Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q1FY27 Earnings Conference Call of Tata Chemicals Limited. Please note that this conference is being recorded. 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 and then zero on your touchtone phone. We have with us today R. Mukundan, Managing Director and CEO, and Nandakumar Tirumalai, Chief Financial Officer of Tata Chemicals Limited. Before we begin, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's discussion may be forward -looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. I now invite R. Mukundan to begin the proceedings of the call. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Sagar. Good evening and welcome everyone to our Q1 earnings call. I will start the discussion with a brief overview of the industry then move on to our operational highlights across businesses and geographies. Before I begin, I just wanted to say that this quarter we made a significant accounting change which Nandu will explain at the end of my overall presentation in terms of the segment change to align that with the way we are running the business. Instead of two segments, which is basic chemistry and specialty products, we have now renamed them as Living, Industry, and Farm Essentials . The Farm Essential business is particularly comprising of Rallis and also Morocco, which is reported as a JV income. In terms of Living essentials, it is mainly comprising of products which are salt, bicarbonate, prebiotics, and everything which goes into feed, food, and pharma. The Industrial essentials comprises of products around soda ash, silica, and industrial chemicals which includes things like bromine, chlorine, and caustic. Let me start now highlighting the demand scenario across geographies for each of these three segments. In Living essential, mainly the food, feed, pharma, the core products which are salt, bicarbonate, and FOS, they continue to have a stable demand continuing to grow with supported by premiumization in this segment. Also, prebiotics is expected to grow faster due to rising health and wellness consumption. Industrial essentials, which is mainly soda ash, the near -term outlook, unlike the previous one, is challenging due to global oversupply, especially coming out of China, and also eleva ted raw material and freight costs which are caused by the geopolitical tensions in Middle East. Despite these cost pressures, the market was adequately supplied, in addition to which there were no major market demand disruptions except in Arabian Gulf. So, while global soda ash growth, while it is subdued, it has not gone down despite all the other m acroeconomic challenges. The long -term fundamentals remain positive, mainly on view of the focus on renewable as well as electrification, and India continues to demonstrate stronger demand momentum. China and US remain flat, mostly flat. Demand in LATAM has strengthened, especially supported by rising lithium carbonate production. Exports to Argentina and Chile have increased by 53% and 32% respectively, and Southeast Asian market mainly demand declined marginally;

however, this is also a place where there is a maximum pricing pressure coming out of Chinese exports. In terms of Farm essential, Indian farm sector outlook remains moderately positive, supported by improved irrigation technology supplies. There is, of course, focus by the team on monsoon variability, potential El Niño conditions, and higher input costs, but we do remain positive in terms of the outcome during the year despite certain pressures coming on the overall system, especially driven by higher commodity prices which farmers will have, which will ensure that they will save all the crop and hence use crop protection products to get those products to market. In terms of supply scenario, the bicarbonate saw additional supply coming in from competition, but overall the supply scenario remains balanced. In terms of soda ash, the market are more than adequately supplied. The Chinese inventories reached an all -time high of 1.73 million mt, and Chinese producers continue to operate at high utilization rate. The export volumes from China remain elevated and with no significant supply curtailments which are announced, the market rebalancing will be mainly driven off supply rationalization which we are closely watching. In terms of pricing environment, as I said , this demand-supply environment, especially in soda ash in the industrial segment, continues to compress the margin. Chinese soda ash export prices are in the range of USD 160 to 180 FOB, translating to USD 170 to 190 CIF in Southeast Asia, which is where the most, which remains the most challenging markets for us. So, in our view, global pricing is expected to remain subdued given elevated inventory levels. However, the several domestic markets will continue to have steady pricing and move in steadily on the back of steady demand. Now I will move to operational highlights. Despite the challenging environment in one segment of our business, which is the Industrial essentials, the company delivered resilient performance due to higher sales and production volume across segments, more especially in the Living essential and in Farm segment, and strong operating efficiencies a nd disciplined cost management. The revenue from operation on consolidated basis was up 14%. EBITDA was down by about INR 100 crores compared to previous year despite sharply lower realization, and net debt was INR 5,692 crores lower than previous quarter on account of monetization of assets. Standalone was a very strong performance. The revenue was up 10%, EBITDA was up 35%, and profit after tax from continuing operations was up 12% compared to Q1 of last year. In terms of unit-wise performance, as I mentioned, the standalone has done well both on higher volumes and stronger realizations with higher fixed cost control. We also capitalized some of the projects which has led to higher depreciation, and the domestic demand has remained steady right across all products. However, the input costs have increased due to Middle East conflict. US has a higher revenue compared to previous year due to higher volumes, partially offset by slightly lower pricing during the quarter. EBITDA was impacted due to lower realization and higher fixed cost, which was mainly not with fixed costs were fixed in US dollar ; however, because of the exchange rate impact in rupee terms, they were higher. Demand remained stable,

