Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Alkyl Amines Chemicals Ltd (NSE: ALKYLAMINE) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 06, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Kirat Patel — Executive Director
Analysts:
Kumar Soumya — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Rajiv Rupani — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Q4NFR 26 earning conference call of Alkyl Amines Chemicals Limited hosted by Ambit Capital Private Limited. This conference call may contain forward looking statement about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinion and expectations 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 question after the presentation.
Conclude should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchdown phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Kumar Soumya from Ambit Capital. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Kumar Soumya — Analyst
Thanks Dhanish. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to 4Q and FY26 post result conference call of Alkyl Amines Chemicals Limited. From the management we have with us today Mr. Kirat Patel, Executive Director, Mr. Chintamani Pate, General Manager Legal and Company Secretary. This is Kanchan Shinde, Chief Financial Officer. I’ll now request sir for an opening remark post which we’ll open the floor for Q and A. Over to you sir.
Kirat Patel — Executive Director
Thank you Kumar. And welcome everybody to the annual investor call. Thank you for the interest you have shown in the company. I shall just give a few opening remarks and then we will open the line for questions. The year has been a little challenging. We did begin the year with a little bit of optimism, thinking that there will be some growth. However, as you can see from the results, both the top line and the bottom line had more or less remained flat plus minus 1% of what it was last year. Within that, the concern has been that the markets have not grown as fast as we would have liked.
However, the good part is we have managed to retain and perhaps even slightly increase our market share in various markets that we operate in. Of course, the year could be split up into 11 months and another one month in March after the war has begun. And as you would be aware, we had informed the Stock Exchange both about the issues we had had with sourcing ammonia in March and subsequently how we have been able to manage to keep the plants running. So we have had a few challenges in March in operations, but we have by and large overcome it.
But of course the future remains a little uncertain as long as the war continues, which we hope will get resolved soon. With these opening remarks, I will open the floor for questions on specific issues or Specifications questions you may have about our products, markets, investments on the numbers which have been released yesterday. And please Kumar, we can start the questions going. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, 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 N2 participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Rohit Nagaraj from 361 Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thanks for the opportunity. So just one question. In terms of the demand dynamics that we have seen over the last couple of months, given that the raw material prices have increased and that must have been partially at least reflected in the higher product prices. So how has been the user demand given the current context and what do you expect in the near future? Will it have any kind of demand challenges which will emanate? Because if the higher pricing continues to stay for some time. Thank you.
Kirat Patel
Okay. Yes, you’re right that the immediate impact of the war has been that the prices have risen. Both of our raw materials and subsequently we have raised our finished good prices to protect our margins. It is a bit difficult to predict whether this will have an impact on the demand at the moment. Of course we haven’t seen it because it’s too early. But we have one thought process that in most of our customers products we are actually a very minor cost in their cost of material. It’s what you might call a C item.
But so they have bigger problems to worry about in their major items. So the pressure on pricing may not be from the customers as much as from competition. And competition is already facing the same constraints as we have. So I suspect though the prices have risen, they will not go back to the pre February prices very soon. You know it will take some time for them to readjust and we think that it will continue for a little longer this price hike until everything the supply chain sorts itself out.
Unidentified Participant
So that’s it from my side. Thank you so much and all the very best.
Kirat Patel
Oh thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Dhruv Muchal from HDFC amc. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yes sir. Thank you so much. Sir, if you can help us, what would be a volume growth for FY26B?
Kirat Patel
It’s been basically flat volume and value plus minus 1%. Either way, prices have dropped 1% and volume has probably dropped 1%.
Unidentified Participant
So
Kirat Patel
The combination is about 2% drop.
Unidentified Participant
But within that, of
Kirat Patel
Course, between products there has been a lot of
Unidentified Participant
On the RM availability. Now, ammonia is a key element for you. I’m just trying to understand the disruption that we see and Middle east being a large producer, so curious to understand. I understand the prices are increased and at price probably some material is available. But at a broader industry level, is ammonia easily available? I mean, the hypothesis is if it is available across the board, for. Across the players, although at a higher price, the oversupply concern that to some degree which was there in the industry would remain.
And how do these spreads improve then? So I’m just trying to. All the prices have improved. Do the improvement in spreads happen or. Because if it’s. The point is, if it’s available only to you or probably a few players like you, then I can understand the spread improvement. But if it is available across, how does the spread improvement happen?
