Polycab India Limited — Q4 FY26 earnings call

So firstly, on the growth. Revenue growth, like you rightly mentioned, has been 30% for the quarter. And if I speak of volumes, it's been combined volume growth of low single digit for both cable and wire put together. Cables has, of course, outpaced wires. In terms of price hikes, we've taken approximately 18% to 19% price hike cumulatively from Jan to March.

Clarifies the drivers of Q4 revenue growth for Wires & Cables, indicating that price hikes were a significant contributor while volume growth was modest.

Asked by Sonali Salgaonkar

But if you look structurally, the domestic demand is very robust. If you look at power capacity additions in the last financial year itself has been around 55 gigawatts to 56 gigawatts, which is almost double of what happened in FY25, right? And this is going to continue. If you look at the Union Budget, which was announced in February, a very strong INR 12.2 lakh crores budget announced, which, again, if you add private capex to that, we see today around INR 36 lakh crores, INR 37 lakh crores to be invested in FY27.

Provides a strong positive outlook on domestic demand, citing significant government and private sector investments in infrastructure and power as key drivers for the next 2-3 years.

Asked by Sonali Salgaonkar

So all of this going on plus the trade sentiment due to West Asia crisis, there was definitely some impact in terms of lifting from our distributors, which is our primary sale, primarily because the secondary sale was not moving at the pace at which we anticipate in the month of March. So broadly, that's the outlook, I think, and that's very reflective of the industry also.

Explains the specific external factors that led to softer trade sentiment and impacted secondary sales and overall volume growth in the key month of March.

Asked by Puneet Gulati

So in last quarter, Puneet, what happened was institutional sales were higher by about 2-3% compared to channel. And our margins usually in channel are 3-4% higher compared to institutional, which is you have to bid those tenders and win on L1. So our margins are better on channel. And if institutional mix grows, then it moderates our margins.

Clarifies that a higher mix of lower-margin institutional sales contributed to the moderation in overall margins for the quarter.

Asked by Puneet Gulati

So see, here is where exactly you'll see the same number every time. It's mid-70s, 75-76% utilization. And that is because we've continued to expand our capacity. As soon as we reach 70-75% utilization, considering our AOP, we invest far ahead of time. So if you look at this year, again, FY26, we've invested almost INR 1,500 crores, massive number. [...] And we are continuing to pump INR 1,200 crores to INR 1,600 crores every year, adding capacity. And this guidance that we've given under Project Spring is considering the demand outlook that we foresee in the next 4 to 5 years. So there will be no scenario where we'll be out of capacity.

Reassures investors that the company has sufficient capacity to meet future demand, continuously investing ahead of the curve, and is not facing capacity constraints like some peers.

Asked by Pathanjali

So Akshay, EHV is very much on track. Capacity is expected to come on stream by end of this calendar year. And in FY28 revenues, we can see some contribution from EHV capacity because it's a tender-based business, and we see a ready market because about 50% of domestic consumption today is coming from imports. So we believe that there's a ready market available. So as soon as we are on stream and we bid, I think we should be able to get revenue. So in FY28, you'll be able to see revenues from EHV.

Provides a clear timeline for the commissioning of EHV capacity and when revenue contributions from this high-value segment are expected.

Asked by Akshay Gattani

So Achal, first thing, we completely pass on all the raw material price, be it aluminum, copper or be it PVC. So there has been no challenge with respect to passing on the price. Second is on the availability of XLPE and other compounds. So thanks to the backward integration that we have, we typically purchase only the raw resins, and we do compounding in-house. So thanks to our heavy inventory, we are comfortable for possibly in the first quarter of coming year as well.

Confirms the company's ability to fully pass on raw material price increases and highlights supply chain resilience through backward integration and inventory management.

Asked by Achal Lohade

So Achal, I mean, we have explained in the past also, the way we procure our raw materials, there are never any inventory gains. We don't buy on spot, right? So we have a hedging mechanism in place. So we don't have any inventory gain unlike peers. Possibly, they might buy in spot market and sell. So when prices go up, they have some kind of an advantage possibly. But we are always at a position where we are able to manage within a band, and thanks to the mechanism that we have built over the years, where we hedge our raw material prices. So hence, there is no inventory gain or loss, never in our case.

Clarifies that Polycab's hedging strategy prevents both inventory gains and losses, differentiating its approach from peers who might benefit from spot purchases during rising prices.

Asked by Achal Lohade