Apcotex Industries Limited (NSE: APCOTEXIND) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Jan. 30, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Parvangi Jain
Vivek Thakur
Abhiraj A. Choksey — Vice-Chairman & Managing Director:
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Aditya Ketan — Analyst
KK Pandya — Analyst
Karan Sharma — Analyst
Chandpal Singh — Analyst
Saurabh Shroff — Analyst
Sanni Vishe — Analyst
Karan Sharma — Analyst
Rudraksh Raheja — Analyst
Aditya Ketan — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 and 9M FY26 earnings conference call of Epcotix Industries Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded at this time. I would like to hand the conference over to Ms. Parvangi Jain from Wellram Advisors. Thank you. And over to you mam.
Parvangi Jain
Thank you. Good afternoon everyone and a warm welcome to you all. My name is Prvangi Jain from Ballaram Advisors. We represent the investor relations of Apcotex Industries Limited. On behalf of the company I would like to thank you all for participating in the company’s earnings call for the third quarter and nine months of the financial year 2026. Before we begin a quick cautionary statement. Some of the statements made in today’s con call may be forward looking in nature. Such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated.
Such statements are based on management’s beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the management. Audiences are cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward looking statements in making any investment decisions. The purpose of today’s earnings conference call is purely to educate and bring awareness about the company’s fundamental business and financial quarter under review. Now I would like to introduce you to the management participating with us in today’s earnings call and hand it over to them for their opening remarks. We have with us Mr. Abhirat Choksi, Vice Chairman and Managing Director and Mr.
Vivek Thakur, Chief Financial Officer. Without any delay, I now would like to hand the call over to Mr. Vivek Thakur for his opening remarks. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Vivek Thakur
Thank you Purvangi. Good afternoon everyone. It is a pleasure to welcome you all to the earnings conference call for the third quarter and nine months of of the financial year 2026. I hope you all had an opportunity to review the financial statements and earning presentation which have been circulated and uploaded on our website and the stock exchange. Let me provide you with a brief overview of the financial and operational highlights for the third quarter and nine months. Beginning with the quarter our total volumes have grown 10% year on year. However, the operating revenue stood at INR 332 crores which is a decline of 7% year on year despite the volumes growing 10%.
The decline in revenue is because of the overall fall in raw material and consequently finished goods prices. Operating EBITDA for the quarter increased significantly to INR 44 crores. This compared to 27 crores in quarter three of FY25 represents a very strong year on year growth of 61%. This growth is driven by higher volumes, improved margins and operational efficiency. The EBITDA margin expanded to 13.12%. Profit after tax for the quarter was 22 crores which was up 91% year on year. The PAT margin stood at 6.7%. This reflects very strong profitability and operational efficiency. This quarter we also had an exceptional item which relates to one time provision of 4.8 crores in accordance with the new wage code notifications.
We are also pleased to inform that the Company continues to remain net cash positive as of 31st December 2025. This demonstrates sustained financial discipline and a good cash generation. The Board has also approved an interim dividend of INR to 2 rupees 50 paisa per equity share, underscoring our commitment to shareholder returns. Update on Anti Dumping Duty if you recall, during September quarter the Director General of Trade Remedies DGTR had issued final findings on anti dumping duty case. The duty notification from Finance Ministry was expected in December 25. This however is not yet notified. We have started implementation on all previously sanctioned projects for rupees 210 crores.
Now coming to the nine months number, the company achieved its highest ever sales volumes up 15% year on year and highest ever export volumes up 21% year on year which reflects robust success in both domestic and international markets. The operating revenue stood at 1044 crores, broadly stable year on year while operating EBITDA has grown 42% year on year to 123 crores. The EBITDA margin for this nine month period is 11.75%. This was supported by volume growth, better margins and higher capacity utilization. Profit after tax for the nine months increased by 79% year on year to 67 crores.
Profit after tax margin is 6.39%. During this period, company reduced debt by around 94 crores which highlights very strong cash generation and good financial discipline. The performance demonstrates the effectiveness of our strategy which is focused on volume led growth, margin expansion and operational efficiency. We are also proud to share that the company has received CIA award for top 100 most innovative companies. This reaffirms our commitment to innovation, technology development and Self reliance with this now I open the floor for question and answer session. 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 their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press star and two participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. In order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants in the conference kindly limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow up question, please rejoin the queue. Ladies and gentlemen we will wait for a moment while the question queue assemble.
