Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection Limited (NSE: PUNJABCHEM) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 05, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Vinod Gupta — Chief Executive Officer
Devender Gupta — Chief Financial Officer
Shalil Shroff — Managing Director
Analysts:
Riju Dalui — Analyst
Jenam Gilani — Analyst
Kiran Gadge — Analyst
Viraj Mahadevia — Analyst
Rohit Ohri — Analyst
Viral Shah — Analyst
Rohit Nagraj — Analyst
Rahul Jain — Analyst
Rajat Setiya — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection Limited 4 QNFY 26 Post Results Conference Call hosted by Antec Stockbroking. 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. Presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing start and zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Richard Dalluyi from Antique Stock Broking. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Riju Dalui — Analyst
Thank you. Rituja. A warm welcome to all the participants on today’s call of Punjab. Implement consultation from the management side. We have Mr. Managing Director Mr. Vinod Gupta, CEO Mr. Devender Gupta CF on the calls. Without further delay, I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Vinod Gupta for his opinion post which we will open the floor for Q and A. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Vinod Gupta — Chief Executive Officer
Thanks and good afternoon to everyone. Thanks for joining us today. For this earning call for the fourth quarter and full year ended on 31st March 2026, I’m joined by Mr. Salish Rof, Managing Director, Mr. Devendra Gupta, CFO and Mr. Vishen Singh, Head of our finance. And we sincerely appreciate your continued interest in our company. I trust you have had an opportunity to review our financial results and investor presentation which are available on Stock Exchange and on our website. Let me begin with the overall industry environment.
As you are all aware, the global geopolitical situation in last two months have resulted in creating supply chain disruptions, sudden price changes and recalibration of demand cycle. We continue to operate in this dynamic environment and are monitoring the situation and impact very closely. While before this disturbance has occurred, there was a gradual recovery in global demand supported by normalization of channel inventory. The industry is now witnessing renewed volatility driven by supply chain disruptions, rising raw material and logistics cost.
At the moment, market seems to be ready to accept incremental price gain given the fear of shortage of certain base molecules. However, if the prices increase are beyond a certain level, there is a resistance in the market. And China’s response to the situation is being tracked very closely. Tightness in supplies have resulted in firming up prices across Generic molecules and all the intermediates. In this environment, we continue to focus on centering our core fundamentals and executing our long term strategy.
Coming to our performance, we delivered a resilient performance during the year despite challenging operating environment. We recorded highest ever revenue for our company from operations during this period at Rupees 1029.8 crores. Growing by 14.4% year on year, Our volumes remain stable across all the products with improved capacity relation in key divisions. Our new product addition and growth of the new molecules that we have added in the last 23 years are seeing very good growth. We believe we are now moving from consolidation phase over the last 23 years to growth phase with our efforts to bring in new products have started yielding dividends.
Our performance reflects strength of our diversified business model across agrochemicals, performance chemicals and industrial chemicals as well as our continued focus on operational efficiency and product mix optimization. Next year we will see addition of more new products to our portfolio in agrochemicals and specialty chemicals segment. In the last quarter we had also taken one major debottle exercise to expand capacity of one of our new molecules that we introduced two years back. As the demand is growing very fast and product is being accepted very well in the market, we continue to invest in R and D with focus on complex and differentiated chemistry.
Our pipeline of new products remain strong particularly in the molecules which are going off patent and we are confident of sustained contribution from our new product introduction in coming years on our ongoing CAPEX initiatives. The de bottlenecking of various capacities and addition of new manufacturing blocks are progressing as per plan. These investments are aligned with our increasing global opportunity and broader make in India theme positioning us well to create capture incremental demand.
We remain focused on improving our efficiencies, optimizing cost and enhancing our asset utilization. Our efforts towards strengthening our customer relationship and expanding our global footprint are also yielding positive results. We continue to progress on the MOU that we signed earlier and these products are slated for commercialization in FY27. Overall despite near term handwritten, we are confident that we are well positioned to navigate the current environment and capitalize on emerging opportunities as the industry stabilizes.
Now with this, I will hand over the call to our CFO Mr. Devendra Gupta. He will share the financial highlights and performance with you.
