Jindal Stainless Limited (NSE: JSL) Q3 2025 Earnings Call dated Jan. 30, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Anupam Gupta — Moderator
Unidentified Speaker
Abhyuday Jindal — Managing Director
Anurag Mantri — Executive Director and Group Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Amit Dixit — Analyst
Ritesh Shah — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Tushar Chaudhari — Analyst
Pratim Roy — Analyst
Rohan Vora — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Jindal Stainless Limited Q3 FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by IIFL Capital. 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 10 0 on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr Anupam Gupta from IIFL Capital. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Gupta.
Anupam Gupta — Moderator
Yeah, thanks, Sanju, and welcome everyone to the results conference call for Stainless to you. From the management, we have Mr Jindal, the Managing Director; Mr Taran Kulbe, CEO and Whole-Time Director; Mr Arurag, ED and Group CFO; Mr Rajiv Garl, Head of Sales; and Shaya Sharma, Head of Investor Relations. To start-off with, I’ll hand it over to Shaya and post that — post introduction by Mr Jindal, we can take-over the Q&A. Over to you, Shaya.
Unidentified Speaker
Thank you, Anupam. Good afternoon, everyone, and a very warm welcome on the call. We have shared our Q3 FY ’25 earnings presentation with the stock exchanges, which is also available on the company’s website. And today’s call discussion will be on the same line. Please note some of the information on this call may be forward-looking in nature and is covered by the disclaimer on Slide 2 of the earnings presentation.
Now, I would like to hand it over to our Managing Director, Mr Vishal. Over to you.
Abhyuday Jindal — Managing Director
Thank you, Shriya, and good afternoon to everyone, and welcome to the Q3 FY ’25 earnings call. On behalf of the management team, let me wish you all a very happy and prosperous year ahead. I would like to first discuss the key business highlights of the quarter-ending December 2024, followed by review of our operational and financial performance. The consumption of stainless steel in the country has been consistently rising with an annual increase of around 11%, reaching 4.46 million tons in FY ’24, indicating a strong growth trajectory. This positive trend is further reflected in India’s rising per-capita consumption, which reached to 3.1 kg in FY ’24 from 2.25 kg in the last five years, driven by demand from sectors such as infra, processing industries and railways.
Despite a weaker export market and ongoing pressure from low-price imports, we achieved highest-ever sales in Q3 FY ’25, reflecting a 15% year-on-year growth, driven by — mainly by strong domestic demand, which rose by 20% during the period. Robust economic growth supported by ambitious infrastructure projects, increased adoption of stainless steel in the process industry and rising importance of life-cycle costs in public sector procurement. All these factors point to continued demand for stainless steel in the country.
On the export front, our volumes have remained subdued due to the ongoing geopolitical disruption and decline in-demand from Western countries, particularly, where prices have hit their lowest point in the past 15 months and shipping costs have significantly increased. These factors have impacted our export margins in Q3 FY ’25. To offset this, we are trying to strengthen our presence through niche offerings to global customers, especially in lift and elevator, auto, white goods and metro segments. And considering alternate moves of freight including freight bulb shipping.
On the project side, I’m pleased to share that operations have begun boosting our coal rolling capacity and supporting overall sales. In Indonesia, our SMS plant is making good progress and is expected to begin operations in FY ’27. NPI project is in its ramp-up phase and it’s currently operating at approximately 65% capacity utilization. With respect to our ESG initiatives, we remain dedicated to sustainability and environmentally responsible practices. I’m pleased to report that our plant — at our plants, the share of grid source renewable energy has risen to approximately 17% in Q3 FY ’25, up from about 1% in FY ’24, resulting in a significant reduction in Scope 2 emissions. This progress is further supported by the successful installation of a 3.7 megawatt solar roof of capacity at.Given our continued commitment to sustainability, we have received adequate to strong ESG ratings in Q3 from different rating agencies such as MSCI,, ESG Risk, among others. I’m also glad to share that JSL has been awarded a distinguished sword of honor from the British Safety Council. This global accolade highlights the company’s unwavering commitment to upholding the highest occupational health and safety standards.
With this, I would like to hand over to Anurag to discuss our operational and financial performance. Thank you.
Anurag Mantri — Executive Director and Group Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Abhide. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the call. I hope you all had a wonderful start to the New Year. Let me discuss in detail the operational and financial performance during quarter three of FY ’25. We delivered incremental sales volume of 587,658 metric ton in-quarter three, increased by around 15% on year-on-year and 4% on Q-o-Q basis. Standalone Q3 revenue increased by around 3% on a Q-o-Q basis to INR10,066 crores on the back of robust domestic demand, Q3 EBITDA was stable at INR1003 crores and PAT increased by 5% to INR619 crores on Q-o-Q basis. The nine-month sales volume increased by 8% on Y-o-Y basis in-spite of our export volume falling by 26% on Y-o-Y basis due to the adverse global macro factors as highlighted by Avid.