markets were well supplied, especially in most of the export market, especially in the Southeast Asian market. UK had higher revenue than the previous year due to higher volumes. There was lower pricing in some of the product market segments. EBITDA was impacted due to higher variable costs on account of Middle East crisis which was mainly due to higher gas prices they had to buy. Kenya higher volumes were partially offset by lower prices, especially in the Southeast Asian market. Fixed costs were under control. Singapore ’s integration plan is going well, and Rallis saw an overall revenue growth due to higher volumes and higher pricing EBITDA growth primarily driven by better volume in crop protection and optimization of fixed cost. With this, I hand back to you for Q&A session.

Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question -and-answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Saurabh Jain with HSBC. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity. My first question is relating to the reclassification. Can you please give out more details? What are the objectives that you wish to meet by changing this classification, and are there any measured targets or outcomes that we can expect because of this reclassification which may reflect on the P&L?

Yes, the whole objective here is to make sure that we can continue to focus on reshaping the portfolio towards what we would call as non -cyclical products, and these also are the products which are sustainability-led. There is a lot of application focus in these products, and customer saliency and customer stickiness is very, very high and less volatility in pricing. So, we are fundamentally focused on making sure that our portfolio moves in that direction. Our capital allocation will be done on that basis. We are also building deeper customer engagement here because the sales, marketing, the operational teams are all geared around following similar processes. If you look at food, feed, and pharma, the regula tory environment under which that operates, especially the food regulatory environment, the pharma regulatory environment is very different from industrial segment, which is why we have carved that out. As you know, the farm sector anyway is run in a separate subsidiary. So this effectively brings focus into each business to build its own capability. Over a period of time, this will also show itself in terms of capital allocation. You are already seeing p art of it, but this would be more sharply seen going forward, especially with investments being focused on Living essential and farm essential.

I can add to Mr. Mukundan on that segment here. See, earlier we had one basic chemistry segment having everything in that in terms of soda ash, salt, bicarbonate. And based on investors' feedback over the last few years, the feedback was more in terms of having a different segment in terms of more non-cyclical. This segment would give investors, analysts a better view on the company on what is the revenue towards non -cyclical part of it. Because earlier was one big segment where you are unable to make out within that what is driving the growth. Now you can

look at the components of each of segment and see what is driving growth for Tata Chemicals . So, this is the attempt towards that and based on the investors' feedback given so far.

So, is there an added cost also involved here when you try to restructure your sales, marketing team or other processes, and possible can you quantify it? And also , can you quantify any realizable benefits because of this restructuring, any synergies if some of those calculations would have done on the back of the envelope?

In fact, Saurabh, this was the way we were running the company. So the operations, the segmentation reflect the way our company is structured, and the benefits are greater administrative control and also greater ownership of the outcomes, especially from the customer side. And in terms of financial and operational benefits, it is effectively we will have one view of bicarbonate, one view of higher grades of salt. It then becomes very easy to sort of look at a global view in terms of the overall specific products rather than geography view. This is just to drive one solution for every customer. Many of our customers are present in multiple geographies. If you take customers in the food area, customers in the pharma area, customers also in industrial area, they are present in multi - geography. So, they also want a single point of accountability, which is the way we have been structured. So now the financial reporting also is stru ctured on that basis. But we will still be relaying to all the analysts the specific geography-wise P&L so that you also get a view of what each geography is doing.