Devender Gupta — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Vinodji and good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining on this call. I’ll take you through the financial performance for the last quarter and full year ended. Cerdigasmart 2026 starting with the quarterly performance, our Consolidated revenues from operations for Q4FY26 stood at INR208.6 crores as compared to INR202.3 crores in the corresponding quarter of last financial year reflecting a growth of 3.1% on a year. On year basis the domestic revenues have grown by 8.4%. However, the exports saw a marginal decline of 4.8% during the quarter under review.
As you know Ji explained, our new products have been adding good contribution and for the full financial year they contributed around 14% to the top line growing by 16% over the last financial year. The growth was primarily driven by stable volumes and marginal pricing improvements across select segments, partially offset by deferment of some export sales. In the first quarter of FY27 due to the ongoing geopolitical situation, our gross margins for the quarter stood at 49.4% up by 580 basis points.
On a yearly basis, the EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR27.5 crores which is also up by 7.9% on yoy basis with EBITDA margins at 13.2%. Profit after tax for the quarter issued at INR11 crores up by 55.8% on annualized basis, midpack margins being 5.3%. Now coming to the full year performance, the consolidated revenue from operations for FY26 stood at INR1029.8 crores reflecting a robust growth of 14.4%. Year on year basis, gross margins for the full year stood at 40.1% while EBITDA stood at INR118.1 crash crores with margins being 11.5% growing by 19.1% over FY25 PAT for the full year stood at INR64 crores as compared to 39 crores in the last financial year translating into a solid growth of 64.3%.
From a segment perspective, our domestic and export businesses both witnessed to stable performance supported by improved demand conditions in the select geographies and continued focus on customer diversification. Our capacity utilization across manufacturing sites remained healthy during the quarter and full year supported by improved operational efficiencies. The Agrochemical division operated at around 81% capacity utilization, the performance chemical division at around 65% and the industrial Chemical division continued to operate at the level of around 90%.
Overall, our focus remains on driving profitable growth, improving margin and maintaining financial discipline in a dynamic operating environment. With this, I conclude my financial remarks and request the moderator to open the floor For Q and A. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the Touchstone 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 will read for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Jayanam Khilani from SWAR Investments. Please go ahead.
Jenam Gilani
Hi sir. Thanks for this opportunity and congratulations for achieving the highest ever annual revenue. So my first question is that over the last two to three years we’ve almost increased our cross block by 30% so that’s almost 100 crores. So would you be able to give us a split as to what is the growth capex in this and what is the maintenance capex within the same?
Vinod Gupta
I think so. First of all thanks Jenna for joining and the the as you know that year on year we have been investing on the. On the asset renewal as well as capacity debottle making and capacity increase. I think exact breakup is not available but as you know, I mean is not readily available with me. But on year, on year we are investing about to 30 crores for asset renewal. So that’s the kind of gross block increase on account of asset renewal per year. So if you take two years it should be around anywhere between 55 to 60 crores and 35 to 40 crores is on account of capacity addition or any capex related to compliance improvement and also debottle linking.
Jenam Gilani
Okay, and so what could be the approximate cost benefits that we could get? So we would have taken cost optimization over the last two, three years. So what could be the improvement in margins that we can see from the same.
Vinod Gupta
I think asset renewal generally is more around making sure that the business continue to continuity remains because in an asset which is 35, 40 year old becomes a safety risk in a big way. And whenever we do such a such capexes obviously we factor in better designs and some efficiency improvements. Now those initiatives are on a continuous basis and it’s difficult to sort of differentiate what comes out of this revamping and what is a part of our regular exercise. Or we can say that yes we have been able to on our meal molecules we have been able to reduce our raw material cost by anywhere between 15 to 20% on most of our products. Let Me add one more, let me add one more thing however because given the competitive market scenario obviously that has not got reflected margin in the bottom line. But it has helped us to maintain our market share.
Jenam Gilani
Okay. And as you mentioned on the previous call that the three MoUs could give us almost 140 to 150 crores revenue at peak. And and since we’re introducing three to four new products this year too. So can we expect that by FY28 our revenue can be from the current facilities it can reach around 1400-1500 crores.
