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AIA Engineering Ltd
NSE:AIAENG

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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2019-Q4

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Operator

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. This is Peggy, the moderator for your call today. Welcome to the post results conference call of AIA Engineering Limited. We have with us today the management team of AIA Engineering Limited. [Operator Instructions]I would now like to turn the conference over to AIA Engineering management team. Thank you, and over to you.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Yes. Hi. Thank you so much. A very warm welcome to everyone. Thank you for joining the call. I have Sanjay bhai also here with us. As usual, we'll start with a few highlights for the quarter and then move on to Q&A thereafter.We're very happy to note the tonnage figure for this quarter at 80,000 tonnes and for the full year, we've now closed at 265,000 tonnes, which is about 37,000 tonnes more than what we've done FY '18, which was at 228,000 tonnes. This quarter, there was a buildup of stock from the previous quarter for the billing timing mismatch and which has given way this quarter, so that came through in this quarter, the additional quantities of about 78,000 tonnes, which was actually slated for last quarter. And that evens out our production and dispatch quantity, a question that was discussed at length last quarter. From a product standpoint, we did about 73,000 tonnes this quarter, taking our total sales at INR 860 crores for the quarter, which is up from INR 720 crores this quarter last year, and for the full year, we are at INR 2,967 crores, which is up from about INR 2,300 crores, INR 2,374 crores, for the full year last year. So a descent addition in top line and quantities. Of course, the last part of that growth has come from the mining side, and we continue to remain excited about the opportunity that the various strategies that we have laid out in terms of potential for each one of them. Moving forward, some key -- other key line items. As for benefits, the other operating income at INR 26 crores and our treasury and foreign exchange is at INR 23 crores, so about INR 50 crore other income. Our EBITDA is at INR 214 crores, which is up from INR 194 crores third quarter this year. And total for the year is at INR 780 crores, up from the INR 650 crores last year. And PAT for this first quarter is at INR 155 crores, and for the full year at INR 510 crores. We have crossed this important milestone of PAT of about INR 500 crores. We are just short of the INR 3,000 crores mark on the sales side. So overall, I think this has been a good quarter.Moving on, one area that continues to consume cash is working capital. And as we go out and build businesses with some of the major clients, we are required to keep stock. And so our total working capital continues to be at 40% of sales, a little higher than 40% of sales. And I think that should -- we're making full efforts to try and optimize it. Some more key figures. Full year mining is at 170,000 tonnes and cement and utility put together is about 94,000 tonnes. So still for the full year, quantity is at 265,000 tonnes. Cash is at INR 1,227 crores, net cash, while gross cash is at INR 1,355 crores with INR 127 crores of debt and net cash of INR1,227 crores. So that's as far as numbers are concerned. Going forward, for the rest of the year, we expect to add another 40,000 tonnes, which should be -- which should take us to about 305,000 tonnes in that facility, and we're making all efforts to make sure our mining presence continues on track. You're aware that we are deepening, sharpening our engagement with the mining clients, which is not just with cost but also talking about down process benefits, which is increasing recovery of gold and copper, reduction in consumption of reagents.And last but not the least is our engagement with EEMS of U.S. They were doing mill lining -- proprietary mill lining designs with them and which can in turn offer superior benefits of process improvement for the mining after months. So we continue to make progress in each one of these strategies, and we'll keep you posted as things emerge. One important highlight is around wind, our investment in wind turbine. We've commissioned all 8 wind turbines of 2.1 megawatts each, and we are very happy that they're performing on track with what was promised, and we should have decent savings on account of that going forward. Our total CapEx this year was about INR 204 crores -- INR 206 crores. And so from a CapEx standpoint, last year, we'd announced INR 800 crores of investments. We further take our capacity from 340,000 tonnes to 490,000 tonnes and the 8 wind turbines. These had a delay in the first phase of 50,000 tonnes that was due late last year on account of solvency issues at one of our key equipment suppliers. Those are now behind us for that first phase, and we expect to commission that line between June and July. So that will take our capacity to 390,000 tonnes.In addition to that, we'll have one more phase of 50,000 tonnes of grinding media and 50,000 tonnes of mill lining. So both put together, we expect total CapEx of about INR 600 crores that will include some balancing CapEx, some purchase of land, et cetera, and operating maintenance CapEx. So between INR 580 crores to INR 600 crores for the balance 2 years, which is March '20, March '21.I think that sums up the key highlights for this quarter. I'll let Sanjay bhai just give his -- share some more highlights, and we can then go on to Q&A.

