otherwise housing will keep on taking the lead.

Okay, sir. All right. And the rest of the questions have been answered. Thank you so much and all the best.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question, may I press star and watch. Our next question comes from the line of Darshan Mehta from Dalit Capital. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks, thanks for giving me the opportunity. So my first question was, can you provide us a share of SGPM to overall volumes in Q4?

So it's between 8 to 10, it's between 8 to 9%.

8 to 9% of total volumes, right? The total volume, yes. Okay, okay, not general products, total volumes, yeah. And so, also our other expenses, I think, have grown 13% QOQ. So, just wanted to know, is there any specific reason for this, or this is in line with normal operating activity?

So, there are two, three things here. One is the freight cost. The outward freight cost was a bit higher in the quarter four, okay, on QOQ basis because there was a shutdown of our operations in a few plants, right, because of gas shortage. So, we had to feed the markets from the other plants. That's why the outward freight was a bit higher. And secondly, we did some running expenses in the quarter four. So, that was higher on QOQ basis. These are the two main factors.

Okay. Okay. And just wanted to understand, let's say, let's say if the war had not broken, but still, let's say we would have seen the same increase in steel prices, the sporadic rise that we have seen in steel prices between Q3 to now. So, in that scenario, could we have made EBITDA per ton in excess of 5,500? Because why I am coming on this question is, you would have lost some volumes. So, that means that operating units would not have really kicked in in your numbers. But still, you were able to make 5,500. So, just wanted to understand, is this purely because of lower HRC price that you would have seen in your inventory that has actually kicked in EBITDA per ton or is there anything else?

So, Darshan, see, I mean, during our quarter three call, we had guided for around near about 1 million ton of sales volume in quarter four with 5,300, 5,500 per ton EBITDA, okay, for the full quarter. Till 28th Feb, we were pretty much on track to achieve these numbers, and when the crisis started, then this whole disruption started to hurt the operations in Middle East, in India, because of gas shortage, and then in steel shortage, and steel price hike. So, yes, I mean, if war had not started, we would have met our guidance, which we had given in the quarter three.

I understand. Irrespective of the rising steel price that we have seen. So, I am not talking about Q4. Let's say even in Q1, assuming steel prices are where they are currently, and do we think that in terms of what to…

It was pretty high.

Understood. Understood over there. Understood. Fine.

Thanks. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Amit Murarka from Access Capital. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Good morning. Just wanted to understand your market share movements. I believe these kind of disruptions that we are seeing, let's say the issue around fuel availability, around metal availability, Is it fair to say that this is structurally positive for you, wherein you gained market share from the unorganized players?

So, Amit, which we did, definitely, okay, like we have demonstrated this similar frames during COVID times, okay, the industry leaders, the strong players, they always benefit from the, like, disruptions which impact the overall industry. So, yes, I mean, that's the resilience of our business model that we can maneuver our strategy based on the conditions which keep on coming and going. But, yes, I mean, at the same time, we wish that things become back to normal so that whatever guidance we have given for the full year, we are smoothly able to achieve that.

I wanted to understand more the market behavior, honestly, yeah. So, like, we have seen in other industries also generally high inflation sometimes also lead to downtrading and actually some gains to the unorganized players. So, in that context, I wanted to understand, like, is this current situation that is positive for you on a structural basis or would you see or fear some downtrading to happen because of the high inflation?

See, I mean, Amit, see, this disruption is not going to stay for more than, like, six months, okay? I mean, any expert you talk about, people keep on saying that it's been two months.

No, it was earlier two weeks, honestly, so it's been stretching quite a bit, so, yeah, we don't know.

Yeah, we don't know. Yeah, so if it is for, say, four months put together, two months have been passed and another two months, Then, whatever benefit we could get, we have already achieved that, right, in terms of market share gains, in terms of pricing power, in terms of margin improvement. Okay, so, but yes, if it goes beyond, like, four months, right, so then, obviously, the weaker players, right, they may not be able to run their plants because of gas shortage. Obviously, larger players have access to resources. We have seen that in other industries. Similarly, building materials. So, yes, I mean, whenever disruption takes place, stronger companies, larger companies, organized players, they will definitely benefit at the cost of weaker players. So, yes, I mean, to answer your question, if things get wrong, like more than what anyone is expecting, Then, obviously, the benefits will keep on accruing more and more for stronger players.

Got it. Got it. That's all for me. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. Am I audible?

Yes, you are.

Yeah, congratulations to the team for a good set of numbers. My first question pertains to, you know, the inventory, which has come down significantly, I just wanted to understand the sustainability of the current level, or is it like this was also an impact of Sanjay's coffee, given the turmoil?

Rajesh, Sanjay Ji's mission is to bring it further down. That's what he has given mandate to the relevant team, to keep on bringing inventory levels down and down and down. So, yes, I mean, whatever we have achieved as of March 2026, it is highly sustainable.