Vinod Gupta
Yeah, I think that’s a safe assumption.
Jenam Gilani
So within the next few years we can almost we hold on to our guidance of 15 to 20% revenue growth.
Vinod Gupta
Yes, right. I think we’re holding on to that guidance. Unless and until this geopolitical situation suddenly creates a havoc where the raw materials are not available or some other things happen, our product introduction and our market share that we have been able to hold in the market, we continue to hold our guidance of 15 to 20% year on year growth.
Jenam Gilani
Okay. And sir, as we mentioned in the commentary too that the share of new molecules have increased and we’ve also taken cost reduction measures. Why is it not been reflected in our gross margins even though the share is increasing, as you had mentioned that the new molecules would be having better margins.
Vinod Gupta
So I think what happens is when you introduce a new molecule, initial phase is a learning phase where your main initial, initial idea is to see that you can supply.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, please stay connected. We have lost the line from Mr. Vinod Gupta. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for patiently holding. We have line for Mr. Gupta reconnected. Over to you sir.
Vinod Gupta
Sorry we got disconnected. Hello. Sorry we got disconnected. So when we launch a new molecule, initially our idea is to make sure that we meet the quality requirement and the delivery requirement. And then our R and D team continuously puts effort to improve cost and all. So our products have been well accepted. And now the journey towards coming to the right cost and making sure that our margins improve has just started now. So you will start seeing those positive upsides in coming quarters.
Jenam Gilani
So sir, what could be the margin improvement that one can foresee by in FY27 and FY28 if you could give us some guidance?
Vinod Gupta
I think if we consider a stable business scenario, as we have been saying that gradually over the next two to three years we want to improve our EBITDA margin from around 12% to 15%. And that’s the direction we will take for the complete product for the whole business as a whole.
Jenam Gilani
And so I saw that you mentioned in your presentation that we still have the idea for greenfield Capex. So any idea on the same that like over which year can we see And what could be the quantum for the same and any plan for debt reduction in the next two years.
Shalil Shroff
So I think as far as our greenfield. Can you hear me?
Jenam Gilani
Yes sir.
Shalil Shroff
Yeah, so this is Shalil. So regarding the greenfield, as we have been mentioning that we have finalized one or two but unfortunately because of the due diligence it didn’t go well. But we are very strongly working on the same and as and when it happens we should be announcing within the Q2 or Q3 of this year. As far as debt reduction goes, I think if you see our debt equity ratio is pretty good. Basically there are no movements to increase the debt. But as and when there is something we keep everybody informed.
Jenam Gilani
Okay, so just one last question from my side. So because of the Middle Eastern crisis are we facing any issues In the exports currently? Because majority of our exports are Europe focused. So any problems out there or. It’s smooth.
Vinod Gupta
I think export cost has gone up but I mean but we have not seen any order cancellation or any deferments. Only thing the cost has gone up and so far customer has accepted increase in those costs. But if that can this increase becomes significantly higher than what it has been so far then we’ll have to see overall how does the market react to it.
Jenam Gilani
Okay, so that’s it for my side. Thank you and all the rest.
Vinod Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, who wishes to ask a question, please press star and 1. The next question is from the line of Kiran Gargar from Nightstone Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Kiran Gadge
Hi, good afternoon. So in the pipeline we have seven products and three AOUs. So could you please provide more details regarding them like the status, which sector is it for, is it for domestic or export client and lastly revenue and margin expectations from them?
Shalil Shroff
So Basically all these products are under confidential agreement. So we will not give you the product name but we can tell you that approximately 60% is on agrochemicals AI where we have a good business out of which two are for Japanese customers and three are for the European customers. The other part are specialty products are again for both domestic as well as European customers including North America. As far as margins are concerned as we have been always saying that these new products are are high value.
And we envisage in the next two years, as Vinod did tell you, that we are targeting 15, anywhere between 15 to 16% in the next financial year and then gradually growing to 18% in the next two to three years.
Kiran Gadge
Okay. And are we on track to double the revenue of industrial chemical in two years.
Shalil Shroff
Yes. I mean at the moment we see as you see our industrial chemical also we have started exporting to Southeast Asia. So this revenue also will in the next two years what we envisage right now will be at least doubling that sales.