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

I think as Kunal explained, we have had a very good Q4 in terms of both production as well as sales. But as he cautioned, on a realistic front, as we explained at the end of the third quarter call before about 3 months, there was a bit of a buildup which happened and the dispatches happened in the current quarter. However, from an overall annual perspective, for the current fiscal year '19/'20, at least 300,000, 305,000 tonnes is what we are very comfortable about. So what we have been saying, that run rate of 40,000 tonnes, 45,000 tonnes annual incremental growth, I think we are very comfortably on that. Having said that, it is obvious that our business should not and cannot be jelled on a quarter-over-quarter basis, and broadly, it is to be looked at from an annual and a directional perspective. I'm happy to say that all the 3 strong plans on which our business is now positioned, that is the cost reduction through better -- much, much better or lower wear rates because of the continuous replacement of forged by high chrome and the benefits on the DP side, that is the down process, plus EEMS. I think these 3 combination is creating a very formidable position for AIA, and we believe that we are the only company in the world today who can offer all the 3 solutions under 1 platform. And that significantly enhances our competitiveness and our ability to continuously penetrate the market and achieve the goal of conversion from forged to high chrome which is a central line of our entire endeavor, and I think we are quite comfortably on track.And I think with this, Kunal, we can take the house open for Q&A.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] First question is from the line of Bhalchandra Shinde from Anand Rathi.

B
Bhalchandra Shinde
Research Analyst

Congrats, sir, for the good set of results. At EPC, the volume growth and sales growth, isn't sequentially our realization has declined? And if it is there, then why actually it has declined.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

I think realization is a product -- function of a product mix and currency. So I don't know, INR 72, INR 73 was what the currency was about 2 quarters back, 3 quarters -- 2 quarters back. And I think that partially got reflected in the currency and the product mix. I would not read too much into -- well, that's not a reflection of pricing in that sense.

B
Bhalchandra Shinde
Research Analyst

Okay. Because our EBITDA margins I think when we are seeing this kind of a volume growth, some sort of operating bridge should have played in because if we see our EBITDA margins also sequentially has slightly declined.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Yes. But that's I think more a timing thing. Margins I think will come around as we go forward. It's not -- there's no pattern to it in that sense. We have kept on -- we're maintaining that. Our margin guidance is 20% to 22% EBITDA, number one. Number two, we are pricing for entry into markets, so that is something that does have impact on margins. But overall, I think it's our endeavor to do reasonable margin sales, and I think we are in that direction. It's more a timing -- I think it's best to look at it on an annual basis and it evens out.

B
Bhalchandra Shinde
Research Analyst

And sir, recently, few of the players are mentioning that globally, mining slowdown is seen on the activities. So do we see kind of an impact that we are factoring in that -- in our volume growth? Or what is your take on it?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

The commodity slowdown is more related to new capacity being added. We don't expect realization to -- utilization of existing capacity to go down. And since we are operating in the consumption side, I mean we're not really worried about -- on that sense.