Sure. Okay.

And because of restructuring which has happened over a period of time, while the split is happening in India where there is a split of standalone revenue into Living and Industrial, US and Kenya fall s fully in Industrial and UK falls fully in Living. So, it already has happened because in UK we have shut down the industrial businesses 100% because they were unsustainable, and the reflection is also coming in the way that we are looking at the market. Singapore is folding into the Living essential more or less.

UK would be in the Living, right? We have a salt and bicarb business.

Yes, yes.

Okay. Understood. So when I look at your capex plan, it shows a skew towards your Living essential segment. Now going forward from a mid-to-long-term point of view also, once you're done with these capex, are you focusing more on the Living essentials trying to deploy more capital on that side and less capital on Industrial essentials or it's just like only for the next two to three years and then you might need incremental capex on Industrial side also?

Yes, so very clearly our objective is to move away from cyclical business. If you look at the cyclicality of the business, it's the highest in soda ash. Not that we want to sort of reduce our soda ash operational strength today. It will continue to remain , because when it comes back, it

is going to be one of the biggest profit drivers. But within industrial segment, our focus will be on focusing on silica, which is also slightly more non-cyclical than soda ash itself. So, we will be sort of focusing our capex more towards what you explained, that we drive growth in food, feed, and pharma and also specific segments within the industrial essentials and try to de-commoditize our portfolio as much as we can because that's a strategic direction we have been undertaking for the last few years.

Okay. Any timelines on your silica plant expansion 50 KT? Any timelines for all the projects because I see that timeline is missing in the presentation?

Yes, if you look at the salt plant in India 82.5 KTPA, that should get operational by this year - end. So, you should start it supplying to market by first quarter of next financial year. The 210 KTPA Salt plant in South India, has a 24-month execution time. Similar is the execution timeline for 50 KTPA silica plant. So, they will become operational sometime during 2028.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Sumant Kumar with Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.

Yes, my question is for India business. We have seen a significant improvement in operating level. So, apart from whatever the reason you talked about in the initial commentary, is it because of West Asia war, that the freight cost has increased, the overall realization is higher, salt business I think volume is higher? So, any other reason apart from that ? My understanding, correct?

Yes, the main driver of this India growth has been the volume increase, that's fundamentally right across all products. And also, there is a higher realization in soda ash because of the foreign exchange shift which has happened. We had taken a pricing adjustment because the products are linked to, especially soda ash is linked to import parity pricing.

And freight cost also played a role?

The freight and forwarding cost did increase during the quarter, but they were more or less passed on to the customer.

Okay. And so, when we talk about the pricing for India business, how is the revision for contract and how is the mix contract and spot market for us for soda ash?

India has taken a price increase of about INR 2,000 per ton ne, which is spot price, but the contracts are quarterly as you know, and they get reviewed with the customers quarterly.

Okay. US significant deterioration. How is the scenario in export because of tariff war, overall the export market is unviable and domestic is also subdued? So, any outlook for the US business, how the USD 48 per tonne is going to be reached at that level or it will take time?

In terms of US, one of the key approaches we have is that the biggest impact in the shift which has happened in terms of margin is on the export front, especially the export volumes which we

were sending to Southeast Asia. They are just at breakeven level or unremunerative, and that is likely to remain so at least through the year. And unless some capacity rationalization happens in China, it is unlikely to see uplift.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ankur Periwal with Axis Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi Sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Continuing with the geographic performance there, especially in US, last quarter we did rationalize some bit of volumes saying that Southeast Asia was not as profitable, so we had taken a strict call there. We are seeing good volume growth here, but your comment on Southeast Asia pricing being lower. So we are still supplying at lower margin or was it a tactical call, if you can put some throw some light there? And same question on Kenya . Good volume growth , but margins not there. So, your thoughts please.