The first question is from the line of Aditya Ketan from Smith Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Aditya Ketan
Thank you sir for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions sir. During this quarter like we have seen overall commodity chemical companies quite struggling because of falling prices of raw materials like styrene, acrylonitrine. Most companies are factoring inventory losses. On the contrary sir, our numbers look better like prices although have declined but there is a more steep decline in prices of raw materials contributing to ebitda. Just want to know how these numbers are shaping up and what are the benefits you have taken in raw materials which has improved your EBIT down sequential and on yyba.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Yeah, thank you. Thanks Aditya. This is Abhirat Chokshi. Thank you everyone for joining. So to answer your question Aditya, it is been a challenging quarter and we have also taken a hit on raw material pricing because of the drop, you know and of course things are changing now. I would say December Jan onwards because of the oil price increases and the rupee depreciation again prices have sort of started moving up quite sharply. But I would say that started towards the end of last quarter meaning this Q3. I think we’ve managed it well in spite of some losses due to due to these sharp fall in prices at the beginning or first half of the quarter.
Our team has managed quite well and we have managed to hold up prices and taken some advantage of the drop in raw materials. So that’s helped us and as you can see that in spite of all of that our operating EBITDA has been better this quarter than I would say the last six, seven, eight quarters. Probably.
Aditya Ketan
Just a follow up onto this. So the main contributor of your EBITDA in this quarter would be the nitrilytic because earlier that segment was not able to contribute on EBITDA and now prices. How is the moment in prices and what contribution in EBITDA or is there Any other segment like. Which is contributing, like your synthetic latex. Any other segment, NBR which is contributing to ebitda.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Yeah, look, as the volumes go up, you know, as I’ve said before, in our kind of business, as the volumes go up, obviously contribution goes up. You know, in terms of total contribution, not percentage. I’m saying in this case, in this quarter, even the percentage has gone up and so that automatically increases EBITDA as well. But besides nitrile latex, which definitely has seen a turnaround in the last six months, not to the extent that we would have hoped, or it’s not pre Covid levels yet, but certainly better than the last couple of years. In addition to that, I think we also had a lot of excess capacity created by us and some of our competitors or one specific competitor in India.
So the paper segment also the margins are very muted for the previous couple of years, I would say, and I would say almost unhealthy levels. They’ve gone back to sort of reasonably okay levels. So paper has also helped to some extent. One or two other segments like construction also has helped. So I would say no, not construction. I think more about rubber. The rubber segment also we’ve seen a better improvement in margins because we’re running at full capacity there. So I think as capacity utilization has gone up, we have tried to extract maximum margins. Customer mix has improved, product mix has improved.
All these levers come into play when capacity utilization is at a high level. So I would say it’s a bunch of things, it’s not just one thing. Sorry, it’s a long winded answer, I know, but it’s been a bunch of things along with some of the cost saving measures that we’re taking. So everything is sort of coming together and you know, it’s looking reasonably good this quarter where we have had EBITDA margins of about 13%.
Aditya Ketan
Got it, got it. Sir, just one second question. Sir, I remember the one two years back you had mentioned like the sustainable EBITDA margins could be around 12, 13%. Now in this quarter we have achieved to 13%. And you are saying paper segment construction are still struggling. So suppose if that segment comes back in terms of demand, so meaningful comeback in demand, you see further improvement in margins from here on or we are standing at the peak.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
No, so I think. No, I didn’t say they were struggling. Sorry, I think I said that they were struggling. They’ve done better. Now this quarter especially paper is what I want to call out. I think that as volumes go further up, we still have in the next one year we have capacity utilization. Automatically more volume gets added, more contribution gets added. Automatically EBITDA goes up and EBITDA margins will also go up. So I think there is still some leeway. Of course there is a lot of uncertainty in the world as you can see. And I think we’ve managed it quite well so far.
But of course you look in the short term there can be issues of suddenly runaway prices of raw materials. And certain things could happen in the short term. But as I said before that anywhere between 13 to 16%, 12 to 16% is. You know we could margins for us. And I think we’ll try and endeavor to do a little bit better than this quarter as well.
Aditya Ketan
So just one last question.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Let him finish one last question. Then we can move on to the next caller. Sorry Aditya, but you know we want to give everyone a chance. So.
