INDIAN METALS & FERRO ALLOYS LIMITED (NSE: IMFA) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Jul. 31, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Subhrakant Panda — MD and CEO
Bijayananda Mohapatra — Head, Power Business Unit
Aryan Rana — Investor Relations
Saunak Gupta — Chief Financial Officer
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli — Head – Ferro Alloys
Sandeep B Narade — Head of Mining Business Unit
M Venkatesh — Seniore General Manager
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Joe Shah — Analyst
Gautam Rajesh — Analyst
Pranav Jain — Analyst
Madhur Chaturvedi — Analyst
Vinayak Kariwal — Analyst
Dhviti Shah — Analyst
Jainam Madrecha — Analyst
Naman Bhansali — Analyst
Akhilesh B — Analyst
Madan — Analyst
Vinit Thakur — Analyst
Abhishek Savant — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to earnings conference call of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Ltd. Arranged by Veritas Reputation. At this moment all participant lines are in the listen only mode. Later we will conduct a question and answer session at that time. If you have a question player please press star and one on your touchstone keypad. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Aryan Rana from Veritas Reputation. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Aryan Rana — Investor Relations
Thank you Shubham. Good evening once again everyone. On behalf of Indian metals and Kerala is limited I welcome you all to the QN FY26 earnings conference call. We appreciate your time and interest in. Joining us today to discuss the company’s financial performance comments for the quarter ended June 30th, 2025. Following the opening remarks by our management we will open the floor for equal initiation. Kindly keep your questions concise and relevant to allow broader participation. Infra. India’s leading fully integrated producer of yellow. Alloys has demonstrated significant improvement and resilience in Q1FY26 despite ongoing market challenges. This performance underscores the company’s focus on operational excellence, excellent disciplined execution and long term value creation. The financial results and investor presentations are available on our website and have been filed with these topics in this for your reference. Before we begin I would like to. Remind you that some of the statements made in today’s discussion may be forward looking in nature. These are based on the company’s current expectations and are based on subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially. Joining us on today’s call are and I welcome Mr. Vijayananda Mopatra, full time Director and Chief Operating Officer of the company. Mr. Swana Gupta, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Bhinavagarwala, Head Power Business Unit. Mr. Sandeep, Head Basics Unit. Mr. Captain Suresh Parvuji, Head Federalized Business Unit and Head of Sales and Marketing Business unit. With that I would now like to. Hand over the call to Mr. Sonam, our chief Financial Officer for the update on financial performance. And over to you sir. Thank you.
Saunak Gupta — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Aryan. Good afternoon everyone. I welcome all of you to infas Q1FY26 earning call and I thank all of you for joining the call. The Highlights of Quarter 1 FY26 results where our revenue and margins have sequentially improved over previous quarter. Primarily driven by the Ferrochrom price pickup along with our cost optimization and operational efficiency improvement initiatives. Our greenfield Ferrochrome expansion project in Kalyanagar is on track with our execution plan. Simultaneously, the underground Sukinda mine city expansion is progressing as per our schedule. The construction work in our 120kld ethanol project in Thiruvali has also commenced in Q1 and we are in track to commission the plant by Q4FY26.
Our financial position as on June 25 n continues to be robust with net debt free balance sheet. Our focus will continue to be on operational efficiencies improvement, further cost optimization and closely monitoring the capacity expansion. Build on the company’s financial strength and integrated business model. I’ll keep it short and I thank you once again for your valuable time and support. We look forward for your questions and insight over to the moderator to open the floor for question and answer.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press STAR and one on the Touchstone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Joshua from Seven Seas. Please go ahead.
Joe Shah
I would like to understand the ratio between renewable energy and captive power thermal power. From our last Concorde I understand that 25% renewable power enables us to use 75% thermal power. So 25:75 ratio. Is it a ratio of government of India or it’s a European ratio?
Saunak Gupta
No.
Joe Shah
Yes.
Saunak Gupta
Actually as for the guidelines from MOP, each year they have kept some rec obligation. That is this year 2526 they have. Kept 33.01% of rec obligation project.
Joe Shah
Okay.
Saunak Gupta
But as for our availability of thermal power plant and as for our requirement of renewal, that is the ratio for 7525. There is no guidelines for 7525.
Joe Shah
Right. Okay. Okay. Now ferrochrome produced by using this kind of power mix. Is it called that it’s a green ferrochrome or that is that has to be produced by totally renewable power. Green Ferro chrome. What is definition how it is produced?
Saunak Gupta
Suppose my ferrochrome production power requirement is hundred megawatt. I’m just giving you an example. And out of which 25% is renewal and 75% is thermal, then your 25% is your green product. You have used 25% of renewal energy for your product and your 25% will be accounted for your green product, not 100.
operator
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Gautam Rajesh from Everflow Partners. Please go ahead.
Gautam Rajesh
Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions. My first question was in terms of. In terms of a cost of production. How does a production cost compare with the global peers in China, South Africa and I think Kazakhstan as well. So how would our cost of production compare countries?
Saunak Gupta
Suresh.
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. So you are asking about our price compared to the other countries.
Gautam Rajesh
Yes, yes.