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

See just to add to what Kunal said, Mr. Bhalchandra Shinde, you see, in the previous cycle when there was a similar situation that the industry went through a so-called slowdown, that time, also we were very clear that our whole focus is conversion. And we are very quiet agnostic to that. And then when the mining cycle was on the upside, even at that point in time we said our process of conversion is a long-term basic process whereby there is a win-win situation for us as well as for the customers. Again, I mentioned that if there is a slowdown, if at all, first, of course, there is no perception or no perceptible negative impact that we have even seen for the very simple reason that honestly, in case of a slowdown, the customer would benefit more if they're using our solution rather than other way around. That is the first point. Second, we are talking of a significant headroom in the sense that there is a 20% -- 15%, 20% penetration in high chrome segment we service, so there is still a very large section which is being currently serviced through forged players. And we are effectively talking of the phenomenal impact at the mine level through a combination of all the 3 factors that we explained. So there's a direct savings when somebody uses my product versus forged. That's point number one. Point number two, we say that we are able to reduce the cost of other costly reagents, et cetera, that go in the process of the final DP process or down process. And then we are saying that, that can also improve actually the recoveries. And lastly, we are saying energy efficiency brings in a significant benefit. So a customer gains so much that conversion is actually taken, and I don't think slowdown has any impact on us. That's what I have to say.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Ravi Swaminathan from Spark Capital.

R
Ravi Swaminathan
Assistant Vice President

Just wanted to get your views on our foray into the Lat Am markets, what has been the progress with respect to Lat Am, excluding the Brazilian market, how it has been this year. Probably, if you can highlight what are the new countries that we may have broken into.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

I think Ravi, thanks for the call -- for the query. I think we would not want to be too graphic about what our strategies are or where all we are going for reasons of little confidentiality around that. But I think Lat Am continues to be a very interesting market for us. We are long gestation projects, and I think that we are on track with what we expect from those markets. So in this year as well next year what we are guiding, there is a contribution we expect from the markets, and they are on track as we speak.

R
Ravi Swaminathan
Assistant Vice President

Okay. But the countries -- the very large countries which contribute to a significant portion of the copper market, have we gained some share into it?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Like I said, yes. So we are making inroads. We would not want to share more than that on this forum, Ravi.

R
Ravi Swaminathan
Assistant Vice President

Okay, sir. And in terms of price increase with existing customers, say -- or at least the majority of the existing customers, has there been any price increase last year? Or is there likely to be a price increase going forward, if you can?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Price increase, we're talking from our margin standpoint which are eventual phase.

R
Ravi Swaminathan
Assistant Vice President

Yes. Basically, is there any headroom for us to...

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Any way we hear that question, we answer only one way. I can repeat that, but you know the answer. There is always headroom for improvements in margins, et cetera. We are always enduring towards that, but there's lots of variables we deal with and to make everything pause and freeze and look at only 1 variable may not the best way to look at it. So as long as we are a material player, as long as we are out there and adding value to the customer, I think that's what drives margins more than anything else, right? It's not our own imagination claiming sales where we want to be, right? And we are making -- so that's where our focus is, and we expect that to translate into fair and reasonable margins for us.

R
Ravi Swaminathan
Assistant Vice President

Got it, sir. And our other costs also have gone up in sync with the revenue.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Correct.

R
Ravi Swaminathan
Assistant Vice President

And other costs, a lot of it will be power cost and freight and other charges. So is it like, say, next year or subsequent year, if grew at double digit, is it fair to assume that these costs also would grow in sync with that? Or would the windmill can reduce the power cost?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Yes. The windmill should reduce the power cost, but generally, other costs will increase -- overhead have some leverage, but we're going to put a number in terms of percentage on where that would be. You can assume these are all direct costs. Our overhead as a percent of -- it's not a large overhead that we carry. Our employee costs and other things are reasonably in control. So operating leverage, while it exists, in what form and shape it will come back -- will come in play into numbers is a difficult thing to hazard.

R
Ravi Swaminathan
Assistant Vice President

Got it, sir. Got it. And in terms of realization, this year was a pretty good year because of the rupee depreciation matter, INR 115 for a kg. What is your sense that it can be going forward still can be the same place or INR 110 per kg, any...

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

I think this quarter was about INR 107, INR 105...

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

The average is INR 112.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Average is INR 112. I think you can imagine a little bit between INR 105 and INR 115 depending on the alloys, the product mix and currency.

R
Ravi Swaminathan
Assistant Vice President

Got it, sir. Got it. And finally, on the update regarding the case with Magotteaux, what is the status?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

It's still subdued. The matter on jurisdiction is what we're awaiting to hear back. We're just waiting on it, Ravi. No update on it.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Bhoomika Nair from IDFC.

