Carborundum Universal Limited (NSE: CARBORUNIV) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Aug. 08, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Sridharan Rangarajan — Managing Director
G. Chandramouli — Advisor
Sushil Bendal — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Harshit Patel — Analyst
Bhavin Vithlani — Analyst
Ravi Swaminathan — Analyst
Mohit Kumar — Analyst
Bhoomika Nair — Analyst
Aditya — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
SA. Foreign. Ladies and gentlemen, Katri and welcome to the Q1FY26 earnings conference call of Carbon Universal Limited hosted by Equidus Securities. 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 updater by pressing Star then zero on attachment phone. Please note that this conference is when recording. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Harshit Paril from Equator Securities. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Harshit Patel — Analyst
Hello. Good afternoon everyone. On the behalf of Equivirus Securities I welcome you all to the first quarter FY26 earnings conference call of Carbo Random Universal. We have with us from the management Mr. Shri Dharan Rangarajan, Managing Director. Mr. Shushil Bendale, Chief Financial Officer and Mr. G. Chandra Molly, Advisor. I would like to hand over to Mr. Sridharan Ramdarajan, managing Director for the opening remarks and post said we will open the floor for Q and A. Over to you sir.
G. Chandramouli — Advisor
Good afternoon. I am Chandra Moli. As a practice, let me read out the disclaimer before getting into the call. Good afternoon. During the call we may make certain statements which reflect our outlook for the future or which could be considered as forward looking statement. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and are associated with uncertainties and risks are more fully detailed in our annual report which may cause the actual result to differ. Hence, these statements must be reviewed in conjunction with the risks that the company faces. Thank you.
Sridharan Rangarajan — Managing Director
So good afternoon to all of you and a warm welcome to our first quarter earnings call.
I will give an overview and then we will open up for question answers. To start with, consolidated sales for the quarter was 1207 crores comparison to 1184 crores. Q1FY25 which is a 1.9% growth compared to the same period last year and 0.6% compared to Q4FY25 of rupees 1199 crores. Standalone sales was 698 crores compared to 664 crores in Q1FY25. This represents a growth of 5.2%. And in comparison to Q4FY25 that represents a growth of 1.7% in Q1FY26. Consolidated pad declined by 45.2% compared to Q1FY25. That is from 113 crores in Q1FY25 to 62 crores in Q1FY26.
This is due to the lower volumes in VAW which we have explained in the last call itself and Rhode is and domestic distances. I will explain all of this in detail little later. In Q1FY26 standalone pact of rupees 145 crores grew by 55.4% from 93 crores in Q1FY25. The increase is due to a one time dividend from Fedco which is about 68 crores. Now I’ll cover the consolidated performance. As stated earlier the consolidated sales for the quarter was 1207 crores with a growth of 1.9% compared to Q1FY25 and compared to Q4FY25 it is a 0.6% growth.
Software growth at consolidated level was mainly on account of Rhode is Rhodeus as such is making a change in their logistics partner which caused a substantial drop in volume. I’ll cover that in the Rhodius section separately and the drop in volumes at VAW which we have earlier explained in our Q4 last year’s call itself and they are actually trading as per the business plan and they are fine at a lower level. Of course they are lower level but they are trading as per the business plan. You would note that the ceramics Segment grew by 11.1% and Electro Minerals by 6.3% while Abrasives declined by 8%.
Consolidated PAT for the quarter was 62 crores. This in comparison to Q1FY25 PAT of 113 crores is lower by 51 crores. The lower profit is due to higher losses in VAW in comparison to the last year’s Q1. And if you would recall that in January 2024 we had the sanction and that is what you know we had this challenges coming forth. This coupled with drop in profit in Rhodius and the standalone businesses put together accounts for this difference. Roughly you can say 181818 crores. Broadly consolidated PAT for the quarter at 62 crores in comparison to Q4FY25 PAT of 29 crores grew by 33 crores.