Kenya fundamentally has been because of the pricing as well as their HFO prices have increased. If you really see, there's been not so much market price pressure. Kenya had very high impact of the war, and that's directly related to oil prices. So, when oil price goes from USD 70 to USD 100, that clearly reflects in their HFO pricing which leads to compression in margin. And we will try to pass that increase to customers as we can as much as contracts allow, but clearly that's a tough spot they are in. As the spot prices come down, Kenya would also adjust itself. Since they have hedged HFO which covers them up to October, we'll have to see what happens beyond October if the war drags on beyond that. In terms of US, while the input cost prices are more or less under their control, they have done well mainly on back of higher exports to mostly the LATAM and Northeast Asian market. There were some exports Southeast Asian market, but we have more or less vacated like most of the US players the Southeast Asian market to Chinese.

Sure. And given the Chinese inventory being higher, probably that pain may continue as you rightly mentioned. So, the domestic part of US is doing good?

Domestic part of US is stable, and while there is no volume increase growth as such, the pricing levels are more or less stable, maybe a USD 3 – USD 4 shift here and there. The main pricing , the cost pressure we are facing in US is on logistics and transportation, and we are engaged constantly with customers to pass it on to them, but that remains an open item in terms of customer by customer to ask them to change the logistics cost.

Yes, so UK had fundamentally two big events which were one -offs of adding up to about GBP 2.4 million. One was on the loss on sale of EU ETS. This is likely to come back by October quarter because we go through a cycle. And second, there has also been one -off issue related to some of the prior period adjustments. So, that has led to a fall, but overall our expectation is UK should be EBITDA positive as well as tending towards PBT breakeven.

Breakeven for the full year, that is? Just that clarification.

Yes, So, breakeven for full year, but also from next quarter onwards because these one -offs we don't expect it to repeat.

Okay. Great, sir. Thanks for the answers. I'll get back into the queue. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Abhijit Akella with Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Yes, good evening. Thank you so much. My question is on the India business. So, we have seen soda ash sales volumes down about 12% sequentially and bicarb sales volumes down about 19% sequentially. So, first of all, what were the reasons for that? And number two, despite this volume decline, we've seen really sharp margin expansion. EBITDA margins are 28%, more than 10 percentage points higher quarter -on-quarter sequentially. Is this some sort of maybe temporary benefit because of some low -cost coal inventories that we were sitting on during the quarter, and in your view is this margin sustainable next quarter or should we expect margins to revert back to say the 18 % - 20% kind of range in India EBITDA?

So, in terms of the inventory benefit which are there, there are two elements here. One is in terms of the overall plant itself, there's been a bit of an optimization done to deliver higher volumes of salt to the market, which has led to certain throttling of soda ash production at the production level, nothing to do with market demand. And in terms of bicarbonate, it's fundamentally some of the contracts getting realigned, especially some of the tendered contact contracts we had to forego during the quarter because of certain pricing issues which we hope to get back during the year. Certainly, in terms of inventory gains, we do believe that there'll be certain inventory gain which will happen in coal which would come back to impact the cost in the next quarter because as the past inventory of the coal goes out, the fresh inventory of coal is coming at pricing which is elevated, not because of the basic price, but more due to the higher freight cost. But we'll let this play out in the marketplace in terms of whether we can get better pricing from all the customers because the price increases also have not been transmitted to everyone, which been the only spot price increase which has happened. So, we'll let it play out, but certainly your

point of view that while volumes may remain steady, there could be a marginal pressure driven mainly by the cost side.

Yes, thank you. So, just to clarify, I mean what would a sustainable margin range be for the India business if it's possible to spell that out? And just the other one that I had was you made a comment about a reduction in debt because of monetization of asset s. If you could please just help us understand what assets were monetized exactly and what the value was? Thank you so much.

Nandu, you want to address the monetization?

