Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Styrenix Performance Materials Ltd (NSE: STYRENIX) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 16, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Bhupesh Phorwal — Chief Financial Officer
Rahul Agarwal — Managing Director
Chintan Doshi — Manager of Legal and Company Secretary
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and Gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Screenix Performance Materials Ltd. Q4FY26 earnings conference call. We have with us today from the management of streenings Performance Materials Limited Mr. Rahul Agarwal, Managing Director, Mr. Bhupesh Phorwal, Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Chintan Doshi, Manager of Legal and Company Secretary. This conference call may contain forward looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on date of this call.
These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touch tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded further on behalf of the company.
We also like to remind the participants that this call has been conducted subject to and in line with this. With the disclaimer mentioned in the investor presentation as is available on the stock exchange, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Bhupesh Khorwal. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Bhupesh Phorwal — Chief Financial Officer
Welcome for our Q4 and FY26 earnings call. Thank you for taking the time to be here with us today. I hope you all have had a chance to go through the financial results and the investor presentation available on our website and the stock exchanges. Before I speak on the numbers, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the entire team of Starnix for their dedication and commitment. Over the years. Our people have navigated multiple challenges while consistently meeting customer requirements in a timely manner.
On behalf of the management team, I would like to thank them for their continuous efforts toward enhancing operational excellence. Now on the standalone Financial highlights. Coming to our quarterly financial highlights On a year on year basis, Total income for Q4FY26 stood at INR658 crores, a dip of 6.3%. EBITDA for Q4FY26 stood at IRR126, a growth of 51.9%. EBITDA margins for Q4FY26 improved by 19.2%. An increase of 734 basis points. Profit after tax for Q4FY26 stood at 84.3 crore, a growth of 58.6% and profit after tax margins for Q4FY26 stood at 12.8, a growth of 5 to 4 basis points.
Sales volume for this quarter stood at 46.1 km a dip of 4.6%. Now coming to our annual performance highlights. On a standalone basis, total income for the year stood at INR26.47 a dip of 3.9%. More on the pricing driven stat for the year stood at INR 370 crores with 14% margins PAT for the year stood at INR 234.3 crores with 8.9% margins. Sales volume for the year stood at 195kt, a growth of 5.2% on yoy basis we have maintained a healthy return ratio with strong and prudent balance sheet. Roe and roce stood at nearly 25 and 32% respectively for FY26 on a standalone basis.
Coming to consolidate financial highlights for this quarter. Total income for Q4FY26 stood at INR 837.9 crores. EBITDA for Q4FY26 stood at IRR 128 crores and EBITDA margin stood at 15.3% profit after tax for Q4FY26 stood atINR 1773.5 crores and PAT margin stood at 8.8%. Consolidated sales volume which includes both India and Thailand for Q4 FY26 stood at 57.5 GT. Now coming to our annual performance highlights. On consolidated basis, total income for the year stood at INR 3,454.4 cr. EBITA for the year stood at INR 359.6 crores and EBITDA margin stood at 10.4%.
Profit after tax for the year stood at INR 182.8 crores and PAT margin stood at 5.3%. Consolidated sales volume for the year stood at 248.3 kilometers. With this I conclude the financial highlights and we may now proceed for question and answer. Thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you very much. We’ll now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch tone phone. 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 will wait for the moment while the question queue assembles. Thank you. The first question is from the line of Priyank Cheddar from Valium Capital. Please go ahead.
Questions and Answers:
Unidentified Participant
Yeah hi Rahul. I hope I’m audible so first first on the whole of the value chain which starts from the ethylene and benzene and then goes to styrene monomer and then our products of ABS and PS with all the supply chain disruptions happening around ethylene and benzene styrene monomer prices reflected that inflections right now what the question is in which of the value chain you see this getting more impacted? Would it be multiple refineries in South Korea going down which ultimately becomes a negative for us or maybe ABS and PF plants getting shut down?
We have seen that couple of news coming up in US now in your in Europe and China smaller players going down which becomes a positive for net net the spread that we maintained. What’s your assessment? Where are this headed towards and how long would this remain disrupted?
Rahul Agarwal
Thanks Priyan. So with regards to planned shutdowns specifically for ABS or PS that you mentioned in Europe, so these happened prior to the current disruptions in the Middle East. So I believe they are largely unrelated. If we speak about the supply chain disruptions along benzene, ethylene and crude and other petrochemical inputs. Of course when there is a supply crunch due to the state of Hormuz remaining largely closed and the flow of oil and other essential oil petrochemical products not being possible from that area has an impact globally.
Of course there are specific regions and specific refineries which are impacted more than others. And when those are impacted, you know, specifically regionally, the demand and supply associated with those petrochemicals as well as downstream polymers also gets consequently affected. So from what we have seen is Korea has been affected. Kuri also depends from what we understand is gas from Qatar as fuel for their plants. And that also hasn’t had an impact both in cost and availability and also the kind of raw materials required.