Aditya Ketan
Yes, sir, thank you so much. Yes, so my question was on to the anti dumping duty. You had mentioned that December 25 the government was to notify for the duty. Sir, we have seen like in other chemicals also whether it is rubber, chemical, soda ash. The Finance ministry has not imposed the anti dumping duty. But the DGTR has. In our case also like there is a delay. So what is your opinion? Whether this would be not imposed now and. And if it is not imposed what happens to our expansion plans of nbr?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Look, I mentioned this last time that this anti dumping duty was always. You know, we had asked the government for this anti dumping duty because he felt that the Indian industry needed to be supported. We are the only manufacturers of nbr. We have not filed any antidumping petition for any other products of ours where we have local competition. In this case we are the only manufacturers of nbr. If we cannot sustain this plant, India will have no manufacturing of nbr which I think is a very important synthetic rubber for. For all several segments including auto, agri, gas, several segments, industrial products.
So we wanted some help from the government. And of course the DGTR did agree with us on most fronts and on several countries. The anti dumping duty was imposed or was recommended rather. But it has not been notified by the Finance Ministry. Our expansion to plans continue. Nonetheless we have found an innovative way to expand our product. Our volumes by almost 80, 90% in a much lower Capex cycle because of capex amount than what we had initially envisaged two years ago. The reason why we didn’t do it two years ago is because at that time we were thinking it would be 200.
250 crores. Now we are able to do it for maybe 130, 140 crores. So we are going to do it for much lower. And we think the rocs and the. You know, and the margins even currently without anti dumping will support that. We would have hoped that the government would have supported us further. But the expansion plans continue nonetheless. And to answer your question, I don’t know what’s going to happen. Honestly. We are still, you know, along with the rest of the industry. As you said, it’s not just been us but I would say a majority.
About 80 to 90% of the key cases in the last three months have not been notified yet. We don’t know whether that means an outright rejection. We don’t know if it’s a delay. We do not have communication yet from the finance ministry. And we’re trying to work through it.
Aditya Ketan
Got it. Thank you sir.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of KK Pandya from Bhel. Please go ahead.
KK Pandya
Thank you.
operator
Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Pandya, we are unable to hear you.
KK Pandya
Are you now?
operator
No.
KK Pandya
Okay.
KK Pandya
I’m just waiting now.
KK Pandya
Are you able to hear me?
operator
Yeah, yeah. Please go ahead.
KK Pandya
No, first thing I wanted to know about the wind energy. You had invested about couple of years back in wind energy. How is your finance? Is it paying off that investment or you are able to check out how, what is the benefit, how much have your financial benefit out of this wind energy project. You had invested in the wind and some wind energy. So what is the status? Financial.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
So I’m not sure what you’re referring to. But we have one windmill which is a small percentage of our total consumption which is a captive windmill where we get credit in our Maharashtra factory. And that’s in Maharashtra. The windmill. Of course that was more than a decade ago. If you’re referring to that I think maybe.
KK Pandya
No, I’m not referring to that. I’m referring to about three, four years ago you had some. There were some company, wind energy company in which you had invested about 3 crore or so.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
No, so that. Not three, four years ago. This was announced only a couple of quarters ago where we had taken board approval to invest. That investment will be completed by the end of this financial year. And we should start receiving, you know, the credits. That is in Gujarat. Yes, you’re right. That’s about three and a half crore investment. And we should receive the credit starting from sometime early next year. The exact date is not out yet. So that’s not yet started.
KK Pandya
Okay. Second thing I wanted to Know your expansion plan. You had said in the last quarter of 2627 you’ll be completing your expansion plan and with that the turnover would increase around 200 crores. What is the status of progress? Is it on time online or delayed?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
So we have started the project. Yes. Our endeavor is to complete it by the end of the next financial year which is FY27. We expect sometime between March, April of the year 27. Around that time we have three or four, three different projects. Three, four different projects ongoing. So they will start commissioning slowly from the end of this year to maybe April of next year. That’s on track. We have already started the investment cycle and the planning. Some of the long lead item pos have all been done and just to correct you, it’s not going to be about 200 crores.
It’s likely to be around 550 to 600 crores that will be added to the top line.