B
Bhoomika Nair
Security Analyst

Congratulations on seeing some good traction in terms of volume. Sir, just wanted to check having seeing some good inroads into mining now in international markets, how are we seeing the reaction of the traditional forged players and the competitive intensity out there?

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

I think there is very little that conventional guys can do around this because we -- both sides have their work cut out, right? So they play on their strength, which is they're closer to the customer, et cetera, while we have to play on our strength, which is the product, and that's something new. I think the mining market's been growing over the last 10 years. There's been -- or 10, 12, 13 years. There's been a secular overall growth in the market, so there's been enough for both sides to continue growing. I mean we'll see as it progresses, but we have a product that -- we have a differentiated offering, and to that extent, there are limited things that our competitors -- only one product can do, right?

B
Bhoomika Nair
Security Analyst

Right. Okay. So you are not seeing anybody trying to be a little more aggressive or -- along that soft industry?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

See, ultimately, they may want to do, but the difficulty for them would be, can they offer a solution which matches the effect that we are currently offering. It is very difficult for somebody to immediately come out and offer. They would try their best to protect their markets, obviously. And that is why you see, if you carefully look at what we have done over the last 3, 4 years, we have increased our wherewithal to become very potent in terms of convincing somebody that is a great case for them to convert, you understand? So it's not just -- it is cost plus the overall impact plus efficiency, everything now building together, which makes the whole thing very significantly formidable, you see, very potent.

B
Bhoomika Nair
Security Analyst

Okay, okay. Because if I see the year as a whole, we've seen a good volume growth of about 15%, 16%. We've seen rupee being favorable for us and also the chrome prices have broadly been also largely favorable during the whole year as such. So we've not been able to take price hikes to take benefit or retain the rupee benefits with us, or we had to pass that on?

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

No, no. So here I want to be very clear that this volume growth is just the beginning. We should not be satisfied with this volume growth at all for 2 reasons. The market is significantly larger. Our initiatives to have maximum number of mines in our stable continues unaffected rather with much more fervor and rigor. So please do not assume that now we have reached the plateau and therefore, the price increase and other things that come would automatically come. Rather I would say that if I am talking of 2 million, 2.5 million tonnes and we're still below 2 lakhs tonnes in terms of mining, so our endeavor is much higher number. That means the effort of continuously taking new markets, new customers will continue. Rather they are continuing as we speak. And therefore, in my humble view, I don't think we should really -- because interestingly, we are worried about pricing or we're not worried about anything other than market share and effective penetration. I think the effect, as Kunal explained to one of the previous participants, that there is enough headroom for us to increase our margins. The focus is just not on margins. It's also a function of product mix and so many other features that we are seeing. Having said that, even with significant volume growth, I don't think that there is a case for us to worry about it. Margins will come, but it is bit premature for us to only talk of margins. That's our humble submission.

B
Bhoomika Nair
Security Analyst

Sure. So just on this EEMS position, in that, how has the experience been so far in terms of the openness of the customers accepting this product or in terms of faster conversion? If you can just kind of give a context on...

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

See, the experience is absolutely gratifying, and the results that we are able to show to the customers are also making them really look at us with significant amount of respect and expectation. Having said that, what I'm going to say, that the real effect of EEMS in terms of our operations will start coming from maybe Q2 end of this year when all the -- a lot of things which are in pipeline will start seeing fructification. All I can say for the sake of maintaining confidentiality also is that so far things are really very, very satisfactory from our standpoint.

B
Bhoomika Nair
Security Analyst

And this would help a faster volume growth for medium to long term. Is that the way we should look at it when you see that is what...

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

Yes. It will, it will, it will. It will, definitely. Because we are not only seeing mining liners per se based on EEMS technology, we are seeing this as a package. So it goes as a package where we say that between these 3 factors, we can give you sort of a result which we can definitely vouch for. And that is what is, therefore, seeing automatic growth also coming from grinding media standpoint as well as from other products. Do you get that point?