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
Like China and Europe. So we. We are better compared to the China and many countries. Only some few countries which are faring better than others. Like Kazakhstan that is producing at a lower price than us.
Gautam Rajesh
What about South Africa?
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
South Africa price is also high. Because of their present problem of power. Prices are hiked by around in the last two decades. It is around 950%. And recently they have hiked with 12.5 percentage. So. And also availability of the power is a problem there. That is the main reason for the cost competitiveness problem of South Africa.
Gautam Rajesh
Can you give a rough percentage? How much more cheaper are we compared to China and how much more expensive is Kazakhstan compared to us? Is there a rough sense of percentage you can give us?
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
At present I can’t able to give the right picture. But we are. We are better compared to other countries except Kazak. Kazak and one few more Asian countries like Kazak and other Turkey is also little bit better compared to our prices.
Gautam Rajesh
And would these better be by single digits or double digits?
Saunak Gupta
I don’t think we will be in a position because volatility in the market and the price, the changes as well as the forex. So geopolitical situation we may not be having the current situation. So I think that exactness we are not meant to do.
Gautam Rajesh
Understood. Understood. And my question was once the new capacity comes on board how to change our current cost of production?
Saunak Gupta
So once our capacity comes into means you are saying Kalinganagar project.
Gautam Rajesh
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Saunak Gupta
So when the Kalinganagar project comes into operations like the first one is in June 26, 26 years and September 26 is the second one it gets operational. So initially obviously there will be the sitting issues which may come in operational. It will take time to fully get scaled up. But at the full scaled up level it will be. The cost will be what we expect. Other than the inflationary matter. It will be more or less similar to the current level. What we are maintaining. Do we adjust it with the whatever is comment much on something which will happen after one and a half years in the current no, no.
Gautam Rajesh
My understanding was these facilities are more equipped. So do we have more operating leverage or efficiency here? So would we think improvement in cost of production for that.
Saunak Gupta
That Suresh, if you can add on.
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
The cost of the production will be in the similar lane. Only the logistic advantage we may get at Kalinga Nagar. Otherwise the efficiency and operation parameters will be the similar in line.
Gautam Rajesh
Is there like a quantum you can give me for logistic advantage?
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
It will be slightly. At this moment we can’t tell those.
Gautam Rajesh
Not by numbers. Are we significantly more cheaper than China just by a hairline?
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
Yeah, substantially we are at a better.
Gautam Rajesh
Price.
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
At least by double digit.
Gautam Rajesh
Okay, thank you sir.
operator
Thank you. Before we move to the next question we would like to remind participants you may press start and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Pranav Jain from Agiles Capital and Finance. Please go ahead.
Pranav Jain
Hi everyone. Congratulations for the numbers and it’s great to see the company come back up with great numbers. My first question is sir, can you. Tell us the production numbers for this quarter.
Saunak Gupta
On the production side overall. Just a minute, I’ll just tell you the numbers. Yeah, it is ferrochrome is 65,929 metric ton and chrome mode is 1 lakh 3780.
Pranav Jain
And sir, what will be our EBITDA. Cost for this product?
Saunak Gupta
It is around 77, 500.
Pranav Jain
Can you give the breakup of it as well?
Saunak Gupta
These are bit of, I will say strategic in nature but primarily if you see our overall the costs are in line with whatever marginally it has increased from last quarter by about 500 rupees primarily driven by a little bit of higher throw more cost and to some extent the repair and maintenance. We had a planned repair and maintenance. For that there is a margin increase the repair and maintenance cost. These are the two major costs. There has been a slight increase. Otherwise it is in line with the overall cost structure of ours.
Pranav Jain
Got it sir, looking at your FY25 annual report I was seeing so in the cost of material notes. So what does purchases, what does the purchases number include? Is it Metco or is it something else?
Saunak Gupta
Yeah, primarily Metco. Okay, primarily Metco and a little bit of binders like molasses and all.
Pranav Jain
Got it. And so lastly, just a clarification from my answer. In the previous concord it was mentioned that the cost of chrome or was 7,500 per ton. Is it per ton of ferrochrome or per ton of chrome or raised?
Saunak Gupta
So it is basically the chromos total chromos landed chrome or cost
Pranav Jain
so that. We multiply by 2.35 to get the. Port on of ferrochrome price. Right?
Saunak Gupta
Yeah. The approximately it is about 2.35 to 2.38. It varies.
Pranav Jain
Okay, that’s all from my end. Thanks a lot. In all the best.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Madhuru Chaturi from Maiq Capital. Please go ahead.
Madhur Chaturvedi
Hello everyone. Good evening. Congratulations sir on a good quarter in a difficult environment. But exceptionally done sir. So just one, one question. So just to clarify how much? How much or did we raise this quarter, sir?
Saunak Gupta
So Sanjeev, you can just clarify that off.
Sandeep B Narade
Yeah, yeah. This in Q1 we have raised about. 1 lakh 4000 tons of Oregon.
Madhur Chaturvedi
And so how would that compare to Q1 last year.
Sandeep B Narade
Last quarter, Q4 or Q1 of last year?
