Tata Steel on Tuesday got back to the profit mode by posting a consolidated net profit of Rs 231.40 crore for the December quarter on the back of improvement in sales volume and higher prices of steel
It had registered a consolidated net loss of Rs 2,747.7 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.
The consolidated gross sales increased to Rs 29,279 crore, from Rs 25,662.3 crore in the year-ago period.
In a statement, the company said: “Consolidated revenues (are) up by 7 per cent sequentially and 14 per cent year-on-year. The growth is largely driven by strong performance from Indian operations.”
However, the total expenses went up to Rs 27,232 crore in September-December, up around 4 per cent from a year earlier.
“Tata Steel recorded strong sales this quarter as the strength of our franchise helped us counter headwinds due to demonetisation. While the broader market was affected by lower rural sales and adverse consumer sentiment. We were able to increase overall volumes by 14 per cent sequentially and register strong growth across all our target customer segments,” said TV Narendran, MD, Tata Steel India and South East Asia.
“Further, our focus on cost improvement initiatives and integrated operations helped us contain the
impact of rising raw material prices.”
Its Kalinganagar facility “continues to ramp up smoothly and we are well positioned to serve the increase in demand due to the expected thrust on infrastructure in 2017-18”.