Yes, so we have sold some land in Q1 and we sold some of the shares we were holding, and that contributed to the debt coming down in Q1.

Yes, in terms of sustainable margin it would be around 18% which you referred to. ~32% to 33% GC margin.

Got it. Okay. Thank you so much. I'll come back in the queue for anymore.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Rohit Nagraj with 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, the question is on the annual report research and development. So, couple of things that we have stated here is on the LFP battery recycling process and we've also developed indigenous sodium -ion battery technology. So, can you just throw some little more color on the same, how things are likely to shape up, where are we in terms of the commercialization process, and any timelines around that? Thank you.

So, on the battery side, we have certainly made the first battery pack and it's undergoing testing, and at the same time we are reviewing the entire business strategy for the sodium -ion battery, especially for the storage application. It will not be approp riate solution for mobility. It will remain as energy storage mainly for renewable power as well as data centers.That's the main focus of that. But we'll come back to you with the specific specifics of the plan. Right now, we are going through the phase of proving the product and also piloting it. That itself should take better part of this year. After that, once we get through that, we'll come back with specific plans to enter the market and launch in the market. Certainly, we can see that several strides have been made by the competition in China in the sodium battery. We remain very positive about it, especially since it uses soda ash as one of the cathode active material, which is what we make as a product. So, it has been patented and we will be looking to commercialize after basically taking it through a pilot phase as soon as our testing protocols are over. In terms of the recycling business, we are working internally to set up this entire unit and no major capex is needed. We are trying to set this up in Mithapur. Initial lot is very small because the volume of vehicles which are more than seven or eight years old is very small at this point

of time, but this will be a business which will be built on OEM tie-ups, especially with the auto manufacturers.

Thanks. Just one clarification on the sodium-ion battery. In terms of soda ash requirement, any ballpark numbers in terms of 1 gigawatt or 1 megawatt battery, how much soda ash is required?

We'll come back to you with the specific number. What we do indicate to market is for the lithium battery for lithium carbonate production, you need two parts of soda ash for every part of lithium carbonate. But on sodium, we'll come back with specifics as soon as the piloting phase is over.

Perfect, sir. Thanks a lot, and all the best.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Abhinav Mandowara with Aequitas Investments. Please go ahead.

My first question was regarding the pricing impact which has happened quarter -on-quarter. As we have seen lot of rationalization in EU and even India. So, how has the quarter -on-quarter priceing of soda ash have changed? And do we still see do we see China dumping since China have additional capacity of 10 million tons? So, any idea around that?

So, this threat from China is for all markets in the world. It is not just Indian market or US market or Southeast Asian market. So, we will work actively with especially since there is manufacturing facilities in India, we will work with regulatory author ities in making sure that domestic industry is kept healthy as far as we are concerned. In terms of the pricing, as I mentioned, the big impact in pricing has been due to foreign exchange rate movement and broadly Indian market has seen about INR 2,000 price increase. Some contracts have got it, some contracts still on the old prices, but we'll see as it rolls out. We don't see pricing in China dropping below anywhere around USD 160 to 170 at FOB level. It has been holding steady for quite some time, moving in tandem with what the Yuan - USD rate is. So, the fall in Yuan sale price of soda ash in China has been commensurate with the depreciation of dollar, which effectively meant the pricing has remained more or less flat. We don't see any big shift in this. It maybe safe to say that USD 170 was the bottom. It is close to USD 160 to 170. Most Chinese manufacturers are in effect are losing money on cash basis. So, this is the reality of the market there.

Okay. And on raw material front, how has the cost of raw material been and how are you seeing it

Sorry to interrupt. Abhinav sir, there is a lot of background noise from your side.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Mithil Bhuva with UnlistedIndia.com . Please go ahead.

Yes, so I had one question. So, we have seen the prices of soda ash coming down because of the excess capacity in China. So, similar trend is expected in bicarb also?