Madhur Chaturvedi
Either one. Whichever number you are happy.
Sandeep B Narade
It was. About 2 lakh 20. 20,000.
Madhur Chaturvedi
And this is the mostly attributable to the monster.
Sandeep B Narade
It’s attributed to two, three things. Monsoon is the number one. Because this year monsoon is almost three weeks earlier. Generally it comes on 15th of June, but it was started in the last week of May. And also we’re having enough stock at our plants and also mine also about more than four months topic plants and. More than two months topic plants, mines.
Madhur Chaturvedi
That’s all. Got it. Yeah. And this is an anticipation of the Kalinga another expansion coming on next.
Sandeep B Narade
Yeah. So what we will do, we’ll ramp up for production as per requirement from Q3 and Q in Q3.
Madhur Chaturvedi
Got it. Got it, Got it. Got it sir. Thank you sir. All for my end.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vinayak Kariwal from Exponent tribe. Please go ahead.
Vinayak Kariwal
Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So I wanted to understand the domestic capacity on the ferrochrome and the chrome O side. So if you could give an overview to us would be very helpful. Because as for my understanding, we would be one of the largest private promote miners in the country. Because even Tata. Because even Tata has closed one of their Sukinda mines. And they have. They have submitted to. Submitted the document for giving up the Sukinda mine. So could you. Could you please explain us how is the domestic scenario playing currently?
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
Yeah, yeah. Yes, you are talking about the domestic capacity. Last year it is around 1.3 to 5 million tons. Most of these melters are non operational. And now also the figure will be. Similar will be less than that. Where we are forecasting the production levels in this year will be less. So the capacity utilization is less in this year. The similar kind of figures will come around 1.25 to 1.3 million.
Vinayak Kariwal
So this you’re talking about the Ferro crew or the Ferroco.
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
Yeah. Chrome or is around 3.3 million tons per annum.
Vinayak Kariwal
And so who would be the biggest. Cromwell miner in the country? Let’s say, let’s say if you talk about the private player, would we be the biggest Cromer minor private player in the country?
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
Yes. Sure, sure. And. And the public here, who is the biggest is the Odisha Mining Company.
Vinayak Kariwal
Yes. Or is some mining corporation. Yeah, yeah. So how much promo do they produce in the year?
Sureshbabu Chigurupalli
The OMC figure times at present I do not have. But that is they published in the statement. You can see those figures.
Vinayak Kariwal
Okay, so my second question was on the line of if you could give us an understanding of the value added products like the products we do. Do we do any value added products like you players are talking about low silicon ferrochrome which is used in special seals. So are there any value added products in our product segment?
Sandeep B Narade
Yeah, yeah. We have started to produce these niche products from the month of January. We are producing no silicon, no phosphorus products with high chromium alloy.
Vinayak Kariwal
Okay. So could you give up give us a percentage of of the total production, how much we are doing this, how.
Sandeep B Narade
Much small amount we are producing around 15,000 of production we are making for this mixed market.
Vinayak Kariwal
Thank you sir.
Sandeep B Narade
It is around 5 to 6 percentage of our total capacity.
Vinayak Kariwal
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Dviti from Molecule Ventures. Please go ahead.
Dhviti Shah
Yeah, hi. Am I audible?
Saunak Gupta
Yeah.
Dhviti Shah
Yes. Sir. I just wanted to know what are the cost of production for Q1 for the quarter.
Saunak Gupta
So EBITDA cost is about 77, 500 for the quarter.
Dhviti Shah
Okay. And as power cost for current quarter. So the power cost.
Saunak Gupta
Power cost is 5 rupees 27.
Dhviti Shah
Total cost for Q1 525.
Saunak Gupta
Q1 25 it was 4.974 rupees 97.
Dhviti Shah
Okay. And you could give a breakup of coal and cost for the current quarter.
Dhviti Shah
You wanted to know the coal cost? Yeah, 26. Yeah.
Saunak Gupta
That is coal cost is 2 rupees 68 paisa. So more or less it is in line with our cost. So it gives more or less in the range of around 2.7 2.68. So the main thing which is that our variable cost is 4 rupees 3 paisa and total cost is 5 rupees 27 paisa for the quarter.
Dhviti Shah
Okay. And so I just Wanted to know that what is our current cost of raising ore and how it is expected to change when we transition to underground mining for both our mines. So I wanted to understand how it will add up in our operating cost.
Saunak Gupta
So Sandeep, you will take this.
Sandeep B Narade
So right now the rising cost is about 3,000 rupees to give up both the mines. And definitely it will increase when we go fully under round. So as of now I cannot give the exact number of what will be. The cost then, but it will increase.
Dhviti Shah
Any first thing that you can.
Sandeep B Narade
No, actually it depends upon the type. Of mining we’ll be doing. And there are many things that we are not sure of right now. That’s why I cannot say the exact number.
Dhviti Shah
Okay, sure. Thank you. Thank you.
Saunak Gupta
The whole extension plan for the mines will continue to about four to five years. Okay. So at this point predicting the overall final cost for raising will be bit of a challenge. So that’s what Sandeep was maintaining.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and 1. The next question comes from the line of Jainam Madre from KC Capital. Please go ahead.
