Key takeaways of the call

The operations in the first quarter were affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown in several geographies including India for major part of the quarter.

Currently, all manufacturing facilities and offices of the company at most of the locations are functional to a substantial extent.

Sales and dispatches of chemicals were affected due to operational and logistic challenges caused by COVID-19 induced lockdown. Margins improved due to operational efficiencies, favourable price movements and benefits on account of changed product mix.

Adverse impact of the COVID-19 lockdown significantly affected the consumer products volumes.

Order book excluding SL order as end of Jun 30, 2020 stood at Rs 642 crore. Order intake in Q1FY21 was Rs 77 crore.

The order intake in Q1FY21 was muted due to the general economic slowdown and delay in order finalisations caused by the lockdown.

Bid pipeline is good but the pace of finalisation is not yet normal, with customers taking a bit longer time to decide. As far as large orders are concerned the company is in negotiation for some and strive to convert them to orders soon.

Unexecuted order book of SL order was close to Rs 600 crore plus as on June 30, 2020.

Revenue recognition for the Sri Lanka project in the quarter was affected due to the COVID-19 lockdown impact. Post receipt of necessary permissions from the Sri Lanka government, the company have resumed its supplies and civil works.In SL order the company till Q4FY20 booked Rs 367 crore and in Q1FY21 the company booked Rs 83.52 crore.

Expect recognition of Rs 400 crore of revenue from SL order in FY21.

Progress in case of Vedanta order is on decline for last few quarters and expect that to pick up soon.

Expect to recover the revenue losses due to COVID impact by end of March 2021 if there is no further intermittent issues. It's quite uncertain at the moment to quote a revenue growth figure right now.

Outlook for Chemicals is good and keep adding capacities in select chemicals. Some of price realisation gains made for few chemicals is not expected to get reversed in next few quarters at least.