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JSW Steel net profit rises almost 3 times to Rs 2,339 cr on lower base, better realisations

Led by better sales volumes and realisations, JSW Steel’s consolidated net profit for the April-June quarter rose almost three times to `2,339 crore over the same period last year, beating the Bloomberg estimate of Rs 2,100 crore.

STEEL, JSW STEEL
JSW Steel joint managing director and group CFO Seshagiri Rao

Led by better sales volumes and realisations, JSW Steel’s consolidated net profit for the April-June quarter rose almost three times to `2,339 crore over the same period last year, beating the Bloomberg estimate of Rs 2,100 crore.

Even as it comes over a lower base, the profits were also boosted by better operating margins that rose close to 890 basis points (bps).

Revenue from operations were up by 25% year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 20,519 crore as saleable steel sales rose 11% to 3.76 million tonnes. The domestic sales volumes grew 27% to 3.83 million tonnes against domestic demand growth of 9.2%. This quarter the domestic sales constituted around 88% of the total sales.

Income from operations or earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) was up by 95% y-o-y to Rs 5,105 crore, while Ebitda margins were up 890 bps to 24.8%, as realisation on per tonne basis rose. Although the company did not disclose the realisation on per tonne-basis, the company’s Ebitda per tonne on consolidated basis almost doubled to Rs 13,570 per tonne during the quarter compared with the same period last year.

The cost pressures on the company during the quarter were higher. The expenses on materials consumed rose to Rs 10,661 crore compared with Rs 9,020 crore a year ago, while the power and fuel costs rose to `1,608 crore compared with `1,349 crore. However, the company made up for higher costs through better pricing that increased by close to 36% both globally as well as in the domestic market.

The company is also sceptical of rising imports into the country, which they believe will injure the growth of domestic industry if not checked now.

Seshagiri Rao, joint managing director and group CFO of JSW Steel, said: “The imports for semi-finished steel products increased by 15% while for finished products it rose by 30%. The diversion of products from the US and Europe after they imposed anti-dumping and safeguard duty on products from South Korea, Japan and China are finding their way into India and Asean countries, which is a big threat to the domestic steel industry.”

“We are in talks with government to look at a way out either by imposing a safeguard duty of around 25% or increase the reference price which is close to $485 a tonne to $685 per tonne for hot rolled steel,” Rao added.

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First published on: 26-07-2018 at 03:50 IST
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