Jainam Madrecha
Hello. Thank you for giving me the opportunities. So my question was on the line of like last four, five years we have seen the EBITDA per ton going up like massively from the previous history historical averages. So is it just because of the realization growth or we had some operating leverage as well. And on top of that, if it was an operating leverage thing, on what line items are we getting the operating leverage?
Saunak Gupta
So basically if we see for the last one year our costs of EBITDA cost has remained in the range of around 77,500 only plus minus 500 primarily over here. As you know, the input cost to a larger extent, the Metco cost has to a larger extent reduced. But at the same time some of the other operational cost channel has also to some extent gone up. But we continue to maintain a lot of cost efficiency. Specifically if you see our power cost, power cost, we have done lot of operating efficiencies, including our various operation costs related to the ferrochrome production there.
Also we have spent lot of initiatives to improve our operating efficiency. So it is a mixture of our input cost to some extent coming down, driven by the cost optimization efficiencies that we have done by the same time, even for the import, the imports, there is exposure to the forest fluctuation. And you would have seen that for the few years from around 78 level currencies have gone up to 87 levels. So that also has to some extent impact on the overall cost. So there are multiple factors, but more or less we keep a very close monitor of our cost alternative cost opportunities as well as the operating efficiencies to keep the overall cost of ebitda to around 77,500.
Jainam Madrecha
Okay, and if like let’s say in future Metco prices go up, are we going to go back to like earlier EBITDA for some levels or we would. Be maintaining this level?
Saunak Gupta
It will be very difficult to say because I say it’s a factor many other costs, not just the midco cost, coal cost and all. So overall the impact can be only measured after we see what is the trend coming on in the all the input cost. So it’s very difficult to predict for the future. But currently we have seen a stability in the cost structure. So you have seen for the last two quarters and this quarter also we have maintained our cost around 77500 between 77 to 77, 800, 900. So that we are expecting currently also the cost to remain in this level.
But with the current geopolitical volatility, which is very difficult to predict anything for the future.
Jainam Madrecha
Understood. And just another question on the industry perspective, like how are we seeing the Chinese Styrofoam producers? Are any new capacities coming up or they have just like cut down the production levels? We know the production levels are down, but are there any plans in future for new capacities? And also how is the stainless steel. Supply demand over there? Because that would be the end part. That would be driving the pricing over there. So what’s the like, what’s the scenario?
Saunak Gupta
So I’ll just give it to Venkatesh to give his insights on that.
M Venkatesh
Yes, thank you. Going into China, basically we are not hearing any more big new capacities in Parachrom coming up. As far as our knowledge goes, nothing is going to. Nothing is going to come up. In recent times going back to the stainless steel industry, in fact all industries, like Mr. Szarnak said, there is a geopolitical uncertainties. There are so many talks of tariffs which is keeping the entire industry on tenderhooks. So currently the demand also for stainless steel is weak. And traditionally if you look at this quarter, which is a monsoon month both in China and in India where the demand comes down a little bit and also in Europe there’s a summer vacation.
So from the tariff situation, looking at the economies of various countries on tender books, so the demand or the downstream demand of stainless steel is quite challenging at this moment.
Jainam Madrecha
Okay, but how is the supply demand currently? Like are we seeing too much oversupply in China market?
M Venkatesh
I’ll just put it in another way to answer your question. Many of us have read that there has been a lot of cutbacks in production in South Africa. I’m talking about production, see a little bit of reduction of parachrom production. Even in India, you know, when we see these cutbacks and like I said, the lower downstream demand for stainless steel, this has kind of countered each other. Otherwise if the demand was good and there were cutbacks, obviously the prices would have jumped. So this cutback in demand and the down weakness in downstream demand has kind of balanced the industry as of now.
Jainam Madrecha
Understood. And this last part like x China, there are no new capacities coming in. And like is it the case that. China would be taking in all the ferrocome for captives only or they would be exporting their ferrocomes as well?
M Venkatesh
As for the China government policy go, they are, they restrict the export, there is an export tax on ferrochrome. So their idea is to be kind of self sufficient or have ferrochrome capacity. But the purpose of the government is to discourage exports. So There is an 40% export duty on ferrochrome in China. So there is no question of any ferrochrome being exported out of China.
Jainam Madrecha
Okay, understood sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. Thank you sir.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Josh from Seven Seas. Please go ahead.
Joe Shah
Yeah. My question will be able to answer better way. Now for the first time in history. Of South Africa, Glencore and Tamil core they asked South African government to levy $100 per ton export tax on Cromwell export. This has happened for the first time. It will help South African government to raise revenue very important, significant 3, $4 billion which is very important for them. Now this, it will lead to the higher cost of Portland for China by say 20,000 rupees per ton of ferrochrome. And then all the prices of ferrofum everywhere will go up and it would be a very very good windfall for India. So now what is your take about this export tax on in South Africa this hundred dollar suggested by this glencore in salmon core.
Although this mineral council they have a habit of, you know, opposing this. And South African government is not listening to those mineral council things. Those people, they just want to make money from export of ore without doing any value addition. So now I want your valued views please. Thank you.