Kiran Gadge
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Vinod Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, to ask a question please press star and 1. The next question is from the line of Viraj Mahadevia from Maringo. Please go ahead.
Viraj Mahadevia
Hello. Just to follow up real participants question more on the raw material sourcing side. Again, are you facing any challenges In procurement? How much of your procurement is from domestic sources versus international and any logistics challenges and or costs involved?
Vinod Gupta
So I think we are dependencies.
Operator
Mr. Viraj, there is a disturbance coming from your line. Can you please mute yourself when management is answering your question. Thank you.
Vinod Gupta
Okay, so our dependency on import from various geographies including China is about 25% and rest of the material is domestic. Now so far we have been able to secure the raw material and we have been and we have been able to convince most of our suppliers to honor the old contracts. And now for the next quarter again discussions have started. So at the moment we have not. We have seen some incremental prices, cost increase but overall supply chain we have not seen any disturbances. Also there is one interesting shift that is happening because of overall scenario.
Some of the molecules or KRM that we buy from China are becoming attractive in India. So at the same time we have activated some local supply chain partners also that in case these prices continue to remain strong we will develop a local supply chain to reduce the impact of overall disturbances. So unless, unless and until base molecules go over the supply chain we don’t see interruptions coming in.
Viraj Mahadevia
Excellent. Thank you.
Vinod Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, you may please press star and one to ask a question. Now the next question is from the line of Rohit Ohri from Progressive Shares. Please go ahead.
Rohit Ohri
Hi team, couple of questions. The first one we see that there is a good quality growth that is seen in Punjab which is also because of the better mix as well as the volumes. But do you think this gross margins that we have delivered in this quarter, are these sustainable? Because generally we are in this range of 40 to 42 kind of a range. So do you think that this, this is because of the raw material tailwinds and how sustainable is this?
Vinod Gupta
I think if you recall our last year last quarter results something similar where we are stocking up or we are building inventories for the next sales in the next quarter in Order to take care of the sudden demand spurt which is generally between April to October. So that’s where you’ll see slightly higher gross margins in this quarter. But overall continues. Currently we are at about 40, 42% gross margins. And as we have indicated earlier, we are gradually now looking at improving this gross margin with the addition of new products and the new and change in the product portfolio.
Rohit Ohri
True sir. Because APC that we become slightly heavier on the working capital Side as Well. You know, with these receivables as well as the inventory being slightly up. So this is basically because of the demand you’re seeing and that is why you’re stopping them.
Vinod Gupta
Yes, right. This is because of the demand. And I think whatever inventory we carried at the moment, all that inventory is already moved out of the system and it has already gone to the customers. Please. And This will get reflected in Q1.
Rohit Ohri
Okay, okay. Second one on this CDMO business, I know it is early stage of transformation or transition for us and Shalil Bhai also indicated that we might after three years try to reach somewhere like 17, 18% EBITDA margins. But what are the few things that as a team in Punjab that you all are doing so that the CDMA business model becomes slightly stronger or better and something on the pricing side as well as customer significance because despite Being after 3 years maybe 18% we are still slightly behind the margin comparisons if we do with some of the peers in the market.
Vinod Gupta
So I think as you know that we have been working, working very aggressively on our R and D and efficiency improvement. And with that we are able to attract better customer and better product portfolio where the margins are going to be high. So it’s more about creating that reputation with our customer that yes we can, we can not only do only CMO but also develop a product for them.
So that’s the main initiative which is helping us to get more and more traction with more customers. And at the same time our efforts to continuously improve our yields and cost reduction on our existing products is helping us. And we believe that the market conditions will now slowly normalize and the prices which have remained subdued over the last two to three years will also improve. So a combination of these two three factors will help us to reach that particular level.
Rohit Ohri
On the customer side, are we looking at adding some more Japanese customers?
Vinod Gupta
I think we are looking at adding more Japanese customers and more European customers. I think that Has been our main focus area and that’s where we are working on
Rohit Ohri
Right on this, the export mous that we have which might commercialize in 27. Are you facing any issues or execution risk related because of the current geopolitical issues
Vinod Gupta
Currently? I’ll say no. There are no issues as of now. Even if we are on the on track to commercialize all the three products in FY27, there might be a delay of a couple of months here and there because of customer either trials getting delayed or anything of that sort. But overall our relationship is very strong and we are confident that this will get commercialized in FY27.