We have increased our domestic sales volume by 14% on Y-o-Y basis on the back of the healthy domestic demand, resulting in domestic sales reaching to 90% of our overall sales. Further with continuous focus on maintaining a strong balance sheet as on 31st December 2024, our external net-debt on a standalone basis stood at INR3,344. Also, we are able to maintain healthy leverage ratio with the standalone net-debt to equity is maintained at 0.2 times and the net-debt to EBITDA stood at 0.9 times despite capex and acquisition of around INR3,800 crore during the Nine-Month of FY ’25. I would also like to inform that the Board of Directors — Directors have approved an interim dividend payment of INR1 for FY ’25 with a face value of INR2 each with an aggregate payout of nearly INR82,082.37 crores. The record date for the purpose of the payment has been set as February 8, 2025.
On the subsidiary fund, in-quarter three FY ’25, all our subsidiaries performed steadily, reaching an overall EBITDA of INR205 crores and PAT of INR35 crores.
With this, I would like to-end my discussion and would request the moderator to open the floor for the Q&A session. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. 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 comes from the line of Amit with ICICI Securities. Please go-ahead.
Amit Dixit
Yeah, hi. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. First of all, congratulations for a good set of numbers in a very difficult quarter. I have two questions. The first one is pertaining to the ongoing safeguard duty investigations. Now in the document, the stainless steel products are kept out-of-the investigation despite a stainless steel industry suffering maximum on account of unfairly priced import. So just wanted to understand the general outlook of regulatory authorities regarding?
Abhyuday Jindal
Yeah. So, so basically steel and stainless steel has been fired separately. So what you might be aware of is that steel industry you might be looking at. So as steel is maybe I would say, two weeks ahead of steel. So they filed at the beginning of January and we filed our safeguard application around mid towards end of January. So that’s why maybe all the data is not available for industry side, but we are absolutely on-track and we are keeping a close watch and discussing with all the concerned authorities in the ministry. So we are quite positive from — yeah, it’s two different applications and we are quite positive that both sides should see some positive results.
Amit Dixit
Okay. So is it safe to assume that a similar notification can be issued for stainless steel considering the injury that we have suffered as an industry.
Abhyuday Jindal
Yes, absolutely. So like I said, steel is moving a bit faster than us. We are maybe two or three weeks behind them, but similar thing is on.
Amit Dixit
Okay. Sure. Now a little bit different question. I have been observing in the press release that we have actually initiated product development in very niche applications, for instance, in defense, particularly we have supplied to HAL, the low alloy products. Now in India, we have, of course, a long, I would say a good runway for nuclear power plants and that they are expected to use stainless steel in a good measure. So can you please highlight some of the product developments in these niche areas that we are doing, apart from the regular ones that we are aware of, like infra processing, railways, et-cetera?
Abhyuday Jindal
So absolutely rightly correctly, you said this has always been a key focus for the company to further add more value-added products. And in every sector that we see good growth coming in domestically, we are going to be part of it. So nuclear, absolutely, we anyway have been supplying globally to a lot of prestigious nuclear projects. So this has been a regular phenomenon and further development is on. Defense, aerospace is another interesting area where every time more-and-more product ranges are getting added. So we’ve been supplying to Brahmos.
We’ve been supplying to a lot of missile applications and all satellite programs we are part of. So every launch that goes out from ISRO and also private companies now, some material of ours will be there. And apart from that, hydrogen economy is another focus area of ours, ethanol blending plants, these are the plants, a lot of efforts are being made to further develop products for this and also working on substituting other metals into stainless steel. So wherever corrosion is a problem, problem wherever — where it is a big problem, a lot of sales development and business development activities are on to convert them into stainlessly.
Okay, great. Thank you so much and all the best.
Operator
Thank you thank you. Next question comes from the line of Ritesh Shah with Investec. Please go-ahead.
Ritesh Shah
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Couple of questions. First is, would you like to revisit the guidance that we have given for volume growth for this fiscal and EBITDA per ton, specifically on standalone basis? And when we say standalone, just wanted a clarification, does it include any of, Rathi or RUBL or are those volumes over and above the stated volume guidance.
Abhyuday Jindal
Standalone, when we talk, we talk standalone, Ritesh, and we’re continuing with our guidance for this year in terms of EBITDA per ton, we should do around INR17,000 for this fiscal year and our volume guidance is around 10%, 10%.