M Venkatesh
Yeah, thank you very much for asking the question. I think so. This was also Addressed by MD during the agm. It is the same view is we had heard of this imposition or planned imposition of export duty around five years back. I think it was just before COVID. And somehow it fizzled out. On a plain basis, yes, if there is an export tax cost will go up and all that. What you said is true. But let us wait and see actually what the numbers translate. As you know and you have rightly said there is a lot of dependency on South African ore in China. You know most of the ore comes in from South Africa. So let’s wait and see. It will be too early to speculate right now what is going to be that impact. Because we are not just talking of South African government.
You know, the Chinese also have a lot of investments in South Africa. You must have heard about that. So we don’t know exactly what kind of pressures would come on a governmental level also. So let’s wait for the concrete announcement and then I think let’s take it forward.
Joe Shah
Venkat, as my point is for the first time, not even during COVID time also this Glencore and someone, someone came out with this proposal this first time these two companies, giant companies in South Africa they will come up with this proposal to put export tax. So they are very, very there. As you know, they are heavyweight in South Africa and government is South African government. As we know in the past also they passed a resolution to impose a tax on this ferrocom this combo export. Now this is first and this, this major commerce companies have come up with this suggestion to impose tax.
So then it makes big difference between situation in the past and situation at present. So my, my. My take is, you know now it is south of Africa is inclined more towards the importing of tax and then that will change all dynamics of a circumflex in India and internationally. Okay, we’ll have to wait for that. But it should not take more than six months time. This is my take about this.
M Venkatesh
Okay, I agree to the change in dynamics but let us both wait for the announcement.
Joe Shah
Sure. Yeah, definitely, definitely. Now Sandeep, I have some questions for you.
Sandeep B Narade
Yeah.
Joe Shah
I’m a Conclude this quarter Q1FY26 Como raising has gone down by 50% to about say 1 lakh 3000 ton. If we compare it with the Q1 of FY25 Montun Montu same area in FY25 it was 2 lakh 2000 ton and Q4FY25 it was 2 lakh 20,000 ton. So this time monsoon has allowed three weeks early. But it cannot detect into 50% reduction in the chromo raising. So what is the main reason for this chapter?
Sandeep B Narade
That is what I am saying actually in Q4 we have Q4 of last year. We have produced more than our budget. And we build the stock like more than four months stock in the plants and more than two months stock in the mines.
Joe Shah
Right, right.
Sandeep B Narade
And generally, and in the last year, you’ll see the monsoon was quite late. It was not on 15th of June, it was later. And this year monsoon started in almost third start by the end of third week in May itself. So that was the major reason. So whatever we are producing and discussing to the plants, it’s as per the. Requirement of the plants and as per our storage capacity in the plants.
Joe Shah
Sure.
Sandeep B Narade
So we are having that capacity right now. And I said that we’ll ramp up the production in Q3 and Q4 because from open task we are capable enough to ramp up the production.
Joe Shah
Sure, sure. Now one more question. Now we have been discussing about the critical mineral exploration of critical minerals. So I want to understand it in more details.
Sandeep B Narade
Now the Tukinda really our mining area is said to have a lot of critical minerals after the geological survey. So now, in case INFAM wants to explore this critical minerals in our own mining area, do we have to take permission of police, a government or we can export on our own. And number two. So in Sukuna Valley there is nothing like presence of critical minerals. There may be some previous studies like for nickel. And that number is quite very low percentage which is not manageable also.
Joe Shah
Okay.
Sandeep B Narade
And if you go, if there is presence of the critical millennium or only even then, we will have to take the permission.
Joe Shah
Okay.
Sandeep B Narade
Exploration we can do without taking the permission. But after that means mining and all. Those things, we’ll just take the permission because our leave is for mining of provider.
Joe Shah
Sure, sure, I understand. And second thing, suppose the. Yeah, yes.
operator
Maybe request you that you return to the question.
Joe Shah
Okay, no, no problem. Okay, no problem.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, before we move towards the next question, I would like to remind participants, you may press start and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Naman Bansali from nine Reverse Capital. Please go ahead.
Naman Bhansali
Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have one question that in the annual report you have mentioned that incrementally 40% of the capacity that is coming up would be targeted towards the domestic player convention. So could you help us understand the dynamics of the stainless steel market in India in terms of the Current demand supply situations and how much the sales steel market is growing at in terms of the demand experiment. I’m asking this given that our business mix is currently almost 90% exports and that can shift towards 70 to 75% exports if this incremental 40% is used for domestic consumption.
So how should we think about the impact on realization or the EBITDA margins going forward?
Saunak Gupta
I think Venkatesh, you will take this.
M Venkatesh
Yeah, I’ll take it. I’ll try to address the. Your question. Stainless steel in India is growing at a healthy rate of, you know, around 6% on CIGR growth. What we are witnessing is there is a slight reduction in ferrochrome production in India and there is a good domestic requirement. So our focus going ahead with the expansion is to focus on the domestic market and cater to the domestic market. Of course, exports will continue. Your second question was pertaining to. I think so the realization.
