Tata Chemicals Limited (TATACHEM) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q4 and FY26 earnings conference call of Tata Chemicals Limited. Please note that this conference is being recorded. 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 this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchstone phone. We have with us today. R. Mukundan, Managing Director and CEO, and Nandkumar Thirumalai, Chief Financial Officer of Tata Chemicals Limited. Before we begin, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. I now invite R. Mukundan to begin proceedings of the call.

Thank you. Thank you, Darwin. Good evening, and welcome, everyone, to our Q4, FY26 earnings call, and I'll start the discussion with a brief overview of industry and then our operational highlights across business and geographies. The demand scenario across geographies, global demand is expected to be broadly flat in the near term, constrained by weak macroeconomic conditions, and more specifically amongst all our products, just the soda ash excess capacity. The recent Middle East conflict has driven up the energy and raw material prices, increasing production costs across various parts of the world, especially other than US. Also, it has increased our shipping and transportation expenses. Despite these pressures, I think there is no clear evidence as of now at present of demand erosion, but however, a prolonged conflict could begin to wane on demand. India continues to exhibit relatively robust demand growth with higher capacity utilization across all sectors. China and U.S. are witnessing flat demand. Mainly in U.S. is due to the reduced offtake in the container glass segment. The geopolitical risk and ongoing tariff uncertainties continue to cloud the global demand visibility. And this tariff uncertainty is mainly with respect to U.S.-China tariff issues. While the pace of economic recovery is expected to be slow in the year ahead, we do believe solar glass and lithium carbonate are expected to continue to drive demand, especially since the world is expected, it would certainly pivot towards more renewable and more natural energy sources. And Sodaesh globally would be gaining from this growth in this segment. In terms of supply scenario across geographies, China inventories remain elevated. The market sentiment softened slightly during the quarter Q4. In addition to that, I think while several things happened, the Chinese units did begin to slow down and carry out their maintenance work. One unit, which is about 800,000, poor blaze plant, sort of had an expiration of production permit, and it has started to do maintenance work. We also know in U.S., one of the producers with 1.36 million ton capacity has also mothballed this plant. Solway, as we know, already had done about 180,000 tons of reduced production from the Spanish plant, and this process is only going to help us to balance the demand-supply equation. In terms of pricing, while in the month of March, there were certain corrections, what did happen towards the end of March, the prices saw a slight increase to compensate for energy and raw material prices and higher shipping costs. US domestic prices remained flat. China's spot export offers remained steady between 150 and 170. And this resulted in Southeast Asia prices remaining unremunerative, especially for the U.S. producers. Overall, pricing is expected to remain range-bound and react to mainly the energy cost increases, which some of the producers may pass on. Now we'll move to operational highlights. In terms of the consolidated performance, the revenue was down by 2% at 3438 crores compared to previous year. It was offset, the lower exports from U.S. was offset by higher volumes in India. EBITDA was at 274 crores compared to 327 Q4 of the year, mainly on account of subdued prices across all geographies. An exceptional charge of 1,837 crores is provided on account of impairment of goodwill in US and rupees 159 crores of deferred tax write-off. This tax write-off is expected to be reviewed once the unit starts making profits. Profit after tax before exceptional item was negative 279 crores compared to negative 12 last year. Net debt without leases as on March 31st stood at 5,961 crore. In terms of standalone, the revenue from operations stood at 1,254 crores up 3% compared to previous year's same quarter. EBITDA at 216 was down by 6% due to lower realization. And profit after tax from continuing operations was 48 crores down 51% due from Q4 of last year. During the year, during the quarter, we acquired Noa Bay, Singapore. This acquisition was completed on 19th, March 2026. In addition to this, 50 kilotons of electric calcium and soda ash in Kenya was operationalized. Unit-wise, in India, this non-soda ash, in India, Gujarat facility achieved 1 million tons of soda ash production. The performance is higher compared to previous year. However, price drop was off. Price drop was offset by higher volume, mainly due to higher volumes. Drop in EBITDA is due to increase in fixed costs compared to previous year. US export volumes were lower, and Southeast Asia market realizations were underminerative. And I spoke about the impairment charge in the deferred tax write-off recognized in the books. UK has lower revenue due to lower volumes, partly offset by pricing. PBT is higher than previous year. Increase in volume in Kenya was partially offsetting the lower realization. Singapore acquisition, as I mentioned, was completed during the quarter. Valis saw an overall revenue growth of 6%, volume growth of 5%, and price growth of 1%, driven by growth in both crop care and seed business.

