Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 FY25 earnings conference call of NMDC Limited, hosted by Dolat Capital Market Private Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Suman Kumar, the Vice President from Dolat Capital. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Yes, thank you, Alibeque. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today afternoon for NMDC Q3 FY25 results call. We have the senior management with us today, represented by Mr. Amitava Mukherjee, Director of Finance, and Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Additional Charge. So now I would like to hand over to Amitava, sir, for his opening comments. Over to you, sir. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining in. Now, I believe that this quarter results have been pretty good. Hopefully, it is beyond the expectations, what the streets expected, both in terms of physical performance and financial performance. I think it has been a very satisfactory work. And even on a nine-month basis, we are doing fairly well. So if you see our performance in terms of production, it has been even higher than the Q4 of last year, which indeed is something absolutely unprecedented, if I may say so. Financially, of course, the prices we've been able to hold. We've been able to, despite the downturn in the steel prices, we have been able to reasonably hold our prices for iron ore, which shows the results. CapEx, also, we are doing fine. We have locked in approximately INR 3,112 crores of CapEx this year, which is already we have exceeded last year, and we expect to have a CapEx of around INR 4,000 crores in this financial year, which will almost be twice as much as we did last year, so overall, we have had a good run so far this year, including the last quarter. Also, we had a major vendor conference, as we call it, the partner conference, where about 150 vendors participated. More than 250 people were there, where we unveiled our plan for CapEx of around INR 70,000 crores in the next five to six years to enable us to reach 100 million-ton target. So these are major happenings that have happened, and I think the response from the vendors was absolutely fantastic, where we gave them the understanding of the technology that we are looking for and the major CapEx programs along the timelines that were there. So thank you once again very much for joining, and now we can connect to individual people to ask the questions. Thank you, sir. We will now begin with 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, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Amit Dixit from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations for a good set of numbers, sir, in this quarter. I have a question. Thank you. Yeah. The first one is, if I look at the royalty as a percentage of realization, it's around 46% this quarter, much higher than the last two quarters. So just wanted to understand if we have started making provision for the possible higher royalty in Karnataka. If not, what event or milestone would cause us to do that? Is that the question? Yes. So can I answer now? Yes, sir, please. Sure. Number one, I'd like to clarify that we have made no provision for the expected, I hope it is not expected, for the bill that was passed in Karnataka. So this year, we understood that we have not made any provision at all. This question is going to be a contingency in the case of the contingent liability, where we have also mentioned that most of it will be recoverable. The higher royalty is on account of higher production that is there, which is almost one million about 86 lakh tons as compared to the Q3 of Q2, as you see. So it is about 86 lakh tons, and as you know, that royalty provision is made on production. So that is why if you match it to sale, it will give you a, it will not be as strict as about 20% that you are expecting. So because of about one million tons, sorry, 86 lakh tons, so that is where I think the production has compared to Q2 has gone up by 60%. So that is more of the factor for royalty. So if you match it with the sales, it will not necessarily be a straight division. Go ahead. Thank you, sir. Very clear. The second question is on NMDC Steel. So what was the sales volume this quarter at NMDC Steel, and how we are ramping up over there? Oh, this quarter, we did production of around 380,000 tons, which is, as in December, we did about 150,000, 46,000 tons. So it is almost near breakeven. Part of the problem is dispatches. We are still, instead of getting dispatching two to a half lakh, we are able to dispatch around 1.4 lakh, essentially, because of non-availability of rakes in the circuit. Of course, the Indian Railways has now just allowed us to backload coal rakes and light rakes that come in. So that will bring some relief. But overall, this is the major problem of that, but we are trying to solve it by getting in some LSFTO rakes there. So our sales revenue, of course, has gone up to about 2,120. But unless we have this sales quantity—sales quantity—we actually sold around, I think, in terms of permits. Just a second. So unless we sell around 165,000 tons, it will be slightly difficult for us to break even. So we are now at around 130-something. I'll just give you the figure. But reaching 165 is the first milestone that we have to run. For that, we need at least 2 and a half rakes a day. And this quarter, we have sold around 367,000. So that, in terms of monthly basis, that is not adequate enough. So we have to do around at least 465,000-480,000 per quarter to have something in this closed facility of operating. Thank you. Okay, sir. So production-wise, there is absolutely no problem. You are just saying that sales-wise, we are not able to get rakes, and that there is