JSW Steel may abandon Mozambique coal mines

JSW Steel plans to abandon its coal mining project in Mozambique because of higher than expected ash content in the coking coal.

“We are looking at alternative sites, as the Mozambique project is commercially unviable,” Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal said.

The project has been put on hold after detailed studies. These showed burnt coal (ash) content is high, at 60 per cent. The company is now scouting for coal assets in Australia and some other countries, said Jindal.

Net up 28%
The company has reported a 28 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 323 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2009, compared with the same quarter last year. The increase was on account of a 54 per cent growth in crude steel production to 1.5 million tonnes. Also, the quarter saw a Rs 21-crore loss on foreign exchange transactions. This was a far smaller loss than the Rs 268-crore loss in the same quarter last year.

Net sales in the second quarter of this financial year for the Sajjan Jindal-controlled JSW Steel went up a marginal 1.9 per cent to Rs 4,730 crore, supported by gains from sales of carbon credits and growth in volume, from the comparative quarter last year.

Profit from operations fell 22.1 per cent, with a fall in steel prices. A one-time annual benefit of Rs 60.2 crore from carbon credit sale helped the company to improve the profit.