Overall, when you look at the context of strategy,

the non-Sodayash revenue grew 14% from 6,118 crores in FY25 to 6,946 crores in FY26. This is in line with companies' focus to grow non-cyclical business and non-Sodayash business. In conclusion, geopolitical developments in West Asia since late February have led to disruption in supply chain. These have resulted in higher costs. This impact has been varied across geographies. However, overall sales performance remains steady. Management is focused on reinforcing supply chain planning, maintaining cost discipline, improving operational agility to address near-term disruptions. Our priorities remain firmly aligned to protecting margin, preserving cash flows, and maintaining balance sheet strength. We also continue to adopt a very disciplined approach to capital allocation, and we want to ensure resilience through this current phase of cycle. We would be focusing on growing non-Sodayish revenue in line with long-term strategic objectives. With that, I close my comments and hand it back to moderator to open for Q&A.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question and to please limit themselves to two questions per participant. You may rejoin the queue in case you need to ask further questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Saurabh Jain from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Can you please expand a bit on the disruptions that you're noticing because of the Middle East conflict? In particular, how is it impacting your raw material sourcing across your regions and any outlook you would have that if the conflict stretches from here, can it materially impact your availability to procure your raw material?

Thank you, Saurabh. Firstly, I would say that U.S. operations remain largely insulated from these disruptions. The U.K. operation also largely is insulated because the key element for them is the brine which they wean from their own brine wells. In addition to that, they did see some increase in spike in the unhedged portion of the gas, but this is only a price issue, not an availability issue. And part of that price increase, we have also informed the customers and have also made the requisite changes there. With respect to India, India, thankfully, has been working with imported coal, mainly from Indonesia, which is not disrupted. It's continuing as we speak. Of course, there's a movement in pricing for which we've taken cost, for which we've taken price changes. Our biggest issue in India has been mainly the availability of imported limestone. While we have adequate stock, we have also moved to blended, domestic, and imported limestone, which is enabling us to run the unit well, and at least we don't see any big issues for the next three months. I would say amongst all the units, the one which probably we need to watch closely is the Kenyan unit, which depends on HFO. As of now, I think they've got about 40 days of supply. We are monitoring this closely, and HFO comes from Middle East, and we need to ensure that we have alternate sources about which we're working through the system. So, all in all, I think except for one key element, which is HFO, which is bought for Kenya, all other units are absolutely safe and sound from the input disruptions. The big issue for us, which we are trying to monitor is, while we have passed on the cost increases to customers, would any of our customers be under pressure in terms of the impact from this crisis? Up to now, we have not seen it in the marketplace, but we remain completely watchful on our account.

Understood. Do we also have any ammonia needs in our domestic India manufacturing?

Yeah, I think there has been a notification on ammonia. I'm glad you brought that up because while it is a very small quantity, it is nonetheless a quantity which is cycled through in terms of one tanker for every 15 days or so. And up to now, we have adequate supply. We are able to source from the market. But I think the fertilizer units have been advised not to supply to non-fertilizer users. We have written to government that this order is going to impact all of us. As of now, we are fine, but I think we are closely monitoring it, and we are also sure government will look into this. It is about 1% of the entire ammonia consumption in the country, and hence should not disrupt the fertilizer for the farmers, but at the same time, if this were made available to the industry as freely as it was before, I think we wouldn't have any issues with respect to any of our production challenge in India.

