Ceat foresees major drop in raw material prices

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Paras K Chowdhary, managing director of Ceat spoke about the latest happenings in his company and the road ahead.

Below is an edited transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying video. Q: Given the raw material pressures and the rupee fluctuation, what kind of EBITDA margins are you expecting in the coming quarters? A: In first two quarters we saw a sharp improvement in our EBITDA margins. Going forward, I expect further improvement as raw material prices are coming down. Rubber has hit a low in international markets. It is down by 40% from a high of USD 5.3 to USD 3.3 in the last six months. Synthetic rubber and a few other raw materials, which are critical to us, are all coming down. We expect a substantial decline in the raw material cost in Q4. This drop is going to bring us back to the margins that we were expecting all this while. Q: What would those margins be as little bit of it is getting eaten up by the rupee getting cheaper? A: True. That