So we do see an impact over there. But of course this impact is globally. So essentially these are all commodities, the raw materials themselves, whether it’s styrene, whether it’s acrylonitrile or others. And we have seen a price increase in all these monomers globally. So there is no one specific region where this price would increase, it would increase globally. And that has been the case that we have seen. There may be some minor arbitrage between one region to the other, but that obviously gets normalized very quickly as we have seen.
So net net raw material prices have increased on account of supply crunch and supply chain disruptions, but so have the finished product crisis. So you know that’s kind of moved in tandem and how long it’s going to last. I mean I think that’s a very difficult question and really I am not qualified to answer that. I think if anyone can answer when this Middle east crisis can end, that can give obviously some indication. But then again I really don’t know how and when that would happen.
Unidentified Participant
Sir, at least the availability of the raw material is not an issue for us despite all the disruptions.
Rahul Agarwal
So we have obviously not faced any significant disruption to our manufacturing. We may have had minor disruptions, but nothing that requires significant reporting or worry. So we have covered for all the raw material that we need. We are buying from multiple sources globally and that has been the strategy of the company all along. So we are well diversified in terms of our ability to procure. We may choose to procure from one region over the other due to time and cost and other factors. But when it comes to being able to procure raw material from other sources and still meet our customer demand, we are being effectively being able to do that without any concern.
Unidentified Participant
So would be the case also with Pylon, the availability won’t be an issue. And essentially at this revised pricing structures that are prevailing as of now and may not be known till when it will prevail. But at the current prices. Earlier we had an rough estimation of getting a breakeven point at 65, 70% utilization. But now that level becomes an ease. And with say 14, 15 or 16,000 tons per quarter, should we also reach a faster breakeven point for Thailand if the availability is not an issue?
Rahul Agarwal
So currently availability is not an issue, not a serious issue in any case. And of course as you know, the Thailand plant itself is not a very large plant. So in the context of being able to procure sufficient raw material, when we talk about breakeven, I think we have to be cognizant of the fact that whatever is happening currently is a short term phenomena. So from a long term perspective, this is not something that one can rely on. You may have certain gains or certain losses in the short term and for instance, there might be some gain in the short term because of certain tightness in the market and we may be in a better position in Thailand to be able to serve that.
But then like I said, it’s a certain arbitrage that you enjoy in the short term which may not exist in the long term. So to comment that your breakeven would change significantly from what we have earlier stated would be a fallacy. I think it’s better to still work towards that target which we are effectively doing so. And yes, in the short term we may get some gain. But that doesn’t change the fact that we still need to increase our capacity utilization to the levels we have earlier indicated.
Unidentified Participant
One last question. In the presentation, I could find ABS expansion on track. I couldn’t find a mention on polystyrene expansion which we were supposed to do. So in case, if you can just draw back our attention on what would be the timelines and the capacities that we are planning to add in polystyrene and abs.
Rahul Agarwal
So I think ABS is essentially along the same lines as has been indicated earlier. There is no change in that. As far as polystyrene is concerned. We haven’t given any fresh inputs recently in terms of when this expansion would take place. As far as general purpose polystyrene is concerned, we had already in fact expanded our plant and that capacity is available to us. However, the demand has been muted and also I think there has been a margin compression over there on account of material coming in from imports as well.
So we have been not very actively trying to fully utilize our general purpose polystyrene volumes. In the case of hips, we have carried out some studies. We are still not 100% sure or convinced which way we would like to go in terms of deploying additional capital to build that HIPS plant. But as and when we are closer to making a decision, we shall definitely convey to our shareholders.
Unidentified Participant
Sorry, yeah, thank you. And just last thing on the power savings. Have we seen any benefits coming up in this quarter with respect to the agreements that we were supposed to do to source the power from the third party? So not
Rahul Agarwal
Yet.
Unidentified Participant
Should that be visible in the coming quarters?
Rahul Agarwal
Yeah, it should be. So, I mean, we have been advised that hopefully by next month or so we would start receiving that power. But again, it is hazarding a guess or hazarding opinion from a third party. So I would take that with a pinch of salt. So hopefully that does happen and we are able to start accruing gains from next month which would reflect in this quarter.
Unidentified Participant
What would be that gain, sir? Any quantification for the full year?
Rahul Agarwal
No, I think it’s very early to say that because it is a function of production. It is a function of so many factors in the current context itself. Again, for the remainder of this call, it is going to be very difficult for us to give volume numbers because there has been some amount of demand contraction as well, given the price increases which have happened in the area. And till things don’t normalize or somewhat normalize, it’s very difficult to estimate exactly what the volumes will be and consequently what the power would be and what consequently what the savings would be.