Understood. That is very helpful. A related question will be that you talked about cost inflation you are noticing in different combustion facilities across the regions. Can you also give us some sense what kind of price hikes you would have taken in different regions, and also whether all of the raw material cost inflation that you would have been noticing now, does it also need more price hikes or everything is saturated? Thank

you very much. The price impact, I think, the cost impact, if you look at US, it's mainly in the diesel, which is used in the diesel vehicles, which we run in the plant for the mobile units, which are there. And overall, in the cost structure, it is not a big number. And we are more or less hedged in terms of our gas. So I don't think there's going to be a big issue there. What we are certainly doing is the shipping costs have increased. So to our customers, when we ship them, these are being passed on to customers in a very transparent manner. We are not doing beyond what is the cost increase. In terms of UK, certainly we have informed the customers. But the issue in UK, why I'm not commenting is our unedged portion actually moves on a daily basis. So if I pick a day where the spike is high, then it will look like the position is uncovered and we are not recovering fully. If I pick another day where it is, so I think we would rather wait for a month or so to say whether the price increase is fully covering the cost or not. As of now, on a weighted average basis, it does cover, but we know only at the end of, as we move along in the direction, we'll move forward. As far as India is concerned, again, we have covered the cost increases fully, whatever we had in terms of the energy cost as well as the additional cost to get the transport material from the markets both in Indonesia and in the Middle East for limestone and coal respectively. So, all in all, in all places, we have been able to pass on the increase. Kenya, too, has done the same. But in Kenya, it's not a price issue. It's an availability issue, which we are working through. And as I mentioned, we are hopeful the next shipment will enable us to go beyond the 45-day cover we have today.

Understood. Okay, sure. Our related question would be that, you know, if the RM costs kind of, you know, don't really kind of increase from here, is it a safe assumption that the margins that we delivered in 4Q, that those are the bottom margins, and if the costs don't increase materially from here, there is a possibility that we could do better on the profitability, or you still would, you know, believe some sort of margin pressure could sustain in the 1Q as well?

So, I can only speak about what we have witnessed up to now, and this is something which, you know, could change in future. I think we are fully covered, and as far as the numbers are concerned, I think they should reflect what we've seen. Going forward, if something happens, dramatic, that we cannot engage, we'll have to probably come to and talk to all the analysts and investors. But as of now, we are fully covered. What we are watching is the Kenyan situation.

Understood. Okay. And are you also noticing any incriminations from your customers to try to ask for, to shift away from the short-term contract into the mid-term contract or so dash? Any that kind of excitement? Are you noticing any of those signs?

All I can say is that customers have become now more sensitive to domestic sourcing because they have realized the difficulty of depending on imports. So we are seeing, witnessing, I can say especially in India, those who were importing have certainly have made a request to us to increase the allocation because their view is that going forward they would like to reduce the dependency on imports. While they will maintain a share of imports versus domestic supply, the realization that they would not want to take a risk on the imported material is positive on the market front.

Sure. Thank you so much, and all the rest. I'll join that with you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you are requested to please restrict yourselves to two questions only. You may rejoin the queue if you have any further questions. Our next question comes from the line of Sumanth Kumar from Motila Loswal. Please go ahead.

Yeah, my question is for U.S. Sequentially, we have seen an improvement in EBITDA, okay, from loss of profit. So can we say this is because of you have cut down your export where you are making losses? And also, if it is so, what is the mix of domestic sales for U.S. and export?

You are right. I think broadly you are attributing to not selling in the market, which today for us is mainly Southeast Asia. That is what has happened during the quarter.

And regarding fuel cost, in this quarter, to what extent we have an impact because of higher fuel cost in the market across Europe?

No, in terms of cost, I think we have no impact at all. I think because usually we have different levels of stock and different positions of hedging. For example, in India, we usually carry three to four months of stock, and I think that more or less would help us to work through, and I think if at all any increases will come through going forward. So we do know the coming shipments are going to be expensive. So we have actually spoken to customers and taken the corrective actions there. As far as the U.S. is concerned, as I mentioned, the gas is fully hedged, and I think we are keeping a watch on those prices. Our biggest issue continues to be in Kenya, where I think while we have a cover for 45 days, beyond that cover, I think we have to buy at the market rate, and the market rate has actually shot up quite a bit in terms of going up almost 50 to 60 percent, which we are engaged with customers and have informed them, and we are dealing with this in a very transparent basis.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Vivek Rajamani from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Thank you so much for the presentation. You did mention that you are seeing a few closures or some capacity-staking maintenance. You did give examples of a capacity in the U.S. and in China. Just with respect to that, could you just talk about how soda ash flows have started to change? If they have, because of the conflict, and if you could see some relief with respect to, you know, some of the regions potentially slowing their exports, or you could see some relief in terms of pricing, which we're obviously suffering because of the dumping that was happening. So are you starting to see some sort of relief because of these flows, or do you expect that to kind of happen over the next couple of quarters?