Kirat Patel
Okay, so one is about the availability of ammonia. Yes. There was in March, a week or two when we had grave concerns about availability, but the sourcing improved. Most of our suppliers managed to source the ammonia for us fairly soon and the disruption was very short and our inventories took care of the gap, you know, going forward. Yes, like ammonia, as you said, we were in the region of about 50 rupees a kg and now we are over 100 rupees a kg. So obviously the cost of production has risen and we have had to pass it on to customers.
As I said earlier, the customers have been able to absorb the cost at the moment. Whether this will lead to some demand destruction is a question for the future. But currently, yes, we have been able to source it and I suspect that most of our competitors have also been able to find their sources of ammonia. So the marketplace has remained balanced and the rise in margins may be just purely inventories. You know, if you had inventories of the cheaper ammonia or the cheaper raw material and you produced it for a month or two, you will get an advantage, but after that it will settle down to the regular competitive margins.
Unidentified Participant
Sure. And when you say the availability is ammonia availability is reasonable, does it mean you are able to operate the plant at the level you desire or you. I mean, it is at lower level, although sufficient enough. I mean, just trying to understand the degree of availability.
Kirat Patel
Yeah. So our plants are running. We have a little bit of headrooms around an average. We must be having between 60 and 85%. Your capacity utilizations and that we continue to get enough raw materials to keep there. Yes, if the market grows suddenly to more, we’ll have to source more ammonia. But you know, the amount of ammonia the aliphatic industry requires is between 10 to 15,000 tonnes a year. I mean per month. So it’s a fraction of what the country needs. So it’s fairly easy for the government to allocate 0.05% because it’s a critical raw material going into agricultural inputs to drugs.
So they have taken into consideration that and they will definitely support what is required. The alternative for them would be that okay, these industries cannot supply, then the worst case scenario they will have to import the material, you know, and that is not a great idea.
Unidentified Participant
So
Kirat Patel
They are making arrangements to make sure that.
Unidentified Participant
So
Kirat Patel
I suspect over a period of time we will get the ammonia as we require.
Unidentified Participant
Of course it’s not
Kirat Patel
Just the ammonia, there are other raw materials
Unidentified Participant
Also
Kirat Patel
Raising prices. It will take some time for the industry to sort the supply chain out. Maybe another three months, maybe six months for it to stabilize. You know, hopefully by that time all this hormone straight will be opened out and we will be able to manage reasonable amount of material coming through, you know.
Unidentified Participant
Sure, sir. Perfect. So one another question was if any update on the the project that you were implementing in I think Kurkum. Yeah. So
Kirat Patel
That project was to be commissioned in this quarter, April to June. We are slightly delayed. It will probably be the first beginning of the next quarter that the project will get commissioned. Mechanical completion is going on.
Unidentified Participant
Mechanical completion
Kirat Patel
Is going to be completed somewhere at the end of June.
Unidentified Participant
And the economics remains broadly same. I mean there’s no change. Yes. The
Kirat Patel
Economics of the project have not been affected even though there has been a slight delay. The economics of the project has not been affected even though even both in that case also the raw materials and the finished goods both prices have risen in line with everything else, you know.
Unidentified Participant
Sure. Perfect Sagree. Thank you so much. I’ll join the queue. Thank you.
Kirat Patel
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Pankaj Tibrewal from Akgai Asset. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Good afternoon sir.
Kirat Patel
Good afternoon. So
Unidentified Participant
Two questions. One, you know, last three years when I look at our performance, obviously we were impacted by the product pricing correcting significantly led by Chinese import and Chinese were selling at a price which was at times below the cost of production, especially in aceto and ethyl amines and methyl chain. How is the situation now? Can you give us a color? And the way we saw in the last three years do you think? Finally, even if the price is revert, will it settle much above and can the company now starts to deliver double digit kind of a growth which will be a combination of volume plus pricing.
So just a color on across the chain and the import side will be quite helpful.
Kirat Patel
Okay, the first thing is the Chinese were not in the methylamines field where the competition was largely domestic.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah.