the bottleneck lies. Yeah. I have around 2 lakh tons of ore per year, right? So that is successful. I'm sorry to interrupt, sir. It's not successful. I'm not able to dispatch, essentially, because rakes are not there. So you see, my production is going more in the sales. So that is the problem. I have to now at least 165,000 for that 4 lakh something. So last month, for example, I sold about 130,000, and I produced 146,000. So that is the problem. I produced 143 in the quarter, 369 in the quarter, and sold only 367,000 in the quarter. So that's the deficit of 2,000. And we are clearly a huge backlog. So rake availability and dispatch is the issue here. Okay, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mukherjee, I would request you to come a little closer to the microphone as your voice is a little muffled at times, and use the handset whenever possible. Okay. Okay. Okay. Great. All right. The next question comes from the line of Sanket Kapoor from Kapoor Corporation. Please go ahead. Namaskar, sir. And thank you for the opportunity. I also missed a lot part of your answers, so we will take it later from the transcript. Sir, if you could just firstly explain to us note number 8 of our results and its implication, and also for note number 12. The note number 12, it speaks about our investment in our subsidiary company, Legacy Iron Ore. So what is translating there, and what are we exactly eyeing? And for note number 8, it's regarding our investment in RINL to the tune of INR 1,500 crore for setting up of various facilities. So this is my first question. And second question was, sir. What does RINL mean? I want to be advanced to KVSL. What? Welcome, again. What exactly do you want to know? Are you asking about the receivables over 6, which is outstanding on RINL, or please kindly be specific what you are asking? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Sir, I am looking for the note says that the company has entered into a memorandum of understanding with RINL for setting up various facilities. What are we eyeing? And this is a INR 1,500 crore investment that we are going to make upfront and a security deposit of INR 90 crore. So if you could just elaborate the project. And also, there are dues to the tune of INR 3,000 crore something pending from them also. So will this be adjusted from that, or will we be needing to make fresh investment? That is note number 7. The INR 1,500 that has been paid is essentially for buying or leasing 1,167 acres of land, which was approved by the RINL board, also our board, Ministry of Steel, and finally, we had to get the approval of Ministry of Finance. Now, that land, we have taken position on that. We are now going to develop India's biggest blending yard there. We plan to terminate our slurry pipeline phase 2, which is from Nagarnar to Vizag. We'll terminate it in that land. We were not able to sanction that project because we did not know where this slurry pipeline will terminate. And obviously, when we are terminating our last slurry pipeline, we will also be setting up at least an 8 million-ton pellet plant there. Blending yard, pellet plant, and in future, if we do some what is called the critical minerals like lithium, etc., we would keep some land for processing of sale. We needed a lot of land, parts of the land. We have got it. This is just next to the Gangavaram Port. INR 1,500 crores have been paid to RINL, and we are in the process of registering that land. But as of now, we have already taken position and made the boundary wall. Now, we are making plans to make investments. The three investments, as I said, blending yard, pellet plant, and slurry pipeline. These are at least in reserves in the immediate term. Okay. On the dues front, sir, as of December 24, the dues from RINL is to the tune of INR 3,400 crore. Yes. What is the update on? Yeah. RINL recently has started paying for the supply around one week back. So as you know, what I understand, RINL has got a grant of around INR 11,000 crores from the Government of India. And we hope that it will facilitate liquidation of our outstanding sooner than later. As of now, the encouraging thing is that RINL is doing well and is doing better, and that can be seen in the recent steps that they have taken in paying our outstandings. Okay. And note number 12 is about our Legacy Iron Ore investment. So that we have done for some trading halt to be revoked. So if you could just explain this INR 84 crore investment that we have done for Legacy Iron Ore and the rest of the industry. Yeah. So note number 12, note number 12 speaks for our investment in Legacy Iron Ore to comply with ASX listing rules. So if you could just explain the thought process and. Yeah. Because there's money cash there, so there was a liquidity issue. Hence, when we were pending rights issue by us and by the other investors, we had taken a trading halt there because there were liquidity issues. Unless we had subscribed to the rights issues, it would not have been possible for Legacy to continue with their operations. Accordingly, we have taken because the rights issue would have taken about a month to list the stock. During that period, we had taken what we call as trading halt, voluntary trading halt we had taken. Once the rights issues were subscribed, I think we subscribed around AUD 22 million, and sorry, 22 million. The retail subscribers also had subscribed their part. Thereafter, once the subscription was completed, the trading halt was lifted. We requested for a lift of trading halt, which is now lifted, and now trading has commenced in a regular fashion. Okay, sir. I just think that the next question on offline. But the point was, sir, what are the benefits we are currently emphasizing from this investment? And