See, every market will have a very different reaction to this. If you look at our units in UK and in Singapore, we sell to premium markets which need customer approval and the plant to be cleared by the customer before the supply starts. Th ese are not technical products.So, we don't see a big shift impact on those two units. Certainly, within India, the competitive intensity has increased in the short term, not so much because of China, but because one competitor has brought in some capacity in which will get absorbed due to growth in the market. So, we do expect during the course of the year that capacity will get absorbed and intensity will drop. We haven't seen big shift in the bicarb as such as of now, and China does have surplus in bicarb, but that can impact mainly the technical grade.

Okay. And what is the reduction in debt in amount?

INR 300 crores compared to March.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next follow -up question comes from the line of Abhinav Mandowara with Aequitas Investments. Please go ahead.

Yes, yes. My question was regarding the cost of raw material. How has that been played out and have we seen any increase in some raw materials which might impact margin going forward?

Clearly, it is depending on unit to unit. Let me just telegraph that properly. In US, there is no impact on the input raw material input cost side except for the logistics which is outsourced. So, there'll be impact and more we are working with customers to make sure that is passed on to the customers. In UK there will be an impact from time-to-time. We do believe that we will be hedging going forward, but fundamentally there's an open item we keep in U K because we do believe the gas prices will revert back to mean at some point. In Kenya, as I said, our contracts are clear up to October. Right now, if the prices remain high, they will certainly get impacted with the high price beyond October. India, of course, we are mostly on coal and the biggest impact in coal , is in terms of the logistics cost of getting it imported from Indonesia. We do see if the conflict continues beyond certain point of time, which is beyond October, November, we will have an impact coming in in terms of the limestone , because the limestone stocks and the domestic production can only cope with production there. And we'll have to bring in fresh consignments from Middle East which today at the today's rates are extremely high mainly because of the transportation they have to incur to get the product to Fujairah.

So, really the inputs for India, the biggest impact is to see whether the war does drag on beyond October. And right now , we are planning so that we will be able to find solutions on that. So, clearly watch out for Kenya HFO, India limestone beyond October, and energy cost increases in India mainly driven by logistics cost and the cost increase in US driven by again logistics cost.

Okay. Thanks for that.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Arjun Khanna with Kotak Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my question. Now the first question is a back to the sodium-ion. So in our annual report we have talked of using it for a drone flight test. Drones are likely to be the least amongst the transportation segment to adopt sodium-ion. So, just curious why would you use it for a drone flight test and if you could talk a little bit about the output our product is ge tting in kilowatt-hour density etc.? Thank you.

We will come back to you with the details going forward. This was just to prove the product in extreme application, but clearly in terms of customer specifications, this is more suitable for static application. We will not be selling it for mobility including drone going forward. This was just to proving flight. So, we've gone through several tests both on static, proving flight, mobility has been done in some other lab test also, but we do believe that the competitive positioning is absolutely right for static/stationary application.

Sure. Any metric that you could share in terms of energy density or number of cycles etc. that we have been able to produce our battery?

We will come with a very specific number on this because as I said , it's undergoing testing and we don't want to give a number which the testing doesn't prove. We will come back with number which our pilot units can do. But as of now, our view is that the product does meet the minimum requirement for stationary applications.

Sure. Secondly, just in terms of capex, if you could talk about how much do we envisage spending on FY27? Are we looking at further sales of investments? You mentioned we have liquidated INR 300 crore s of investments, partly stock, partly land. What's the plan for the remaining part of the year and what's our outlook on capex?

Yes, I'll come to that. See, our annualized capex will be around the depreciation number. We will try not to exceed it, in fact be below that. So, that's our plan through the year going forward including all the capex’s which we have lined up. Sorry, what is the second question?

In terms of liquidating investments.

See, we have some non-core land available in the country. So, we're looking at monetizing some part of that in the second half or after Q2 onwards. And we will also look at what we can do in terms of any other non -core we can look at monetizing. We can't c omment on that now in this call, but we can look at it as and when required.