Rohit Ohri
Last question from my side. For this investment of 60 crores that we are doing currently, what sort of ROC should be expected over here?
Shalil Shroff
So I think at the moment we are looking at at least three times where we have said that this business will bring in approximately 150 to 160 crores.
Rohit Ohri
Okay. Shandipai, thank you for answering my questions. Thank you.
Shalil Shroff
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, you may press Star and one to ask a question now the next question is from the line of Viral Shah from SMG Finance. Please go ahead.
Viral Shah
Yeah. Hi, am I audible?
Operator
Yes you are, please go ahead.
Viral Shah
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations on the great set of numbers. So my first question was more with regarding to the pricing. So looking at the global scenario, are we seeing any pricing improvement or are they still facing an intense competition from the Chinese player?
Vinod Gupta
Chinese competition cannot be raised away so that competition remains. But overall so far our customers have accepted the price increase which has been mainly on account of raw material and fuel prices. That impact has been absorbed by the customer. And we believe that even Chinese companies are looking at some opportunity to increase prices. So they have also increased the prices and that’s what has. So far been the situation going forward. I think we believe that Chinese companies will probably try to increase prices even more given the raw material situation which is becoming tighter and tighter.
Viral Shah
Got it. And few days back we saw that China is gradually withdrawing its expansion export incentive. So how this can be a opportunity for the company for let’s say next one or two years.
Vinod Gupta
I think what will happen is wherever the export duty is being withdrawn, India supply chain is getting activated because then the cost difference of say 12% or 13% is making a lot of efforts that we had put in or our supply chain partner in India that put in their position is becoming now attractive. So I see some of the supply chain shifting to India on the molecules where the export duty has been withdrawn.
Viral Shah
My next question was with regards to the export. So we saw that the export revenue has been grown by almost 100 crores, 449 crores in FY26 to 348 crore in FY25. So how much of this recovery was volume driven and how much was the price driven?
Vinod Gupta
I think most of the. Most of the. Most of the recovery is due to volume because we didn’t see a significant increase in the prices of the product in the whole of last year except maybe in the month of March where after the disruption there were some increases. So most of the revenue increases because of the volumes and demand for our existing product which was better than last year and also a new molecule that we exported to various places.
Viral Shah
Got it. That was all from my side. Thank you.
Vinod Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants please press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from 361 Capital. Please go ahead.
Rohit Nagraj
Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on the recovery in FY26. So first question again delving into CBMO. What would be the current contribution from CDMO? And given that we have been aggressively scouting for new molecules plus commercialization of three molecules organization months what is the kind of contribution that we are looking say in next three years?Thank you.
Shalil Shroff
So as we have said that right now we are working on basically new products and this which envisage in the next two years should bring in a sales of anywhere between 150 to 200cr. This is additional new business out of new products.
Rohit Nagraj
Right. And currently what could be the or three day MO contribution in FY26?
Shalil Shroff
It should be anywhere between 24 to 26%.
Rohit Nagraj
Second question in terms of the ability now to further debottle our capacity after the 50 crore expansion do we still have any ability to do that? And the concurrent question is that we’ve been scouting for a new land parcel new facility since past 23 years. Unfortunately it is not materialized. And given that there is limited scope for debottle making will it have any implication for growth say beyond FY28 29 if you are not able to get any land passing in the near term. Thank you.
Shalil Shroff
I think as I did mention that we did look at two land parcels but because of some legal issue we could not pursue it. But right now we are very confident within the next as I mentioned that maybe by Q2 or Q3 we definitely will have a site with us which will help in announcing our business. Because business right now is very robustic. We have a very good order book position as well as new inquiries which we need to materialize. So definitely within this year or within this quarter 2 or quarter 3, we will have the land parcel announced.
And as far as the existing site goes, we still have at our Lalu plant at least another two blocks could easily come in because we have approximately six acres of land out of which if we do one block we will still be left with around four, three and a half or four acres which can easily bring in another two blocks.