See, I think what we are certainly seeing is the imports have slowed down. They have become almost half of what it used to be pre-conflict. And that's the net effect, the result of the slowing down of exports, which Iran was doing, as well as Turkey, which was coming through the Red Sea. I think those two have certainly slowed. Also, the movement from other exporters have reduced during the period, because I'm talking about the first month of April, but this trend is likely to continue, in our view. So certainly in India, we are seeing an impact of, and also customers are also very clearly wanting to have a higher share of domestic supplies. I think that's all we can say. In terms of any other pressure point, in terms of... Prices coming down, it's actually going up because shipping costs have increased. So the landed cost in India has gone up because of the shipping cost.

Sure, sir. That's clear. But it will also be fair to say that the increase is purely a cost of an exercise. So margins will potentially have to wait for a bit longer to kind of benefit. Would that be a fair statement?

It would vary between market to market, but it's a fair statement. Also, there's a play which will happen because of rupee depreciation that also brings in natural protection for the Indian market. So you see all these effects play out. So we do believe that it's going to be positive for domestic producers and domestic sales in every part of the world.

Sure, sir. Thanks. Just one last clarification on UK. You were reporting positive numbers in the last three quarters. Can we just explain what happened this time around with respect to Alberta? Thank you.

Yeah, this time the main decision which we had taken was there were certain operational changes which we had to do with respect to product and product production capability and capacity. We pre-poned the shutdown which was planned in April into the month of March. This was done proactively to have a better run next year, and that's the impact you're seeing in terms of numbers. Otherwise, you should go back to the normal number. In fact, because of the pre-poning of the maintenance, we do believe that we have much better operating parameters than what we have before.

I'm sure, sir. Thank you. And all the very best.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ankur Perival from Access Capital. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. First question, you know, in your opening remarks, you did highlighted, you know, some plants either going for a longer sort of maintenance or maybe mouth rolling. Does it change the overall demand supply dynamics given the incremental supply that was coming from China?

No, I think, see, the point which I want to highlight on China is that their inventories are fairly high even today. The inventories are close to 1.5 to 1.8 million tons, but it's been stable. I think unless the stock levels come down, we cannot see the major impact flowing through to market. So, we will sort of highlight this inventory level in every quarter. As of now, I think it's pretty range bound, as I highlighted. The Chinese prices, while they do show an increase in dollar terms, in the renminbi terms, they have remained more or less flat at about 1250 renminbi or so per term.

Sure, sir. And just to follow up there, there was an expectation that probably, you know, the synthetic, the older plants in China may see a shutdown with this natural sort of, you know, production increasing. Any updates, anything on that side, or it's still the same capacity?

It's the same capacity, but they're running, many of them are taking a maintenance closure, and many of them are running at a lower utilization. But clearly, what I would say is that the early signs are that we are beginning to see some movement, but it's not today of a number which is of a substantial nature to sort of highlight. So I would certainly say that it is beginning and the numbers are also showing. We've also looked at the listed companies and their financial numbers. Their operating parameters are under stress. Sure, sir.

And just lastly, on our, you know, the cash flow generation from the business, we have seen a sharp dip in operating cash flows, which is, you know, in a way being led by the working capital decline as well. Sorry, increase as well. So any thoughts there? How should one look at, you know, the cash flow generation across the businesses? Or is there any one entity which is impacting, you know, the overall company's cash flow? So your comments over there. Thank you.