Kirat Patel
While acetone nitrile, where we got the. In July where we got the anti dumping duty, it took a little time for it to materialize and we only got the benefit of their anti dumping duty towards the end of the year. Initially there was a lot of inventory in the pipeline so in anticipation of the anti dumping duty people had imported more. And after that the Chinese themselves cut prices which they finally I think reverted back to their. So towards the end of the year we did see some improvement in our pricing in acetonitrile and therefore volumes started creeping up and our market share started moving a little better going forward whether at these elevated prices, whether we will be able to deliver growth on volume.
And obviously in terms of value it will grow because the prices have got elevated. But in terms of volume one is not sure. We expect that the next year will be like a normal year which is about 5 to 10% growth rate. But there is too much uncertainty in the future.
Unidentified Participant
On the aceto side, what will be the pricing now?
Kirat Patel
Today I think we are at about
Unidentified Participant
200.
Kirat Patel
It’s over 200 now, rupees per kg. But then acetic acid has also risen considerably, you know.
Unidentified Participant
And last year’s average rupees what?
Kirat Patel
200 rupees a kg? 200 and odd rupees a kg I think.
Unidentified Participant
No, last year’s average for us,
Kirat Patel
Last year’s average was. It came down to something like 140, 150.
Unidentified Participant
Oh okay, so it’s gone up by almost 30, 40% from there. That’s right. Yeah.
Kirat Patel
So, but so has the raw materials, you know.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. And on the ethyl and methyl chain also the margins had come down to two decade low. How is it from a spread perspective are you seeing improvement and plus the volume of tech? Because we have a lot of capacity also. So can you give us some color on that side of the business please?
Kirat Patel
So in ethyl is the market adjusted and the margins have improved. But in methyls we find still that though temporarily there will be some disruption because of ammonia. But now that we have four players in methylamine in the country, we expect there will Be competition Methyl because now RPA has also commissioned their plant and therefore they expect to be some competition.
Unidentified Participant
And Ethyl, can you give us some color on the spreads and how is it behaving now?
Kirat Patel
Ethyle has, you know, Ethyl has been only two of us, Balaji and us in the market and there has been a somewhat stable market share, kind of rationing or whatever and prices have stabilized. In fact they have also increased because alcohol has increased and margins have been protected.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, that’s great. And just last question on Aceto. Can you give us color on the imports by Chinese? How is it behaving now
Kirat Patel
In the last quarter? I think there has been some improvement from us. I mean in the sense that they have reduced their imports because they have raised their prices. So more and more our market share has been increasing, increasing. But that’s only the last quarter. It took almost six months from July all the way to January, December, January for the pipeline and the aggressive behavior of the Chinese to change. You know
Unidentified Participant
That’s great, that’s great to hear that. And from a demand perspective, last con call you all mentioned because of the tariff issues, the pharma and few of your clients had suffered and that’s why the volume had come become a little lower. How is it the feedback from the clients right now? Because the tariff issue is now behind. So what are the pharma guys, the API and the peptide guys are saying? How should we look at the from a demand perspective?
Kirat Patel
I think the pharma has always been a little optimistic. They were exempt from most of these startups. You know, there was a danger in the oil and gas field where we were supplying which had an impact that was on one of the products which we used to sell. But I think and where the peptides is concerned there is still a lot of optimism. I would say a lot of talk about growth, but most of it has to still materialize. You know, it’s still early days, just March they got their I think waiver of these things.
So they’ve all launched somewhere in the last month only. And yes, we have supplied materials to all the players but we are waiting to see how that growth takes place.
Unidentified Participant
We are optimistic
Kirat Patel
That in acetonitrile 2 peptides there will be some volume growth.
Unidentified Participant
But have you been able to now assess the market for us for peptides on Aceto?
Kirat Patel
Difficult because everybody is giving different optimistic figures. But I don’t think that will all hold. You know, they are all very gung ho about it, but it’s not going to be that, but you know, the acetonitrile market is about 30,000 tons or so and this will be maybe 10% of the hold, you know, so something will go up, something will go down. So the total market is not disrupted by it. You know, it’s not a disruption, but it’s a great addition. You know,
Unidentified Participant
I know the company is quite conservative in overall outlook always, but when I look at the last three years, it’s not been a very inspiring time for the company because of various reasons from an outside perspective, the way we are standing now, and obviously things will change because it’s an uncertain world. You think that now probably we are on a growth path back again and things should be materially better than what it has been in the last three years where we suffered from all the fronts.