So none of these numbers in the current context are very easy to predict or give.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Thank you sir.
Rahul Agarwal
Sure.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pankaj from
Unidentified Participant
Asset Management Manager. Yeah, Good evening Rahulji. This is. Which you have mentioned in the call to the prior questions are beyond anybody’s control in terms of volatility of pricing. But if we one takes a two, three year view and this being an annual cost, can you just help us understand what could be the shape of Styrenex? One can visualize from the things which you are doing both in India and overseas that will lay us some ground for all of us to visualize where the company is heading in terms of overall things.
Obviously the raw material spread fluctuation is something which is in nobody’s control or the product pricing and obviously last quarter saw that in one month. How much of the spreads can help on profitability. So just on a two, three year view, what could be the shape and size of the company, how what you’re visualizing and how Thailand can start shaping up in a very different way will help us over a period of time. Thank you.
Rahul Agarwal
Thank you Pankaji. You know again I’m always a little cautious when giving forward looking statements.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, that’s okay just on our overall thought process.
Rahul Agarwal
But as far as our strategy is concerned, I can definitely speak to that if that’s a good question. So strategically, whatever we have planned in terms of expansion of the business in India, that remains on track regardless of what happens in the short term with regards to volatility and demand fluctuations. We do believe that demand in India will grow, will remain robust and we will be the preferred supplier or partner to work with for most of our relationships going forward. And we are fully committed in that journey to essentially doubling our at least our ABS and SAN output.
And that will happen in the course of time which we have already mentioned earlier. So there is no deviation from that. So next two to three years obviously is enough time to realize that in terms of where we are headed for ABS production and sales in India as far as Thailand is concerned, again there are of course some structural weaknesses we have seen now in competitors due to this Middle east crisis. How that plays out we’ll have to see. But again, as far as Thailand is concerned, if I look at a broader, more longer term geopolitical view, it is very well placed.
In spite of all these challenges which have happened, Thailand has not been affected so severely in terms of its ability to procure and produce. So we see that as a very big positive. We also exhibited recently in China plus, because, you know, as you know, we do supply a lot of material to China and the Far east and you know, in our interactions with customers over there, which are, you know, very large in the EV space, in the appliance space and, you know, which are going to become more and more relevant I think globally as well, with the kind of technology advancements, the kind of capital investments these companies are doing, you know, and the kind of relationships we already have with them, I think will hold us in very good stead.
So we do believe that Thailand will, will prove to be a very critical and important asset for the organization in terms of its positioning with these customers and also supplying to these customers in all these different regions. So I mean, I think going forward next two, three years, I do see Star Enix one step closer towards its vision of being a preferred global supplier of all these performance products to all the customers themselves. And that obviously cannot be achieved just by having the capabilities in India, but having capabilities in Asia and potentially rest of the the world also become critical.
So talent is a very, very important and critical step in that direction, which we believe in two to three years we’ll have a very clear picture of what we have been trying to achieve so far.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, that’s great to hear that. The only thought process from an India perspective is that today there is a gap of domestic production versus import and with you and the other competitors increasing their capacity, can after three years that import substitution part will be off and can the industry only grow at say 8 to 10% in line with the, with the demand growth or you think that further there will be opportunity to grow? Just how to visualize that picture in India?
Rahul Agarwal
So Indian demand last year, you know, was about 350,000 tonnes. As we know, 350 to 370. And I think between the Indian players, prior to the third now player which has entered the field,
Chintan Doshi
The
Rahul Agarwal
Total sales were about 160, 170. So close to 200,000 tons are still being imported. Even with the new player coming in, we are still talking about a shortfall of more than 100,000 tons once we come in with additional capacity and both the other players also add in additional capacity. We do believe the market is still going to continue to add 30, 40, 50,000 tonnes of additional demand every year. So I believe still the import substitution will remain and that opportunity will still remain for the next five to seven years.
So there will be still an Opportunity for us to add additional volume to meet that additional demand. Because if you look at some of the eastern economies for which we have a greater flavor of. If you look at Vietnam, it’s about a 400,000 ton market which is much smaller country than ours. You look at, of course China is, the scale is very different. They are a factory of the world. But even in the context of smaller economies surrounding us, I do believe that the growth that we are estimating in the segments that we are estimating is quite realistic.
So we will still add this 30 to 50,000 tonnes every year. And given whatever has been announced so far by us and our competitors, I think there will still be an opportunity in India for adding more volumes and meeting that import substitution demand.