KK Pandya
Oh good. Anyway, best of luck. Hopefully you. Thanks. My questions are over and I hope. Bye bye. In 2627 the turnover would be around will touch 2000 crores. Are you expecting that in 2627?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Unlikely. Honestly speaking unlikely because we don’t have the like capacity and the prices remain where they are. Currently I don’t think we’ll reach 2000 crores but we’ll definitely do better than this quite this year. So we’ll continue to grow.
operator
Thank you.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Thank you.
operator
Before we take the next question, a reminder to all if you wish to ask a question please press star and 1. The next question is from the line of Karan Sharma from Credent. Please go ahead. Yes, you are audible. Can you please speak a little louder?
Karan Sharma
Yeah, my question.
operator
Sorry Karan, can you please speak a little louder. We are unable to hear you properly. Can you use the handset? Please go ahead. Thank you.
Karan Sharma
In the last year call there was a duty that US had imposed on Chinese gloves for 100%. It was supposed to happen two times. So it was 50% last year and 50% was supposed to happen in January this year. So has that gone through?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Yes, I believe that’s now now in place. Yes, it’s been imposed from January 26th.
Karan Sharma
Okay. So what’s the utilization in our nitrilytics plant right now?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
I would say for the YTD we are at about 70, 75% so around that much. And the implication of Chinese duty has definitely helped some of our customers in Southeast Asia and South Asia. And therefore we can see that our utilization rates have also gone up. You know We’ve continued to do that and I think by next year we’ll be at sort of full utilization. I mean, we’ll have full utilization run rate at some point next year.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Yeah,
Karan Sharma
our clients are primarily the Malaysians.
Karan Sharma
Or have we added any other new client as well?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
No, all over Southeast Asia, I would say Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, India also now quite a few glove manufacturers that have increased their capacities and are doing reasonably well. So all over Southeast Asia and South Asia. Bangladesh as well has one or two players. We’re also exporting to Turkey. So I would say six or seven countries mainly.
Karan Sharma
Okay, great, great.
Karan Sharma
So my next question was that post.
Karan Sharma
This new expansion at Walia, would we be left with spare land for further expansion? If in future we might have to then go for a new greenfield with land?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
I think we will have some more land. Depending on what we want to expand in, we will have some spare land.
Karan Sharma
I have one other question.
Karan Sharma
Can I ask that one as well?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Sure, go ahead.
Karan Sharma
Yeah.
Karan Sharma
I was reading on a product called super absorbent polymers which is found in powder form used in basically female hygiene products in our emulsion polymer chemistry. Does the product fit in or. This is something totally different from what we do?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
I think it’s completely different from what we do. I know it’s been a product that’s been of interest to many people, but yeah, different from what we do.
Karan Sharma
Okay.
Karan Sharma
And in future, do we probably. Can we go into this product if the.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
We have not evaluated in detail, but technology wise it’s. It’s quite far from what we do. So. But now that you mentioned it, I’ll look into it again.
Karan Sharma
So not in our chemistry.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Thank you. Thank you very much.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder to all, if you wish to ask a question, please press star N1. The next question is from the line of Chandpal Singh, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Chandpal Singh
Hello. Am I audible. Any views on the raw material security that you might be taking in the future.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
If you can expand on that? What do you mean? Sorry.
Chandpal Singh
Actually the business is quite volatile because of the raw materials. Prices are going up and down. So any views or any effort by the company to get the raw material security or backward or forward integration?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Okay, so see, backward integration we are not able to do with our major raw materials because you know, petrochemicals, which are part of sort of, you know, big petrochemical plants or refining plants as far as security is concerned in general, there is for all our raw materials, even though styrene and acrylonitrile are not available in India currently there is enough imports coming in from countries close by. And while there can be some short term hitches like currently we are facing that in styrene where a couple of plants, large plants that supply into India have gone down together.
One was a planned shutdown, one is an unplanned shutdown. So there are some shortages but short term shortages are there. But otherwise most of these raw materials that we have have enough capacity for our requirements. And in general long term there’s been, we don’t expect any issue. There can be short term issues as far as security is concerned and security of raw materials. The other question you asked is on raw material price volatility. Now that’s here to stay. You know that’s been going on for now 15, 20 years. I joined the business more than 20 years ago and I’ve seen many cycles where prices have been from plus minus 100% so that we have continued to manage and we manage it quite well.
