Mumbai, Feb 9 (IANS) Tata Steel on Friday said its consolidated net profit jumped almost five fold to Rs 1,135.92 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2017 as compared to Rs 231.90 crore in the same period last year.

Its consolidated profit after tax from continuing operations during the quarter was at Rs 1,143.88 crore against Rs 272.65 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year.

It also reported that a total revenue from operations during the quarter was Rs 33,446.6 crore, up by over 15 per cent from Rs 29,024.69 crore in the same quarter of 2016-17.

Both Indian and European operations has seen an increase in revenue, said the steel-maker, adding that consolidated quarterly deliveries was at 6.56 million tonnes, up by 8 per cent year-on-year basis and consolidated production during the quarter was 6.49 million tonnes as against 6.37 million tonnes in the same period last year.

Consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation) for the quarter stood at Rs.5,801 crore, registering a 59 per cent increase over last year.

“Globally steel prices have been buoyant with improved trade position in China along with cost push from raw materials. Over the last nine months, we delivered strong consolidated operational performance across geographies and we expect this momentum to continue as markets are expected to remain favourable,” said company’s CEO and Managing Director T.V. Narendran.

In India operations, sales growth was broad based with best ever performance across verticals.

Automotive segment sales increased by 25 per cent over the last quarter and 34 per cent over last year with 22 per cent growth in hi-end automotive steel sales, over last year, it said.

Branded products, retail and solutions segment sales grew 8 per cent over last quarter and 11 per cent over last year, while deliveries in the industrial products, projects & exports segment grew 7 per cent over last year and the engineering sub-segment registered two times growth over last year.

In India, Tata Steel witnessed strong volume growth across the verticals as well as an increase in realisations.

“Our European operations performance was marginally lower, due to seasonal pressures as well planned maintenance and upgrades designed to strengthen operations and our long-term capability. Our South East Asian business has delivered strong performance due to better management of spreads,” said Narendran.

The company’s Kalinganagar Plant had to shut down its blast furnace for unplanned major repairs following a sudden failure in the auxiliary equipment. As the downstream operations are integrated with the blast furnace, consequently, the Steel Melting Shop and Hot Strip Mill have also been shut down. The revival process of the blast furnace is currently underway and the Company expects to restart the furnace in the next 7 to 10 days.

“Group revenues witnessed robust growth driven by improved volumes in India and stronger realisations across geographies, on the back of the improvement in commodity prices and an expansion in spreads globally. Our quarterly consolidated EBITDA registered a 23 per cent growth on sequential basis with EBITDA margin of 17 per cent,” said Executive Director and CFO Kaushik Chatterjee.

He also said gross debt during the quarter came down by Rs 1,658 crore mainly due to repayments and forex impact. The liquidity position of the group remains very robust with Rs 22,544 crore in cash and cash equivalents and and undrawn bank lines.

The capital expenditure for the quarter was around Rs 2,002 crore, Chatterjee said, adding that the company would continue to focus on opportunistically raising capital and optimising its financing flexibility.

It also refinanced some debt by raising $1.3 billion in the international debt capital markets through a dual tranche bond issuance and also announced a rights issue of Rs 12,800 crore to strengthen the balance sheet and help it gear up for the next phase of growth, he said.

–IANS
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