Unidentified Participant
Fantastic to hear that. Just the last question today the ABS prices when we speak into the market is somewhere between 190 to 200 rupees. Pre war it used to be 110, 120. Assuming there is some normalization in supply chain raw material which starts to happen as things starts to, you know, on the, on the Middle east prices, do you think now the average pricing which could settle will be much higher than the pre war pricing which we have seen? Is that a basic thought which is prevailing? Because most of the other chemical companies seem to suggest that now the new normal could be 15, 20% higher than the pre war kind of a situation.
Is that a fair assumption to make or you think nobody knows.
Rahul Agarwal
So again the right answer is nobody knows. But you know, if one has to assess again from a strategic perspective where we land, I think given whatever is happening, even if things unwind and things seem to clear up, there is obviously there’s going to be some lag between the current mess which is there in the supply chain and what needs to be in a normalized scenario. Right? So that lag itself will indicate that there will be some tightness which will remain and which will keep prices up to a certain level.
Now once those things normalize, for how long those prices stay at what level and how much further they keep getting pushed down is really anyone’s guess. But I would say in the short to potentially short, medium term prices will tend to remain a little bit higher from what we can assess at this stage as opposed to what they have been in the past.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you so much Raulji and wish you all the best. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you. Thank
Rahul Agarwal
You.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Ketam from SMS SMIF Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Sir, for the opportunity and the comments on a good set of numbers. So just a couple of questions. First, is it possible to quantify the inventory gains during the quarter? And secondly sir, we are seeing a volume, a slight volume dip in into the Indian business but some 20, 30% dip into the Thailand business. Any particular reason sir? Because onto the Thailand part, what I know as per our previous interaction, so we were having supply of raw materials from the local players so ideally that shouldn’t have been disrupted and the production shouldn’t have gone down ideally.
Any thoughts on this the volume tip and possible to quantify the inventory gains.
Rahul Agarwal
So we don’t really have any significant inventory gain for the quarter in terms of the volume dip there has been a dip in our GPPs sales for the quarter, there has been a muted demand and also there has been a lot of pricing pressure on account of certain imports. So that has accounted for the volume dip in all the other categories. Whether it’s ABS hips, we have grown year on year as far as the quarter is concerned and overall we have kind of moved in the right direction given what we do in this specific quarter.
Right. So in this quarter, you know there are 28 days in February so there are a lot of nuances on how this quarter works and specifically in this quarter there are certain couple of shutdowns which happen every year, not only in this year. So all these things lead to a certain volume change. But if I look at the year on year there is a growth at least in our ABS and HR business we don’t give a breakout. So I’m going to refrain from telling you or quantifying exactly what that is because as you know none of our companies competitors do that either.
But so there is no real concern in terms of a volume dip in India other than what I mentioned as far as Thailand is concerned. If you compare Q4 of last year versus this year, what we have given information, essentially what had happened is we were again shifting from INEOS brand to our brand and we had started, you know, intimating to all the customers that we would be discontinuing and we were also wanting them to switch to our brand. And on account of that there was a little bit higher booking by customers in that earlier brand which was a little bit unusual which would not have happened in previous years corresponding to that same quarter.
So comparing that particular quarter with this quarter would not have been a fair assessment. Having said that, I think again we have retained, I would say most of our business. So business continuity has been achieved by the Work of our team over there and going forward, we do believe with whatever interactions we have had with our customers recently, like I mentioned in China and elsewhere, volumes will start trending upwards only.
Unidentified Participant
Got it sir, My next question is for this year fiscal FY27 in terms of India, Indian business, so largely how much room we have for the volumes to further go up and subsequently sir, are we confident like that ABS capacity, any timeline Sir, I think we have stated earlier some around in the second half that will come mostly any timeline sir on that like and if there is any change?
Rahul Agarwal
No. So there is no change. Like I mentioned, the whatever earlier announcements we have given, we are still in line with that. We are on track for that. As and when the additional capacities come online, we’ll be sure to inform all our shareholders accordingly. And otherwise, as far as volume growth for the year is concerned, you know, one has to take the present scenario into context. So if we were not facing the present scenario, I think India would still grow at the same level and we would grow also similar.
So you know, if you assume that ABS would grow at 8, 10% or whatever and you know we would have additional volumes to spare, then yes, we would also grow similarly if not higher given the imported substitution opportunity. So I don’t think growth is an issue in a normalized scenario. In the present scenario, of course like I mentioned, it is very difficult to give an estimate.
Unidentified Participant
Got it sir, there is one question I wanted to know from view considering from a customer’s perspective who are taking ABS and polystyrene even they are. Even so they would be knowing that companies like Styrenex supreme and Ansarion are dependent on styrene and acrylonitrile imports and any disruption in raw material supply definitely so keeps these companies vulnerable. So why would any customer completely be dependent on these companies and import substitutions story what you’re seeing sir, will that actually play considering all these things like if there is any raw material stoppage from these countries.