Kirat Patel
Short answer. Yes, I think we look forward to what I would say, cautious optimism. I think we will do better than what we have over there. And we have seen the worst, optimum times. I think, of course, in life you never say that because something always comes wrong. Yes, I’m optimistic that we have. We are likely to see better times in the future.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you and wish you all the best and the team also. Thank you. Thank
Kirat Patel
You.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Parishit Gujarati from. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello.
Kirat Patel
Yeah, hello, how are you?
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, thank you for this opportunity, sir. First of all, I would like to ask a similar question. What functions are so all this? China anti involution policy, how big is the catalyst for us? So they are cutting from the capacities on chemical and sector overall. So. So how big is the delicate trip for us? I wanted to ask that.
Kirat Patel
Sorry, can you just repeat the question? What is the.
Operator
I’m sorry to interrupt you, but your voice is breaking. Make sure that you have a stable network. Thank you.
Unidentified Participant
Am I audible now?
Operator
Yes, you’re audible.
Unidentified Participant
Yes. So what happened from the past three, four years that Chinese were dumping the chemicals into India and now for now in the anti involution policy, we are trying to cut the capacities in their country. So how will we benefit from this?
Kirat Patel
Yes, so we have seen over the last quarter reduction in the aggressiveness of the Chinese, this thing, and we hope it will continue. So if that happens, then of course not just us, all the Indian manufacturers will benefit in terms of reduced competition from the Chinese, some of it which was quite unfair. And we hope that will help us restore our margins to the levels which we were hoping. And of course this path that they have taken should be consistent. It’s not Necessary that they are going to continue to cut capacities as they have promised and in all sectors.
Unidentified Participant
On the margin side, what margins can we expect from now? Can we say that this is the bottom of margins and from now here on what improvement can be
Kirat Patel
So as I said earlier that yes, we are optimistic that we have seen probably the worst and we hope to see better times in the future with the proviso that there’s always something which can happen. You know, nobody predicted the war and what can happen at the moment, of course the benefit of lower raw material and higher finished good prices temporarily has helped, but how long it will continue one doesn’t know. But we are optimistic that we will have better margins in the future though all the prices will I don’t think come down to the old levels soon, you know, pre February levels I don’t think we’ll see very quickly because this is going to take some time for these prices to come down.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, and the volume terms you are guiding 5 to 10% volume growth.
Kirat Patel
That is what we expect, that the country will be growing anyway at 5, 7% and we grow along with it, you know.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so what I wanted was to understand that is this a very big catalyst or a medium term, short term catalyst? Is the China. So this is a very big catalyst for us or not
Kirat Patel
A very big
Unidentified Participant
Catalyst
Kirat Patel
Catalyst for
Unidentified Participant
China’s policy? No,
Kirat Patel
No, no, it’s not that significant. Yes, it does help because you can get maybe 5% more selling price if the Chinese become less aggressive. But they are still present, you know, it’s not as if they have completely gone off the market. So there will be some advantage if they will stop acting so aggressively because they themselves have to meet their own return on investments and all that, you know, so but it will be benefit, you know, not dramatic benefit but some benefit, you know.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, got it, got it.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Gagan Dixit from Elara Securities. Please go ahead. Gagan Dixit has left the queue, will move forward to the next participant. Next question come from the line of Rajiv Rupani, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Rajiv Rupani
Yes sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, in last con call you had talked about there are some products in the R D pipeline which you may think about in the next by Feb. March. So could you please update us when do you plan to launch new products from the R D pipeline and on this side will it be.
Kirat Patel
Yeah, so there are two. One is of course the product which we are already launching which will, as I said earlier will probably come into the market in July, which is also from our R and D pipeline. There were a few other products which we are looking at but we have got them onto engineering stage. But we will take a final decision on whether to invest or not into this. After this, you know, volatility in the market settles because some of them, the profitability, we need to have a slightly longer term vision on these products.
When they, you know, we start it takes almost four to five years from conceptualization to come to the bench scale to engineering. And in that time a lot of commercials change. So. So depending on how it goes, we have to take a slightly longer term view. And given the volatility just now we are being a little cautious before going forward with anything major. Whether it is 20 crores or 50 crore investment or even 200 crore investment. We are being a little careful just now.
Rajiv Rupani
So by next con call we will have a better view.
