Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
APL Apollo Tubes Limited (NSE: APLAPOLLO) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 04, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Anubhav Gupta — Chief Strategy Officer
Analysts:
Akhilesh Kumar — Analyst
Sneha Talreja — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Darshan Mehta — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and Gentlemen, good day and welcome to APL Apollo Tubes 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 line 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. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Akhilesh Kumar from MK Global Financial Service Ltd. Thank you and over to you Mr. Kumar.
Akhilesh Kumar — Analyst
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.
Anubhav Gupta — Chief Strategy Officer
Thanks Akhilesh. Thanks for hosting us and we also have our Chairman Managing Director Mr. Sanjay Gupta. So good morning everyone and thanks for joining in. We hope you have reviewed the results and will now walk you through the key highlights for the Quarter 4 FY26. It was such a. 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 FY26 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 EBITDA per ton at upward of 5,500 rupees per ton for the quarter four our 37% ROC for the full year closing FY26 negative working capital cycle for the full year operating cash flow generation of Rupees twenty billion and free cash flow generation of rupees thirteen billion for the full year and we close the year with net cash balance of Rupees fifteen billion plus in the books.
In today’s environment the way things are changing it’s becoming very difficult 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 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 raw material prices because steel prices have gone up so much in the last three, four months. So there is a deep talking from our channel partners as well. 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 very shortage of fuel etc. In the country and of course because of heat and elections there was labor shortage also for the time being it also impacted our operations directly and indirectly as a lot of construction sites went for the whole.
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 aplfolo is the market leader and because of our very strong brand positioning we are able to improve our margins significantly and this is what we demonstrated in our March numbers as well. Despite 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 million ton capacity by FY28 remains totally on track. Our CAPEX commitments, new land acquisition, new product development distribution announcement in East India that everything remains on track so that whenever things recover we are quickly able to.
We are quickly able to recover our loss volume and demonstrate good performance. That’s all from our side. We’d like to take questions now.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
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 one on their touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press star and two participants are request to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question quiz. Unbelievable.
Sneha Talreja
Our first question comes from the line of Neha from Nuama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi, good afternoon team. I mean good morning team. Just couple of questions from my end. Firstly you Said Dubai is operating around 40% utilization. Just wanted to take an update on galvanized you because last time you were facing some gas shortages. How is the operating level at this point of time in those color ported as well as galvanized suites.
Anubhav Gupta
So Sneha, see I mean the domestic operations, they were majorly hit for 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.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. And you also said about this demand weakness or probably destocking. Could you actually bifurcate that into whether it’s an actual demand weakness on ground and has government spending actually picked up in any way or is it the mere DES 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 out.
Anubhav Gupta
Good morning Sunya. Sanjay. This side, this type of atmosphere, we can’t say this is a destocking or this is the demand. Slow down. It takes some time to analyze these things. But whatever we give the yearly guidance in terms of volume and the profitability, I think volume due to the current scenario we are trying to keep our margin intact. Volume. We are not focusing on our volume. We are focusing on margin. Then we are focusing on the volume. Maybe saw volume come over the margin.
Unidentified Participant
Understood sir, that was pretty helpful. Thanks. Thanks a lot team and all the very best.
Anubhav Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. This question comes on the line of Angad Salujaya from UBS Securities India. Please go ahead.
Akhilesh Kumar
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Sir, one question. I think obviously guidance is difficult to give in the current scenario. But if you look at realizations and obviously when I picked up a ton of how are we looking at that given hrc prices have also gone up. But the risk from Patra also remains 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,
Anubhav Gupta
Patra segment, I’m also talking in the last call also. Less than 30%. Innovations. We increase our margin due to shortage also. But margins are better.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay, got it. And what Is driving this margin mainly is a better realization that is driving it
Anubhav Gupta
Mainly Boss, you can see market leadership, product innovation and supported by the shortage of the steel also.
Akhilesh Kumar
Got it, Got it. Okay and sir one last question I think Capex absolute amount how much are we expecting to spend in FY27
Anubhav Gupta
We targeted the 5600 crore as per CMB capex total number of capex plan depending for 8 million ton is around 14, 1500 capex next 22 and half year.