We’re able to pass along the prices if the raw material prices go up. And we are also forced to sometimes reduce our prices when prices come down drastically. So that’s part of the game and quarter on quarter those kinds of pluses and minuses do happen in margin.
Chandpal Singh
Any views on APCO build?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
No, I mean continues to do okay. This year has been more challenging for us because we had a few years of good growth. It’s still a small part of our business. As I continue to say every time this year has been a little bit more challenging for us. I think a lot of competition has also come into the construction chemical segment recently. We are in a few geographies so the growth hasn’t been as great as previously but we continue to sort of push through it and focus on the margins there and you know there we are backward integrated into the polymer.
So that’s where you know it’s the additional margin that we get by supplying directly to a few regions in western and central India. So that’s what we’re focusing on.
Chandpal Singh
Okay, thanks. Thanks a lot.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rudraksh Raheja from I thought financial consulting. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity sir and congratulations. Great sir. I wanted to get a qualitative outlook on different industries that we are supplying our products. Like you mentioned, paper is coming back and so what’s your outlook on other industries? Maybe nitrile, latex glove suppliers or whatever else we supply our products.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
I think see paper in this the industry, the Paper industry is still going through a tough time because the Indian paper industry is facing a lot of dumping from what I understand. So their margins are under pressure compared to the last couple of years is what I understand from our customers. What I meant was that our latex margins, which were very low, have improved a bit because our capacity utilization has gone up and the extra capacity that were created at the same time are now at a higher capacity utilization level. So that’s what I meant.
Construction continues to boom in India for us. Carpet and textiles has been one industry that’s actually been a degrowth for us. I should have mentioned that earlier, so it’s a good question. Carpet, textiles and tire, all three industries, we have seen a slight degrowth in volumes in this last quarter and I think even for the nine month period it’s flat mainly because of these tariffs from the us. So a lot of the carpet manufacturers, not only in India but in the Middle east have also been affected by these US tariffs and the uncertainty around them.
Similarly with textiles and tires we see the same thing and Glock continues to do well for us. The Chinese, the US imposing Chinese anti the duty on Chinese gloves has had some of our customers in Southeast Asia and South Asia. So that’s been good for us Overall. The glove industry continues to grow. Obviously it’s an essential medical product. So I think that will continue to grow at 7,8% year on year, especially for nitrile gloves. At least 7,8% if not 10,12%. I hope that gives you a flavor of the different industries.
Unidentified Participant
Definitely. And do you see the demand supply situation getting better in nitride latex?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
I think look, there is still globally an overcapacity. China especially has created a lot of overcapacity. So we could see some Chinese latex now come out and come into which was not Southeast Asia, which was not happening earlier. Even so far we have not seen that much, but it could happen. So I think that will still take a couple of years for it to go back to sort of pre Covid levels in terms of 80, 90% capacity utilization levels. Maybe there will be some consolidation, some capacities may even shut down which are not viable. The old ones.
Recently in the last one year, one capacity in Malaysia for example was shut down. From what we heard, old plant, not commercially viable, 25 year old plant. Plant I think it was now. And so that could happen and then margins could improve even further quickly. But I think it’s still over capacity and it may take another couple of years. But at least right now the margins have improved for sure for nitrile latex and the gloves from what I understand from what they were in 23 and 24 in 25.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. Sir, you also said.
operator
Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Raja, sorry to interrupt. Please rejoin the queue for more questions.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Okay Mr. RA, you can finish your last question since you started. I think we’ll allow.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, thanks. You mentioned that we have been better on the rubber side as well if I’m not wrong. Could you provide more details on that?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
I think look after.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Sort of the.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Pandemic we had a couple of good years and then the margins were again depressed. Now I think margins are a little bit better. That’s what I meant. Compared to the last couple of years slightly better. But overall as I said we are still hoping for an anti dumping duty to be notified because it’s been recommended and there was a detailed investigation for a period of one year. The DGTR did agree with us on most countries except one. They did recommend a reasonably good anti dumping duty to support us for five years. We’re not asking for it for full, you know, forever but at least some support for five years to support an industry which is essential for India.
But things are better for sure in the last three, four months.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saurabh Shroff from QRC Investment Advisors llp. Please go ahead.
Saurabh Shroff
Yes, hi. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. Congratulations on a very strong performance. Abhira, just one request and a suggestion. If you could maybe more regularly disclose utilization across lines or geography it will sort of un numbers because it will really help us appreciate if the business.