This is predominantly due to the reversal of deferred tax assets at Taruco. In Q4 25 you remember that we had reversed the deferred tax asset that what we claimed so far in Q4FY25 standalone business. In Q1FY26 standalone sales was rupees 698 crores which is a growth of 5.2% compared to rupees 664 crores Q1FY25. This was contributed by growth in Electro Minerals at 12.3% and Ceramics at 10% and standalone abrasive business T grew by 5.5%. Standalone profit after tax for the quarter was 145 crores as against 93 crores in Q1FY25. This is higher by rupees 52 crores compared to 61 crores in Q4FY25.
Part of Q1FY26 is higher by 84 crores. I think both this is. Both. This is due to the one off dividend of rupees 68 crores from Setco. Now I will cover the segmental performance to start with in abrasives. Consolidated abrasives sales in Q1FY26 was 508 crores. This in comparison to Q1FY25. Sales of rupees 552 crores has declined by 44 crores. There is an 8% decline. Rhode is abrasives declined by rupees 26 crores and standalone declined by 70. Together is this fall consolidated sales in Q1FY26 at rupees 588 crores in comparison to 538 crores in Q4FY25 showed a decline of 30.5 crores. This mainly coming from roadways abrasives. At standalone abrasives sales for Q1FY26 was 286 crores.
Last year Q1FY25 sales was 303 crores resulting in a decline of 17 crores which is 5.5 crore. Precision segment grew well we are seeing softer demand in the channels due to the inventory correction. And as far as Rhodius is concerned, Rhodius recorded a net sales of 13.2 million Euro in this quarter compared to 17.3 million during the Q1 FY25 which is a 23% decline in sales. Rudeus has shifted its logistics partner in Q1 FY26 for better efficiency. This resulted in a significant disruption of operation. This resulted in non fulfillment of orders on hand resulting in lower sales.
We expect the stability of operation to come by end of August. We expect this would impact the full year sales as well. We expect the remaining three quarter sales would be in line with the last year’s sales. Rhodeus incurred a loss after tax of 1.6 million euro in this quarter against the PAT of points 3 million in Q1 FY25. This was mainly due to the loss of sales arising out of the logistics issues. AUCO achieved a sales of 2.6 million euro this quarter in comparison to 3 million in Q1 FY25. The last before tax are at the same level as that of Q1FY25.
Now I’ll cover the PBET performance of the abrasive business segment. Consolidated abrasive PB 80 was rupees 11 crores in Q1FY25 it was 55 crores and in Q4FY25 it was 34 crores. The drop of 44 crores in Q1FY26 compared to Q1FY25 is due to Rhodes amounting to rupees 26 crore daily due to loss of sales. Standalone drop of about 16 crores. Consolidated PBIT of Q1FY26 was lower by 22 crores in comparison to PVIT of 34 crores in Q4FY25. This is mainly due to Rhode Ise abrasives and standalone abrasives. I will move to the next segment now.
Electro Minerals Consolidated sales in Q on FY26 was 405 crores showing a growth of 6.3% compared to Q1FY25 of 381 crores. Standalone business showed a good growth of 12.3% compared to Q1 FY25. The performance of VAW was lower due to the sanctions imposed in Q4FY25. However consolidated sales in Q1FY26 was at 405 crores was higher by 30 crores when compared to 375 crores of Q4 in. This is mainly due to better performance and standalone slightly better performance in VAW etc. Standalone electro mineral sales for Q1FY26 was 212 crores with a growth of 12.3% compared to Q1FY25 of rupees 189 crores.
Standalone sales in Q1FY26 at 212 crores higher by 7 crores when compared to rupees 206 crores in Q4FY25. This was on account of increase in volume as well as price. Standalone Milkram Minerals saw good growth from export as well as domestic VAW sales for Q1FY26 was ruble 1.84 billion which is a 25% decline from ruble 2.46 billion in Q1FY25. Sales for Q1FY26 was rubleen 1.84 billion which is flat compared to ruble 1.83 billion in Q4FY25 in Q1FY26 in ruble terms the profit after tax was ruble 72 million as compared to 287 million in Q1FY25 and 110 million in Q4FY25.