So definitely they would be also left in the middle versus if they’re continuing taking their purchases from China or from Korea. So that so how these things like play out.
Rahul Agarwal
So it’s interesting, right that even in the current context or whatever may have happened, we have not had any supply problem for our raw materials, right? So whether it’s styrene, nickel nitrile which we are importing, we have been able to procure it. So like I said, you know, these are commodities. There is no real significant arbitrage between one region to the other. When it comes to these monomers and even for a lot of our suppliers, you know, it’s interesting, one of the big competitors whose position in Korea and probably has the largest share in the import substitution market was actually vertically integrated into styrene and they stopped producing styrene, in fact, I think a year or two ago.
And they chose to now import or buy styrene from outside, even into that country. Because again, like I mentioned, these monomas are commodities and there is no real value of being born vertically integrated into these commodities in the current demand supply scenario which exists. So given that situation, I don’t see customers giving any preference to a customer, to any company which has local supply of raw materials or has vertical integration into these areas. In fact, if anything, it could be a negative, I feel at times because you know, the spreads on all of the raw materials have been low and in a normalized scenario, I believe it’s quite long.
In any case, the outlook for a lot of the monomers.
Operator
Sorry for interrupting. Mr. Keta, please rejoin the queue for more questions. A reminder to all the participants, please restrict yourself to two questions per participants. The next question is from the line of Pritesh Chaddha from Lucky Investments. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, hello sir. Just to the question that you replied about pricing most likely to stay higher than pre wars, considering the supply chain, and you mentioned that there was no inventory gain in the quarter gone by, is it fair to assume that even the profitability then should largely stay higher than the pre war level? And by the way, the pre war level of the last one year was a continuously sliding scenario. So one has to then go and refer to a year back actually. So are these interpretations correct that we are doing without, without asking how much time will it last?
You know, but this, this conclusion is fair enough.
Rahul Agarwal
Thanks for your question. So essentially the profitability in the last quarter has probably been a little bit higher on account of two things. One is of course the product mix. Like I mentioned that we sold less gbps in that quarter and that has changed now going forward, you know what happens, we’ll have to see. And the other thing was in terms of certain prices that we could get for certain segments were higher on account of certain shortages which were created at that time. So there was a price expansion which took place, but that could be also little bit opportunistic on our part for certain segments.
And that I don’t think is sustainable long term. So in a pre war scenario versus post war scenario, how profitability will move I think is a question which I Cannot answer today but prices itself may remain a little higher because even raw material prices are going to remain a little bit higher until you know, the supply chain doesn’t normalize. I think I was speaking more towards that rather than to profitability itself.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And any comments okay on the volume side, any comments if you have. Because incrementally as well because there’s one observation that the user industry in the last quarter any user industry would have grown substantially in volumes and that we refer from the lot of companies results. So you know it was contrary that you had a 5% volume decline in India operations. So one, any granular that we need to know and second, at these high prices what’s your assumption or what’s your thought process on the volumes and how is it behaving as of now?
Whichever way you’re comfortable asking these questions. Answering this question.
Rahul Agarwal
Sure. So like I mentioned already that you know we are engaged in two lines of business, ABS and polystyrene and within Polystyrene we have gbps and hips. We’ve actually had a good volume growth both in ABS and in HIPS last quarter if I look at year on year numbers. But we have had a significant decline in GPPs and that was on account of certain unorganized market, a lot of dumping also from imports and then us not really wanting to participate in that market at those prices. But rest of the business remained robust and volume growth was fine.
And I think going forward also in a normalized scenario we anticipate the same.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you very much sir. All the best. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ronak Cheddar from Aweigh Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi Anna.
Rahul Agarwal
Yeah,
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My first question was just on the CAPEX and the scale up on the Capex you partly mentioned that the demand is there out for just in terms of timeline. How do you how should one think of the scale up once the phase one curve goes live this year
Rahul Agarwal
Year on a kind. So I mean again no change in what we had to say earlier. We are still saying in the second half of this year we will have additional volumes and capacities coming in line. So there is no change and the CAPEX also is in line with those capacities which will come in. So obviously the commitments are there and as the machinery comes in or as the kind of construction gets over and as the commissioning takes place that will have an impact on the cash itself. But the commitments are already have been made and we do believe given current timelines we are on track to what we are on track with regards to whatever we have mentioned in the past with regards to our capex and volume incremental volume that we will get.
Unidentified Participant
So is it fair to assume that in a quarter or two you will be able to scale up if the demand is out there for you to grab?
Rahul Agarwal
So like I mentioned, second half would not be the first and second quarter, it would be in the third and fourth quarter. Exact month we have not mentioned and we are not in a position to do so right now.