Saurabh Shroff
Is moving in the right direction.
Saurabh Shroff
And what I mean is that.
operator
Sorry to interrupt. Saurabh, we are unable to hear you, your voice is muffling.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
I think I’m getting the gist of the question but it definitely is not clear. Very clear.
Saurabh Shroff
Yeah, sorry. Is this better?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Yes, I think so. Go ahead.
Saurabh Shroff
Yeah. Just one request. If you could perhaps give us some more details on volume and utilization. I think it will help us appreciate which direction the business is going in because we’ve sort of obviously long term stated objective has been 13 to 15% something that you’ve said multiple times. We’ve beached it a few times and given the volatility of I guess the end commodity and the raw material it’s far more important for us to look at the spread than the percentages. But we can’t do that if we don’t have the volume numbers. So if you could maybe consider in whichever way Given the competitive whatever you are comfortable disclosing, I think it then gives us a far better idea that really should be margin accretive.
I mean NITA latex, let’s say is a misfortunate event that otherwise should have been very profitable but is not. And you did allude to that outside of nitrile latex last quarter we were already at mid teen kind of margins if I remember correctly. So you know, this will just help us understand where the business is going when the leverage sort of kicks in and what we should expect. So otherwise, I mean, I guess all other questions have been answered. I do hope you would consider doing this.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Sure. Fair question. And honestly, you know as a company we try to be as transparent as possible but as I’ve said again before that we try and balance out, you know, revealing all numbers because there’s also something, you know, that we also have to worry about competitive what we information we are providing to competitors through these very transparent dealings with investors and analysts. And that is actually counterproductive in the long run. So the reason why we don’t give volume numbers because specific volume tonnage numbers is because we are in so many different industrial segments and it could happen then once you go down the rabbit hole of revealing volumes then it’s easily decodable for some of our competitors.
I’m being very honest here. But we do provide volume growth overall because we do want to give the investors and analysts a flavor of for example this quarter the revenue growth. If you were just to see the revenue growth from the numbers, it’s flat but we’ve actually grown in volumes for the first nine months we’ve grown at 15% but the revenue has been flat. So that’s the kind of flavor that we do provide. As far as capacity utilization is concerned. I think we’ve been quite transparent but noted and what we’ll do is in the perhaps Vivek, in your opening remarks or in the investor presentations, maybe we can give a flavor of the capacity utilization of the various product lines.
Saurabh Shroff
Yes, that will be helpful. At least it gives us a handle like I said that the business is actually because it exactly like you said, it feels like the business is in much better shape. It was then let’s say two quarters ago. But it think that doesn’t come out in the presentation or in the speech. So this will be highly appreciated.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Thank you.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Just to answer question for NBR we had 100% capacity utilization. We have been now for the whole year for nitrile latex we’re at about 75 to 70, 75% capacity utilization. 75, perhaps closer to that for the, for YTD, I would say the numbers for the other products, which is construction, carpet, paper, textiles, you know, it’s all one plant and overall there also we are at about 85, 87% capacity utilization. So for nitrile latex and for, you know, other synthetic latex products, we have one, at least one year of growth left and then obviously new, you know, the new capacity will come on stream.
Nbr, we already out of capacity, but that capacity won’t come on stream for another year. Yeah, I think, I think those are the three main product lines. We also have a separate tire cord which is almost at again 85, 90% capacity utilization. But that’s a little bit of a swing. We can use it. So just broadly we’re at very high capacity utilization levels currently. We have one year of growth left in the latex side and then we’ll have new capacity come on.
Saurabh Shroff
Great. And then sort of addition to that. So this does mean that you can further optimize on clients on slightly higher margins or better terms of business. Just given that now we are running at pretty close to full up. Right. And that’s something that will be the endeavor for the next 15 months.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
We have the option to do that. Yeah, we would have.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Thank you.
Saurabh Shroff
Yes, thank you. Yeah.
operator
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Sanni Vishe from Access Securities. Please go ahead.
Sanni Vishe
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. I just have a couple of bookkeeping questions. One is on the interest part. I can see the interest has dropped significantly this quarter. So what is our expectation and what is the reason behind this? And secondly, on what are, what is our expected tax for the year?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Okay, may I request Vivek to take these questions? Vivek on interest and tax, please.