secondly, sir, when you mentioned about our we are eyeing for a 100 million-ton five-year target of output, and we have spoken to our vendors and all, sir, have you made any presentation being uploaded to the stock exchanges also for our investors to know exactly where are we going to put the money and how are things going to shape up? Because 70,000 crore in five years is a large number. So the vendor need and the update of the same, where can investors find the details of the same? As of now, just the board sanctions each of the individual projects, so it will not be possible for us to give it to the investors and others. But that is the direction that the company is moving towards that we have mentioned in various interviews and various press releases and various things. Yes, in nuts and bolts, as and when the board approves and as and when the competent authority approves, then we go ahead. You will be intimated. Okay. But can you give an outline for what kind of effects we are emphasizing for the next financial year in taking into account this 70,000 crore number? Our run rate is 4,000 for this year. So the averages should go up significantly from the next year this year. 4,000 next year will be slightly more than that. Okay. And sir, what should be our volume for Q4 considering what we did for Q3? This was the same number we did for last year, Q4. So if you could just give some understanding on how the volume should shape up for the coming entering quarter, and also how have been the realization trends as of now? I think the Q4 should be doing much better than last year. I think we should be doing at least 16 lakhs or 16 to 17 lakhs. In last month, January, we have done around more than 5 lakhs plus. So that leaves us to do around 11 to 12 lakhs in the next two months, February, and March. Hopefully, we should be able to achieve that. Okay. Right. I'll join the queue for this follow-up, and thank you, sir. And lastly, sir, this pellet and iron ore product services line item wherein we are making losses, what steps, sir, are in the NMDC to mitigate this loss? I know the Panna Diamond Mine is a drag. And last suggestion was, sir, earlier also we have alluded to the request that the CapEx, what we have spent, the projects which are under implementation, the projects we are going to complete in one or two years' time, we needed the details of the same in our investor presentation. So kindly look into our request, sir. Earlier also requested during the conference call, so that we get an idea of how much we have been spent for the quarter, for the nine months or 12 months, and what are we eyeing going ahead in terms of the completion, also the timeline. That would give a better idea and will save a lot of time during the call, sir. Okay. And sir, I will request the moderator to limit people to two questions, please. Yes, sir. I'll join the queue. Thank you. Please ensure that. Sure, sir. I've made a note of that. Participants, please restrict yourself to two questions. If you have any further questions, kindly rejoin the queue. The next question comes from the line of Satyadeep Jain from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you, sir. Just to follow up to the previous question, you've outlined 70,000 crore CapEx for increasing to 100 million tons, whereas the current gross block on the book that you have for 50 million ton is much significantly lower. And previously, you had mentioned 50,000 crore CapEx to get to 100 million tons in one of the earlier calls. What has led to this increase from 50 to 70? And maybe can you outline why such high CapEx compared to the current gross block that you have? You see, this figure will keep on changing the first time we get all the projects funded. Most of these, a few of these, are at desirable stages. So this figure, there is nothing sacrosanct about this figure. This figure, 70, might become 80, it might become 65. This is what we are targeting as of now. When we make a deep dive to each project, then we decide whether this project is required or not. And the project cost that we are now doing is essentially bulk estimates. Obviously, when you make detailed EPC, etc., etc., the project costs themselves go on changing. Sometimes we change the method of execution. For example, we can do it on some what is called partnership mode with a private investor. And we now have a board policy for NMDC partnership participation policy. So it can change more of the execution from EPC to partnership basis. So we are trying to get a few dispatch facilities on the partnership mode. They invest, and we pay on a part-time basis. So these are right now a lot of fluidity, both in terms of concept, both in terms of cost, and finally, in terms of execution methodology. So as of now, it was the first block was 50. When we made a little more deep dive, it was now 70. Maybe when we do it, it could become 65 or it could become 80. So but we have made a long list of items that possibly needs to be done. We have gone through that quite a few times with a fine-tooth comb. We feel that that list is exhaustive, but we might add or delete a couple from them as we go ahead. Sir, on that question of why this is much higher than the current gross block, I can understand there will be changes. But what is causing this such high CapEx for new CapEx? Assuming, and I'm not sure if this assumes that you'll give out some MDO. It seems like you're saying some can be contracted. So this 70,000 already assumes some MDO. And why is this CapEx so high? And tied to this would be last question, all of these questions together, that when you look at CapEx, you mentioned next year, but you're looking at 2030 as the guidepost for 100 million ton, which means possibly from FY27, there's a significant