FSL sales for Q1FY26 was 56 crores compared to which is a 3.7% increase as compared to Q1FY25 of 54 crores and 6 crores higher than 50 crores in Q4FY25. In Q1FY26 FSA incurred a loss before tax of rupees 8 crores as compared to 5 crores in Q1FY25 and 7 crores in FY25. Now I will cover the PBIT of Electric Mineral segment consolidated EMD. PBIT for Q1FY26 was 4 crores in Q1FY25 the PBIT was 43 crores. The drop of 39 crores in Q1FY26 compared to Q1FY25 is due to VAW amounting to Rs. 27 crores, standalone business amounting to Rs.
9 crores and fast car amounting to 3 crores. Consolidated PVIT of Rupees 4.4 crores in Q1FY26 was lower by 2.6 crores in comparison to PVITF 9 crores in Q4FY25. Ceramics consolidated sales in Q1FY26 was 300 crores showing a growth of 11.1% compared to Q1FY25 of Rupees two hundred and seventy crores. Standalone business showed good growth of 10% compared to Q1FY25. Consolidated sales in Q1FY26 at 300 crores was higher by 3 crores compared to 270 crores in Q4FY25. Stand alone ceramics sales for Q1FY26 was at 238 crores with a growth of 10% compared to Q4FY25 of Rupees two hundred & seventeen crores was higher by 9 crores when compared to 229 crores sales in Q4FY25.
This was an account of increase in volume price in industrial ceramic business. Metallized ceramics engineering Ceramics drove the growth in refractories, monolithic and corrosion. Residential business grew as well as. Now. Turning to the PB80 performance of ceramic segment. Consolidated ceramic PBAT for Q1FY26 was 75 crores with a growth of 16% as compared to 65 crores of Q1FY25 compared to 74 crores in Q4FY25. The PBET grew by 1.5%. Standalone ceramic PB80 of for Q1FY26 was 62 crores with a growth of 25.4% compared to 49 crores of Q1FY25. In comparison to Q4FY25 of Ruby Swiftice the PB80 grew by 13%. I request Sushil to cover the PBAT margin, debt positions, CapEx cash flow and the ROC.
Sushil Bendal — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you. The PBIT margin for the Consolidated was at 6.7% for the quarter compared to 8% in Q4FY25 and 12.6% in Q1 of FY25. Standalone for the quarter, standalone PBIT margin was at 23.8% compared to 11.8% in Q4 of FY25 and 18% in Q1FY25. This also includes the one off dividend income from Cedco Now Abrasives for the quarter, Consolidated Appraises margin declined from 10% in Q1 of FY25 to 2.2% in Q1 FY26 due to a drop in volumes at Rhodius and the stand alone business. Stand alone margins dropped from 17.6% to 13.1%. The drop in margin was mainly due to drop in volume and increase of freight and fixed cost.
The consolidated margins declined by 398 basis points compared to Q4 of FY25. Standalone margins declined from 16.2% in Q4 of FY25 to 13.1% in Q1 of FY26. Electrominerals for the quarter, Consolidated Electro Minerals margin declined from 11.4% in Q1 of FY25 to 1.1% in Q1 of FY26. The decline was mainly attributable to the lower volumes in VAW coupled with lower realization. Standalone margins dropped from 8.5% to 3.3%. This is mainly due to higher input costs. The consolidated margins declined by 132 basis points compared to Q4 of FY25. Standalone margins improved from 2.8% in Q4 of FY25 to 3.3% in Q1 of FY26.
Now ceramics for the quarter, consolidated ceramics margins improved from 24% in Q1 of FY25 to 25% in Q1 FY26. The standalone margins improved from 22.7% to 25.9%. The consolidated margins increased by 10 basis points compared to Q4 ofFY25. Standalone margins improved from 23.9% in Q4 of FY25-25.9% in Q1 FY26. Now I’ll talk about the debt position. There was no debt in our stand alone books and total debt at the consolidated basis was at 172 crores at the end of Q1FY26 compared to 120 crores at the end of Q4FY25 and 112 crores at the end of Q 1FY25.