Naman Bhansali
The realization.
M Venkatesh
Yeah, that was the realization. See, whether you look at domestic or export, there is a slight lead or a lag. But finally both settle down at similar price levels.
Naman Bhansali
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Akhilesh B. From an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Akhilesh B
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for opportunity. Sir, I have a few questions. The first one was you mentioned that 5 to 6% over is in the value added product category. So is there scope to increase this percentage? And what is the difference in realization compared to the regular and you know, consequent impact on EBITDA margin? These are higher margin products.
Saunak Gupta
We cannot hear you properly. There was some disturbances because if you can repeat your questions.
Akhilesh B
Am I clear now, sir?
Saunak Gupta
Now you’re clear.
Akhilesh B
Sir, I was saying in a previous answer you mentioned that 5 to 6% of the total sales can be considered as value added products. So I wanted to know can this number increase as a percentage of our sales? What is the kind of premium on realization we get for such products? Assuming these are higher margin products compared to a regular. Okay.
Saunak Gupta
I’ll take this. You want to take this? Anyone? Okay. So when you look at what we call the niche grid, as Mr. Suresh Bhav explained, the market itself is limited and there are already entrenched players. So going up about 5%, you know, would be kind of difficult at this stage. It’s still exploring if you can go up. This product has various categories. So the premium could range all, all the way from 4,000 rupees a ton till about 20,000 rupees a ton.
Akhilesh B
Okay. And sir, second thing was you mentioned that in the last Five years. We have made a lot of progress on cost efficiency, process efficiency. So would like to know where you think we are in this journey, whether there are more gains that are possible to be had on the cost side of the internal side. I’m not talking about met coke price and coal price etc. Which are outside your control, but within the company efficiency wise. Do you have certain targets to further improve or do you think that, you know we are pretty efficient right now and no more gains are possible on this? So you are talking of the cost efficiency. We could not get a question. Just if you can. Yeah, you had mentioned that our EBITDA has been going up also because we have done some cost efficiency internally in our company. So I wanted to know whether there is more scope or more efficiency in our internal operations for further clean equipment.
Saunak Gupta
Yes, there are more scope. We are just evaluating it out internally and that’s a continuous process for us. So all the areas related to the conversion process from Chromebook to Ferroco on the whole chain we evaluating now on individual basis. Last year, last financial year we implemented the ERP Oracle Fusion also in your system. So that’s a very high end ERP system where we can also get lot of visibility and that also through digital operation efficiency improvement, further improvement initiatives are being taken to see whatever scope we have on the cost optimization and including on the operational.
That’s a continuous process which I said in the beginning of the initial segment and that is also helping us in driving. So there are a lot of actions we are now focusing on to keep ourselves more cost efficient. When the overall in the market the price actually drops it actually we will see that our margins have been better off compared to our peers. So that’s the advantage we have.
Akhilesh B
From your position, sir, can you see 1 to 2 percentage points possibility, you know, through efficiency gains in the coming years or is it. If you can quantify what kind of potential you see in these increase.
Saunak Gupta
So in this yet we can. So we are trying to identify currently how much we can improve upon and that’s the main reason if you see that overall we have maintained our cost quite efficient within that 77,500. But as I said we do not actually make too much estimation beyond one or two quarters. So it will be very difficult to say that how much will be the improvement one year or two years down the line. But definitely we are focused on that way and that is actually way lot of initiatives have been taken and we are expecting a lot of positives from that.
Currently it will be Very difficult to say whether it will be 1 or 2% or more or less. But definitely a continuous mechanism has been putting to ensure that we make concerted effort to improve our operating efficiency and find out alternative I would say opportunities in our input cost to keep our.
Akhilesh B
Answer. One last question. We are shifting from open cast completely to underground mining in Sukhinba. So what was the trigger to do this? Because it’s going to cost more than it did in open. So was this some regulatory reason that we had to shift or what was the reason to completely phase out open cast and get into underground. Capacity? But I’ll. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So basically we do the open cast. Mining when it is possible to do it.
Saunak Gupta
Technically it depends upon the depth of the over body. It depends upon the ore from which depth we can get. So that is the basic reason. So we have done the open gas mining till now in band one and. Then we started back filling. Now in band two we are doing. The first open cast mining that will be possible for next four years. Four to five years after that we have to go for underground only otherwise there will be no ore available for for our plants. So that is the basic reason. So it’s a totally technical mining point of view. We have to go for underground.
Akhilesh B
Okay, thank you.
operator
Thank you, thank you. The next question comes from the line of from Walmart pms. Please go ahead.
Madan
Thank you so much for the opportunity. So my first question is.
operator
Mr. Wonder, your voice is very low.
Madan
Hello, can you hear me?
operator
Yeah, go ahead.
Madan
Yeah, yeah. So the first question, what is the cost of grow mod and coke per diamond this quarter?
Saunak Gupta
I think this one you are trying to see on this. So we had already mentioned the commode cost is approximately around 8,400 odd for the quarter. And anyway we had mentioned that in our total 77,000 cost the is approximately coming out to approximately 15 $14,500.