Vivek Thakur
So basically on interest, at the beginning we mentioned that the year has been good from a profitability point of view. So good cash generation, so that cash which is generated out of profitability plus the working capital release that has been used for repayment of some of the borrowings. So the borrowings have come down. Also the interest rates have fallen and we have been able to negotiate better rates from the banks. So mix of these two factors have led to a reduction in finance cost. I would say 75% of the reduction in interest cost is through the reduction in borrowings.
The rest is all interest rate related. On the second question of yours on the tax, so we expect effective tax rate of about 27, 28% for the year.
Sanni Vishe
Thank you.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
And also to add that obviously look we will now for the new projects we will be raising more sort of long term debt for this project. Partly it will be through internal accruals but we will be raising some debt. So now interest rate, interest cost may go up also in the next sort of next year.
Sanni Vishe
Yeah, of course, but that will move with the debt level. Right. So in terms of interest rate also I think this should be a comfortable living.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Right.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
And just to add to Vivek, we are also you know net debt free. So we have in fact we have reasonable amount of excess cash right now in the books which we will be deploying for these new CapEx projects of course.
Sanni Vishe
And the working capital may go may increase towards the end of year. Right. Or does it.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Price is going up certainly that I think it will. That’s another thing that’s helped is overall raw material price in the last six months have been quite low. So that’s again started to move up. So I think our working capital utilization will also go up I think in the next three, four months.
Sanni Vishe
Perfect, thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Karan Sharma from Credit, please go ahead.
Karan Sharma
Latex, you mentioned that this year, sorry FY27 we get 100% utilization and if I go back to pre Covid, this was a business where we had big plans. So now that the market is shifting and we are a very small player in the global market considering the global size is huge and we are, we are not even 1% of the capacity are there now again thinking on expanding capacity in the nitrile side.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Just to clarify first of all I mentioned NBR which is NVR solid Rubber. We had 100% capacity utilization for nitrile latex. We still have some capacity left and I expect that at some point next year we will hit a run rate of full capacity utilization. But for the year we will have to see how that goes as far as additional capacity is concerned. As I mentioned to one of the previous callers, look globally there’s a lot of overcapacity so it doesn’t make sense to add capacity right now maybe in a couple of years and we have left some space for that.
Unfortunately the margins don’t warrant currently don’t justify additional capacity at this stage.
Karan Sharma
My question was that only if the pricing comes back, how soon can that new capacity kick in? I guess since you had
Abhiraj A. Choksey
so once.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Back and once the decision is taken I think it’ll take up take us about nine to 10 months and really the Long lead time will be just certain equipment, specifically reactors which take that long, you know, eight time. Otherwise civil structure, everything is ready. So we don’t, you know, we don’t need that much. It would depend on how long some of these long lead time equipments take. I suspect nine, 10 months.
Karan Sharma
Current capacity is 50,000, right?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Yeah, about 48 depending on. Yeah, 48 to 50,000. Correct.
Karan Sharma
And how much can that expand by?
operator
Please rejoin the key for more questions.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
So just to answer the last question, how much can we expand that by? We can probably expand it by about.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
50%, 50 to 60%.
Karan Sharma
Thanks.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
But we’ll have to rework the cost at the time we take the decision and see if it justifies doing it. So you know, we will see at that time, as I mentioned earlier, that you know, we have taken certain assets, you know, from the nitrile latex plant because you know, towards this newest, you know, styrene, the synthetic latex that we are developing in Malaya. So it’s going to get a little complicated going forward which I don’t want to get into now. As and when the decision, we take the decision to expand. I’ll let you know.
I seriously doubt will happen in the.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Next year or two.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rudraksh Raheja from I thought Financial Consulting. Please go ahead.
Rudraksh Raheja
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. I wanted to get a sense on the EBITDA margin front. This is the target that we have done in last 1112 months. How do you see that sustaining or what kind of risk that you still foresee in the market that we could fall behind again?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
No, honestly, I’m so sorry but there was a. I couldn’t hear the question properly. I think I’ve got the gist but if you can repeat the question.