So, we spent roughly INR 1,200 crores as consol was our consol depreciation for FY26. Should we take that as the capex and maintenance capex number for FY27?

Yes, you can take that number.

Perfect. Thank you and wishing you all the best. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next follow -up question comes from the line of Saurabh Jain with HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you for the opportunity again. Again, trying to understand more on the sodium -ion battery side. So, when you say indigenous developed technology, is it like a part of the whole battery that you have developed indigenously or it's like a complete ba ttery solution that you have developed indigenously and going forward which part of the battery would you, look to scale or if you want to go ahead with your plans for the in the battery space?

We have produced the full unit including BMS, full assembly including BMS to be tested by power companies and data center for their application. And in terms of which parts we do, we will certainly be doing the chemicals and cathode active material, but whether we get into th e full prismatic cell or the cylindrical cell, we will come back to you specifically as our plans unfold. But at this point of time, we are extremely focused on getting the pilot done with as many customers as possible.

Okay. Sure. Understand that you would not be able to share more details on this side, but can this also be scaled up for export purposes or is it going to be more focused on the domestic needs?

As we see it, demand in India itself is going to be very, very strong with the number of data centers coming and number of the focus on renewable power. But we are not ruling that out how we deal with exports. We've not put it in the strategy, but it remai ns something which we will be open to in case the plans develop even better than what we've anticipated.

Any insights into when can we expect more details to be shared on this side?

See, we expect the piloting to finish in about 6 to 9 months so that we at least get a clear understanding of what is the customer responsiveness. After that, we'll come back to you. So, end of the year, we should have some element of from lab to at least initial customer let's say offers and units. But the full-scale plant, as I said, will come two years after that.

Okay. Understood. Thank you so much and all the best.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Abhijit Akella with Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you so much. Just two -three quick data-related questions. One is the staff cost this quarter includes some 45 odd crore s reversal, is it? So, the staff cost for actually have been higher by 45 crores. Is that correct? That was point number one.

Number two would be possible to just share a breakdown of US volumes between domestic sales and exports? And the last one was on IMACID. Seems like the income from associates has gone into negative zone this quarter. Is that because of the higher sulfur prices and so any outlook for the IMACID business? Thanks a lot.

So, all good questions. So, firstly let me start with IMACID. IMACID did not produce during the quarter because of high sulfur prices. They have just begun operations during this quarter. So, we'll see how it progresses, but certainly that part of the business is under pressure in terms of margin, but they'll be profitable for the year. But the first quarter they took a call to not run the unit. The second piece in terms of the employee cost. Employee cost you're right about 43 crore s. I think it's the normal run rate should be 43 more than that. That's a one-off during the quarter.

US export domestic split.

Split we'll give next quarter if you don't mind, Abhijit.

Okay. Understood. So, just to clarify, this employee cost would have been closer to INR 590 crores, which is up from about INR 517 crores last year, INR 524 crores in 4Q. Is that largely a rupee depreciation impact that's flowing through or something else?

It's largely rupee depreciation, also quarter one usually is a high number. It is also the period when we also pay out all the, people's variable pays and all that. So, take the large impact is on from the overseas side.

Thank you so much. All the best.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference call over to Mr. R. Mukundan for closing comments.

Thank you all for joining today for the conference call. As discussed, the operating environment remains dynamic with ongoing uncertainties and disruptions. There is a price challenge as well as the cost challenge in one of our biggest businesses, almost 50% of the revenue in soda ash. Despite these headwinds, our business continues to demonstrate resilience performance supported by disciplined execution in terms of the volume of products sold and our customer engagement. We do have a diversified portfolio, and the revised segment results also will highlight which parts of the business are stable and continue to be non-cyclical. And this is backed with stronger customer relationships right across portfolio. On behalf of the entire management, I thank our customers and our partners for their continued trust and confidence and look forward to your ongoing support. Thank you all for joining this call and we look forward to speaking to you again in Q2 FY27.

Thank you. On behalf of Tata Chemicals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you everyone for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.