Ritesh Shah
This would exclude.
Abhyuday Jindal
We’re not changing that guidance, which we revised during the half middle of this year.
Ritesh Shah
Okay. And when we say volume guidance, this excludes, right?
Abhyuday Jindal
This excludes for this fiscal year, absolutely.
Ritesh Shah
Okay. And for the next fiscal, any volume guidance that we are looking at?
Anurag Mantri
Ritesh, Ritesh, it’s inclusive of all the volumes.
Ritesh Shah
Is it for this year or when we say like my next question was
Anurag Mantri
On the chromini volumes are very low this year. It’s just started has started stabilizing. This year I think we are targeting how much of 30,000 tonne
Abhyuday Jindal
Max, 30,000 tonnes this year, so it will be hardly any from that perspective. So that’s why we’re not really changing our guidance.
Ritesh Shah
Perfect. And sir, I think on the call, on the TV, I think you indicated double-digit volume growth for next year. So I would presume this number would include. Would that assumption be right?
Abhyuday Jindal
Correct. That is correct. Absolutely.
Ritesh Shah
And sir, double-digit is a very large band. Is it possible if you could narrow it further into low double-digit or high-double digit, it will help us in modeling stuff?
Abhyuday Jindal
I think, Ritesh, it’s a little early for us to give you that figure because now there are few things that we are waiting and watching as compared to what Mr Trump does for the — our budget is also coming up next couple of days. So I think that will give us a much better picture to give you our volume guidance for next fiscal.
Ritesh Shah
Sure. That’s helpful. My second question was again on volumes. Now when we give standalone volume numbers, is it possible for us to dissect between HR and CR? The reason to ask this question is, there is 0.6 million tonne Romania which comes in, which gives us additional flexibility on CR and hence CR as a percentage of total smelt will actually increase. So wanted to understand what is the sort of impact or bearing it has on profitability and our ability to put that volume in the marketplace. Is the demand for CR locally more than HR. So how does it stack-up versus what the offering that we have in the marketplace right now post?
Abhyuday Jindal
So I can first answer at a overall level in terms of definitely the demand of CR in stainless steel is more than HR. And as a company always, we were always around 45% of a melt was CR and our target was to take it to 75%. So was an acquisition in-line with that. And anything Rajiv you can add? Yeah. So, yeah, hi, this is Rajeev Garth. I head the sales. So globally, if you see the CR2 ratio is typically 80% 20%, 80% is of consumption in the market is cold road, whereas 20% is hot-roll, which includes sheets, coil plates. But in a developing economy, this ratio is slightly more skewed towards hot-roll, which is like — it’s more like 70-30 because the process industry requires a lot of hot-roll material.
So again, in terms of your — your second question that is there a market for cold-rolled out and all, yeah, actually, as Abhiji also mentioned that there is — we were — as a company, we are always short of and we are very confident that the — with chromony volume, we’ll be able to kind of serve many segments in which we were strategically keeping low market-share because of production issues?
Ritesh Shah
Sure. I’ll just stretch this a little bit, sorry, sir. I think it’s important. Sir, basically, when we are saying that we do more of CR, it essentially means there will be HR to CR conversion. Would it essentially mean that it poses upside risk to the EBITDA guidance that we are looking at. And again, I think Manthriji indicated that we will factor numbers in next fiscal numbers. So wouldn’t there be double counting?
Anurag Mantri
No, so overall volume guidance, Ritesh, is — will be the — we will not be giving separate guidance for the assets because as Rajiv was mentioning that CR is the one which is more salable in terms of — so our volume guidance and EBITDA per guidance will always be combined in terms of — including of.
Ritesh Shah
And what is the trajectory that it can move by given we have more CR versus HR right now, given we have 0.6 million ton commissioned? For those incremental volumes?
Anurag Mantri
So as we as Abhija mentioned that let’s wait for some time to give us the specific numbers on the guidance range, because it lots — because we are a lot depend on how the export market spans out and how the Indian markets actually the growth pans out, especially the — all these Chinese dumping and certain things, which we pans out. That’s why we are saying that we are targeting double-digit growth, but I think let’s wait for some time to be very specific on the range.
Ritesh Shah
Sure. This is helpful. I’ll join back the queue. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Johnsa with Anand Rathi. Please go-ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is very straightforward. What would be the volume breakup between 2 3 and 400, if you can guide us?
Unidentified Speaker
Sorry,, you’re asking for a volume breakup
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, volume or the share or the share, whatever is possible.