The debt to equity ratio was at 0.05 at the consolidated level in Q1FY26, our capex investment was 64 crores against 63 crores in Q1FY25. At a consolidated level, free cash flows in Q1 of FY26 at a consolidated level 98% to Q4 PAT compared to 37% in Q1 of FY25. At a standalone basis in Q1FY26, free cash flow to PAT was 104% compared to 47% in Q1 of FY25. Now for ROCE for Q1 of FY26 the ROCE at a consolidated level is 8.1% compared to 16.9% during Q1 of FY25 and at a stand alone level it was at 24.6% compared to 20% in Q1 of FY25 dot for consolidated segments, ROCE in Q1FY26 for abrasives decreased from 15.5% in Q1 of FY25 to 2.8% this quarter.
Ceramics has decreased from 41.5% to 37.8% and electro minerals has decreased from 17.8% to 1.8%. For our stand alone businesses, ROCE in Q1 of of FY26 for appraisals has decreased from 45.4 to 26.3% this quarter and ceramics has improved from 44.5% to 47.2% and electro minerals has decreased from 22.3 to 8.4%. Now the unallocable expenses net of income standalone at the stand alone level, unallocable expenses in Q1 of FY26 was an income of Rs. 60 crore. If you exclude one time dividend from Serco of 68 crores. This would be an expense of rupees 7.3 crores.
In Q1 of FY25 the unallocable income was 72 lakhs and the difference is due to lower dividend in few companies in Q1FY26. In Q4 of FY25 the unallocable expense was rupees 26 crores due to seasonality in dividend receipts. Now I request Mr. Sridharan to take you through the next section related to the future outlook.
Sridharan Rangarajan — Managing Director
Thank you. So just to summarize I think ceramic sales we communicated a sales growth of 16 to 18% last time the full year level at consolidated and we hold our guidance for the consolidated ceramic segment EMT sales we gave a guidance of 1% to 2% growth in retro mineral division. Last call we retained the same cadence abrasive sales. In our last call we communicated 5% to 6% for the year. This could be about 4% to 5% considering the lower sales in Rhodes in Q1 FY26. So overall last time we said 5. 6% to 7%. We are now looking at 5.5 to 6.5% consolidated margin in the ceramic section.
Last while we communicated PVET margin of 23.5 to 23.7 on a full year basis. We maintain the same EMD. In the last call we said 6.5% to 7.5% on a full year basis. We currently look at 4.5 to 5.5% in the braces. Last time we said the PBIT margin could be 8 to 8.5% on a full year basis. Currently we are looking at 6 to 6.5%. We said that last time the overall consolidated PBAD margin could be a drop of 100 to 150 basis points compared to FY25 base of 11.2. Now we are looking at 250 to 300 basis point drop compared to that level.
Just to summarize I think one Rhodias the transfer of logistics issue is quite an unexpected one and we did not consider in our forecast. There is a complete chaos in terms of software breakdown. Physical movement of goods were impacted. So now we are trying to address this. We expect end of August all this will be addressed. We expect that rest of the quarters the sales will be in line with the last year in EMD standalone. The margins drop is due to higher alumina costs which I think is now passed on because the inventory whatever we had was completely liquidated.
They are back normal and that should get us back to the proper margin that what we were gaining. Besides these two I think the major challenge was tabres is local India drop which I also we feel that we will get back from Q2 onwards. So with that I would of course you have seen that our free cash flow is in good shape. We have delivered 100 plus percentage in standalone a very healthy free cash flow in consolidated balance sheet is quite strong. We have done all our programs as far as the long term strategy is concerned we are tracking very well.
So those are in good shape. We will address these one off blitz that we will come back strongly in the coming quarters. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask question may press star and one on the dashtune telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from question Q you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Bhavin Bhatlani from SBI Fund Management. Please go ahead.
Bhavin Vithlani
Good afternoon, sir.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Good afternoon Bhavin.
Bhavin Vithlani
So three questions. So first is on vaw. Could you help us understand the way forward given that now we almost have six months since the sanctions. What is your thought process in mitigating and how do we get back to normal levels and when in your view.
Sridharan Rangarajan
You said three questions or I answer one day one.
Bhavin Vithlani
Okay, I’ll outline. Second is in the domestic abrasive segments. If you could give us a bit more color on where are we seeing slowdown given that we have three segments that you outline. One is the retail, another is industrial and third is the precision. Where exactly is the impact? Optically it looks the precision is hit and hence the margins have got lower. So more color here will be helpful. Third is if you could just help us understand on the German subsidiaries.