Great. That's really nice to hear. And on the EBITDA front, Senjana mentioned around 20-22% EBITDA growth, and in which you are factoring close to 15% for the volume growth and margin expanding north, around that close to 5,500. Is this understanding correct? For FY27, our

volume growth is very clear, we are targeting 15 to 20 percent, EBITDA growth is 20 to 25 percent, and fat growth is 25 to 30 percent.

Yes, yes. Great.

So, I just wanted to understand the structure of… Rajesh, in this scenario, you can call the lower side, 15, 20, 25. If it feels better, you can take up the higher side.

Great. So, I just wanted to understand this 5,500 or rupees which works out to me at least on the evita margin. So, you know, what would drive this? Is it the better product mix or… Better product mix.

Costs were bigger because of the low value, but this is a better product mix.

Better product mix is what will drive up your margins. And sir, on the April, you mentioned that the volume growth has been muted or volume has been muted. What does this mean? This is low single-digit growth you're indicating or lattice? How should we do it in the referendum and may volume come in? And in general, what is the construction level impact?

Thank you. So, we are now a little bit aggressive in the market. So, we can do 3 lakh ton, and June, we are back on track with 3.5 lakh ton.

Super. And so, this margin performance of mass quarter, you believe that this could be repeated in... Great, great. And lastly, you just wanted to, you know, that you mentioned that the surplus cash beyond whatever, you know, short-term liabilities you want to reduce, after that, whatever surplus is there, you will use that to either increase dividend or do a buy well. Yes. Great, sir. That's all from my side. All the best. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. Next question comes from the line of Onkar Gungurde from Shri Investment. Please go ahead.

Good morning, sir. My question is regarding whatever the commentary you have given. It looks like there are more headwinds than the tailwinds currently, given whatever the situation on the ground is. That's the correct understanding?

Yes, of course. I mean, whatever is happening globally and in the domestic markets, yes, you have associated pretty right.

So, I mean, you must, I mean, I have to say then this is only and only because of the war-like situation, right? Because before the war broke out, you were quite bullish. I mean, in fact, you raised the guidance as well in the quarter three.

We are not reducing our guidance as of now, right, for the absolute EBITDA. Okay, so yes, I mean, like we were discussing on the previous call, every disruption brings some opportunities for the better companies, and we try to grab that in our favor.

So yeah, like another question regarding this was like, now you have a good amount of cash with the financial strength you have on the balance sheet, Like, how can you capture more and more market share from the competitors, given the current situation? Because they must be also suffering quite a lot. If the biggest player is suffering, I mean, giving a flattish kind of growth or low single-digit kind of growth, so their situation would be even worse. So how can you use the financial strength to gain even more market share from competitors?

So this is what, if you look at our market share in FI26 versus FI27, FI25, Our market share is improved to 60%, 65% from 55%, okay? And this can continue to improve if disruption continues to hurt our competition more than the larger tier like Apollo.

So, I mean, what kind of steps you are taking to gain that kind of market share, even the strength you have financially?

So, one is the capacity building, okay? The CAPEX is fully funded from internal cash flows. We were not present in East India much, right? So putting up two plants in East India will help us compete intensively with the local smaller players there. That results we will start seeing in next one to two years as our both plants become operational. Second, we are building capacities for lighter structures in South India, where, again, we believe that we can gain more market share if we increase our capacities there. So our new Bangalore plant, which we call it Malu 2, that we are going to build up over the next two years. So that, again, is on the back of strong balance sheet, where my large capex will be funded from operating cash flows. So, balance sheet can only help fund capex without leveraging. So, this is what we are building, capacity building. And second, branding also with better margins. We will spend a bit extra on branding this year, which will again help us gain market share.

So, this capacity building exercise you are saying is like more of a mid to long term kind of thing, right? But immediately in the short term, like what you are doing in this war-like situation to gain from the competitors, given the strength you have financial.

So, mainly working on SQ management and branding. These are the two things we are doing.

Okay, I mean, like more dealerships or something like that, you are doing anything with the dealers you are doing?

Dealership in existing territories are fully leveraged. I mean, there is no scope to add new dealers in the existing territories. New markets where we are going, there we are developing new networks.

Okay, all right. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question, I press star at 1. Our next question comes from the line of Ranjit Sivaram from Mahindra, Manulife, Mitchell. Please go ahead.

I just wanted to understand, like, was there any impact on this VG shop page or anything in your overall operation?

Can you be a bit louder, please?

Yeah, am I audible now?

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, was there any impact on this LPG shortage in our business and do you have any backup plan for that?

So definitely in the month of March, two of our product categories in India, the rust-proof pipes and coated products, they faced temporary shutdowns at few locations. So, our plants moved to alternate fuel. There was disruption of 10 to 15 days. Yes. So, there was definitely some disruption because of that.

Okay. And going ahead, do you see any, what is your backup plan that you have now kind of mitigated the thing?

Right. So, alternate fuels have helped the capacity ramp up at those locations. It's just that, I mean, that fear of energy crisis coming back is always there. Okay, so things have become much better than what they were for those two weeks in month of March. But still, because of fear factor, we would say that we are operating at 90% level, not 100% level.