B
Bhoomika Nair
Security Analyst

Sure, sure. Sir, just lastly, if I can just get what is the realized dollar rate for the quarter and for the year.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Realized dollar, INR 69-odd.

B
Bhoomika Nair
Security Analyst

Okay. And for the year also would be similar?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

For the year, it would be similar.

B
Bhoomika Nair
Security Analyst

Okay. And if you could just give me, Kunal, what was the FY '18 number versus the INR 69.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

FY '18, I don't have it on top of -- data. I'll come back to you on that. I'll share with you.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Sanjeev Panda from Tamohara Investment Managers.

S
Sanjeev Panda

Sir, regarding the CapEx, I missed a couple of points. Could you please again mention them?

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

CapEx, we have done -- last year, we announced INR 800 crores of CapEx, which is about INR 206 crores this year. Balance, we'll be doing it between FY '19, '20 and 2021. So we are at 340,000 tonnes. The first 50 grinding media gets commissioned next month or the month after between June and July, taking the capacity to 390,000 tonnes and the balance, 50,000 grinding media plus the 50,000 mill lining plant, comes off by December 2020.

S
Sanjeev Panda

Could you please help us to give a breakup of like how much could go into lining and how much to mill lining capacity?

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

INR 250 crores is for mill lining project. About INR 3 crores would be -- INR 300 crores is the balance grinding media or INR 275 crores and INR 50 crores to INR 75 crores is everything else. About INR 75 crores is land and maintenance CapEx for 2 years. Next question, please?

Operator

The next question is from the line of Amber Singhania from AMSEC.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

Congratulations on good volume. As we are now focusing towards the EEMS product as well as on the liner side, just wanted to understand as on the grinding media side, we have 3 million tonne kind of market or addressable market. So can you help us understand how big is the market towards liners or vertical mills on those products other than the grinding media ones? And how much is already chrome and how much is ongoing? What could be our opportunity over a longer period of time? Can you just help us understand the market on that front?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

So I think other than grinding media, we do about 3,000 to 5,000 tonnes each year in casting. The other is grinding media. I think that includes mill linings that we do today. Going forward, we expect the mill linings bit to actually show growth. That's about a 300,000 tonne annual market -- annual consumption market. So -- and that's where we are adding 50,000 tonnes of product planned to get commissioned next year, and we hope to reach full utilization in 2 to 3 years after that.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

And does the realization significantly higher than the grinding media just on the mining side?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

So casting, generally, have a higher selling price because the cost is also higher. There is a lot of other processing that needs to be done, longer WIC cycles and plenty additional processing that needs to -- finishing that needs to be done on the product, which takes the cost also higher.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

Okay. So value-wise, the market growth could be higher even in the tonnage goods?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

That depends on the process that's been done. If it's machining, it's just some other process, heat treatment, et cetera, so that's a range, I would say, from INR 150 to, say, INR 300 a kilo.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

And does this also has the impact of chrome content or it is the normal for...

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

It does. It does.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

So again, we and Magotteaux will be only the 2 players in the competition or there are others?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

In the mill lining bit, you're saying?

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

Yes. In the mill lining, sir.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

In the mill lining, there are 3 or 4 other players, there is an Australian company, there's a Canadian company, there's 1 in Indonesia and there's one in Brazil. So there are 4 companies which are already there in that segment. In our knowledge, Magotteaux's presence in this space is limited.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

And what rate this market might be growing, sir?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

I think it's growing with the similar mining market rates. We are not looking at market -- we're looking at taking more market share rather. Our focus is not to -- it will grow at whatever terms mining per se is growing.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

Okay. Fine. And secondly, just wanted to understand like, as Sanjay bhai mentioned, that we are targeting around 40,000 tonnes of additional volume this year. In terms of slightly longer-term period as 2, 3 years guidance you used to share, if you can give us some idea about what kind of volume you're looking for 3 years. And of which, roughly what kind of percentage we are looking from milling tonnage or mill lining process?