Sridharan Rangarajan
What.
Bhavin Vithlani
Is the one off that was there in the quarter? How do you see these two rhodius and worko on the balance nine year month period and the full year basis excluding this, what should be the revenue and profitability in the balance nine months period? These are my three questions, sir.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Correct. Thank you. So as far as VAW is concerned, I think we broadly gated last time that you know, we expect the volumes would be lower 25 to 30%. You know in the last call we have gated that. This time also they are lower by about 25% compared to the same period last year. We are restricted to selling only in inside Russia. We are continuing to do that. They are profitable within that set of the business. But the future depends on how the settlement as far as Russia, Ukraine is concerned will turn out. And based on that, developments will happen.
I don’t want to hazard a guess given that multiple forces are at play as far as abrasive segment is concerned. You are right. There are three broad segments. We have precision, we have industrial and we also have retail. The challenge that currently we are facing is on the retail side. And as I was telling that, you know, there is a reasonable growth in the rest of the segment, which is what making us confident about it. This is quite a few major distributors have to focus on the stock clearance and that is what caused us this decline in sales.
As far as the German subsidiary Rhodius is concerned. As I told that this quarter we had lost about 4 million euro compared to the same period last year. We expect that the similar the remaining three quarters we will be in line with the last year sales. What we have lost, we will not be able to recover. Meaning this order we will serve. That is the thing. But since there is a significant delay has happened, we expect that we will not be able to recover. But of course we are trying our best to see how do we.
Serve. This order as well as be able to serve the future orders. The issue is largely in terms of the change of software caused a significant delay, which is one major reason. So the pick and pack we were not able to perform. We could not physically move the inventory from the previous warehouse to the new warehouse. Even in the new warehouse we were not able to have a proper location. These are outsourced warehouses. So this caused quite a bit of a challenge. It’s getting addressed. We expect end of this month we will completely address this issue.
Bhavin Vithlani
Sir, just one more question. Bookkeeping question. Employee expenses for the consolidated is up by 24. And if I look the subsidiary piece, which is minus the standalone, they are up by little over 30%. So if you could just help us understand here.
Sridharan Rangarajan
So I will get back to you with this answer to you. One, can we move on to the other question in the meantime? We’ll try to find the answer.
Bhavin Vithlani
Sure. Thank you so much for taking the question.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Thank you. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ravi Swaminathan from Evander Spark. Please go ahead.
Ravi Swaminathan
Hi sir, thanks for taking my question. My first question is with respect to the standalone electro mineral business. The margins are kind of still on the compressed side. You had mentioned that it was because of raw material prices going up and now we are passing it on. But earlier you had mentioned that there was also competition from Chinese players in especially in alumina etc. What is the status with respect to the competition from Chinese players in this particular category? That is my first question. And with respect to the second one, in terms of the other option value kind of products like high purity silicon carbide and supply of ceramics to emerging product categories like EVs etc.
What is the status of that?
Sridharan Rangarajan
Okay, so thank you Mr. Ravi Swam. Nathan. First of all, as far as the electro mineral is concerned, the alumina price literally went up in the six months it doubled. It went up as high as about $800 and then it fell down to $350 per ton. And the inventories that we. And the fall is in the matter of three to four months. So the inventory that we held because we bought this at a higher price have to be liquidated. And that is what is causing us this problem that we have in Q1.
The price pressure continues to be there. We don’t see this anything new. But that is continuing on continuing aspect. As far as the high purity silicon carbide program, it is progressing well on track and we are progressing on some of this qualification process. We are progressing on track. As I gated, it won’t be a major sales for this year and we are not looking at an immediate short term type of revenue arising from that. And with respect to ceramic sales for EVs and semiconductor industry, is that a big driver of growth likely to be a driver of growth over the next one, two years or three years? Right.
So you are right. I think that’s the good driver of the growth. And that is also another reason why we have a very good growth in ceramic segment at this point in time.