Unidentified Speaker
Yeah. So 200 series share was around 38% and 346%, 400 was 16%. This I’m talking about quarter three FY ’25, 9 million. And for nine months, it was 236%, 300 was 46% and 400 was 17%.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Thanks,, for the update. So just to take a couple of analysts to who we have already harved on this question pertaining to the volume. Just to take it a bit forward, I believe somewhere in the print media today and even in the — on the TV today, I think, sir had mentioned that you are actually reducing your guidance to 9%, if I’m not mistaken. And right now, I think you just reiterated that it will be about 10%, which is kept unchanged. Am I reading it wrong or is there any ambiguity out there, if you can just throw some light on it?
Abhyuday Jindal
No, it will be in the range between 9% to 10%. So there was — we revised it during the mid of this year, which was around 9% to 10% and we are keeping that intact.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. So there is no further reduction from there, right?
Abhyuday Jindal
No, there was no further revision or guidance revision.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And sir, if I may just squeeze a very quick third one. So what would be the status on Rabiran and Rathi right now? And in — currently, what is the realization what you’re getting it from so on?
Abhyuday Jindal
So on, the we are now producing or we are almost using the — basically we are running in rather than our polishing line because that is what we have started and we are finding there the market to be better. We are producing approximately at a rate of around 4,000 tonnes per month-over there. And in, now as we just said that we have started and we have started ramping it up. So now almost hitting a volume of around 15,000 tons per month already we are seeing it touching over there.
Unidentified Participant
And sir, is it possible to give some guidance on the realization or the margins at these verticals?
Abhyuday Jindal
Please come again? I could not hear it very clearly.
Unidentified Participant
So possible to give some margin guidance for Rabirad and going-forward because in the past, you had already indicated for and Raji, but is it possible to give it once again considering the current scenario?
Anurag Mantri
No, no, no separate guidance, we don’t give separate guidance, we give a blended guidance because both and will guided — we will get added to our overall sales. It’s a — it’s a process, midterm process, you can say. So that’s why we give overall guidance generally encompasses both these units.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants that you might press star and one to ask a question. Next question comes from the line of Anupam Gupta with IIFL Capital. Please go-ahead.
Anupam Gupta
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, sir. So first question is basically, if you see your EBITDA perturn is relatively on the lower side given that exports have been very subdued for the last couple of quarters and incrementally, we have some possible pressures coming from the Trump administration coming on — coming in and possible duty actions. So how do you look at that section and between that — in that 10% exports which you are doing at this point of time, what is it that is going to US and can see an impact if there is an adverse duty which comes in US?
Abhyuday Jindal
Okay. So first point in the proportion today, US is roughly around 20% of our export mix. So you know, that’s one part.
Anupam Gupta
Sorry, I couldn’t catch your first question that how the, how do you look at that in terms of possible duties there. Yeah.
Abhyuday Jindal
So see, India as a country, I mean, we all — so Anupam, I’ll take this. So basically, our focus for the last few quarters, few years have been domestic. We are seeing most of the green shoots coming in the domestic market and that is where we’ve been very bullish. Export has always been a second priority for us. And export, we would always use as a factor that our long-term customers we still want to service, which we will continue and to protect our margin. Since export market has drastically dipped, we still feel for — we will still deliver good export volumes even next year despite all these challenges that we are facing.
But the real growth and the real story is all based on India again. So that is our real focus. And like Rajeev was mentioning, US is around 20% of our export. I would say despite any further a major change in Trump tariff, I think this will still continue. I don’t see much dip happening and the other positive side with US is that they will also come with a lot of capex expenditure from infra spending to other areas where we as a company can cater to them quite efficiently. So definitely, it’s a kind of a wait-and-watch situation with what’s going to happen in the US but despite that, we’re still extremely bullish on the India story and we still continue to explore to our long-term customers.
Anurag Mantri
And Anupam, just to add the data point, the US tariff on Indian on us is currently 25%, which is the Trump tariff which was put in earlier. So that’s still continuing. And whatever we are doing in the US market is with the range of that tariff. So — and so it’s unlikely when it could come increase. We’ll have to wait-and-watch, but it’s unlikely to be increasing further, especially that. And just to give you the perspective on US stainless steel industry, even at the current level without even intra push, they are short of the capacities in terms of their demand. So as mentioned if the demand push comes, then they will further be short of the capacities. And at least the Mexico and Canada, they are very clear, they will be putting on duty. So that will be clear — that should be able to give you — give us some of the better opportunity in US to participate in US market?
Anupam Gupta
Sure. Okay. That is helpful. And sir, second question is basically on — on the greenfield capex, which we were talking about earlier, anything that you have finalized so-far or any thoughts you can share?