No, I think fundamentally we have to ensure that we exist from unremunerative market which we have done. I think barring for last quarter we did do one shipment to Southeast Asia which... Thank you.

Sure, sir. That's helpful. That's it from my side. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagaraj from 361 Capital. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity. The first question is in terms of the... Increase in operating cost, given that we are safeguarded from the inventory, but generally speaking, increase in the fuel cost as well as the logistics cost. What would be the increase in optics across our four facilities, given that if the new high cost utilities come into play? Thank you.

I can't give a specific number. All I can say is that the logistic cost on the output side is mostly a pass-through for customers because it's part of the contractual arrangement which we have, whereas the input cost increases is what I said. We have already transparently communicated to customers and passed down those increases. And in all the units, it has been more or less been at par with what our cost increase has been. Except in the UK, where I said, because of the fluctuating gas prices, we are not able to pin down, but on average, it is fully passed down to the customers.

Sure, sure. And second question is, you talked about multiple capacities getting, you know, in shutdowns or probably extended shutdowns. Has this happened particularly post the conflict or was it, you know, it happened before that? I mean, just to get understanding about what and all capacities have been shut or how much capacity has been shut post-conflict and the earlier was that interest is not there in the system. Thank you.

Yeah, I think most of them had initiated this process, I think, pre-conflict, or conflict is only broadly may have accelerated their decision. So I would not, because we are talking about a period in quarter where the conflict was, the visible effect started to show itself towards the end of March. So really, I think this was a pre-conflict issue. We are monitoring the situation, and we'll give the better update in terms of post-conflict, what are the changes in the next quarter results call.

Thanks a lot. I'm the best.

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Arjun Khanna from Kotak Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Sure. Thank you for taking my question. My first query is on our new CAPEX plan. So we have enumerated almost 15 crores of additional CAPEX. Could you help us with what kind of IRR we expect to generate on this project? These four projects?

Sorry, I think if you look at the capacity expansion, which is immediate, which is 100 crore, which is what will come on stream immediately in about 12 to 14 months' time, this return is expected to be upwards of 20%, which is our cutoff. And this is a de-bottlenecking on our current plant because we do believe with the current steam capacity, we can produce more, and the market needs more every year. The precipitated silica plant is undergoing a detailed review in terms of various elements. But if this CapEx were to stay, this will be towards anywhere between 15% to 20% at the low end or 20% at the higher end. The Densash is actually repurposing of our existing plant. So the bulk of the expenditure is on repurposing, and this probably is going to be the least cost Densash plant built anywhere. And we would be exiting after the decision is taken from our cement business, and we'll be using the same facilities to make Densash. And early NOCOM, by the same token, again, is in the range of 20%.

Sir, just on the Vani Mukham, if one looks at the intensity, it is almost capital intensity is 2x of that of Metapur. So, why would IRR be 20% unless the selling price is double?

No, I think the big issue, you know, which I want to highlight is in salt cost structure, production cost is one element, but the logistic cost is equally high. Great. So what we will be saving in this is primarily the southern markets, and we have mapped out the southern markets can take easily. So what we will probably have a slightly higher capital cost is more than offset by the logistic cost which we will be saving.

Sure, and we generally sell this to a group company, right, Tata Consumer. So, in terms of our contracts, is it on a cost-plus basis? I know in 2019, during the time of de-emergent, we had mentioned, has there been any change in the agreement since then? And what are we currently making on related party transactions?

No, all this is a part of the same structure, and we are continuing to do exactly as it has been approved by the board, and our arrangements remain the same, and this has also been reviewed by the management of TADA Consumer, and which is one of the reasons we are going ahead with it.

Sure. So, just to understand, for the iodized salt, we are looking at 15% to 20% IRR for these projects. Obviously, soda ash will be very remunerative. And just on the precipitated silica plants, so current HDS prices, and if you look at various grades, it seems to be at around 80 rupees a kilo. So, I don't get how you'd be making 15% to 20% margins.

Sorry, on precipitated?

IRRs. Yeah, I think the big difference

is that we are in South India, and silica is a very bulk commodity, and logistic cost is extremely high. We are the only unit which will be in South. The rest of the units are in Gujarat. There is a freight cost difference between them, and we are supplying only the tire industry.