Unidentified Participant
My second question is on what percentage of sales for us would be, you know, based on a contract or a fixed formula based pricing which is spot sales. If you could bifurcate,
Rahul Agarwal
Again not much change in that from what we have done in the past. So in absurdity again 60 to 70% of it is formula contract based. Even the balance volumes. Again there is some kind of a formula that we follow though it may not be further back to the contract necessarily with the customer or a volume commitment, but there would be a pricing mechanism for which we would have an understanding and that’s what we would implore with most of our customers and that is what has worked. So that is the case of ABs in the case of Polystyrene, you know, specifically in the case of hips, again we have done far more, you know, in terms of our OEM connections and in terms of formula based pricing.
So that number is now much higher than 50% than what it was earlier. In the case of GPPs, again there has been I guess a degrowth what we mentioned in volume because we are not participating aggressively in the segments which are not backed by contract or formulas. And that is where we have seen also a lot of imports coming in. So today I think it would be fair to say the company generally is following and working with customers on some kind of a formula basis for more than 70% of that business.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you so much and best of luck.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kronal Shah from Enam Investments. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. So I have two questions on the Thailand business. So if I see the cash flow, it seems that there is another 60 crore difference between the console and the standard on cash flow. So that would mean that a 60 crore kind of capex has been done in Thailand. So just wanted to get some clarity on that. And second question is on the volume decline in the Thailand business we saw that in the volume decline and you gave the reason that it was because pre buying happened in December quarter.
But In December quarter also the volumes were just like 15,000 tonnes and that too was flat versus September quarter. So not much volume uptake was there. So is that like a sustainable run rate is much lower than 15,000 or 14,000 tonnes? These two questions. Thank you.
Rahul Agarwal
Yeah. Hi. So typically, you know, I was comparing the Jan to March quarter compared to the Jan to March of previous year. In fact, you know, a lot of the countries in the Far east, they follow a Jan to December quarter. So they tend to, you know, take a lot of volume through towards December because we have rebates and we have volume commitments from customers. So December quarters are a little bit higher generally. Jan to March quarters are generally a little bit lower. But it was higher in the previous year because we were shifting from one brand to the other and customers had the fear that we would not be able to supply to them no odor brand.
And that’s why they did a lot of rebuying. Not for the December quarter. This is for the Jan to March previous quarter. Okay. Here Jan to March quarters typically are a little bit lower. So again we don’t have a lot of comparable breakups of all the years prior to that. Because that information, you know, has not been given to us by our, by the earlier management in a manner which we can really present to any shareholder. But the understanding we have based on how the seasonality of that business works in that part of the world which is a little bit different from how it works in India.
So in terms of run rate, like I mentioned, always, you know, when you look at our business, you should look at the annual business. So which anyways eliminates the Jan to March of you know, 25, you relook at the FY26, April to March number and on an annualized basis, whatever numbers you’re seeing, those I think are numbers which are now we are, we believe are defensible. And of course there is a significant room to grow from there.
Operator
Okay, Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhawal Shah from Girig Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hi Rahul sir. Hi. So just one question. So given the prices are so volatile right now and you mentioned your customers are doing 60, 70% contracts in terms of long term, that would be more from a volume perspective. So the pricing changes every week or how does it work right now also because your procurement price also keeps fluctuating and the situation is very fluid. So how, how does it happen?
Rahul Agarwal
So yeah, it’s a good question because a lot of our raw materials are now coming basically on the spot market as well. And for those raw materials we are, we have been able to convince our customers to consider the pricing that we are getting with them. So there is typically a formula which is built in with our customers customers which takes into account certain publication prices and currently the prices that we are getting on the spot has maybe a little bit of gap in the formula prices and customers have well understood and accepted that.
And that has been again built into the formula and typically within a small margin of error, we are able to match what needs to be done with the customers with regards to what we are buying it and what we are selling to them. So, so we still keep kind of mostly a monthly price for most of our long term value customers and we don’t see any real massive challenge in being able to procure at that price and sell to that price. There is no real gap in terms of how things were earlier, before the war and even now.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. And you also mentioned that you were a bit opportunistic in the fourth quarter. So does it mean we sold more on the spot market or you were more opportunistic on the kind of on the product mix side?
Rahul Agarwal
So I think it’s mostly on the product mix that we were able to sell certain products at a higher price which gave us more margin and obviously there was a tightness suddenly which was created and we were able to take that advantage and shift more of our production in that area because that availability wasn’t there. And secondly also in the spot market, you know, the realizations were obviously much higher because there was no availability of materials.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, and how are the freight rates now? Are they, are they still higher or are they kind of moderating anything? Because now little bit the containers have started moving out of the straits and because your freight rates will also determine the pricing. Right. Landed prices of the chemicals in our country. So any comments, any thought on that?
