SAIL's Q3 net up 9% at Rs 579 cr; declares interim dividend of 17.5%

Improvement in profit was helped by enhanced production, better techno-economic parameters along with reduction in input costs

Government-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL) had a net profit of Rs 579 crore for the October-December quarter, 8.6 per cent higher than the Rs 533 crore a year ago.

The board of directors has approved an interim dividend for shareholders at 17.5 per cent, a payout of Rs 870 crore, including tax.

The turnover in the quarter was Rs 12,291 crore, about three per cent lower than the corresponding period last year.

“The turnover was impacted due to challenging market conditions, high import and consumption of steel remaining mostly flat,” the company said.

Imported coking coal meets 75 per cent of SAIL's need. Its price is $111 a tonne, down 65 per cent from a 2011 peak, on higher supply and lower demand from China. The net worth rose to Rs 43,333 crore as on December 31, an increase of Rs 667 crore from March 31, 2014.

“The quarter was momentous with respect to the modernisation and expansion programme, with integrated operations of a new steel plant at Burnpur, with annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes, starting during this period,” said the company.

SAIL chairman C S Verma said: “Our initiatives to bring down energy consumption and optimise raw material utilisation, as well as adoption of state-of-the-art technologies, have helped us improve the techno-economic parameters and stay viable. With the new policies of the government and its thrust on steel- intensive sectors, demand is likely to rise. SAIL is ramping up its capacity to match this.”