Rohit Nagraj
Just to clarify these two blocks, how much capex can be done there?
Shalil Shroff
So it depends on the product, but approximately would be anywhere between 80 to 100 cr.
Rohit Nagraj
Sure, that’s helpful. Thanks a lot and all of this.
Vinod Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, you may press Star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Rahul Jain from Credence Wealth. Please go ahead.
Rahul Jain
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. So you mentioned earlier to a question that most of the growth in the current year is volume led. There has been hardly any price increase. Right. For March 26th as a year, as a whole.
Vinod Gupta
Yes, that’s right.
Rahul Jain
Okay now so going ahead, say for next year, FY27 and FY28, what kind of volume growth do you envisage considering the new products which are coming in? Which are coming.
Vinod Gupta
So I think our new products last year contributed additional about our new products, euro at 16% and this year I think our new product, the growth of the new product will be anywhere between 25% over the last year and that’s what will contribute our incremental review in the next year. Our Existing products like you know, Metametron, Ethobumicid, they have been there for decades and we have been holding onto our market position. So those volumes will remain, will remain steady even in the next year with the incremental price improvement that we are seeing right now.
Rahul Jain
Just to understand, so last year 14% volume growth, which we have seen it will be if I can, you know, bifurcate that into new products and the existing product growth, how do we look at.
Vinod Gupta
So I think most of the growth has come from new products in terms of volumes. Existing product volumes have remained steady for most of the product because we have been holding, say for example, our products like Metametron, where we have about 38 to 40% market share that we have been holding on to those kind of market shares and we have seen steady demand from most of the regions. And so that’s where most of our volume growth is coming from new products.
Rahul Jain
Okay. Suppose this situation which happened, the geopolitical situation for last few months. Now overall, the raw material prices on an average for us and the product prices on an average are for us. What kind of increase we have seen?
Vinod Gupta
I think it depends on product to product because it all depends on specific raw material that is coming in and how that raw material prices are moving.
Rahul Jain
I do understand. I asked the average basket, both the product side and the.
Vinod Gupta
It’s too dynamic. It’s changing on every fortnightly basis. And that’s where we have moved to decision prices on a fortnightly or monthly basis with our customers. So if I give you a number today, that will be wrong tomorrow. So it’s difficult to say. And that’s why I said it is situation and specific basis only thing, the precaution that we are taking, that we are not building our raw material position unless we get a confirmation from the customer so that we don’t take inventory hit. So that’s the precaution we have, we have taken this year.
Rahul Jain
And so this year can we expect around 20% plus kind of revenue growth?
Vinod Gupta
Yeah, I think we are confident that we’ll be able to touch 20%. But we have maintained our guidance of 15 to 20%. But yes, we are confident that we’ll be on the upper range, upper side of this range.
Rahul Jain
Okay. And for the gross margins of our new products versus the existing product basket, will there be a kind of. What kind of differential? And will the gross margins which have hovered around 40% for last two years, leave aside the quarterly changes, I’m talking about yearly across margins have remained around 40% plus? So can we expect this year and next year the gross margins to move up by say 100 bits each year because of new product contribution increasing?
Vinod Gupta
Yes, I think that’s, that’s a fair assumption and that’s what we have been maintaining our guidance.
Rahul Jain
Last thing, sir, just to clarify, FY25, my, the data which I have put in my, you know, worksheets close that. In FY25, the new product contribution was roughly 12%. And this year in FY26 it has gone up to 14%. Is that right?
Vinod Gupta
Yeah, that’s right.
Rahul Jain
So then our new product contribution has actually on an absolute number has gone up from about 108 crores to 145 crores, which is almost. Which is almost a 30 jump.
Vinod Gupta
That’s right. That’s right.
Shalil Shroff
Also, you have to understand that, you know, these products need registration. So as the registration flows come in, you will see more and more of the same new product being going to various other countries.
Rahul Jain
Sure. So my question was what I wanted to clarify in our presentation and in the call also I think we mentioned that our new products have grown by around 16%. So the sales value has gone up by 30 to 33%. And 16% would be kind of volume growth or what are we.