Ravi Swaminathan
Okay. And within ceramics and refractories, one last question. With respect to wear ceramics, the technical ceramics, metallic cylinder and refractories, how if you can break up the growth, how it was in the overall 10% growth that we had seen this quarter, which is growing faster, which is seeing better traction. If you can do even a kind of a broad commentary or color on it, that would be great.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Yes, I think we are seeing our engineered ceramics business, metallized ceramics business are growing well. We are also seeing monolithic business growing well, quite decent. And we are also seeing our corrosion resistance business going well.
There are few softness in terms of wherever projects are getting executed. That is where there are some delays in that. That is why Some of the expected projects there is some delay otherwise the business overall are doing well.
Ravi Swaminathan
Project will be which end user industries
Sridharan Rangarajan
we typically sell many industries. Carbon black, cement, steel, refractory products goes into many industries so that happens to diversified industries.
Ravi Swaminathan
Wonderful sir, thank you.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Thank you. Ravish.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harshit Patel from Akvadeshi County.
Harshit Patel
Thank you very much for the opportunity sir. So firstly on the US tariffs, what could be the impact on our abrasives and ceramics exports because we export quite substantial amount to the North America in this. Could there be a substantial impact on our supplies to that clean energy customer in the US from where we have started seeing some pickup from CY25 onwards?
Sridharan Rangarajan
Yeah. So thank you. See we see this so far. It is evolving. I won’t call it we have any conclusive answers on this. And as you would know that the world itself is just grappling with this. We do not know what is the final outcome going to be. But what I can see is that broadly it is a function of few things which I want to lay out here is are there equivalents available getting manufactured in us, Are there equivalents available from other countries and how fast the process of qualification is going to take place and also suitability for the manufacturer to adopt to the new supplier and a function of what is the differential duty versus what we can absorb and the ability of the three parties to share this difference whether it is the customer or the intermediary manufacturer in US and the customer the supplier from India.
So these are the parties who are going to deal with this. Plus of course there are other factors like what the Indian government is going to provide as support, all that factors. So I would say at this stage we do not have any immediate threat or any issues that we foresee. We have made reasonable examination of all these factors that I laid out. But I would like to get to a full picture to understand what exactly would be the impact in all this. We seem to be in a decent position.
Harshit Patel
Understood. So my second question is on the CapEx what are our CapEx plans for the next two years? FY26 as well as FY27 across all three of our major segments. I think you have highlighted doing some capex for fused alumina based products in electro minerals, supplying to the semiconductor OEM equipment from ceramics, doing bulletproof armor as well as vehicle armor related products. So if you could highlight all the area and quantum across all three major segments that will be very helpful.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Yeah Asif we don’t normally provide that kind of a guidance. I think if I remember it is about 350 crores. Was the capex program that we gated last year that. Sorry, last call that we would spend for this year so that we are sticking to the same one and all the programs are in line with that.
Harshit Patel
Understood, sir. Thank you very much for answering my questions and all the very best.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line. I’m Mohit Kumar from ICIC Securities. Please go ahead.
Mohit Kumar
Good afternoon and thanks for the opportunity. So only one question I have so on the stand on abrasive. Is the industry not growing or is it the demand or competition? Any color on that will be helpful.
Sridharan Rangarajan
See, I would say industry is growing. I don’t think there is a decline in industry. Definitely there is a growth in industry. Of course you have the other published player. You are very much aware about that. What is the kind of results that we are getting in more or less comparable. There are minor variations here and there. I feel the industry is growing and as I have laid out in the last call also we feel that there are segments where today products getting imported and coming into India is growing substantially high. So definitely overall growth in the abrasives sector is growing.
We have a specific challenge of our major distributors particularly stock clearance and their own, you know, credit locks, those mechanisms. But other than that I won’t say that the challenge is industry led.
Mohit Kumar
Understood. Thank you. Thank you.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants. You may press Star in one to ask question. The next question is from the line of Bhumika Nair from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Bhoomika Nair
Yeah, good afternoon sir. So my first question is on war. It’s been a tough quarter. You spoke about the 25, 30% kind of decline. But if I look at the revenue numbers Consol minus stand alone, it seems to be fairly stable. Can you explain why we’re seeing the revenues being stable? And if you can call out the war loss during the quarter.