Akhilesh Kumar
Got it? Okay, got it. Thank you.
Anubhav Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question come from the line of Vikas Singh from ICIC Securities Please go ahead Good morning sir and thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a decent
Akhilesh Kumar
Set of number in a very challenging time. So I just wanted to understand the sustainability of 5,500 and 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?
Anubhav Gupta
If you say from 5,000 to 5,500ft per ton. This I can’t say anything right now but 5,000 to 5,500 last year by margin we are quite short now in the future we we continue continue this margin
Akhilesh Kumar
So any portion of the inventory gains would have been involved in this because the prices rise so sharply.
Anubhav Gupta
Almost 4,500. If you see our balance sheet we are almost 25 days inventory level per handing orders so I can say three inventories.
Akhilesh Kumar
Noted sir. And so 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 we are facing right now Also considering that some of the capacities would have been curtailed like Arcelor Mittel
Anubhav Gupta
I think in the month of May just. Remain. So we are also trying to push our volume. But equipment or guideline
Akhilesh Kumar
So last capital allocation policy cash generation is far exceed our CAPEX requirement. So we can expect good dividend going forward for this year
Anubhav Gupta
I can say yes
Akhilesh Kumar
Thank
Anubhav Gupta
You sir that’s all for my head and all the best for future. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen Anyone who wishes to ask a question maprestar and one on their touch on telephone the next question comes from the line of Bharat Shah from BCS Capital Ideas Ltd. Please go ahead.
Akhilesh Kumar
Sanjay. First of all most delighted at 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 and focus on the profit goal, focus on maintaining the hygiene and strength of the sales which has been based for last several quarters is finally showing up in a remarkable way in our 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 1500 and 15 crore or whatever which means thousand crore, almost cash has been added in a single quarter while profits have been net profit of 350 crore in the quarter. But net cash added on the balance sheet has been almost thousand crores. I think this is truly remarkable. Thank you. Would you like to throw light on that?
Anubhav Gupta
Sure. So there are two key factors. One is that during our quarter three call we had said that we are taking some steps to further rationalize our inventory churn. Okay. So some of the SKUs we wanted to start manufacturing at a single plant rather than being spread out
Unidentified Participant
Which
Anubhav Gupta
Leads to inventory holdup, raw material inventory holdup at multiple plants. So that that strategy actually worked pretty well where we could almost reduce our absolute inventory in terms of tonnage by 40, 30, 40,000 tons. Okay. I mean if you look at, if you look at the inventory levels as at 31st December and 31st March in absolute value there is a 250 crore reduction despite the fact that steel 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 piling above the cash.
Akhilesh Kumar
Now truly remarkable I must say this. And the whole team deserves congratulations because single quarter cash addition of thousand crore is a really, really remarkable number given also lot has happened in a quarter. I mean these days lot happens every day. So in a quarter so many things have happened and the businesses 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?
Anubhav Gupta
That’s right.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay. And finally Sanjay, when you say the year in entirety, the targets remain intact. So just to refresh my memory on that, are we seeing about 20% volume growth which if I’m not mistaken we were.
Anubhav Gupta
I tell the last, I tell the last road to 15 to 20% growth
Akhilesh Kumar
And 20
Anubhav Gupta
To 25, 15 to 20% growth and 20-25% EBITA growth and 25 to 30% tax growth.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay, fantastic. Okay, so that is the guidance that we are talking which remains.
Anubhav Gupta
Yeah, So we are changing with targeting 15% but margin point of viewpay we are very confident still we can achieve
Akhilesh Kumar
Absolutely. I think that focus on maintaining and enhancing actually the quality of the performance rather than just the quantum.
Anubhav Gupta
This is our main focus area.
Akhilesh Kumar
Yeah, it is really remarkable. And 40% plus ROC which I think will go even higher in the fiscal 27 net cash balance sheet. And yet having global size addition to the capacity and through the change in time achieving all that truly remarkable. Hearty congratulations, Sanjay.
Anubhav Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you sir. Our next question come from the line of Akshay from AK Investment. Please go ahead.