Vinod Gupta
I think it’s because there are multiple products of different values. So it’s a volume growth actually.
Rahul Jain
Understood. Thank you so much. All the best.
Vinod Gupta
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. Now the next question is from the line of Rajat Setia from iThought. TMS. Please go ahead.
Rajat Setiya
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Sir. My question is about the jump in gross margins which have gone up by maybe 7, 8% or so. But the EBITDA margins remained pretty much in the same range as the last year or the last quarter. So what resulted in loss of transmission of margin from gross to EBITDA.
Vinod Gupta
Devender, do you.
Devender Gupta
Yeah, I. Sorry, are you talking about the last quarter or the year as a whole?
Rajat Setiya
So last question Q4.
Devender Gupta
All right. So if you see the last quarter EBITDA margins have also improved, though not in the same proportion as the gross margin. It has improved from 12.6% in Q4FY25 to 13.2% in Q4FY26. There are several operating costs also associated which go into the this EBITDA visa vis gross margin. So there are employee costs which have gone up. There are other operating costs which have also gone up.
Rajat Setiya
So given this increase may not. I mean this kind of level will not sustain in the next Quarter itself probably because this is probably one of quarter. If I see looking back many. Sorry,
Devender Gupta
Yeah, Please go ahead.
Rajat Setiya
So is it fair to then assume that our EBITDA will probably fall a lot going forward?
Devender Gupta
So I, I think you need to also remember what Vinodji explained earlier that Q4 we did lot of inventory manufacturing and therefore the gross margins were comparatively higher which will neutralize in the Q1.
Rajat Setiya
So cross margin is neutralized. But what about the expenses, additional expenses that happened in this quarter which neutralized the.
Devender Gupta
No, no, they will also neutralize going forward. So our EBITDA margin will remain more or less in this range.
Rajat Setiya
So what was the nature of these expenses that happened in this quarter on the. They were one of. And what was and why was they one of?
Vinod Gupta
I think some impact was of the because of the implementation of labor code. Then there was some, some fuel price increase that have happened because of the sudden increase in the crude and other operating expenses that have gone up in the last quarter. And I think we believe some of this is one time because this was an impact of Sudden changes which will get it will not be repetitive in nature.
Rajat Setiya
I think one final question. Given the increase in raw material cost because of spike in crude prices, to what extent do you expect the pass on of that inflationary impact to our customers?
Vinod Gupta
So far whatever price increase we have seen, we have been able to pass on most of the cost to the customer. So far customer has accepted it. And as I think as I mentioned in my opening remark also that if the prices further go up from here, we might start seeing resistance from customers because I think beyond a particular point there will be a threshold where customer confidence to liquidate that inventory will be low. So so far we have been able to pass on most of the increase of raw material to customers.
Rajat Setiya
As a basket, what has been the price increase so far for us?
Shalil Shroff
Can you repeat again what you said?
Rajat Setiya
As a basket of raw materials that we use, what has been the price increase for us?
Shalil Shroff
I think I. I think I responded to this question to earlier person. Also it’s difficult to say because each product has 10 to 15 ingredients and each has a different impact. So maybe one product has an impact of 5% whereas other product might have an impact of 15% depending on the material that is going into that product. So it’s difficult to say that right now that’s one and situation is too dynamic. If I give you a number right now, it might change maybe tomorrow.
Rajat Setiya
Thank you so much sir. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Participants. To ask a question, please press star and one.
Shalil Shroff
I think we can take two more questions.
Operator
The next question is from the line of Mr. Rizu Dallavi from Antics Talk Broking. Please go ahead. Rizu Dallavi please go ahead with a question. Elaine is unmuted.
Riju Dalui
Hope I’m audible now.
Operator
Yes you are. Please go ahead.
Riju Dalui
Yeah. So my question is regarding the the key molecule prices. So if I look at some of the technical prices over our last one to two months period, maybe from the March to April or May period. So a few of the few of the technical intermediate prices has gone up by 20 to 40% or maybe 10 to 10 to 40%. So have we seen any kind of price jump in our key molecules? And yes, how much like how is the quantum of the price increase in our key molecules?