Kirat Patel
I am not sure. I hope so because this volatility, I think this war will end. So I’m sure we will be able to be a little more optimistic about the future and be a little more understanding of where the prices are settling, you know, and who’s still left standing in the field.
Rajiv Rupani
Okay, and my next question was on acn. So what do you think will be the capacity utilization in the coming year? And what was this last year?
Kirat Patel
So we, you know, as you know, we have about 50,000 ton capacity between two plants and we have enough capacity to last us for a couple of years. So we don’t seem, don’t. We are not worried too much about the capacity utilization at the moment.
Rajiv Rupani
Okay. And going forward, the capacity utilization of methylamides and ethyl amideurs. Could you guide us
Kirat Patel
So methyl to be invested, I think about three, four years ago in a very large plant which could last us for maybe five or ten years at that time. So there is no question of methylamines. We have, I mean ethyla means we have enough capacity for the next four to five years assuming that the growth is natural in this 5 and 10% which we see, though last year was a little dull for growth. But we think that we have enough ethylamines capacity and between us and Balaji, the country has enough capacity for ethylamines methylamines.
There is an overhang of capacity because a new player has come in. So there is rcf, Balaji, Aarti and asna. So there is a bit of over capacity of methylamines and that will take some time to fill up until the market Level where all of us, all of us have underutilization of capacity there.
Rajiv Rupani
My last question was on the raw material side. So if there is an improvement in the availability of raw materials, do you think, and the prices go down, our finished product prices also go down by that percentage. Or we can maintain the prices, current prices.
Kirat Patel
Yeah. What happens normally is that the prices come down. There is a phase lag, of course, when supply improves and prices come down, the finished good prices come down with a lag because that comes with competition, you know. So there is a portion of time where your margins improve, but that is only temporary. But my view is that I don’t think the prices will come down to the old levels very soon because the damage that has been done to the petrochemical industry is going to be difficult to repair in the short term.
It is going to be repaired, of course, but it will take a little time for it to come back on stream fully.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Abhinav Mandora from Equitas Investments. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you so much for giving the opportunity. The first question is with the incremental ammonia price. I understand that in the March, March month we could get availability of the ammonia. But going forward with higher prices of ammonia, do we pass on the entire incremental price? A and B, how, how are the contracts placed like? Is it long term, short term, how, what is the month and what is the spot?
Kirat Patel
Well, at the moment, if you look at the, we have been able to get ammonia even beyond March and at the elevated prices, the prices have not dropped. We have been able to pass on the increase. I mean our customers are understanding, very understanding about the fact that, you know, with ammonia doubling we are not able to supply them the material at the old prices, but they have absorbed it, as I said, because a lot of our chemicals are a C item in the whole this thing. But going forward, I think, yes, if the prices come, supply improves and prices come down, the finished good prices will also adjust, maybe with a phase lag because ultimately it’s the competition and we have any of our products, most of our products have either the Chinese or internal competition which ultimately grabs, tries to grab market share.
So it does competition finally sets the price.
Unidentified Participant
You do probably
Kirat Patel
Enjoy a temporary margin widening, but it’s only temporary.
Unidentified Participant
And secondly, I wanted to understand the nature of our contracts.
Kirat Patel
Yes, at the moment the ammonia contracts are all short term because prices are high and nobody is willing to come commit, you know, to. So they’re all, all contracts are Shunaway, it’s almost. Well, it’s not day to day but it’s fairly short compared to what we used to do earlier because nobody is willing to commit longer term.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Also, I just wanted a broad view on how are you seeing the user industry sectoral trend? Are you seeing a demand slowdown, particularly in agro pharma? I think these two are your biggest segments.
Kirat Patel
Well, at the moment we haven’t seen anything but there is a little bit of concern that they could be affected, not pharma as much as agro, because they expect this monsoon. Also with the El Nino and all there is some concern, but I don’t see the pharma industry being affected by that.
Unidentified Participant
How much for US pharma would be as a user industry? Around 50%.
Kirat Patel
Maybe between 50 and 60% of our sales are to pharma, another maybe 15%, 20% to agro,
Unidentified Participant
Total life
Kirat Patel
About 70, 75%.