Akhilesh Kumar
Hi sir. Thank you for taking my question. And first of all congratulations for the great setup number. Sir, my question is currently for the application wise our segment housing is contributing the maximum as 64%. And second number is the commercial buildings. And the third number is infrastructure 13%. So over the next two, three years do we expect that infrastructures and commercial buildings will be said will be higher due to the government capex and all these things.
Anubhav Gupta
So definitely there should be some improvement in infrastructure. And commercial. Commercial has been doing pretty well for last two, three years. So that mix continues to improve. Infrastructure from the government side has been on slowdown for two 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 so there could be 2,3% improvement in mix from infra side. Otherwise the housing will keep on taking the lead.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay sir. All right. And rest of the questions heavily answered. Thank you so much and all the best. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question maybe start and one, Our next question comes from the line of Darshan Mehta from Dollar Capital. Please go ahead.
Darshan Mehta
Yeah, thanks. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. So my first question was can you provide us the share of SG premium to overall volumes in Q4?
Anubhav Gupta
So it’s 8 to 10. It’s between 8 to 9%.
Darshan Mehta
8 to 9% of total volumes, right?
Anubhav Gupta
The total volume. Yes.
Darshan Mehta
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 is this is in line with my normal operating activity?
Anubhav Gupta
So there are two key things here. One is the freight cost. The outward freight cost was a bit higher in the quarter four okay. On QQ basis. Because there was a shutdown of our operations in 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 branding expenses in the quarter four. So that was higher on QQ basis. These are the two main factors.
Darshan Mehta
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 sizes, the sporadic rise that we have seen in steel sizes between Q3 to now. So in that scenario could be, could we have made EBITDA per ton in excess of 5,500. Because why I’m coming on this question is let’s. You would have lost some volumes. But so that means that operating leverage would not have really kicked in, in your numbers. But still you are able to make 5,500.
So just wanted to understand, is this purely because of lower HRC price that would, that you would have seen in your inventory that has actually kicked in EBITDA by 10 or is there anything else? Hello.
Anubhav Gupta
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 5300,5501st and EBITDA. Okay. For the full quarter till 28th February 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.
See.
Darshan Mehta
Understood. Irrespective of the rising steel price that we have seen. So I’m not talking about Q4. Let’s say even in Q1, assuming steel prices are where they are currently and do we, do we think that in terms of.
Anubhav Gupta
Darshan. Darshan, expl. But it is tough, it is tough to say no that steel prices increased pretty much after war. Also there was some increase during January per month. But after war the acceleration in steel prices was pretty high.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. Understood. Fine,
Operator
Thank you. This question comes from the line of Amit Murarka from Access Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, hi, good morning. Just wanted to understand like your market share movements. So 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 gain market share from the unorganized players.
Anubhav Gupta
So Amit, which we did definitely. Okay, like we have demonstrated this similar trends during COVID times. Okay. The industry leaders, the strong players, they always benefit from the like disruption which impact the overall industry. So yes, I mean it, 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, so that whatever guidance we have given for the full year, we are smoothly able to achieve that.
Unidentified Participant
I wanted to understand more the market behavior honestly here. So like we have seen in other industries, also generally high inflation sometimes also lead to down trading and actually some gains with unorganized players. So in that context I wanted to understand like is this current situation that way positive for you on a, on a structural basis or would you see or fear some down trading to happen because of the high inflation?
Anubhav Gupta
See, I mean Amit, see this disruption is not gonna stay for more than like six months. Okay. I mean any export you talk about, people keep on saying that it’s been, it was earlier,
Unidentified Participant
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,
Anubhav Gupta
That’s what. Yes. So if it’s, 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 is, 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 in building materials. Okay. 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, I mean if things get wrong, like more than what anyone is expecting, then obviously the benefits will keep on occurring more and more for stronger players.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. That’s all for me. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Akhilesh Kumar
Hi, good morning. Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, sure,
Akhilesh Kumar
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 multi year low. And I think this was as per guidance. So just wanted to Understand the sustainability of the current levels or is it like this was also an impact of some deal stocking turmoil.
Anubhav Gupta
So Rajesh Sanjay’s mission is to bring it further down. Okay. 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 at March 2026, it is highly sustainable.