Vinod Gupta
I think as I responded to this query earlier that whatever raw material price increase that we have seen, which ranging say as you’re saying it’s 10 to 40%, we have been able to pass on to these price increase to our customers and that’s where the product price has also seen increase in the similar proportion now. So at the moment Those prices have got absorbed. Now if there is a further increase in price from this level, then customers will start recalibrating inventory and their business strategies and will decide how to take the business forward.
Riju Dalui
Understood. And so also like to understand this scenario since it’s May already. So how is the, how is the supply from the Chinese side in terms of the generic molecules in the global market? So that has remained at the earlier level or there is some softening of Chinese Chinese exposure exports aggression in the global market.
Vinod Gupta
I think that supplied supplies have remained steady and in fact they’ve also utilized this opportunity to increase prices of certain product because they are also seeing an increase of raw material prices. So the competition, if you’re asking about competition, yes, competition remains as stiff as it was in the past. However, going forward, if this price increase continues, I think I believe that India Indian producers like us will have an advantage over the Chinese in long run.
Riju Dalui
Understood. And sir, in your earlier remarks that you have said that some of the orders which are deferred from Q4 to Q1, if you could quantify that number, if it is possible,
Vinod Gupta
I think we will not like to quantify that number. What we have started doing that, you know, as I said, most of us say, for example we are herbicide heavy product portfolio herbicide demand globally is between April to October. So we have started producing some of these materials in the month of January, inventorizing it so that we can capture that particular cycle and get an incremental business of say 5,7% on our existing products. Because this inventory inventory buildup is happening on most mostly on our existing products.
New products are anyway whatever we produce is getting sold. So I think once you look at your quarter, say four quarter average numbers you probably can calculate on your own.
Riju Dalui
Understood. So if I look at your inventory days, it is, it is similar to last year number roughly around 150 days odd compared to the last, last four, five years average, that is 100 days odd. So are we expecting any kind of increase in the prices for the end molecule of the rns? For that we are storing the RNS or the molecule or it is just we are anticipating the demand to come in following quarters.
Vinod Gupta
I think what we do is we generally produce against the firm demand. We don’t produce to stock. It’s only that the pickup from the customer starts from April onwards. So whatever inventory we are carrying is against the firm demand. And most of the inventory as I indicated earlier has already been liquidated in April or whatever is remaining will get remaining liquidated between May and June. So you will see inventory level coming back to normal by end of quarter one.
Riju Dalui
Understood. Thanks. Thanks. That’s all from my side.
Vinod Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants to ask a question you may please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Rahul Rin from Credence Wealth. Please go ahead
Rahul Jain
Sir. What is the envisage Capex for the current year FY27. And if you can break that into the maintenance capex or the existing plant upgradations and the growth capex.
Vinod Gupta
So I’ll break it into three parts. First is our maintenance or asset renewal Capex is going to be between 25 to 30 crores. That’s a run rate we have been maintaining. And another 20 crores for either capacity de water linking in our existing plant or say compliance related aspects or maybe product mix change. And then third one is our new production block that we have been indicating that Capex will be anywhere between 60 to 80 crores in this financial year.
Rahul Jain
Okay so this is the total Capex being planned for FY27.
Vinod Gupta
This is FY27. And in case we. Anyway I think we have been looking at this Greenfield. Then that will be an add on to whatever we are saying right now.
Rahul Jain
Are we looking at any acquisitions since probably we have not been able to get a new land. But I’m considering the environment. Maybe you might be getting some decent options or offers.
Vinod Gupta
All the options are on the table. In fact as mentioned one of the two options that we were looking was an XV acquisition only which actually didn’t materialize mainly because of the jury allegiance. Legal didn’t pass through. So we are looking at both the options.
Rahul Jain
Okay sure, thank you.
Shalil Shroff
I think we can take one last question now.
Operator
So that was the last question for today.
Vinod Gupta
Okay, thank you.
Operator
And I would I now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Shalil Shroff
So thank you very much for joining for this Q4 as well as the financial of Punjab Chemicals. I hope me, Vinod Bishan and Devendra could satisfy all your questions. And looking forward for catching up with you again during Q1. Thank you once again and have a good day. Bye bye.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen on behalf of antique stock broking. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.