Unidentified Participant
While you say that methyl amines have got competition, etc. Etc. When do you see the entire absorption of this incremental capacity which Aarti is also getting and how do you see this panning out? Like how has the cycle been earlier when a new competitor has arrived and the supply has increased? Like in this scenario, how difficult it would be to pass on the raw material.
Kirat Patel
So this new competitor in methylamines has not happened for 30 years, 35 years if I’m not right. So there is no comparative kind of scenario. And this is the first time we are seeing such a thing? Yes. Earlier the three of us, Balaji, RCF and US have had capacity expansions regularly every few years. And all of us have spare capacity now for all of it to be absorbed. It will take a lot of time because it’s a bit of a mystery why Aarti went into this industry when there was already there was over capacity.
There was enough capacity and then they put in our new plant. So we have had even more over capacity.
Unidentified Participant
And for ethyl amines, what is your view on that?
Kirat Patel
Ethyl amines? I think there is no issue. It will continue to grow and it will take another. For us we have actually a plant which is fairly large size and we can even debottleneck it. So we don’t see any problem in capacity for ethylamines. We are probably either the largest or the second largest producer of ethylamines in the world. Already
Unidentified Participant
Got it. And what would be the capacity utilization for both the products and what other products?
Kirat Patel
Well, we don’t talk about individual products, but as I Said earlier that most of our plants are between 60 to 85% capacity utilizations. So we have enough head for the next few years without having to invest anything more in the existing product capacities.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Thank you so much. That’s it.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Gagan Dixit from Elara Security. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Sir, what is the Plan CAPEX for FY27 and FY28? Sir,
Kirat Patel
A plan? Sorry, what? CAPEX?
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, what is the CAPEX plan?
Kirat Patel
Yeah,
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. So there is no major business project. The current new product plant which is going at. At the Haish is so bit of what is left over that we will incur in next year and then few of the engineering projects. So around it will be around 80 to 90 crores.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so there are no any new product. It’s just a existing, it can come up in between
Unidentified Participant
Right now nothing.
Unidentified Participant
And about the raw material site sir, given this situation of the raw material availability. So are you evaluating any alternate ammonia or methanol sourcing or any long term contracts for alternate routes? Just for the long term purpose to avoid the similar shutdown risk in future.
Kirat Patel
Yeah, interesting question. You know there’s a lot of talk about green ammonia going around and we are waiting to see if the prices of green ammonia offered can even come close to what the petrol ammonia is. If that happens, that’s a great thing for not just the country, for the world because that would make a big difference. I think it will happen. It will take a little time. It will be three to five years before any breakthroughs happen. But it’s. Anyway, I think that’s a alternative which will come up in the future.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, I think the whole classification
Rajiv Rupani
Also government is focusing
Unidentified Participant
With methanol is I think byproduct for it. Yeah,
Kirat Patel
Methanol is a byproduct in coal gas. So they are pushing, they should have. In fact China did it 15 years ago. We should have also stepped in. They, we ignored it. You know we have only I think two or three coal gasification plan and both of them I think in the steel industry.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, yeah, that’s on my side. Thank.
Kirat Patel
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mittul Mehta from Lake Investment. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hi sir. Good evening to the entire team. Sir, I just wanted to understand your current spreads. You know with raw material prices going up, going down, how are the current spreads behaving for each of your product? I mean, you know, you could just tell me about methyl ethyl acid or nitrate are the larger ones.
Kirat Patel
Yeah. So, you know, in March, as I had mentioned earlier, we did get a little advantage because we had raw material stocks which were of the old prices when the finished good prices moved up. This kind of thing we will not be able to sustain. But yes, the margins initially improve and then they settle down because of competition. Whether they will settle down to the old pre February or a little higher, we’ll have to see. But we are optimistic that I think we have seen the bottom. So probably the margins going forward will be a little better than what we have experienced in the first 11 months of this year, of the last year, sort
Unidentified Participant
Of every year. We can anticipate a margin increase from now on in terms of ebitda margins, about 100 to 100 every
Kirat Patel
Year. It’s difficult to say, but definitely, I think we do foresee some improvement in our margins in the next year. But will it continue growing? That’s a separate question altogether. It’s difficult to say.
Unidentified Participant
And also from the sales standpoint of you, is it also fair to assume that our growth will be between, you know, between 10 and 15% going ahead?
