Earnings Call Transcript - XNSE:HITECH 2026-11-06

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q2 and H1 F427 Mornings Conference Call hosted by Hitech Pipes Limited. 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anish Bansal, full-time director from Hitech Pipes Limited. Thank you and over to you, Mr. Bansal.

Anish Bansal, Other

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on this conference call to discuss High Tech Pipe's limited performance for the second quarter and the first half of the financial year, 2027. I'm joined on this call by Mr. Arvind Bansal, EDN Group CFO. We are pleased to report that the company has delivered a robust performance across several key parameters reflecting the positive momentum in our business. The strength of our strategic initiatives and our continued focus on sustainable and profitable growth. Starting with this quarter, our total sales volume increased to 32%, 65 lakh tons, 0.25 lakh tons in Q2FI26. Correspondingly, our revenue from operations grew by an impressive 70.7%, reaching to Rs. 1,466 crores versus 850 crores in the same period last year. Our EBITDA increased by 27.63% to Rs. 56.58 crores compared to Rs. 44.33 crores in Q2FI26. While our EBITDA per ton stood at to be 3,429 compared to 3,540 previously. For the first half of FI27, our revenue from operations accelerated by 74.47% to Rs. 2,879 crores as against Rs. 1,650 crores in H1 FI26, driven by a 29% increase in sales volume to 3.21 lakh tons from 2.49 lakh tons. EBITDA resisted healthy growth of 24.12%, reaching Rs. 106 crores versus Rs. 85 crores in the corresponding period last year. We have also made significant improvements in our working capital management, with the net working capital days decreasing from 56 days to 33 days in H1 FY27. This improvement reflects our continued focus on efficient working capital utilization, better inventory management, and disciplined cash flow management. Debt equity ratio is stable at 0.23x from 0.18x. Now, coming to the business momentum and market opportunities, the growth in our sales volume reflects encouraging demand across all our major product categories and key end-user industries, highlighting the strength of our diversified product portfolio. Alongside this, broad-based growth, solar and export segments are making an increasingly valuable contribution to our business. Our specialized solar tubes and pipes are receiving wide-edge market acceptance and establishing a distinct niche in the industry. Our export business is also performing very well with encouraging demand from international markets. Additionally, we are witnessing promising demand from emerging sectors such as data centers, apart from our traditional sectors. We remain focused on strengthening our presence across these opportunities through innovation, specialized products, and enhanced customer engagement. Alongside business expansion, we are continually focused on enhancing the visibility and positioning of the high-tech Fights brand. As part of these efforts, the company is actively participating in various industry exhibitions and trade shows, showcasing diversified range of products, advanced manufacturing capabilities, and technological offerings. These platforms provide valuable opportunities to engage and prospect customers, strengthening industry relationships, and enhance awareness of our brand across domestic and international markets. Now, coming to the capacity expansion and strategic initiatives, we remain fully committed to our long-term vision of becoming a 2 million ton capacity company. Towards this objective, we are on track to add another 1 million tons of capacity by FI29. Our next projects are progressing well. The DFT facility at Shannon Unit 2 Phase 3, the project is progressing as scheduled and is expected to be commissioned by Q4 FI27. This will enhance capabilities in high-quality and specialized pipe segments. API Ticks Facility. The work on the API pipes is also advancing as planned, with readiness expected by Q4FY27. This facility will enable us to serve niche markets, including the oil and gas transportation sector, while further enriching our value-added products offering. Hindukur Integrated Coated Facility, the construction of our Integrated Coated Steel Facility for ERW pipes and specialized solar pipes and other advanced steel products is progressing as planned with commissioning expected by Q4F by 2017. These capacity additions will further strengthen our manufacturing capabilities, expand our product portfolio, and enhance our ability to address the evolving requirements of customers across multiple sectors. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the structural growth opportunities in the steel tubes and pipes industry. The continued development of infrastructure construction, renewable energy, solar power, oil and gas, and industrial applications is expected to provide strong growth drivers for the sector. The growing demand for specialized and high-technology products, particularly in the renewable energy and solar segments, presents significant opportunities for high-tech pipes. Our expanding product portfolio, increasing manufacturing capacities, improving operational efficiencies, and strengthening export presence position as well to capitalize on these opportunities. We will continue to focus on profitable growth, operational excellence, crude and working capital management, and strengthening our brand presence across domestic and international markets. With our ongoing capacity expansion program and increasing presence across high-growth sectors, we are confident of sustaining our growth momentum and creating long-term value for all our stakeholders. I now invite the moderator to open the floor for questions.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on the touch-tone 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. The first question is from the line of Sandeep Dayal, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Ritik Barrywal, Analyst — GA Capital

Hello, am I audible?

Anish Bansal, Other

Yes, sir, you are audible.

Ritik Barrywal, Analyst — GA Capital

Hello, we are uptent, sir. The company has delivered a strong revenue and volume growth during the first half of financial year of 27. Could you please share how the demand environment is shaping up across your major end-user industries and whether you expect this growth momentum to continue in the second half of the financial year?

Anish Bansal, Other

Yeah, good afternoon, Sandeep. So, basically, you know, as you can see from our results, you know, the company has, you know, delivered almost a 30% volume growth in H1. This is despite the challenges of the war, the monsoon season. So all these challenges were there in H1, but despite of that, the company was able to achieve a formidable growth of 30%. And while the effects of this war and the monsoon season getting over, so we see a much higher demand projection for H2. And we are all geared up to meet this demand, especially from the solar industry, because now, you know, in the edge to the solar sector is at its peak, and we are trying to capitalize on this opportunity for high-tech pipes. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, Paul.

Operator

Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star in one now. The next question is from the line of Fritik Dharival from GA Capital. Please go ahead.

Ritik Barrywal, Analyst — GA Capital

Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for picking my question. I just wanted to address that there are market rumors suggesting APL Apollo is buying shares in our company in high-tech pipes. Can you give us some comments on that? It would be highly appreciated. Thank you.

Anish Bansal, Other

Hi. Sorry, I didn't get your name, please.

Ritik Barrywal, Analyst — GA Capital

Ritik Barrywal.

Anish Bansal, Other

Oh. Yes. Regarding the query about this APL buying shares in high-tech, this is absolutely not correct, and I would like to reiterate that no such development, no such talks are there.

Ritik Barrywal, Analyst — GA Capital

Okay, sir, thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kitika Sharma, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Gitika Sharma, Analyst — Individual Investor

Hi, good afternoon. So, my question is, the chairman mentioned that the specialized solar pipes business is receiving a good response from the market. Could you elaborate on the current growth opportunity in this segment and how

Speaker 1

important it could become for the company's overall business over the next two to three years?

Anish Bansal, Other

Yeah, thank you, Gitika, for your question. So, regarding the solar segment in high-tech pipes, you know that the company entered in this segment pretty early on, and we are now in a position to command good respect when it comes to the module mounting structures and the solar tractor business, and we are dealing with all the top players in this category. And looking forward, you know, as India is installing 40 to 50 gigawatt of solar plants every year, so every one megawatt requires at least 20, 22 tons. So this, you know, this becomes like a 1 million ton market in itself. And going forward with the current plans and the new incentives and schemes by the central and state governments, we see this capacity increasing. So, for the next three years, I'm very confident that, you know, the solar will be one of the highest-going segments for us, and we have, you know, enough capacities and entire product range in this segment. So, we are confident of capitalizing on this opportunity going forward.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Operator

Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants to ask the question. The next question is from the line of Pallava Garwal from Antique Shop Broking. Please go ahead.