Abhyuday Jindal
No, right now — right now, there are no clear-cut plans for that at the moment. When we are ready, we’ll definitely come back and announce.
Anupam Gupta
Sure. That’s okay, sir. I’m done here. Thank you.
Abhyuday Jindal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Tushal with Prabhudas. Please go-ahead.
Tushar Chaudhari
Yeah, good afternoon, sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity and congratulations for the good set of numbers. I just wanted to get one data point. The imports which you have mentioned in press release around 262 in this quarter. Can we get last year number or maybe full-year number of this particular import offices.
Unidentified Speaker
Yeah. Imports in Tushar, I will share this number for import. Okay. Offline
Tushar Chaudhari
As we were saying in earlier question,
Abhyuday Jindal
People saying import intensity is around 30%, but we’ll get you the exact rate. It’s around 1 million tonne. I mean more — it is share will share, but around 1 million ton last year. FY ’23, ’24.
Tushar Chaudhari
Okay. Thanks a lot, sir. And US you said out of our export, let’s say, already small, US is 20%, how much will be the other proportion like Europe and many countries? Europe will be higher, right?
Abhyuday Jindal
Yeah. Yeah, Europe is higher because in Europe probably two quarters. So Europe will be around 60%, 60% between somewhere between 62%, 65%.
Tushar Chaudhari
Okay. And how is the demand situation your mix?
Unidentified Speaker
South Korea, South America, it’s all.
Tushar Chaudhari
Okay. And how is the demand situation now over there in Europe?
Abhyuday Jindal
So Europe is in a very bad state. I think that everyone would be tracking and knowing that the economy — most of the economies have not recovered. One of our biggest countries exporting countries was Germany, which is suffering tremendously right now. So Europe as a whole definitely is under severe pressure. Okay. From Europe economy, I’m talking, not our sales, but more European economy, which is impacting our sales.
Tushar Chaudhari
So we were trying for some other nations like Japan and all South Korea.
Abhyuday Jindal
That is continuing. Like I said, South Korea, Middle-East, South America, Japan was more a first entry for us and we’re going to keep — try to keep increasing. But again, it’s overall, if you understand the world, China is also pushing material as much in all those markets. So we are competing always with lot of Chinese and other Asian players. So despite that, we’re still maintaining our export volume guidance. But yes, nothing major — no major increase in any of the other geographies.
Tushar Chaudhari
Okay. Thanks a lot, sir. I’ll come back on the queue.
Abhyuday Jindal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Vikas Singh with PhillipCapital. Please go-ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I just wanted to understand, though we have managed to gain the volumes despite lower exports, our EBITDA per ton has also been sequentially getting lower. So are we chasing volumes over the margins? And is that is that the thing because we have promised 20% kind of the volume growth. So how should we look at our product mix and would the or improvement from here on here? Thank you.
Abhyuday Jindal
So see, so we are always going with a blended approach. Our biggest factor and why we are here is to give better return to our shareholders. And that is the target that we always take. Any running plant or any steel company has to target a complete utilization or complete utilization of all our resources. That’s how you bring down your fixed-cost, that’s how you bring down all your other overheads. So that’s why we have to target every time going for a volume increase. We could have shown a further volume increase. We could have pushed more material in the domestic market, but to protect our margin also, we did not go as aggressive. So that opportunity and that kind of flexibility we keep in sight. So we have to grow — show a good volume growth also every time while protecting our margins. It’s because export market for the last two to three years has completely been subdued and going — market has been going down, which is why that pressure on domestic front you can see.
Unidentified Participant
So if for my understanding purpose only, if I may ask the export margin was the lower-end of the product which you’re selling the margin differential at this point of time. Just wanted to see if you need to pull-back the lower-end and once the export market opens how the things would improve for you. So what is the gap between the export which on an average term
Abhyuday Jindal
, we only mentioning on the call, I’m sorry, these things are — I could not mention on the call. These things are something sensitive.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. Sir, one more question regarding — basically, we have said that the yearly guidance on a consolidated basis could be around 20,000. But nine months they are already at close to 21,000. So am I mistaking it that the 4Q would be a weaker continue to be weaker in terms of EBITDA per ton or no, sir.
Anurag Mantri
If you see the consol is number is around INR20,837, you are right. So what we have said is that on the — is we will try to maintain the — will be in this range itself because JUSL will continue to be a same level of EBITDA per ton. Volumes will increase. So that’s why we are saying 20,000 plus of EBITDA per ton will be able to deliver on FY ’25 on a consol basis.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. And sir, our debt peak out targets and if you could like to share.