Madan
Okay, 14,500. So sir, from Q1 in July are we seeing that home cost has increased? Has increased or it has decreased Overall.
Saunak Gupta
Market cost has gone down Overall in our E cost it has to some extent it has decreased.
Madan
Okay, so currently the saying less than 14,000. When in future.
Saunak Gupta
Yes like current prices and you know. So more or less so the prices, whatever it is we have got the benefit of it at least for this quarter we expect prices but again there is a lot of forex volatility there. How the landed cost ends up in quarter two years but currently the mid is will remain in the similar.
Madan
Okay, the last question is that the total 21 crore of other income in that cr of.
Saunak Gupta
Pardon, I could not this out of.
Madan
The total 21 crores of other income. Is the 7 crores of Uskal fee also included?
Saunak Gupta
Yes, yes. So the surplus which we or the compensation which we got from that is also there in this. So currently we are having about 915 crores of total amount of surplus including internal accurums. So the return is of the investment that adds up to that amount which is approximately 20.
Madan
Okay, thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Brian of Josha from Seven Seas. Please go ahead.
Joe Shah
Yeah. Now I think whatever is happening with Tata Steel is very important for us. Number one, Bill surrendered this very important Sukinda mine. And they got the notice of 1902 crore rupees from Oisha government. You know to pay the penalty for the raising of less ore. So now they are continuing with the misery mines. They also they have to pay same 95 premium. So they also Tata still entirely is becoming unviable. And I understand that the production has gone down from 50,000 tons per month to just 15,000 tons. And that also they’re thinking of getting out of silicone business.
So that will give us very good opportunity in two way. Number one, we’ll get some asset buying opportunity. You know our management has been saying that we look forward to the inorganic growth. And number two. Yeah, except inorganic growth opportunity we’ll get. And number two, this Indian domestic market when it is improving, it has started improving and becoming bigger. If I will be the probably the only supplier in India. So maybe we’ll be getting more of a price premium in Indian market that also be able to see. So I would like to know your views on this beginning.
Yeah.
Saunak Gupta
So one thing that Sukhinda mine starter is surrendering. That is the only one thing that they cannot go for a further concussed mining. So they have to go for undercover. That’s why they’re surrendering.
Joe Shah
Okay.
Saunak Gupta
So we cannot go for that one. Okay.
Joe Shah
Right.
Saunak Gupta
Second one they’re coming out for this one. I don’t know for the timing. We don’t. If any opportunity comes we’ll say that will report. But they will reduce the silicone production from 50,000 tons to just 15,000 tons. 35,000 tons per month they will reduce. So that is giving us good strength. Yeah, that’s whatever our capacity is there. We are improving the natural maximum. Okay. And we are adding the Kalinganagar. But Kalanganagar will take time. That also that’s where the bankers told that we Are focusing for Indian market.
Joe Shah
Sure. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.
Saunak Gupta
Thank you sir.
operator
Thank you. The last question for the day comes from the line of Winit Takur from Plus 91. Please go ahead. Hello, Mr. Thakur, your line is unmuted. Please go ahead.
Vinit Thakur
Hi sir. Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, could you throw some light on the strategic rationale behind INPA’s acquisition of metallics aviation and how do you see it complementing on your existing business operations?
Saunak Gupta
So on the metallic aviation which is 100% subsidy which is we have opened up, it is basically INFA has certain helicopters, aircraft which is primarily used for its own business purposes to go to the mines or the Tirubhali plant. And all to make the balance sheet. The core assets are to be kept in the infa. The ones which are not directly linked to the INFA business. We are just restructuring it and moving it to the separate company. So that is the overall rationale behind that the company. We are waiting for the dgca. We have been the application to this issue.
And it takes about six, six to one or six months to one year to get the final approval to move the assets.
Vinit Thakur
Okay, sir. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from. From the line of Vinay Kariwal from Exponent Tribe. Please go ahead.
Vinayak Kariwal
Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I wanted to understand. We have a stainless steel capacity in the domestic market of 7 and a half million to 8 million tons. And let’s say if 60, 70% of that is utilized. So 5 million tons of stainless steel is being produced in the country every year. So I just wanted to understand. Do we have enough hydrochrome capacity in the country so that we could fulfill the stainless steel production demand and how much and how much of this capacity is actually being used in the domestic market versus being exported?
Saunak Gupta
I think Bringadesh, you will take this call.
M Venkatesh
Yeah, sure. You are right. In terms of the capacity, industrial capacity in India about 7 million tons. And the actual production is around 4 million tons. You know the requirement of ferrochrome would also depend on the scrap usage by these stainless steel mills. So when you really look at this, address it in a different manner. When you look at India’s parachrom production. Like Mr. Suresh Babu had mentioned little earlier.
Saunak Gupta
At around 1 cooling at around 1.3 million tonnes. And roughly about half of the perochrome is consumed domestically and half is exported. So in case the stainless steel capacity utilization improves there is a strong demand. But stainless steel obviously then what you see is the export coming down and more and more gets consumed, Telephone gets consumed domestically. So to address it in another manner is we have the capacity to meet the requirements of the domestic stainless steel manufacturer.