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

See Amber ji, if you remember, about a year ago, we stopped giving 3-year rolling forecast for 3 reasons. This could be significantly different as we keep on reinventing ourselves, correct? But I can say that actually this 35,000, 40,000 tonnes is something which annually we are confident today to commit and give a forecast for that. So as of now let's keep at least 35,000 tonnes, 40,000 tonnes per annum growth. I think we'll revisit it after, say, 6 months or so.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

Okay. Just in this one thing, will it be fair to assume that the ratio between the castings and the grinding balls would remain more or less similar, which is currently today?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

At least in the near term, yes. At least over next 1 year, yes.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

Okay. And just one last thing, if I can squeeze in. If you can give some color on the margin side for this particular segment of casting and mill lining. How good -- how better and how difficult it is compared to the grinding balls.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

See, again, it will be unfair to talk about product margins for 2 reasons, that our whole endeavor is to become a composite supplier to a mine rather than to supply only a few products, okay? So we would want to view it as a package. That's the first point. Having said that, obviously, if I look at on a stand-alone basis, liner margins, theoretically, are better and because it's a little more expensive product, their margins are better. However, the grinding media gives you significant volume. So the whole idea is then I package it. Even as a package, we believe that once this concept starts flowing and we start getting traction, we should be able to look at higher margins. Now I don't want to say that it will happen after 1 year, 6 months. I don't want to hazard a guess at this point in time. All I have to say, this -- the current margins seem to be, I would say, quite low, and we are closer to the bottom rather than anything else. And now there is only a room for slow and sustained growth in the margins. Very clearly, we don't want to tell you when this is happening. We will say it will happen. It is bound to happen. It is just a matter of time.

A
Amber Singhania
Senior Analyst

Understood. And then when you say casting, it includes the vertical mills also, right?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Casting includes vertical mills. [indiscernible] also, we have in it.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Sorry, just one second. Bhoomika had a question around realization for this year and last. It was INR 64.43 for '18 and INR 69.86 for March '19.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Ashutosh Tiwari from Equirus Securities.

A
Ashutosh Tiwari
Research Analyst

Sir, firstly, on this mismatch in production and sales, so obviously we reduced some inventory in Q4. Actually, if I look at FY '19 as a whole, there were 75,000 more productions and sales. So I mean going ahead, will we see further reduction in the inventory at that -- from that standpoint? Or now that we are more considerably to look at some new inventory at the warehouses?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Ashutosh, I don't think you should expect any significant reduction. Although internally our target is -- I'll tell you why. As more and more customers come on board, we have to create significant local inventory nearer to their locations to ensure that they get just-in-time delivery. This is a very fundamental success factor based on the -- AIA is able to service so many clients across 120 countries in the world. So of course our endeavor will be that what is it that could be the ideal level. So for example, inventory in terms of number of days. If you look at my finished goods, see, my single important yardstick which we closely monitor is the inventory of my WIP, finished goods, which is mainly actually finished goods. It's today almost 64 days as of end of '19 as compared to the beginning of about 57, 58 days, you get my point? So it's just slightly gone up. Our -- we believe we should look at something closer to 60 days as the average finished goods inventory, which should help us to sustain our growth and meet the consumers -- customer expectations also.

A
Ashutosh Tiwari
Research Analyst

Okay. Okay. Got it. Secondly, there is some bit of delay in this EEMS new plant...

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

There is no delay, I'm sorry. It is the process. It takes about a year for us to do a lot of working with the clients. We are seeing the first few projects coming to an end in next 3 to 4 months, you get my point? There is no delay. In fact, the results are very, very gratifying as we say it.

A
Ashutosh Tiwari
Research Analyst

No, no. I'm not talking about the -- I'm talking about the plant, which was supposed to come in FY '20 and now we're talking...

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Okay. Okay. So what about it?

A
Ashutosh Tiwari
Research Analyst

So we have been talking about March '20. Now it will probably fall December '20, and we're already getting good success in...

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

No, no. But we're already at 390,000 tonnes of capacity, while we expect to sell 300,000 tonnes this year, right? It's only at 25%, 30% -- you're talking about the mill lining facility?