Rahul Agarwal
The phrase went up quite sharply. Incoming phase for the containerized cargo. I think it’s not moved significantly, you know, maybe corrected a little bit on bulk. There has been some softening because again I think there has been some demand destruction on, you know, kind of the bulk petrochemical materials. And hence you have seen softening over there. But again, a lot of fluctuation day to day basis. Very difficult to keep track of what’s happening.
Unidentified Participant
Got it, got it. And sir, on the, on the polystyrene front, you know, a couple of months ago when we were interacting so the imports were suggesting that there are a lot of PS imports happening and you also mentioned unorganized demand is also very active. And now in the fourth quarter you saw less of GPPs. So this trend is emerging out of what is it? Some higher capacities in the exporting countries or another market exposure, funding or you taking a step back and focusing more on higher, higher margin, better margin products where you know your competitive strength is better.
How should we, how should we look at it? And that’s why you are not also, you know, talking anything on the expansion of the PX side. Please help us understand this point. So how should we. Because we like you know, when we announced the expansion, you know, we had given a roadmap for ABs and PS. How the capacities are going to be over the Next, I think FY29 or something when we are fully up with the entire expansion. So how should we understand your PS strategy?
Rahul Agarwal
So for ps, I think we always backended the expansion possibilities because we were still trying to, you know, ensure that the business case aligned with the company’s vision. Right. We have some very important and valuable relationships in the peer sector and we are definitely looking to enhance those relationships and service them even more going forward. But we also need to understand where there is less value in that sector and wherever there is less value, we may choose to not participate or participate considerably lesser going forward.
So it’s kind of a balanced strategy approach that we have taken over the years. We have moved away from the unorganized sector and more into the formula based OEM business in P’s and that effort is still in that direction. So we have been consistent with what we have been wanting to do in PS and that has not changed going forward. I think in that context, context, as the business grows and develops and our customers requirements become clearer as our share of OEM business grows will define the business case for expansion in that sector.
Right? So that is developing or evolving strategy for us and as it becomes clearer we will take that decision. But the expansion for PS has always been a back ended strategy as opposed to front ended unlike above, you know, where you know we have had far more value added customers or relationships since much longer compared to the competitors out there.
Operator
Sorry to interrupt Mr. Shah, please rejoin the queue for more questions. The next question is from the line of Rahul Agarwal from Ikiga Asset Manager. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Good evening. Raul G and Ritesh Ji. Quick three questions. Firstly on the demand side when I look at your customer, we talk to them on automotive, appliances and packaging, three sectors. We hear that even they are facing decent amount of issue in terms of passing through their own input pricing. Right, which is what we are passing it to them and Starranics is passing because your own input price material gone up globally. The point being that incrementally, when I look at fiscal 27 and we really don’t know what’s happening in second half on demand, but just at the current spot trend from automotive appliances and packaging, we just talk qualitatively more about how do you see this OE demand happening at current spot price.
Whatever you’re quoting to them, are they okay in terms of how they are feeling with their own, you know, supplies taking from you? That’s one question. Second is on the spreads and margins. I think enough questions have been asked trying to figure out that if we look at full year fiscal 26, you know, and if we just compare that to fiscal 27, is the spread at current spot price better or worse off just in terms of direction. If we just qualify that. And third is because you’re facing global imports are also facing issues on ABS from Korea, which is I think quite a decent quality ABS which comes from there.
Does it make sense for us to prepone our capex on ABS and maybe capitalize and gain more market share? These were three questions. Thank you so much.
Rahul Agarwal
Yeah, thanks. So with regards to the demand from our customers in auto appliances, packaging, qualitatively speaking, you know, we obviously have not seen any significant uptick in demand, but we haven’t seen a significant downtick either. You know, it’s a little bit muted, I would say, you know, at the prices that we are offering. But most of our large, you know, OE customers, you know, have been buying consumers consistently. We have to see how the next few months pan out because, you know, for them, how fast they’re able to clear their inventories, how fast they’re able to pass on prices is something that, you know, we still have to hear back from them.
So far, you know, they have been, they have been running their business as usual, more or less. But we do believe that there could be some, some slowdown. You know, that is something that we have to account for. But currently that is the case. In fact, it’s more in the, I would say unorganized market or smaller market where a lot of customers become much more cautious in terms of their willingness to buy product because of the uncertainty associated with pricing in which direction it will go. So that is what we are seeing qualitatively, again, without speaking to exact numbers with regards to special margins between last year and this year in the Spot.
You know, I think again, if I look at most of our customers, you know, the margins on the, again on the contract of formula side might be similar, slightly better, might be similar. Only I think largely, I think there is obviously on the spot side they are better because again, for specific grade of products we are able to supply where we are not seeing quality supplies from conventional competitors from Korea, like I mentioned, Korea and certain countries have had structurally worse problems than say India or Thailand or even China for that matter have had.