Sridharan Rangarajan
What was the last part of the question?
Bhoomika Nair
The loss at war, sir. At Russia.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Yeah. So I think your question is that console minus standalone is stable. Is what your observation, if I understood you correctly. Right. So I think that you are, you know, very good in your observation because I think there we source product from VAW and then use that product which got stopped. So what happened? The elimination of. So we actually show the sales outside only to the customer. That is what is the total sales that we do. So since that has stopped, hence the elimination has come down. You see a flat number that is what you have observed, which is the right observation.
But per se, the sales of VAW has come down, which is in line with what we have gated. The second question you asked is the margin on the emd, right?
Bhoomika Nair
Yes, yes.
Sridharan Rangarajan
So. EMD losses. Just hold on. Sorry. You. You continue your question. I will gather and come back. Sorry.
Bhoomika Nair
Okay, sir, I mean, I mean this basically get back to the. What is the quarterly revenue and profit at war that would help. Second is in.
Sridharan Rangarajan
We shared that. We shared that. Just, just give me a second.
Bhoomika Nair
Sure, sir. In the meanwhile, we were looking to commission an HPSIC plant data this year.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Sorry, Jack. Sorry, a second. VAW sales was 1.84 billion in Q1FY26 compared to 2.46 billion in same period last time. Q1FY26. So that was the number that we shared. Yeah. In ruble terms, the profit after tax was 72 million as compared to 287 million and 110 million in Q4FY25. These are the numbers we read. Yeah, Please go ahead. Okay.
operator
A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask question. The next question is from the line of Homica Nair from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Bhoomika Nair
Yes, sir. You can hear me?
Sridharan Rangarajan
Yeah, we can hear you. I don’t know where we got dropped, but I was just telling the members you were able to get it.
Bhoomika Nair
I got that. I got that, sir. I got that. Okay, so my question, my question was on hpsic, you know, we had this pilot plan to be operational at the end of the calendar year. What is the status of that and how are we seeing the progress in terms of the client offtake and things like that.
Sridharan Rangarajan
They’re very much on target as far as the HBSIC pilot plant is concerned. As I told in the previous question, also our, you know, samples that we are working with various clients have been seeded. They’re in the process of testing very much on target. And I just want to repeat the same thing I told in the earlier answer. We do not expect any huge sales arising from HBSIC business in this year or in the near term future.
Bhoomika Nair
Okay, sir, so the next question is on the Rhodius segment part of the business which you called. There was some logistics related challenges which impacted the ability to kind of drive revenues. And we expect that, you know, from September onwards it will kind of normalize. Now if I take a step back, you know, it’s been about three to three, four years since you’ve taken over roadies. If you can Just help us understand what has been the benefit. How are we seeing the profitability and the revenues kind of grow out there? There is a PPA impact which I do understand.
But how do we see the turnaround at the console level for the international subsidies for abridges? If you can just explain a little bit out there.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Thank you. So I just want to lay out here is that since the time we acquired without PPA we have been making continuous profit. Right. And this year with this exception of the 4 million loss, we expect a loss. Right. So that is why. And we expect that the remainder of the three quarters we will be same as last year in terms of the top line. But we will not be able to recover this lost volume. Hence we will have a loss for this year. We expect that. You know, the last year we had without PPA we were profit in the last three years that whatever we have been operating.
And this year we could be in the range of about. Roughly about 2 million euro type of a loss.
Bhoomika Nair
Sure, sir. And how is the demand outlook and how are you seeing this kind of improve into FY27 28? If you can just talk about that.
Sridharan Rangarajan
I do not have a crystal ball that gives all these answers.
Bhoomika Nair
Sure sir. This helps.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Very tough to predict.
Bhoomika Nair
I was just trying to understand, you know, how is the demand in general panning out. What are you hearing on ground? That is where I was coming from.
Sridharan Rangarajan
So I mean same as what every one of us hears. I think we need to wait for some more stability to emerge in terms of this multiple things that floating around. So we’ll wait for some more sense to provide.