Sure. Maybe I'll take this later. Just a follow-up at the last question is, given that we have taken a write-down of goodwill in the U.S., given Sodash prices, does that mean that logically we won't be undergoing any CAPEX in the U.S. market?

Now, we had made it clear that our capex for the soda ash business is going to be only when the cycle returns, and we are very clear about it. And the capacity which we spoke about, dense ash, is the repurposing of the existing plant. Other than that, we have no other plants in terms of investment there. Our investments are fundamentally focused on non-soda ash businesses, which is bicarbonate, salt, and bromine, and various other chemicals, and that's what we are focusing on. Because the cycle is still not complete, only when we get a very clear sign that the cycle is shifting is when we start investing.

And our net debt ex-leases close to 6,000 crores. How do you see that play out over the next year? What capexes do we have lined up for FI27?

Yeah, around 1,300 crores capacity for next year, Arjun. And next year, we expect the debt to remain at more or less sustainable levels because the pressure on the business is there for next year also, broadly. So, we expect the debt to be more or less sustainable level as the current year March ending for this year. I'm Capex, and what would we be spending this 1,300 crores on? See, mostly of the maintenance capex we have in both Mittapur and U.S., plus some capex from Walenochum, Sirica, and some capex also in Singapore. We acquired a company recently. So, broadly, maintenance capex in all geographies, mainly Mittapur and U.S., and growth capex in South and Singapore.

Sure. Fair. Thank you, and wish me all the best.

Thank you, Arjun. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Akela from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good evening. Thank you so much, sir. Just two from my side. One is with regard to the valuation review that was conducted for the U.S. operations, did that cover the mining rights assets also that are part of the U.S. books? I believe those are fairly large amount.

Yeah, I'll talk about that. See, in the US cap, there's only an India concept. There's only goodwill in the US books. So, mining rights are only in India and the IFRS part here. So, we only impaired the goodwill and not the mining rights. So, $208 million is the impairment of goodwill, which is there. The mining rights remains intact. US cap, there's no mining rights. It's only goodwill.

Okay, but were these mining rights also assessed in terms of, you know, the value that they carry at this point in time by the valuers?

Yeah, they are intact. See, we value the entire business as a whole, and then we see what is the value worth now. With a shortfall, first we have a lack of goodwill. This 208 is only goodwill, which means the mining rights are intact in the India's books. And we are depreciating the mining rights. Yeah, over 100 years, based upon the life. So, we take a write-off every year, 100 for last 10 years, going forward, that is a gradual drop in that based upon the mind-life leftover. So, broadly, that's the way we look at things here.

Okay, got it. And just the other one on the silica plant at Kudalur, the 725 crore investment. So, would it be possible to just help us with, you know, the broad expected revenues and maybe EBITDA from that project, the 50,000 tons we are putting up?

We will do it offline. We can't talk about that here. And we will do it separately. The next call is update you watching all of people. I thought very early stages now here, but we will talk about more about them maybe in the Q1 quarterly call.

Okay, but I mean 20% ROC would mean something like say 150 crore odd of earnings EBIT from that project. Would that be a fair assessment?

We've worked out based upon those numbers, and we'll talk more about that maybe in end of Q1, and the assessment is done based upon a market view of what's going to happen. And if you look at this plant, there's no incremental fixed cost. It's the same plant only you're going to have there. So, you go into the same location, you're going to add both capacities, and therefore, the fixed cost would remain the same. So, you get an operating leverage there, and therefore, you'll be ending up wanting more, a better pattern. That's the broad concept. It's not a green field, it's more like a within the same location adding more machines, with the people being more or less constant.

Yeah, it is in that range. It's broadly in the range, yeah, obviously.