Anurag Mantri
So if you recall, last quarter, we gave a guidance of closing FY ’25 debt of around INR5,500 crores, which on the back of the INR55 — similar sort of number of the capex what we announced. We — though the — some of the EBITDA per ton has come down a bit, but more or less we should be able to maintain the same — we will maintain the same guidance and clearly we should be able to do a bit better depending on the inventory levels. But otherwise, CapEx-wise, we are on-track to within those range. So we should be — we maintain our closing debt guidance of around close to INR5,500, we’ll try to improve further on that.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. And sir, just one last thing. JUSL EBITDA per tonne seems to be on a slightly lower side than what it used to be last year. So since it’s a conversion business, are we getting the outside order less or what has changed or we are charging less to? So what has changed exactly?
Anurag Mantri
So as per their — because it’s a job work model and as per the formula when the volumes — because it’s largely does the JSL volume. When the volume increases, the per tonne job charges come down. So basically, that’s why you are — as you rightly pointed out, it should be looked at JSL and JUSI combined and which is in the nine months was around INR20,837 because since the volumes of the job works are increasing, so therefore, the conversion charges for them have been going — moved into a different range.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. Understood. Thank you, sir. That’s all from my side. And all the best.
Anurag Mantri
It also help the upstreaming the tax cash efficient — upstreaming the cash USL cash tax efficiently. So you can see that JUSL has been trending almost close to INR300 crore-plus of cash.
Unidentified Participant
Noted, sir. Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Palaf Agarwal with Antique Stoke Broking. Please go-ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, good afternoon, sir. So just wanted to check what is the impact of this C-BAM in Europe. So does it apply to stainless steel as well? And if it does?
Abhyuday Jindal
No, absolutely, it applies to stainless steel as well, but there is a lot of new information coming out where all C-band is under question. But despite that, we as a company are keeping our plans intact. We started the journey to invest into renewable capacity, which we are carrying on and we are continuing with that. So if CBAM comes or doesn’t come, we’re going to be ready with all our sustainability targets and carbon carbon emission reduction. So that in case there is some positivity from that side, we are not going to get impacted.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And the renewable energy cost would be lower than our current power cost. Is that also a benefit that can happen?
Abhyuday Jindal
You’re saying is renewable energy cost lower than our current globally also in India also, but renewables we have some good — I mean, we’ve got some good tariff rates actually. So it won’t be cheaper, but not a very-high amount.
Unidentified Participant
Sure, sir. And also if you could just — I mean in carbon steel, we’ve had China exporting one of the highest levels in the past many years. So if you could just give some information on stainless steel, what’s the level of are we seeing any production cutdowns in China or you know — and what is the level of exports that are coming out of there?
Abhyuday Jindal
Yeah. So see India import into India is — clearly there’s a 30% import intensity into stainless products and maximum of that is coming from China. So that continues and that has been continuing for almost, I would say, more than three to four years — the four years. So that continues. We don’t see any dip happening from China export front at the moment.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. So we’re not seeing any reduction in the domestic production in China happening in the case of stainless steel.
Abhyuday Jindal
So at least not till now. Maybe some of the small ones have closed, but not at least the imports coming into India, we’ve not seen any despike there.
Unidentified Participant
Sure, sir. And lastly, sir, we’ve seen that some of the other non-ferrous commodities have bounced back pretty well. But nickel is still pretty subdued, so any, any view on what’s keeping the prices
Abhyuday Jindal
No, it is basically the demand, it is basically demand from both the stainless steel and from the EV market side, that is keeping the pressure down. So it’s — and China is a big factor because of that.
Unidentified Participant
And we don’t see any major disruption in supply happening like maybe because even in that case of some other commodities, demand is subdued, but probably because of supply balancing around, we’re still seeing pretty healthy pricing. So in this case, we’re not really seeing any supply disruption as well.
Abhyuday Jindal
No, in nickel as of now, we are not seeing nickel Indonesia is Indonesian economy is solely based on nickel, so they are really pursuing it.
Unidentified Participant
Okay.
Abhyuday Jindal
So what I will — what I would like to add here is that Indonesian is definitely pushing it. But outside Indonesia, the impact is coming and some of the nickel plants have either closed down or running at a lesser capacity utilization.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. But we won’t have any information on the cost curve for nickel, right? So what percentage of probably you know, manufacturers would be underwater at this — at this price level.
Abhyuday Jindal
But what we can say is that Indonesia is the lowest-cost producer.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, fair enough, sir. Thank you so much
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Roy with B&K Securities. Please go-ahead.
Pratim Roy
Yeah, hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I have couple of questions. Firstly, sir, this quarter to maintain the volume number and we are getting to the lots of niche product segments. So if you can quantify how much value-added product is contributing on the overall volume for this quarter? Or what is the target contribution you’re expecting in the near-term from value-added product sides, that is a fast.