Akhilesh Kumar
Really nice to hear. And on the EBITDA front, Sanyat has mentioned around 2022 percent EBITDA growth and in which you are entering to 15% for the volume growth and margin expanding loss around that close to 5,500. Is this understanding correct? For FY27
Anubhav Gupta
Our volume growth is very clearly we. We are targeting 15 to 20%.
Akhilesh Kumar
Correct.
Anubhav Gupta
EBITDA growth is 20 to 25%
Akhilesh Kumar
And PAT
Anubhav Gupta
Growth is 25 to 30%.
Akhilesh Kumar
Yes, yes.
Anubhav Gupta
Great. So just wanted to. In this scenario you can cut the lower side. 15, 20, 25. If the things better, you can pick up the higher side.
Akhilesh Kumar
Great. So I just wanted to understand that 5,500 rupees which works out to be at least on the ETA margin. So you know what would drive this? Is it the better product mix or.
Anubhav Gupta
Better. Because of the low volume. But this is a better product mix.
Akhilesh Kumar
Better product mix is what will drive up your margins. Okay. Yeah. And
Anubhav Gupta
Then on the April you mentioned that the volume growth has been muted or volume
Akhilesh Kumar
Have been muted. What does this mean? This is low single digit growth you are indicating or flattish. Also we do the referee and may volume come into and general. In general what is the construction levels impact?
Anubhav Gupta
Very frankly 2.5 lakh. But. Last year. Lakh. Yes, 7.92 lakh.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay. Understood. Understood. Okay. So next few months we are looking at May and June better traction to happen.
Anubhav Gupta
Yeah. So we are now a little bit aggressive in the market. We can do 3 lakhs and you will be back on track. 3.5 lakh.
Akhilesh Kumar
And so this margin performance of March quarter, you believe that this could be repeated in. Yeah, this is considerable. Great. Great. And lastly you said you just wanted to that you mentioned that the surplus cash beyond whatever you know, certain
Anubhav Gupta
Liabilities you want to reduce. After that, whatever surplus is there, you will use that to either increase dividend or do a buyback. Yes. Great. That’s all from my side all the way. Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchdown telephone. Our next question come from the line of Onkar Gangurude from SRI Investment Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
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 ground is. That’s the correct understanding?
Anubhav Gupta
Yes, of course. I mean, I mean whatever happening globally and in the domestic markets. Yes, you have assessed it pretty right?
Unidentified Participant
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 are quite bullish. I mean in fact you raised the guidance as well on the. In the quarter three. So whatever is. Yeah,
Anubhav Gupta
Yeah. So 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.
Unidentified Participant
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 markets there 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?
Anubhav Gupta
This is what. If you look at our market share in FY26 versus FY27 seven FY25, our market share has improved to 60%, 65% from 55%. Okay. And this can continue to improve if disruption continues to hurt our competition more than than than the larger peer like Apollo.
Unidentified Participant
So I mean what kind of steps you are taking to gain that kind of market share given the strength you have financially?
Anubhav Gupta
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. And that result we’ll start seeing in next one to two years as our both plants become operational. Second, we are building the capacities for lighter structures in South India where again we believe that we have then we can gain more market share. Okay. If we increase our capacities there.
So our new Bangalore plant, which we call it Mallor 2 that we are, 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 flow. So balance sheet can only balance sheet can Only help fund capex. Right? Without spinning, 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.
Unidentified Participant
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.
Anubhav Gupta
So mainly working on SKU management and branding. These are the two things.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. I mean like more dealerships or something like that. You are doing anything with the dealership.
Anubhav Gupta
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 network.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. All right. Thank you sir.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question, the next question comes from the line of Ranjit Sivaram from Mahindra Manulife Mutual fund. Please go ahead.
Akhilesh Kumar
Hi sir, just wanted to understand like what your any impact on this shortage or anything,
Anubhav Gupta
You know. Can you be a bit louder please?
Akhilesh Kumar
Yeah, am I audible now? Hello? Yeah,
Anubhav Gupta
Go ahead.
Akhilesh Kumar
Yeah. Was there any impact on this LPG shortage in our business and do you have any backup plan for that?
Anubhav Gupta
So definitely month of March, two of our product categories in India, the rust proof pipes and coated products, they faced temporary shift 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.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay. And going ahead, do you see any, what is your backup plan if you have now kind of mitigated the thing.