Kirat Patel
Well, between 5 and 10% volume growth, as I said, the prices just now have gone 30%, 40% higher than what they were in February. So in terms of top line, obviously there will be a lot of increase, but in volume growth it will be between 5 and 10%.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so when you say so, typically, you know, the higher inflationary sort of selling price has always been helpful to us, even in the past or generally raw material prices also sort of move up in the similar fashion, and our conversion sort of remains flat.
Kirat Patel
So you’re right at the beginning, at every cycle we gain because there is always that we quickly react to current raw material prices and change our finished good prices. While we do have contracts of the old or inventory of raw material with us. So there is a widening of margins in the initial stage, then it settles down, hopefully it will settle down to a better level than what it was before February. And then if the prices start going down again, which may happen after six months, one year, whatever, you know, the time it takes for the supply chain to sort itself out, then we do have some view that raw materials come down faster than our finished goods.
So again, we do get a little benefit. Sometimes there are two opportunities and in between there is a kind of a flattening of margins. But given that there has been a boost in the prices, I do not think the prices will come down dramatically. Back to The February levels very soon. So there will be a margin increase going forward.
Unidentified Participant
Right. On your current selling prices across products. I mean methyl, ethyl, aceto
Kirat Patel
Sorry
Unidentified Participant
Selling prices across your product basket. You know methyl, ethyl, acetonitrile
Kirat Patel
They are very very different because in each of these ethyl has three products, methyl has three products. Some are long, some are short and acetonitrile itself is having volatility. So and they are very different trends. You know methyl is almost half the price of ethyl amines you know so they do go from methyl would be say 100, 110 rupees and ethyl would be 200 rupees you know plus natural would be 200 rupees plus today you know
Unidentified Participant
The overall tonnage, how much we produced this year is it easier? I mean is it possible for you to do that?
Kirat Patel
Yeah I think we have produced overall, I think about 2% more. 1, 1%,
Unidentified Participant
1%
Kirat Patel
More than last year
Unidentified Participant
Tonnage wise. Can you.
Kirat Patel
No, we don’t actually reveal tonnages of various products for or even the Global
Unidentified Participant
Basically from 2 lakh tons we are currently at about 1 lakh 10,000 tonnes 2
Kirat Patel
Lakh ton capacity. Yes and yeah if you look at our capacity utilization and all you’ll be able to work out is in that range because 1/3 of that is as you know we self consume a lot of our production their derivatives made from our means so almost 1/3 of it is reused by us
Unidentified Participant
Over next 24 months. We don’t see any major capex also.
Kirat Patel
No we don’t see for the existing products but as Kanchan pointed out that in case some of these R and D products work out then we may suddenly come up with requirement for capex but otherwise the capex looking at is just completing this project and maintenance capex there’s always some maintenance capex you know 20 crores, 30 crores something like that
Unidentified Participant
To you know get some more understanding about these new products. I mean so which are these products actually? Are they, is there a completely new set of products and catering to new
Kirat Patel
Look I think we have a policy and which we have mentioned earlier that we do not talk about our R and D products till the product is in the market. That means after the plant is commissioned and the product has come into the market then we announce it to the market. So I don’t want to discuss any R and D project but globally yes we are in the specialty chemical market by and large we look at products which have at least two customers for the product and in the areas which we know, you know, the life sciences, we have a wide range of customers from rubber chemicals to water treatment to electronic chemicals, drugs and agro.
So it’s normally in. In this area,
Unidentified Participant
How many. I mean, in terms of number of projects that you will be currently working in your R D, would it be possible for you to share that?
Kumar Soumya
Hello?
Operator
Hello? Team can. Hello?
Kumar Soumya
Hello?
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, the management line has been disconnected. Please stay connected while we reconnect them. Thank you there. Ladies and gentlemen, the management line has been connected again over to you, sir.
Kirat Patel
Thank you. Hello? Hello? Sorry, we got. Can you hear
Unidentified Participant
Me?
Kirat Patel
Yes.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, our question was.
Kirat Patel
Repeat the question because we got disconnected in between.
Unidentified Participant
My question to you was that how many products or how many projects would you be working at this time in your R D?
Kirat Patel
Oh, at any point in time, we are probably over a dozen projects working on it, probably more. But at various stages, you know, some are right at the preliminary research stage. I mean, in death research, some are at, you know, final, what we call R and D Bible, meaning they’re just finishing off all the data which the engineering requires. And there are some in the engineering stage which is not rd, but the project people, you know, technology transfer people. So maybe a dozen products we will be looking at any point in time, you know, but as you said, you know, out of which actual.