step up in CapEx. So what kind of annualized run rate CapEx do we look at? Does it mean you may have to look at your dividend if the CapEx is going to be so high in 27, 28? All of these questions tied to the CapEx. These are my only questions. Yeah. We can think about crossing the bridge when we come to it about 27, 28. Obviously, but one thing that you must realize is that the production jump comes in when these CapEx are completed. Not the result. I'm putting a 12-million-ton, let us say, screening plant worth, let us say, at least INR 8,000 crore. So only when the screening plant is completed that I get a one-time, one-shot jump as well. It will not be staggered. So a lot of this goes up 50 to 100 will come up in a hop step and jump rather than being a smooth curve up. So this must be realized. It will be project-specific. A lot of investment of the 50-year company is related to dispatches, where we need to build up a lot of dispatch capacities, both in terms of loading and in terms of evacuation. So we have to focus at least 1.5x or at least 2x of our production capacity in terms of evacuation. That is very important. Evacuation methods have to be fungible. You must have multiple capacities for dispatch through slurry pipeline as well as through rail as well as through conveyors. So it has to be a multi-modal, if I may say so, dispatch capacities, which are fairly in excess of our production capacities because we have seen and we have learned the lesson that if one boat, for example, if there was a landslide in KK Line, and then our entire structure gets affected by one, one and a half months. So we have learned our lesson over the years, and we believe that we should have flexibility so that we should have enough capacity so that we have flexibility in dispatching. And a large amount of this CapEx is related to dispatch and loading capacity management. Thank you. I'll join the queue. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Prateek Singh from DAM Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Just a hypothetical question. So as you know, the Karnataka bill talks about 1.5x extra royalty or 3x extra royalty depending on when the leases were granted. I would assume that bulk of the leases were granted before 2015, just that there were renewals happening post 2015. So do we have a sense as to what percentage of our Karnataka production would fall under 1.5x or 3x, or is it all under 1.5x as of now? Do you want to get another question? Last part of the question, I want to hear. Yeah. So what kind of tax increase are we looking at if the Karnataka tax bill kind of is passed completely and the government accepts it? So they had asked for 1.5 times royalty more or 3x royalty more. Do we fall under the 1.5 slab, which means that it's status quo? Or do you think that some of our mines were before 2K15, so we fall under the 3x royalty slab right now? Let's say it is not a half-half time for going ahead into the future, but yes, retrospectively, at some period, we are also less than three times the royalty. But personally, I hope that because this bill is likely to have a repercussion beyond the borders of the state of Karnataka, I hope the central government takes note of this and our burden of the future and the past burden is relooked at. That is what we are hoping that it would be done. Sir, just to summarize, the only impact in the worst case would be the retrospective impact. On a run rate basis, there is no incremental royalty impact because we are already paying 1.5. Is that the current understanding? There is an incremental royalty of INR 100 per ton of the minerals we are ignoring, and this 1.5 times, I think, is over and above our 1.5 times that we are paying. So what we are paying is 22.5. It will become 45.5 plus 20. It will become 65.5. It will have a prospective effect as well. Understood. Understood. And sir, if you can shed some light on the current demand, supply demand scenario in the country, given that you have been able to keep prices elevated despite steel prices going down, how do you see it going ahead? Do you think that the supply situation will continue to remain tight and will be able to hold prices over the next six, seven months? Well, I'm not looking at the six, seven month horizon at all. I'm looking at the next one month, two month horizon right now. Every day, of course, the steel prices are not very encouraging. We have taken a small price cut about a month back. There are severe headwinds in terms of prices, but we are trying to see what best can be done because the profitability of the company. And we'll have to take a call after this about the next six months, of course. We can take a call only around April. But right now, we are having a very close look of what to do after 31st March. So I hope that even if we have to take a cut, it will not be very substantial. And I hope that we'll be able to stretch this pricing as long as we are able to. As of now, we are managing our dispatches, dispatch prices. So we are now, that's what we are looking at on a day-to-day basis. It will be difficult to speculate right now. Understood. Thanks for answering that question, sir. Thank you. Mr. Mukherjee, I would request you to come a little closer to the microphone and press on handset mode so that everyone could hear you a little clearer. Okay. The next question comes from the line of Sumangal Nevatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah. Good afternoon. Thanks for the chance. A couple of follow-up questions. One on the timeline as far as this uncertainty and the final decision on the Karnataka state government tax is concerned. Any sense do we have, I mean, as far as timeline is concerned? No, your guess is as good as mine. As we gather from the