The company's continued focus on specialty chemicals is yielding results with Speciality chemicals

Chemical business
The net revenue for Q1FY20 stood at Rs.1,503 crore and EBITDA stood at Rs.446 crore recording an increase of 3 per cent on QoQ basis. Softening of Caustic Soda prices globally put pressure on prices in domestic markets, which in turn led to lower profitability on YoY basis. Rise in imports and production ramp up of newly commissioned capacities in the industry may continue to have an impact on prices in the near term.

The Caustic Soda sales and production volume for Q1FY20 stood at 238KT and 242KT recording an increase of 1 per cent and 2 per cent YoY respectively. Production was impacted at different sites on account of water shortage and minor disruptions caused by cyclones.

The company's continued focus on specialty chemicals is yielding results with Speciality chemicals including Epoxy resins contributing ~21 per cent EBITDA of the Chemical business.

The company is in the process of implementing Caustic Soda capacity expansion plan from 1,147 KTPA to 1,457 KTPA at multiple locations and the same are in different stages of execution, with side by side expansion of specialty chemical products too.