When they come to a stage where financial decision has to be made.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, the management line has been disconnected. Please take an actor while we reconnect them. SA. Ladies and gentlemen, the management line has been disconnected over to you. Has been reconnected. Over to you, sir.
Kirat Patel
Good afternoon. I’m sorry, I think we are having a little trouble with the network today. And so can you just repeat the question you were asking? Sorry.
Unidentified Participant
Actually discussing about the new product. Yeah, so
Kirat Patel
As I was saying that they have about a dozen products at any point in time at various stages of development from depth research all the way to engineering, you know, and most of the time, I mean, we have policy that we will not talk about our products. Of course, our end customers probably know it earlier than anybody else because we do send them samples and discuss with them what they want, because specifications and stuff like that. And a lot of these products come from them, you know, because they need this.
So they approach us saying that can you make this? And we need it in year two or three or whatever, you know, and we need so much quantity at approximately this price. So a lot of this, the customers are the first people, of course, to know about the products. And we to the. To the investors. We announce it when we actually have the product in the market. And out of these dozen, maybe one or two may survive. You know, commercialization.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, great. Sir, thank you very much for answering. Thank
Kirat Patel
You. Sorry about that interruption.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you and wish you all the best.
Kirat Patel
Thank you. I think we have time for one more question.
Operator
Sure, sir. Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Nihar Modi from Millennium Money Finance. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. So, sir, I wanted to ask that you mentioned about green ammonia. But sir, that is a different future perspective that can be planned on. So, sir, but is the company under any talks as of now to diversify its ammonia suppliers or you know, maybe build a more aggressive inventory so something like this situation does not occur again.
Kirat Patel
Two questions. Whether we can diversify our sources of ammonia. We are already dealing. You see, ammonia is a very large commodity. And we are only a very minor user of the total quantity. So we depend on distributors and suppliers of this who are mainly connected to the fertilizer plants and import this thing. Importers. So we don’t have a direct connection with say the manufacturer except in one or two cases. But we have a diversified. Because there are so many fertilizer plants in this country.
You know, most of them in the western region. So that is well supplied. This shortage of gas is something which is unique. Never happened before. So that kind of situation can happen. As far as the green ammonia is concerned, we have been watching the development. But nobody is yet offering the ammonia in future. Yet. But I suspect that they will come to a stage very soon where they will be able to offer this material to us. Of course, we are not the major users. They are probably planning to offer it to other end users.
But it could benefit us.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, sir, that’s it. Thank you very much.
Kirat Patel
Thank you. Do we have a time for any one more question?
Operator
Sure, give me one minute. We’ll check. Sir. Thank you.
Kirat Patel
Is anybody else sure?
Operator
Sure. We’ll take Rajiv as the last question. The next question from Rajiv Rupani, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Rajiv Rupani
Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Once again, my question is. Sir, our competitor Balaji is executing a large plant for ACN which is coming up in the current year. So 18,000 tons. So what do you think will be impact on the prices and our capacity utilization? And my next question is the methylamine. So we are facing a lot of competition. Any new derivative products planned for methylamines so that the margins increase. Thank you.
Kirat Patel
Two questions. One, is Balaji putting up a new acetonitride plant. Yes, of course it can happen and he will ultimately make the competitive material. But that’s in the future. And when it happens we will see because there is already two or three other people who are making acetonitrides. But we seem to have an edge on the costing and the efficiencies. So that’s where the catch comes. You have to have the ability to manufacturing at a low cost. And we suspect that we will be the lowest cost manufacturer in this product for some time to come.
Of course it will have an impact on the market. It’s not just Balaji, it’s the Chinese also. As far as methylamine derivatives are concerned, we are always looking out for new products. And I said we will not talk about our end new products which we make. Some of these new products are derivatives of R amines. So some methylamine derivatives will be in the R and D pipeline which we are always looking at. But nothing we can announce just now.
Rajiv Rupani
Thank you.
Kirat Patel
Okay, thank you very much. Thank you for coming on to this annual call for investors and I wish you all the best for the next year. Thank you.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Thank
Operator
You so much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Alkyl and I am Mines Chemical Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.