Rudraksh Raheja
Yeah, I think this is the highest that we have done in last 11, 12 quarters. This 13% and generally we believe 13 to 16 is what we should do in the normal course of the business. So do you see this 13% sustaining going forward? If and what kind of risk used foresee are there that would make us fall behind that number?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Look, I think given the current where we are currently, I don’t see any reason why ebitda, overall EBITDA should reduce. One thing that could happen is like what’s happening now is suddenly the raw material prices are going up by 20, 30% very quickly in which case we focus on EBITDA per ton. So you could see the percentage margin come down. But overall EBITDA pbt ROCE being quite healthy. So we look as a company, as a company we don’t only look at EBITDA percentage margins, we look at EBITDA per ton and ROC is very important for us.
So as long as ROC is healthy sometimes we are okay with EBITDA percentage margins. So for example oil was at 60, now it becomes 70, let’s say it goes to 90. So that means oil. If oil goes to 90 there’s an increase of 50% in raw material prices. We’re not sure if we’ll get the 50% increase in finished goods prices to keep the EBITDA the same. It may be less so the EBITDA percentage may reduce but ROC will still remain strong. But overall we’re quite positive of that at least in the next year, year and a half till new capacity comes on stream and we have limited capacity.
We’re able to take the advantage of picking and choosing the right customers with higher margins with good payment terms and payment performance. So I think I don’t see any reason of course other risk could be again if the anti dumping doesn’t come through and suddenly there could be some dumping of rubber products for latex it’s little harder but for other products that could happen. So there are of course inherent risks again in the annual report if you see there are certain risks that we look at all those factors are there raw material risks in terms of sometimes raw material is not available and our plant is shut for some time.
All these kinds of risks are there of course but there are I think low probability risks at this point that we see.
Rudraksh Raheja
Understood. So thank you for the detailed answer.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Sure, thanks.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a final reminder to all if you wish to ask a question please press star and 1.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
So I think we’re almost done with an hour so should if there are no further questions, Is any anyone in the question queue now?
operator
Yes sir, we got one question from Aditya Ketan from Smith Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Aditya Ketan
Thank you sir. For the Follow up per kg like you mentioned to earlier participants, if you can give some flavor like how has that been fared over the last three to four years and are we nearing that range of 15 rupees? Like I think we have said some quite a few years back, how are we like standing in terms of per kg today?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
So honestly I am not able to give you the exact number and I certainly don’t have numbers from the last three, four years in front of me. But overall as I said it’s gone to Reasonably healthy levels. Perhaps not as high as what we had in FY22 23, but reasonably healthy levels. And with the volumes going up, I think we’re quite comfortable with these margins and of course our endeavor will be to improve these further.
Aditya Ketan
Got it. Sir, just one question on appco Build, like how serious are we like to build this business? Because we have seen like no material contribution to top line. Do you think like to work on such a smaller business which has no meaningful scale for us or should we focus our energies towards this sort of business or like focus on the core businesses like your latexes?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
As I told you before, our strategy for the APCO build business has been a little different. It is actually quite related to the core business. I would not say that it’s very far from the core business. We are focusing on mostly products that we are manufacturing and is where we have technical expertise. We do have some outsourced products as well in our product range. But really the focus has been to capture the additional margins that anyway were supplied to some of the customers that have a brand. So the endeavor has been to capture that additional margin and while we may not see it on the top line as being significant, but it’s a reasonably healthy bottom line and it’s still a small percentage of the bottom line as well.
But we are capturing that additional additional contribution at a low cost. So I think we will continue the business whether we choose to invest large amounts and become a large player in that that I agree that is something that’s not our focus or chosen not to focus on it right now. But we’ll continue to manage and grow this business.
Aditya Ketan
Just one last question sir. Is there any plans to like forward integrate to make gloves? Also because we are into latex and directly we should manufacture gloves and export it to the global markets. Any sort of an understanding on this?
Abhiraj A. Choksey
So we had considered earlier, we said first let’s focus on manufacturing latex and get that right. And as I mentioned earlier, also given the current entire glove industry and the glove supply chain, including Latex, it is so much additional capacity at this stage it doesn’t make sense to add more capacity. Maybe at a future date if it makes sense. Yeah.
Aditya Ketan
Got it sir. Thank you.
operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. We’ll take this as a last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing remarks.
Abhiraj A. Choksey
Thank you everyone for joining us in this Q3 conference call. We look forward to seeing you at the end of the financial year. Happy New Year to everyone and thank you again. Thank you once again for joining us.
operator
Thank you very much on behalf of Appcotix Industries limited. That concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us today. And you may now disconnect your lines.