And we are better positioned to supply those specific grades and in those grades we are able to get better margins. And keeping in mind, again with your third question on Korea or other areas, we do believe that structurally there may be changes in Korea. We are not sure. But again, that does not take away from the fact that we still remain committed to our customers in India and their requirements and their preference for our product, which is always in the case and we have not been able to deliver.
So that will remain. And I think keeping our investments on track and our volumes coming on, additional volumes coming on track will be the right strategy. Because whatever may happen in the very short term, the medium to long term, I do believe that the demand robustness is intact in India.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. So just to follow up on the 30% of the volume business which we have, which is essentially the non OE side of it across any segment, was taking an average over here. What is the. So you’re saying, is there a pain in that kind in that segment? That’s one clarification. Second is on this preponement of CapEx, you’re saying it’s still on track. We don’t really do that right now based on whatever is happening. Is that correct?
Rahul Agarwal
Yeah. So we are not preponding anything. We are doing as planned. You know, the capex is happening exactly as we spoke. When you talk about the non OE segment, whether it’s 30 or 40%, whatever it is, we don’t give exact number, 60 to 70%, let’s assume is OE and rest of it isn’t. But wherever the unorganized market is, typically they would buy more based on what they believe to be the case going forward in the next immediate future. And that’s the buying has been in that segment historically as well.
Since there is greater uncertainty over there. You know, there is obviously muted demand over there. But to the extent there is demand and to the extent that we are better placed to supply certain grades of products which are not coming easily from other suppliers is where we can get better Margin. That’s how it’s working out.
Unidentified Participant
Perfect. Thank you so much. Wish you all the best for fiscal point. Thank
Rahul Agarwal
You.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tanish from Boring amc. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi. Yeah, so I had two questions. The first question is to understand the structural difference between HPPF and your general purpose polysid. Like what is the difference between the two and why do we get a better margin for the hpps? And the second question is regarding the Thailand acquisition. So we had done the acquisition to get a better margin ABS product in India. So are we seeing that integration play out in India and do we see any future capex for a better ABS grade in India?
Rahul Agarwal
Yeah. Thanks. So Dhanish, if you look at GBPs and hips, the way the market is a lot of the for hips, a larger market is actually driven by air conditioning, refrigerators and some packaging industries. And lot of this is kind of organized and is growing well in India. There are also a lot of specialized grade requirements by these customers which are not easy to switch from one supplier to the other. And hence there is a greater value that customers see in buying a specific product from a specific supplier.
And hence you have a slightly better margin in that product. In the case of GPPs, a smaller percentage is in the organized segment. The larger is in the unorganized where the opportunities to switch is more and you can switch based on cost more easily. So the margins are a little bit lower. As far as Thailand is concerned. I would not say that we strategically the decision to go into Thailand is to bring more product into India. But Thailand, you know, has helped us for additional capacities for the rest of the world for certain technologies like I mentioned.
And to that question regarding technology, yes, we are planning to, you know, incorporate some of those technologies when we do add new capacities in India and that will help us target some of the additional product segments as well in India which we have historically not done. So so there are some advantages of that, you know, higher kind of margin. ABS also being produced in India by us with that technology. Once those that additional capacity comes online in India.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you. Thank you. That’s it from my side.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rishi Zaveri from CBA Asset Managers llp. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted to ask on the other income levels. So we had an 11.8 crore other income in this quarter. Can you throw some light here?
Rahul Agarwal
I request you to answer that other income. 11.8 crores.
Bhupesh Phorwal
So this is for the Standalone?
Unidentified Participant
No, consolidated.
Bhupesh Phorwal
Sorry,
Unidentified Participant
Consolidated.
Bhupesh Phorwal
Okay, consolidated. So it has income from both India as well as our Thailand operations. So maybe some forex gains in Thailand which comes into this. Then we have some services also in Thailand which we can give from our facilities. And maybe other than that, scrap sales and all other things overall come into other income.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, and assuming the normalized spread, when can Thailand operations be at the breakeven point?
Rahul Agarwal
I think I mentioned this in the past. So we do believe that Once we have 70, 60, 70% capacity utilization, its island operation will start generating some return. So you know, we are still below that and we are working in that direction.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And is there any cost escalation for the upcoming CAPEX of the abs?
Rahul Agarwal
Not currently, no.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. In the interest of time. That was the last question for the day. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Chintan Doshi for closing comments.
Chintan Doshi
Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining us today on our main call. We appreciate your interest and time in the company. We look forward to answering you in the next meeting which will be announced at suitable time in future, future. Thank you.
Rahul Agarwal
Thank you. Thank
Operator
You. On behalf of stex Performance Materials Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.