Abhyuday Jindal
So around 35% to 40% is what our value-added segment delivers.
Pratim Roy
And so right now nickel price secondly the price is subdued as the earlier purchasing mentioned. So in the Indonesian project, project IRR and how much cost-benefit that we can expect from that project in the near-term that it will come into the picture and will come into the full phase. So what kind of benefit you can expect from that you would like to take this up?
Abhyuday Jindal
Yeah. So Indonesia project, the entire project we have started it is now under the ramp-up stage.
Unidentified Speaker
So I will say it is gradually ramping-up and stabilizing. The point is that it is — the advantage with that project is that it is based out of Indonesia, which are the least-cost producer globally that is established. And we see that in the future, we believe that the nickel demand will definitely change up and then this supply-demand ratio will definitely improve. At the same time, we being a steel producer for us having a raw-material security, that is nickel security is very, very essential. And for us from that angle, this project project is very, very important and that’s how we see it that we are getting a raw-material security thank you.
Pratim Roy
Thank you, sir. Best of luck sir for the next call.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Ritesh Shah with Investec. Please go-ahead.
Ritesh Shah
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, just a broader industry level question, what is the import intensity right now on an annualized basis? Is it like 25%, 30%, 30%, 30%. And sir, if we had to break this number of 30%, say, hypothetically, I don’t know, 30% of 3.5 million tonnes into HR and CR, would it be possible we try to do it, but it’s not possible given separate HSN codes are not available, at least we are not aware of it.
Abhyuday Jindal
Again, I’m just trying to understand that with coming in, I think a ballpark figure between HR, CR imports. Yes. 85% of imports this year, 85% is CR, 80%, 85% is here, balances HR. Okay. So does it necessarily mean that even after coming through, there will be some pressure on pricing given bulk of the imports as CR. So definitely if export is not available to us, there would be a little — little pressure under pricing, but we will again target other areas where our margins are better and not where China is really dumping.
Ritesh Shah
Okay. That’s fine. And my second question was on corporate restructuring. Are there any updates on JCL and Indonesia CRML? I think we had indicated on JCL, some lender approval spending and Indonesia CRML, the timeline was given by March. Any updates over here and kind of proceeds that we expect from both the cements.
Anurag Mantri
Okay. So the JCL, that transaction will be completed now within the — probably next four to six-weeks. We have got all the approvals and it’s — now we are just completing the more formalities and process steps. So that will be there. On Indonesia CR mill, the sale of assets has been — is in the progress. And approximate we are likely to fetch around $20 million from that asset. So — and then after that, we’ll look for the land sales separately or land — we’ll see that how to monetize the land or what are the next steps. Right now, plant has been actually in a dismantling stage.
Ritesh Shah
And on GCL, how should we look at the valuations, any color?
Anurag Mantri
JCL, if you recall, it is the one transaction was anyway done. So more or less it will be in the line of the same valuations what we did earlier transaction.
Ritesh Shah
Okay. Would it be possible for you to help the net-debt and nine-month EBITDA number for GCU?
Anurag Mantri
That we can do separately because ACL is not part of this call. So maybe I’ll ask to get you there.
Ritesh Shah
No, perfect. And lastly,, anything on the tax rates given has started, I would presume that Rathi, RUBL, they had some sort of history accumulated losses might be there. So is there any benefit that we expect at JSL level, say FY ’26, FY ’27, how should we look at it?
Anurag Mantri
Yeah. So has — so you’re right, all three had accumulated losses., we will be so — but that can only be claimed actually as I think once we merge the entity with that. So that we are in the process of — as Rati, we will — we may not merge the entity. We are just evaluating. We will look for the merging of that entity because that’s more part of the core operations and but depending on that how we actually envisage the plan for the future. So probably once we do that, I think then there would be a tax shelter available. And then — so I would say not immediately next year, but ’27, we should see some of the tech shelter appearing into that because or maybe ’26 and we can see some of the things coming up
Ritesh Shah
Sure. This is very helpful. Thank you so much. Thank you. All the very best. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of with Financial Consultants Private Limited. Please go-ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi, good afternoon, sir. Sir, just one question from my end. Sir, on the NPI, Nikhil Indonesia JV, have you already started generating EBITDA? Hello, hello.
Abhyuday Jindal
So we have just started it. As we said that the plant has started and we are stabilizing it. So we are not — right now, we are not — I mean, okay, we are evaluating it. So the numbers and all will come will provide you in the future once it lies up fully.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. But safe to say that it will be 100 — completely ramped-up in FY ’26.
