Sudarshan Chemical Industries Limited continues to deliver growth in revenue as well as improvement in EBITDA margins in Q3 FY'24 as compared to the previous year. On a consolidated basis for the quarter, total income from operations stood at Rs. 566 crores as compared to Rs. 528 crores for the same period last year, higher by 7% year-on-year.

EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs. 62 crores compared to Rs. 42 crores in Q3 FY23, higher by 48% and EBITDA margin is at 10.9% compared to 7.9% over the same period last year. Profit after tax is at Rs. 15 crores as compared to Rs. 1 crore for the same period last year.

For the 9 months period ended December 31, 2023, Sudarshan Chemical Industries the total income from operations stood at Rs. 1,775 crores versus Rs. 1,611 crores in the same period last year, a growth of 10%. EBITDA for the period is Rs. 197 crores versus Rs. 126 crores last year, higher by 56% and EBITDA margin is at 11.1% versus 7.8% over the same period last year.  PAT stood at Rs. 54 crores compared to Rs. 12 crores for the same period last year.

Pigment business : For the year -- for the quarter FY 24, income from operations stood at Rs. 521 crores compared to Rs. 483 crores for the same period last year, growth of 8%.

 On a sequential basis, revenue of Q3 FY24 has remained flat in comparison with Q2 FY24.

India sales for the quarter is at Rs. 278 crores, higher by 11% as compared to Rs. 251 crores in the same period last year. On a sequential basis, India sales is marginally higher by 2% compared to Rs. 272 crores in Q2 FY24.

Exports for the quarter is at Rs. 244 crores as compared to Rs.232 crores last year, higher by 5%. Q3 is seasonally a weak quarter for some of the international geographies considering the calendar year-end and holiday season. On the international demand, we have seen it is a mixed pack where EU region continues to have subdued demand, whereas for other geographies, we have seen the moderation in the demand.

The company sees the impact of destocking is nearing the closure and we expect the demand revival from the international geography. However, we remain vigilant towards these geographies considering the multiple geopolitical issues, inflationary pressure and global macroeconomic situations.

In the Plastics segment, the company is seeing improved demand while Ink segment has remained stable in Q3 FY24.As mentioned during the last quarter, demand from the Coatings segment is expected to pick up in H2 FY24 and we are seeing uptick in the Coatings segment in Q3 of this year compared to the Q2 of FY24. Specialty segment sales stood at Rs. 358 crores as compare to Rs. 340 crores for the previous year same quarter, 5% year-on-year higher. Non-Specialty sales for the quarter is at Rs. 163 crores, which is higher than 14% as compared to the same period last year.

The company continues to witness positive response for its product offering from its recently completed capex resulting from continuous engagement with the customers. We are progressing well in terms of ramp-up from the new commissioned capex.

Gross margin of the Pigment business for the quarter increased to 45.5% as against 40% for the same period previous year. Comparing with the sequential quarter, gross margins have gone up by 70 basis points. The increase in gross margin is due to improvement in the product mix and also due to some effect of time lag in selling price pass-through.