newspapers that the bill was returned back, it has, again, been resubmitted to the governor. All we are hoping is that this, because this bill is likely to have a domino effect beyond the state borders of Karnataka, I hope that in the interest of the entire mining community, the central government will possibly have a look at the entire situation that is now developing, so beyond that, I'm not privy to any more information on this. Understood. Understood. And do we have, in case this 150% is being imposed from a prospective basis, do we have any clause under our supply agreement where this is an automatic pass-through, or this is something which we will have to approach? It will be a pass-through. It will be a pass-through. It will be a pass-through. We are very sure about that. All of these are pass-throughs. Even the retrospective audit, we are able to pass-through, and of course, getting it recovered from the customer is a different administrative issue. And that is what we have written in our note also, if you see, the significant aspect. We have said that our interim steel case and auction notices, any strategic levies or taxes introduced in future are recoverable from customers and bidders. So we are very clear that this is a pass-through. But none of the things will affect the market. Individually, it might not affect us, but overall, if the market crashes about the steel producers, there are customers at disadvantages. So it will sooner or later show up in our dispatches. So that is our point of worry. Okay. Sir, because last time when in 2020-21, there was an additional 22.5% premium, we had to absorb it and only gradually, depending on the demand supply situation, we were able to occasionally pass on. So this time also, it will be same, right? I mean, it will depend on demand supply situation rather than any contractual pass-through of these. Last time, our pricing policy was that this was now all-inclusive, so it did not look as a separate line item, but that we can change at any given point of time, but this is a pass-through. Definitely, we can convert our pricing to a pass-through mechanism, so that's not a problem at all. The way we used to do it for earlier, we used to do it for royalty and DMF and NMET. We can do it for this also, so that's not a major problem that we have. All we need to do is change our pricing structure. We declare a base price and add on a line item, and it will be shown. Today, we have an all-inclusive pricing, so there are no separate line items, so you can't see that. You presume that it is all, so that's one of them. Got it. Got it. Sir, on our customer mix. Those were your two questions. If you could rejoin the queue. No, no. One One was a follow-up. So can I ask one last question? Excluding that, you are done with your two questions. Okay. All right. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Tushar Chaudhari from Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Sir, in the last few quarters, you had given us an update on a few of the projects at mines, basically Deposit 5, Deposit 10, where we could increase the EC capacity by 10% without public hearing. Any incremental info on that? We got Deposit 5. It has not come. We are expecting it by end of February. Hopefully, the approval for Deposit 5, 2 million tons extra would come by end of February. It should be at the end of this month or somewhere around middle of next month. Similarly, for I think Deposit 14 also, we are expecting that it will be coming. But those are final stages of approval of the various statutory approvals that are required, but they have not been received. We are pursuing this hard. Hopefully, that is why it's a factoring for next year. We are factoring in these approvals, and we hope to do around 53 million tons next year. In fourth quarter, you said around 15, 14, 15, 16 million ton. 16 should be easily done. We'll try it to 17, but 16 should be we have already done five plus in the month of January, as you know, we are declared. I think 5.15 or 5.25 were done in January month. So that leaves us around 11 to 12. That should be possible. It should not be impossible. Sir, the next question was on the commissioning of the pellet plant, which you were confident of finishing by end of FY25. So you're saying that from two, we are configuring this six million tons per annum. So any update on that at Nagarnar? I expect the 12th not to be commissioned by the end of this calendar year. But what we are executing now and completing is a 2 million tons pellet plant with a provision of upgrading it to 6 million tons. All the facilities are common, etc., etc. It's just plug and play. But the upgrade to 6 would also depend on back-to-back our upgrade, if any, of the Nagarnar facility of steel plant and also for the market. So that, as of now, it is not a sanctioned piece of CapEx. It is included in that INR 70,000 crores that we are talking about. It is included in that, but that, as of now, is not a board-approved investment to be made. It will be sanctioned, hopefully, in the next three to four months, then we'll decide on the size of improving it from 2 million tons to 6 million tons. But 2 million ton, I think, should be getting done by end of calendar year. Okay. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. Thanks for my— Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Rashi Chopra from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Thank you. Most of my questions answered. Just could you provide the cash balance as of December? What was the cash balance? Can you give me a second, please? Net cash position as of 31st January, it was around INR 7,696 crores on 31st of January. December, I'll have to recheck. I have the position only on 31st of January. December, I'll just recheck and give it to you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Ronil Dalal from Ficom Family Office. Please go ahead. Yeah. It's Ficom. Yeah. Hi, sir. So is there any impact of the iron consumption due to the recent budget announcement on reduction in steel import duties, the 15% from 22.5%? That's my first question. Can you ask the question again? I could not understand that, please. Is there any impact on? Yeah. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yeah. I can. Yeah. Yeah. So is there any impact on iron consumption due to the recent budget announcement on reduction in steel import duty to 15% from 22.5%? What has been reduced from 22.5% to 15%? I believe it was announced in the budget, right? Unless I'm mistaken. What was announced from 22.5% to 15%? I could not get that. The steel import duty? The steel import duty, no. The steel import duty, I The steel import duty, I think it's a different thing. That was the maximum rate of steel import duty, not the effective rate of steel import duty. So the steel import duty, I think, currently is around 5% or 7.5%. That's fair. So as such, that has not affected any steel import and consequently our production as such, the domestic production and prices of steel as such. I think that's a completely misnomer. That is the maximum permissible, and we are actually much lower than that. So that having an impact on increased domestic steel production, which consequently has an impact on, I don't know, I don't think it is correct if there is any correlation as of now. None whatsoever. Sure. My second question is that one large private player has announced possible investments of 1 lakh crores for 25 million ton steel plant in Gadchiroli and also some iron mining investments. And there is another player also which is expanding its capacity in iron mining in Maharashtra as well. These are large kind of capacity increases and investments. Would this have any bearing on the demand-supply dynamics, pricing, or even your CapEx plan over the next two, three years? Have you reviewed this development and any impact on the sales? I would not like to comment on the plans of any other company, so that's beyond my competence to do. But if something big is coming up in Gadchiroli, Gadchiroli is unfortunately a place that is beyond our service area. There are no evacuation facilities as of now, so I'm sure even if a mega steel plant comes out there, our possibility of making supplies there appears to be rather remote as of now. Future, I do not know. As of now, it looks unviable for us. Sorry, sir. Sorry to interrupt you, sir. The line is not clear, sir. Is it clear now? It's still less clear. Not very clear. Moderator, can you hear me? Yes. Now it's much better, sir. I was absolutely speaking with the handset and everything. I don't think I can be more clear than that. What I'm saying is that in Gadchiroli, if a mega steel plant comes in, I don't think NMDC is going to be affected by that because NMDC is not likely to be a source of supply for such a steel plant. Rest, of course, of the other things that are coming in from Andhra, the more the steel plants come in, the better it is for us as a merchant, I don't know, miner. Bigger customers, more customers are always more welcome. Sure. Thank you so much. Thank you. All the best. The next question comes from the line of Shweta Dixit from Systematix. Please go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you so much. Most of my questions were answered. Just could you give some outlook on where are we looking at our volume numbers for FY27? We are expecting EC limit enhancements to take our volumes to 53 million ton this year, but that was something that was expected in FY25 itself, but we did not achieve that number. So what's the outlook for FY27 from here? FY27, we should be doing, if SP3 comes in around 60. Next year, it should be around 53, and FY27 should be around 60 because one major project, which is SP3, is going to come online, that is going to substantially increase our capacity for processing our own, and by that time, of course, the EC has to be also enhanced in terms of mining requirements, so we are looking at that. All right. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Siddharth Gadekar from Equirus. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. The first question on the coal blocks that we were looking to start maybe this year, any updates on that? Yeah. I hope that by next year we should be able to start that. I think Tokisud should start somewhere around April next. No, not this April. Sorry. I think it's December next that Rohne should be following. Section 7 modification on the CB has been already done, and the next is Section 8 and 9. I think we are in line of going with the statutory requirements of Section 9 and then 11 would take us to the end of this year at least. Those are the statutory timelines that we have to give for each notice. And I think we should be able to do small-scale mining and start the mine operational, I think, by somewhere around mid next year. The second one, the Kumaraswamy mine, have we received the EC clearance of 10 million tons? No. It's currently 8.86 or something like that, something very close to that. I don't remember the exact figure, but it is 8.86 or 8.92, something like that. I'll just give you the exact number. That is what because apart from the EC clearance for which we have for 9.5 or something like that, but there is also another cap in Karnataka, which is the MPAP cap, which is our maximum permissible annual production, which is there in the Bellary region where we operate. So when you cap that, it comes to around 8.87 or something on 92. The exact number I'll give you slightly later, but that is the problem. So this year we should be doing about 8.62, which is the permissible limit for this year. And next year we should be able to do about 8.92 or something like that. Just a second. I'll just give you the number. This year it is 8.62, Kumaraswamy. Next year it will be 8.91 or 92. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Sumangal Nevatia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead. Yes, sir. Thanks for the follow-up. I just wanted to know overall volume around 45-50 million tons, what is the breakup of a few large steel companies, say JSW, JSPL, Essar, and RINL? It is generally all taken together around 75%-80%. But the exact breakup of customer-wise for the first nine months, you'll have to give me some time to get back to that. Exactly the customer-wise total, I don't think. Approximate percentage is a range also is fine. Four taken together, the four big ones, I have the number. For the ninth one, AM/NS is 56 lakh ton, Vizag is 47 lakh ton, JSW is 84 lakh ton. So that is 18%, 15%, and 26%. And JSPL is 21 lakh ton, which is 7%. Understood. Understood. And sir, with respect to the NMDC steel plant, I mean, when do we expect the recovery of all the outstanding receivables, the investments, and also any monetization timeline for the 10% equity stake do we have there? The 10% equity stake will only come as and when it is proposed to be disinvested on which I don't have much of idea as of now. So that is something as of now on a hypothetical question. And the receivables and advances and investments, other assets that you have? No, no. Those will be liquidated once I think we go to break-even plus situation, and that will only come when we do 2.5 rakes a month, not earlier than that. Understood. All right. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Sanket Kapoor from Kapoor Company. Please go ahead. Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Yeah. Sir, when we look at our finance cost, that has gone up from 29 crore to 61 crore for this quarter. And year on year, the number is up from 32. So what explains this increase in finance cost? Are you talking about NMDC or RINL SSC Limited? I'm talking about NMDC Limited, consolidated accounts. Consolidated accounts, NMDC? Of course, one has the increase in rate, the increase in rate is quite substantial. And we have decided now that the finance cost has gone up, our surplus, we are not investing in NMDC as of now, liquidating our previous outstanding. So it is essentially because of working capital limit that we had substantial increase from that. So that increase has gone up by around INR 55 crores. Sir, again, the last point I completely stumbled. What was your point? That is essentially because the working capital requirements have gone up, and as you know, now that we are trying to get this down by instead of investing in NMDC, the surplus cash, we are now liquidating our working capital loan that has accrued, so we are taking care of that. Okay. Thank you for all the answers and all the wishes. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Atharva Gupta, an individual investor. Please go ahead. My question is, when you are NMDC Steel Limited, it was reported in the news that you have terminated the contract with MECON. So I just wanted to understand now the operations are being handled internally by NSL. And secondly, regarding the rakes, the problem of rakes, have you spoken to the ministry? What is being done to address that? And do we have any sight on when this will get rectified? Yeah. First of all, the first question is that, of course, MECON's contract ended on 17th of December. And thereafter, we have been on our own. We are doing pretty fine without them as well. So we are running the ship now. We have a new executive director who we have recruited and who has now already joined us. So we have an expert who is now heading the plant. So that is some good news. The second question about rakes is, obviously, we are talking to the Indian Railways, and they have been trying their best to help. But alternatively, we are also talking to the private rake supplier, so the LSFTO team that is there. There are five or six vendors in India where we are trying, and we are trying to get them to supply us rakes. So that is something that we are looking at. Hopefully, once we do the tenders, etc., we expect that these LSFTO rakes, at least one per day, will be available from the various suppliers. We are targeting to get this somewhere around mid-March, 1st of April. I think by that time, we should be able to have those private rake suppliers supplying us rakes. One 1.5 from Indian Railways is fine enough. The other one has to come from these private suppliers. Okay. So once that's done, perhaps then quarter one we target break-even. If this happens by March or April, quarter one of financial year 2026? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. There are only five or six suppliers on the island that we are calling us. We have just called a limited tender from them. So once we give the order, it takes them around a month to organize those rakes and supply it to us. So we should be able to give them the order by the end of this month. And then we'll pursue with them how fast, how soon they can possibly. That's perfect. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vikas Singh from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I see that our production has been pretty good, but our sales volume had been a little bit laggard. So just wanted to understand our evacuation or the logistics in place right now, and how do we see this improving over the next six or 12 months down the line, especially from the Chhattisgarh region? Yeah. That has been a problem. We have actually now opened two new more sidings, but these are newer sidings. But one of our old sidings is giving us a major mechanical problem. So we are where we have been singularly responsible for our numbers being lower than expected. Yes, it is higher than possibly it will be much higher than last year. But we could have done better, except one mechanical siding in Kirandul is giving us some problems. We are looking at that thing. We are trying to get that in order. But with two new, that's line number four in Bacheli and line number 13 in Kirandul, both of which are basically on manual dumper load system, we expect that we should be able to move 52, 53 because even if we take four rakes, that is an incremental loading of at least six to seven million tons from these two sidings. So we hope to actually achieve better going forward. FY26, basically, we could be at 52-53 million ton range. Yeah. It should be. It should be. Understood, sir. And sir, any update on the doubling of railway line? I think except for two sections, one between Bacheli and Bhansi and one between Bhansi and Kamalur, the entire line is ready. Even from Kirandul to Bacheli, it should be ready this year, March. So that will leave two sections about 20 km left out of the 151 km. That is likely to take another six months. So nonetheless, as we know in railways, it is possible to take benefits even for track doubling. So currently, our capacity has grown up. But these two sections, I think they are one is 10 km, one is 11 km or something. So this 21-22 km, I think, need to go somewhere around the end of next year. We are following up with railways very, as you know, railways is executing the job. We are following it up with railways very intensely. So that is a question that we need to address. Understood. That's all from my side. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Ruchita Maheshwari from Ace Lansdowne. Please go ahead. Hello. Yes, please. Yeah. Just want to understand what's your sense on iron ore price movement, which is currently hovering around $100-$102 per ton. So for next six months, what's your sense? Whether this price will move up or it will stabilize or there will be some decline? If some guidance is provided, that would be great. I hope to see it increasing two months. I'm not very optimistic on the medium-term prices on iron ore. At the current, I think, at the current scenario of the global production of steel, I think that even at 102, it is a fair, it's a robust price. I think given the situation of steel production worldwide, 102 is a fair price. If it holds for some time, I think people should be happy rather than complain. I don't think that in the near or even in the medium term, much I don't think it's going to move up at all. Okay. And today, there was a news that the U.S. imposed some 25% kind of a tariff on metal. What's your understanding on this and how it's going to impact the steel prices, iron ore, going forward? And do you feel that Trump might revert this stance or it will maintain this? I'm not going to comment on President Trump's what he's likely to do or not, whether he's going to revert that or not. I don't think I'm the right person to be answering that question. Yes, there is an import duty of around 25%. But I have not had a good look at the countries exporting to the U.S. I'm sure that from India, there is hardly any steel export to the U.S. Even it is more sporadic, but I don't think there's a very regular steel export from India to the U.S. So far as the Indian market is concerned, I don't think that's going to impact immediately. I have limited knowledge because I've not read the exact breakup of countries from where the U.S. is currently importing its steel. So that's the thing that I cannot answer that much. Do you feel that that will increase the imports in India? Because if the other countries are not able to export to the US because of the tariff, then the imports which will. India is not very clear that it is from where it is coming. So we know how much is coming from FTA countries, how much that includes Japan and Korea and others, and how much is coming from the trade. So unless I have a clear clarity from where the US was importing, I don't think we will be able to have a view on that as of now. So within an hour, we can take one last question and finish off. That's the last question for today. So I would now like to hand the conference over to you, Mr. Amitava Mukherjee, for the closing comments. Yeah. Thank you all for being there and asking the questions. I believe that NMDC is poised for good Q4 this year, good FY26, and beyond. The company is poised for a quantum leap, and I hope that the investors will be happy with our performance not only in the coming quarter, coming year, but also in the short term. We are planning very aggressive growth plans, and we are also doing pretty well as we have seen in the recent past. You must realize that this last year, we are in the month of May, we had a 30-day strike. So what we are doing, what we have done last year in 12 months, we are doing in 11, and had that strike not happened, we would have easily crossed 50 million tons of steel itself. But nonetheless, what has happened has happened. And we are comfortable to I think we should be able to be comfortably locked down 53, 54 next year, given the inputs that we are making in terms of operation, in terms of the machineries that which orders have been placed and are due for delivery and which are in pipeline. I think the future of NMDC is bright, and we are hopeful that we'll take the company to the new heights in the future. Thank you so much. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Dolat Capital Market Private Limited, that concludes this conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.