JOIN USTata Steel has more than halved its consolidated losses to Rs 1,168 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2017, compared with a loss of Rs 3,042 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.
The company reported a profit of Rs 232 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal (Q3FY17). Consolidated turnover for the company during the quarter grew 30.41% to Rs 35,305 crore, compared with Rs 27,071 crore in the comparable period of the previous fiscal.
As far as standalone performance is concerned (Indian operations), the company more than doubled its profits to Rs 1,415 crore compared to Rs 520 crore in Q4FY16 and Rs 1205 crore in the sequential quarter (Q3FY17). Standalone turnover for the company during the quarter grew 45.81% to Rs 17,113 crore, compared with Rs 11,736 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal.
Steel deliveries for the Indian arm grew to 3.21 million tonnes, from 2.72 million tonnes a year earlier. EBITDA improved to Rs 4,324 crore for the quarter, up 28% sequentially, and 93% (YoY) on the back of supportive realisations, strong growth in deliveries and ramp-up of its Kalinganagar plant. Full-year EBITDA was Rs 11,953 crore for the company, Tata Steel said.
Gross debt for the company as on March 31, 2017, stood at Rs 83,014 crore and reduced by over Rs 1,700 crore from the previous quarter, despite capital expenditure of Rs 2,092 crore during the quarter, and increased by Rs 1,028 crore over FY16. Net debt stood at Rs 72,367 crore and reduced by over Rs 4,300 crore over the previous quarter, and increased by Rs 1,268 crore over FY16, the company said.
“The consolidated EBITDA for Tata Steel Group was in excess of Rs 17,000 crore for fiscal 2017, which is the highest in the last six years. This is on the back of a 1,200 basis points of expansion of EBITDA in the fourth quarter, compared with the previous year, of which 600 basis points expansion was in India, and 1,600 basis points in Europe,” Tata Steel Group Executive Director (Finance and Corporate) Koushik Chatterjee said.
“The ongoing transformation programme in the UK, performance improvements in India and the Netherlands contributed to the strong underlying performance. The market support and favourable currencies also helped the business to achieve this significantly improved performance,” Chatterjee added.