Okay, so the 15 to 20% growth guidance which you are giving is happening in this, right?

Of course, yes. I mean, unless things become really worse from here, if there is shortage of fuel to run vehicles, cars, automobiles, then it will be an extraordinary situation which will make us reconsider our business plan.

And in the near-demand industries where you supply these, will there be also such issues in terms of shortage and do you think the demand will be enough to support this kind of a growth or is it related to market share gains?

It will be a combination of both, right? I mean, our material goes at the construction sites, right? So construction sites got halted for multiple reasons, labor shortage, all raw material prices at construction sites went up, steel, tiles, plumbing pipes, paints, right? So many construction materials. So contractors, they try to delay the purchases. Once things settle down, contractors will renegotiate pricing with their customers. Things will start coming back on track. So then this pent-up demand will come back and we are hoping that we will be able to take share from that and that's why we are giving that 15-20% volume guidance. Yes, of course, if things become further worse from here, okay, then we'll see, then we'll evaluate again. But right now, talking to, like, whatever is happening around us, it looks like things should settle down quickly, and we will be able to achieve our volume guidance.

Our next question comes from the line of Devarshi Jani, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Thank you for your opportunity. I'll just one thing about the value-added system related question. You have reported the value-added sales mix of 25% in Q4. It's a downly down slightly from 57 in Q3. Despite this, if it goes to a record high, it's like a 5525. Can you bridge this gap? Was it driven by the inventory gas or a better trade in the general category, which saw a jump to 3405 EBITDA per ton or a specific cost efficiency at Raipur plants?

So there were two reasons. Number one is the APL Apollo brand premium, which led to better pricing in general category. Okay, if you remember that we had increased the pricing for Apollo general segment in January of 2025, okay, by almost Rs. 1500 per ton. So that increase, that price hike is straight away coming to our EBITDA, okay, for the general product. That's why from Rs. 2000 per ton EBITDA level, we are at Rs. 3500 per ton plus level in general. So, this is the main driver of the profitability. Okay. And the second, yes, of course, cost rationalization steps, we keep on taking 24 by 7. So, some measures keep on delivering results. Okay.

So, my next question is related to ESG and decarbonization. So, now that you have achieved the SBTI validation, what is the incremental capix required annually to meet a 25% emission reduction started by 2030? Will it impact manufacturing costs per ton significantly?

No, in fact, whatever, I mean, whatever steps we take for better ESG compliance, it actually results in lower costs. For example, you invest into renewable energy, right? That brings down your overall cost per ton, power cost per ton, right? So, in fact, we are experiencing opposite, that you invest into ESG compliance, it actually end up yielding better results for you in terms of cost optimization.

Okay. Thank you so much for answering, sir. The rest of the question already answered. And thank you all. Thank you for the opportunity, and best of luck for next product, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.

Just a follow-up question, given the current still prices, you know, how would be the realisation number looking sequentially, Q1 versus Q4, basis current prices?

Rajesh, we'll have to come back. Rajesh, can you please repeat?

Yeah, sure. I'm saying basis of current still prices, which are significantly higher and have been rising even in April. And, you know, in this scenario, I'm sure not everything would have been captured in Q4 numbers in realization. So what sort of price increase on an average, you know, is your sales versus Q4 average?

So prices like, okay, so if you look at the HR coil prices, okay, in the market, they are up by around from March to May, okay. Or I would say from April to May, they are up by around 3,000 rupees per ton.

Yeah, so that much price tag we took, Rajesh. Okay, so that is what would be reflected in your real investment and cost number. Cost, yes. Okay, okay. And, you know, just last, I just wanted to stress on this inventory gain. I believe somewhere during the call you mentioned, we have 10 to 15 days of finished good inventory, you know, obviously, which is quite keen. What finished good inventory, Rajesh?

Raw material, raw material inventory is 15 days.

Raw material, okay. So, HRC rather. So, you know, the HRC prices, which is going up, would you have to mark up your inventories and would have that led to some inventory gain in Q4?

So, Rajesh, what happens is that since our overall inventory churn is less than 30 days, and in India, steel prices are revised once in a month, okay, so by the time next cycle comes up, we are already out of our previous cycle. Okay. So, that's why the mark-to-market is not significant. It's like very, very minuscule. If my net inventory days are higher than 30 days, then there will be mark-to-market.

Understood. So, basically, none of your numbers would have any pad up of inventory. So, in case, if steel prices were to again come back, you won't have any issues over this.

That's right. That's right. It only happens when there is a significant drop in steel prices. Sometimes, like what we have seen, like there will be like a time when steel prices are revised twice in a month. Okay, which happens once in a decade. Okay, then there could be like, you know, some gains or losses. Okay, which would be significant. Otherwise, 11 out of 12 months, seal prices are revised once in a month. So, that doesn't hurt us. Agreed.

Yeah. Great. That's all from my end. Thank you and all the best. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you.