A
Ashutosh Tiwari
Research Analyst

Yes, yes, yes. And not only those linings, together...

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Okay. Okay. So mill lining, mill lining, the thing is that, as we have mentioned all the time, we actually engineer our own plants, right? There is no consultant that's available for building our type of plants. So we've taken a little -- we've at least taken 3 months more than what we have anticipated for forming up our design and engineering for the plant. I think we are nearly through with it. We have placed orders for most long-lead items. So while our internal plans -- our plans are to start earlier, but such automated -- we are trying to do a lot of automation, right? We are building our plant for the next 3 decades, so to say. So such plants take time to come online as well. So we've factored the buffer time and time for the automation and all to work in sync. So both put together, we're looking at the end of '20. We hope it should be earlier than that.

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

But having said that, within our existing plants also, we have the capability of producing if required. So that's not an issue.

A
Ashutosh Tiwari
Research Analyst

Sir, it won't have the -- our success that we are getting in the customer side for liners?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Exactly.

A
Ashutosh Tiwari
Research Analyst

Okay. Okay. And lastly, I think you've seen very good success with the gold customers over last 3, 4 years. Copper, I think, has not been as successful so far. So how do you see that progress? Will it be -- over next 2 to 3 years also gold will be main driver for growth for us or copper can pick up?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Gold, copper, iron ore, all 3 -- platinum is also an important market. All 4 types are important. Our solutions are available for all 4 types. I don't think anyone has taken preference over others, we're putting our efforts in all directions. So we're just not sharing a lot of graphic details simply because that's our business strategy. We'd like to keep it -- we are rolling out plans over the next 2 to 3 years, what we've done over the last year. So just pardon us for not being able to share a little more color on this besides telling you that all 4 types are important. We are making progress in all 4.

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

And we are making inroads in copper. So there's no problem on that also. There is a decent improvement.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Anuj Sehgal from Manas Capital.

A
Anuj Sehgal

I just had 1 question. So you are taking market share from the 4 media drives by using high chrome and increasing your penetration there. Are there other technologies or materials which other competitors could be working on, which could be a potential to high chrome?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Not really. No.

A
Anuj Sehgal

So there's no other solutions or materials that are possible substitute for what you are doing.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

No, nothing that we are aware of, none.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from the line of Surabhi Bomb from AMBIT Capital.

S
Surabhi Bomb
Research Analyst

Sir, would you be able to share any details of what's happening in Chile market regarding mining approvals and what's happening in the gold mining? Are you seeing any kind of...

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

We just -- as we'll have to just start with this, we would not be able to share any more detail on this. These are all names, closely held clients in terms of what we're trying to do in each of these ore types. We're only sharing big picture targets that we're looking to 3,000 tonnes this year. I think we're making progress in all ore types, so we'll have to leave it at that.

S
Sanjay Shailesh Majmudar
Independent Director

And in all geographies.

Operator

We have the last question from the line of [ Amina Mehrotra ], individual investor.

U
Unknown Attendee

Sir, can you say that minimum of [ INR 10 crore ] position in your balance sheet for derivatives under current markets, could you please explain what does it infer?

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

These are our normal hedging that we do for retrievals.

U
Unknown Attendee

Yes, sir. Last year it was 0 as per the balance sheet.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Yes. So we had faced a -- the rupee was very volatile. It was at INR 64, INR 65 levels last March. And we knew it's going to weaken. We are glad that we took the right the call and not hedged because we will be sitting on those levers thereafter. But now that the rupee is at INR 68, INR 69 level, now we have gone back to a lean hedging policy.

Operator

As there are no more questions, I would now like to hand over the conference to AIA Engineering management team for closing comments. Please go ahead.

K
Kunal D. Shah
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs

Yes, sure. Thank you all. As always Sanjay bhai and I remain available for any other further queries and look forward to connecting again for the June quarter. Thank you. Have a great evening.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference today. We thank you for your participation and for using Chorus Call Conferencing Services. You may please disconnect your lines now. Thank you, and have a great evening.