Abhyuday Jindal
Yeah, that’s correct.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And sir, just an update on the capex that we announced last year in May. If you could just give an update on the brownfield downstream capex at Jajpur, the intra upgradation and the Indonesia SMS.
Anurag Mantri
So, if you see the out of INR5,500 crore capex, if you recall that our capex number for the year was INR5,500 crore. Out of that, almost INR2,700 crores was we have spent on the various acquisitions. So which has already gone, which include the, which include the NPI or the last tranche of NPI and some of the working capital and also the SMS facilities. So that’s rare. And then besides this other capex around INR1,100 crore has been spent on the other capex so-far. So it’s progressing well. Some of the brownfield capex may get deferred to next year in — but depending on the progress because with that, but more or less large part of the capex — announced capex was actually the acquisition-related capex, acquisition or our investment in the JV-related capex. Correct. And the Indonesia SMS was scheduled to get commissioned in 24 months, that is on-track? Yes, that is on-track.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. Great, sir. Thank you and wish you a great 2025. Thank you. Same to you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Rohan Vora with Envision Capital. Please go-ahead.
Rohan Vora
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity. So the first question was, I was just reading about the — in Indonesia, basically, they have put quota on nickel. And what would be the impact of this overall — what is your stake — what is your view on this? So that was the first question.
Abhyuday Jindal
So that is the reason why we went and made investments into Indonesia because we already got those feelers that government would be going furthermore restrictive on over export and then NPI export, so which is why we have further gone with these investments in Indonesia. So we should not be impacted really by any kind of quota system and further it will help increase the price of also.
Rohan Vora
Right, right. So basically, we will be able to get-out the amount of bars that we were expecting earlier. So that should not impact our plans.
Abhyuday Jindal
Correct. Correct. Got it.
Rohan Vora
Got it. And the second question was on the JV — the Indonesia JV. So we had earlier said that because of the lower nickel prices, our ROCE on that will be lower. So what is the view on that? Earlier we had — we had a plan to get 25% ROCE out of it, but what would be the revised number?
Anurag Mantri
, you want to answer reply response to this.
Abhyuday Jindal
So I mean like I said it before that on this, the return and this, I think we should wait for some more time and then we come back with these numbers.
Rohan Vora
Okay. Okay, got it. And anything that will flow to the line-item in a P&L where we show the profits from JV. So anything that will flow this year?
Anurag Mantri
Sorry, I haven’t got exactly. So you are saying JUSL no the JV in Indonesia that we have. That will come as a yes, as a associate consolidation item.
Rohan Vora
Right, right. So any guidance on what amount of PAT that would flow from?
Anurag Mantri
Karun just mentioned, I think just wait for some time because to get that exactly the profitability numbers on the current scenario for that JV?
Rohan Vora
No problem. No problem. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Prashant Gopal with Spark Impact Managers. Please go-ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Sir, where-is the current stainless steel price versus 3rd-quarter average? And can you give your outlook on that?
Anurag Mantri
I’m sorry,, your question is stainless steel price outlook.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, if you have any views on that near-term.
Anurag Mantri
See, stainless steel, if you see it’s — the prices of average realization, if you see in our thing is depending on the two things, one is that our product mix and also the underlying raw-material prices because it’s quite a lot of raw-material prices are on a pass-through basis. When the raw-material prices goes up, the average goes down. So it’s not exactly like a carbon steel where the prices goes up, the profitability increases because ultimately there is a pass-through impact on that. And second is also on the product mix because the prices between the 200 series and 400 — sorry, 300 series, there is a vast difference between the two. I mean the 400 is in-between hello.
Operator
So Gopal, are you done with the questions?
Unidentified Participant
Yes, sir. So what’s if you take stainless Steel 30, 4 grade, where are we current now the prices versus the 3rd-quarter average, if you can give that data
Anurag Mantri
Individual grade wise prices we don’t be average realization of the forest, we can give you that average realization what comes to the blended. So this quarter average realization was INR71,283 per ton.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, that we got it, sir. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
Yeah. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, we have reached the end of question-and-answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Abhyuday Jindal
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And let me also thank everyone for attending this call. In closing, I would like to reaffirm our confidence in the growth of the domestic market. Despite ongoing pressures of low-priced imports, we continue to demonstrate our leadership given the wide distribution network, technological prowess and product supremacy. I hope that we have been able to answer all your questions satisfactorily. Should you need any further clarification or would you like to know more about the company, please feel free-to contact our Investor Relations team. Thank you once again and speak to all of you soon. Thank you.
Operator
On behalf of IIFL Capital, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.