I see, okay. Yeah, because I mean the 775 crores is all incremental capital, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, all right, I'll take it offline. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Atul from ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

No, thanks. My questions have been answered. Thanks.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sakit Kapoor from Kapoor Company. Please go ahead. Sakit, your line has been unmuted. Hello.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Namaskar, sir. Hope I'm audible. Yes, sir, firstly, what are the signs of the incremental demand from the solar glass manufacturers? Particularly, some new capacities were anticipated. To commercialize for the current financial year, and what's the outlook going as, especially from the solar glass? And then, sir, the update on the re-initiation of the anti-dumping duty, sir, what's the update on the thing? This is my question.

So I think the ADD is the thing which is being investigated along with ADD is also safeguard duty, which will have quantity restrictions. That's what the government is looking at. Rather than just put duty on, they also want to get the quantity restrictions in place. The second piece is on the solar glass. I think it's safe to assume that when the solar glass units are running, we would be anywhere between approximately 7,500-10,000 tons of demand every month for the Densash incrementally during the initial period. But we'll come back to the exact specific way of how this demand is going to grow as each one of the units comes on stream.

Sir, as was the program outlined by this Rolex-like manufacturer, what is the anticipated demand? Has he worked out a number on the same? I think it's a big portrait of coming with.

Which is the main reason we are doing this unit in the conversion of Densash plant, cement plant to Densash plant, is to cover that demand. We do expect at least 50% utilization as it comes on stream and the balance with the growth. This is why we are doing the repurposing of the cement unit.

Okay, and sir, currently with the type of geopolitical scenario playing out and imported material, what kind of, how are the imports being affected on a monthly basis from the other geographies into the country?

Yeah, I think broadly one would say that anywhere between 70,000 to 80,000 ton or 1 lakh ton was the imports, depending on which month you pick up, and that has reduced to half right now.

Okay, and those are supporting the domestic volumes and from the PFPA. It is being supplied by the domestic players. That is what has happened.

There is a increased focus on the domestic players, and we are supporting the Indian customers as well as we can from the domestic source. All the players are doing the same.

And, sir, in terms of this flue gas part of the story, how is this sodium by definite demand? What are our utilization levels in terms of the same?

I won't have the exact number of how much, what percentage of our output goes there. You know, we increased our output from about 140,000 ton to 200,000 ton in India. It's fully sold out now, and with the increased production of power from coal-fired plants, this demand is going to continue to grow, and the biggest bias, of course, is the NTPC, and we do work with them very closely.

Last point is on the freight and forwarding charges. When we look at the standalone numbers, the volume increase is, I think, from 2,000 to 2,000 to 2,000, whereas the freight and forwarding charges have gone up from 148 crore to 166 crore. And similarly, the employee benefit costs have also risen significantly from 67 crore to 84 crore. So what explains these two interesting references?

So, the employee one is the year-end adjustments which we make. I think it would be ideal if you took the full year number, which is 293 versus 313 on the employee side. And on the freight side, you want to get back, Nandu?

Yeah, come back on that separately. I don't have the numbers offhand.

So 10%, thank you. It is not 10%, sir, I think, so it's a higher amount. 20 crore, yeah, more than that. From 150 to 160, so where the volume has not risen, commensurate to that. So that was the reason for the call. Partly in the non-soda health revenue, what are we including in this 6,000 crore revenue part, so what is the major item that we have?

Everything other than Zodayash, fundamentally, bicarbonate, salt, silica, FOS, bromine, chlorine, cement, also RALIS, all that is included in this.

Thank you, sir, and all the best to the team.

Thank you.

Thank you. We have no further questions, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to hand the conference over to R. Mukundan for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Thank you for joining the call today. It's been a difficult quarter and a difficult operating environment, but I think what we are focused on is disciplined execution, strengthening the supply chain responsiveness, maintaining strict cost and cash flow discipline, reinforcing the portfolio action in terms of moving towards a higher percentage of non-Sodayish business. These actions taken over the next few quarters will improve further the outcomes in terms of margin and profitability. Our commitment to customer service and operational continuity, especially in the current times, remains very focused. Our long-term value creation remains one of the key job agendas which we have for that. We have an experienced team which is well-positioned to manage the current uncertainties and continue to deliver sustainable performance for all shareholders. Thank you, and see you all for the Q1 F527 results.

Thank you. On behalf of Tata Chemicals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.