Bhoomika Nair
Sure. And lastly, if I may ask, what is our overall U.S. exposure? While we understand that it is difficult to gauge what will be the actual outcome and might not be much.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Consoles, roughly about 8 to 10 percentage of our sales is U.S. based.
Bhoomika Nair
Okay, okay, fair point, sir. This helps a lot. Thank you so much and all the best.
Sridharan Rangarajan
Thank you.
operator
The next question is from the line of Aditya from Kotech securities. Please go ahead.
Aditya
Thank you for the opportunity. The first question I had was on the aggressive segment. Not focusing on where the market is and where the competition is, but cubing as the company had thought through certain steps that they would want to take to improve their competitive positioning on the retail side of things and outside. Could you give us a sense of the progress that have been made over there and when should you start expecting benefits coming out of the same for us?
Sridharan Rangarajan
So we have rolled out the programs in terms of our abrasives growth. We are Seeing the benefit of it and we are working towards each of these dimensions that we said we will work as. I said that this quarter is an issue relating to some of these inventory corrections in the dealer side of it. But otherwise our ability to cover newer states which we have so far, our market share is definitely progressing well. We’ve started right earnest there. NPD programs are firing well. So that is also well on track in some of this go to market work in terms of our agility, ability to work and getting better productivity.
That is also on track. Well, so we think that the programs are on track. It is on the ground. We are seeing the efforts type of our. You know, like for example, the number of calls that each one makes, the number of productive calls each one makes, the coverages that they each one makes. All that tracking, whatever we are seeing are progressing well. And probably we will start seeing seeing the results soon.
Aditya
Okay, is there a need to do a similar kind of maybe benchmarking study or reassess our competitive positioning on the standalone electro mineral side wherein obviously there is a element of Chinese competition. But do you verify any amount of work that needs to be done to get that segment back on track from a competitive positioning perspective?
Sridharan Rangarajan
Honestly, our competitive position in terms of the India EMD position is really reasonable. That is why we have in the LTS program. How do we go beyond the luminance and what are all the programs which we have laid out in the last call is positioned towards that. And we are very much on track and we are progressing towards that.
Aditya
Okay, the last question I had was more on Bronco which is essentially assets that you want to recommission inside the country. My sense is about 200, 250 crores is something that can be achieved as incremental sales in the abrasives business. What could be the timeline of the same and how could we see the contribution caving up to these kinds of revenue levels from that asset?
Sridharan Rangarajan
Sorry, I’m not aware that I needed that kind of a sale. But the program of Grand Core reprocess this one is very much on. We are on the ground. The equipment is have come, they are in the process of assembling it. So those program is very much on and in time for execution. It’s as per program, whatever we said we will do, we are going ahead with that.
Aditya
Would you clarify what is the capacity or the revenue number at full capacity can come from that kind of acquisition and obviously the start of the facility.
Sridharan Rangarajan
So it is not an acquisition, it is an asset purchase where we had it is roughly about 80 million to hundred million worth of wheels we will be able to manufacture. That is our capacity.
Aditya
And the sales number that can come from there would be 80, 200 million.
Sridharan Rangarajan
We have not told anything like that at this point. As soon as it commissions at that time, we will start sharing.
Aditya
Thank you so much. Those are my questions.
operator
Thank you. That was the last question for the day. I now hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Sridharan Rangarajan
So thank you all for your participation. I just want to reiterate the facts that to me is well on track as far as the strategy that it wants to implement. Whatever we have laid out in the last call, every program is being pursued right on us. We have a specific challenge in terms of Rhodes, which completely was unexpected. A warehouse move impacted us in a huge way about roughly 4 million euros. The inventory, high cost inventory that EMD was holding is getting liquidated. In fact, it’s completely done so that margin pressure, what we have seen in EMD would go away.
We see that the sales pressure that we have seen in abrasive, particularly on the some of the distributor sales due to stock clearance. We could not push that we would be able to get back. So on the whole I would say that we are very much on track and progressing in terms of our long term strategy. Well, our balance sheet is quite strong. Cash flows are really good. The focus on free cash flow is really good at this point. So we will continue to update you as we meet in the next quarter. Thank you.
operator
Thank you on behalf of Equity Securities. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.