Vinayak Kariwal
So that is what my question is because we looking at the dynamics, I think we have a lot, we have a lot of ferrochrome being imported in the country for fulfilling our stainless steel production. So our capacity which is 90% being exported. So in that dynamics, I guess we have a lot bigger opportunity on the domestic side. If you see going further, because also one of the participants mentioned lots of ferrochrome capacities are being closed down in the country and we being the largest producer of chrome OS and also one of the largest in ferrochromo.
So how do you see the domestic and export share going forward like two, three years down the line?
Saunak Gupta
Yeah, to address there was one, the first point that you made that ferrochrome getting imported into the country. There’s very limited ferrochrome which gets imported into our country. There could be certain grades of ferrochrome which may come in depending on the requirement for that manufacturing. That grade of stainless steel. There could be some imports coming in, but it is no big imports which come in. And the second, the second question, we have already addressed it saying that, you know, once the expansion comes up, our focus will be more on the domestic market. I think that addresses your question.
Vinayak Kariwal
So could you give a share of revenue which you have in mind, where could the dynamics go from there?
Saunak Gupta
It is a very evolving and dynamic market. So once let the expansion come in, let’s do the domestic and then you can really work out on the share of export versus domestic. But for sure the direction is going to be more domestic, less of exports as far as the expansion comes. So overall when we look at a ratio of 9, 10, that’s going to change drastically.
Vinayak Kariwal
Sure. Ansel, one last question on the prices of Cromwe waste. So I was tracking and there was the last, last quarter the Chromore prices which we mentioned was 7500 and this, this month we are mentioning it as 8400. So how does this fluctuation comes in in the Crowmore price because that is a capital thing which we are.
Saunak Gupta
So actually on the chromeore price compared to the last quarter and this quarter, as we said, during the monsoon coming of the monsoon, the production was lower but there were some semi variable cost also in that which is usually loaded to the overall cost. So that’s why the average cost for the quarter has slightly increased. But one should always look into the total annualized value. Of the promote prices to get a overall sense of how the price is.
Unidentified Participant
So we are seeing that they are range bound normally and they don’t fluctuate much because of any other factor which we don’t know.
Saunak Gupta
No, actually would be primarily driven by the average will be on the production cost. And whatever is our decline cost which we have all those expenses taken into account. But more or less it remains in line with our what is the total spend we have done and what is the average production we have got from the firm quarter. So if the production is slightly low then obviously the average cost tends to be slightly higher. If the production is higher like in quarter four the production was quite high. So the costs were slightly lower. But more or less.
More or less. It is in the range of eight to nine thousand rupees in last one year. You have noticed?
Vinayak Kariwal
Sure. Thanks for the clarification. That helps. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Saunak Gupta
Thank you. Thank you.
operator
The next question comes from the line of Gautam Rajesh from Everflow Partners. Please go ahead.
Gautam Rajesh
Hi sir. So one follow up question. Like Tata is shutting down here are wanting to give up their mind because you mentioned because you want going underground and all that. So what gives us the surety that when we are spending much money on going underground with our minds that the cost won’t completely go up that all our cost advantage goes off Because a huge company like Carta which would have KLM Capex of a greater extent is also shutting down. What is the idea behind that?
Saunak Gupta
Sandeep, you will take that?
Sandeep B Narade
Yeah. So what happens? You have to plan early for going underground. Like we are having one around mine Mahadri mine. So we started quite earlier. Now we are heading for 6 lakh tons in next one or two years. Same is with our souk in the mind. It’s now we are running open cast.
Gautam Rajesh
And simultaneously we are going for under.
Sandeep B Narade
So more than one year we have started for this underground project and we are doing all our development ventilation shafts and shaft. So this is how we have to do. When you are talking about Tata. They are planning for underground since last 20 years. But they have done nothing. And in between there was their lease was also over.
Gautam Rajesh
And then again option was done.
Sandeep B Narade
There are so many reasons for them.
Gautam Rajesh
Understood. And also that I want to clarify. We do not India as a country do not import any mechanic.
Saunak Gupta
We import minimal. I said if there are certain grades, special grades of stainless steel. If somebody requires and you know India has a particular standard grade of ferrochrome being manufactured then there is some import not like regular imports. What I mean to say.
Gautam Rajesh
Okay, Understood. Understood.
operator
Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Abhishek Sawant from Veritas Reputation. Thank you. And over to you sir.
operator
Before I just. Shanak. I want to thank all of you who have congratulated our results. And I also want to thank all of you for your very insightful questions and participating today. So thanks for it. And over to Abhishek.
Abhishek Savant
Thank you everyone who joined us today. He participated in the discussion. We appreciate your questions and continued interest. In as we remain to transparent communication. And delivering long term value to all our stakeholders. In closing, on behalf of the board of Directors and management, we thank you all for your participation in this call today. INPA remains focused on operational excellence, financial prudence and long term value creation. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to us. Look forward to engaging with you again in our future updates. Have a good evening and stay safe. Thank you. On behalf of India Metals, Ferro Alloys and Veritas Reputation. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your line.
Sandeep B Narade
Thank you.
Saunak Gupta
Thank you.