Anubhav Gupta
Right. So alternate fuels have helped the capacity ramp up at those locations. It’s just that, I mean that fear of energy prices coming back is always there. Okay, so. 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% levels.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay, so the 15 to 20% growth guidance which you are giving, you’re factoring in this, right?
Anubhav Gupta
Of course, yes. I mean unless things become really worse from here, if, if there is like shortage of fuel to run vehicles, cars, automobile, then it will be like extraordinary situation which will make us reconsider our business plan.
Akhilesh Kumar
Industries where you support also facing similarly such issues in terms of shortage. And do you feel the demand will be enough to support this kind of a growth or market share gains?
Anubhav Gupta
It’ll be Combination of both. Right. I mean our material goes at the construction site. 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. Okay. So once things settle down, contractors will renegotiate pricing with their customers. Right. So things will start coming back on track. So then the 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 to 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 get. Things should settle down quickly and we will be able to achieve our volume guidance.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay, sir, thanks and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Devashi Jani from an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Akhilesh Kumar
Hello. Okay. Thank you for opportunity. I just one thing about the value added related question. We have reported the value added price mix of 25% in Q4. It’s down slightly from 57 in Q3. Despite this, EBITDA percent rose to a record high. It’s like a double side 2, 5. Can you bridge with this gap? Was it driven by the inventory gap or better spread in the general category which saw jump to 3,405 EBITDA per ton or a specific cost efficiency at right to plan, sir.
Anubhav Gupta
So there were two reasons. Number one is the Apollo APL Apollo brand premium. Okay. 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 1500 rupees per ton. So that increase, that 5k is straight away coming to our EBITDA. Okay. For the general product. That’s why from 2000 rupees per ton EBITDA level we are at 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. So we keep on taking 24, 7. So some, some, some measures keep on delivering results.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay. So my next question is related to ESGN decarbonization. So now that you have achieved the SBTI validation, what is the incremental CAPEX required annually to meet a 25% emission reductions target 2030. Will it impact the manufacturing cost per ton significantly?
Anubhav Gupta
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. That brings down your overall cost per ton, power 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.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay, thank you so much sir for answering. Sir, rest of the question already answered and thank you. Thank you for opportunity and best of luck for next quarter, sir.
Anubhav Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rajesh Ravi from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Akhilesh Kumar
Just a follow up this. Given the current state, you know how would be the realization number looking sequentially even versus Q4 versus current prices?
Anubhav Gupta
You’ll have to come again, Rajesh. Can you please repeat?
Akhilesh Kumar
Yeah, sure. I’m saying this is the current steel 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 average.
Anubhav Gupta
So prices like. Okay, so if you look at the HR coil prices, okay. In the, in the, 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 side we took, Rajesh. Okay. So that is what would be reflected in your realization cost number. Okay. Okay.
Akhilesh Kumar
And you know just last year responded on this inventory gain. I believe somewhere during the call you mentioned you have 10 to 15 days of inventory. You know, obviously which is quite clean. And because of finished inventory.
Anubhav Gupta
Rajesh, raw material. Raw material. Inventory is 15 raw
Akhilesh Kumar
Material. Okay. So ah. HRC rather so you know, 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?
Anubhav Gupta
So Rajesh, what happens is that since our overall inventory churn is less than 30 days and in India steel prices are revised in once in a month. Okay. So by the time next cycle comes up, we are already out of our previous cycle.
Akhilesh Kumar
Okay?
Anubhav Gupta
Correct. 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 in my balance. So basically
Akhilesh Kumar
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 it.
Anubhav Gupta
That’s right. That’s right. It, 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 price are revised twice in a month. Okay. Which, which, 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 field prices are revised once in a month. So that doesn’t hurt us.
Akhilesh Kumar
Great. That’s all from my end.
Anubhav Gupta
Thank you. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. That was the last question for today. I’ll now hand the conference over to the management for the closing remarks. Thank you. And over to you team.
Anubhav Gupta
Thank you everyone for joining us and thanks NK team for hosting us. Look forward to see you in the next quarter. Have a good day.
Operator
Thank you so much sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of NK Global Financial Services Limited that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.