SAIL records 2.25 bn net profit in Q1

Wednesday, 30 July 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Buoyed by growing exports, India's state-owned steel major has recorded a net profit of 2.25 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2003-04, reversing its losses in the corresponding quarter last year. Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) achieved a sales turnover of 47.65 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal with a growth of 14 percent over the corresponding period of last year, chairman V.S. Jain said in a review meeting Tuesday with Steel Minister Braja Kishore Tripathy. During the April-June quarter, SAIL exported around 330,000 tonnes of steel, a growth of 162 percent over the corresponding period last year. A large part of the steel was exported to China. Jain said SAIL has reduced its borrowings by 8.96 billion during the first quarter, with total borrowings being brought down from 129.70 billion to 120.74 billion. Cost control savings fetched 710 million during the quarter and the debt-equity ratio came down from 6.52 on March 31 to 5.71. SAIL had registered losses of 3.09 billion in the first quarter of the last fiscal. The April-June period also saw an increase in SAIL's production of rails to 190,000 tonnes as against 180,000 tonnes in the same period last year. The four main integrated steel plants of SAIL in Bhilai, Durgapur, Rourkela and Bokaro together produced 2.56 million tonnes of saleable steel during the first quarter, which was 8.6 percent higher than the 2.36 million tonnes produced in the corresponding period last year, Jain said. During the quarter there was also a jump in production of high value items like plates (40 percent), tinplates (15 percent) and cold roll non-grain oriented or CRNO steel (seven percent) over the same period last year.
Source: IANS