Tata Steel Q1 Net Profit Falls 80%

Tata Steel has reported a 79.75 per cent drop in net profit at Rs 20.53 crore for the first quarter of 2001-02 compared with Rs 101.4 crore in the same period last year. Its volume sales dropped 5.35 per cent, while net sales declined 6.76 per cent.

The bottomline has also been affected adversely by one of the lowest flat product prices in the international price cycle, which impacted domestic flat product prices in turn, the company said.

Net sales of the Tata flagship declined to Rs 1,611.41 crore from Rs 1,728.27 crore in the first quarter of last year.

The decline in sales during the first quarter is a reflection of the general slowdown in the domestic economy, Tata Steel said.

Production during the quarter was 8.19 lakh tonne (8.34 lakh tonne in April-June 2000-01), while sales was 6.86 lakh tonne (7.25 lakh tonne), resulting in a sharp increase in stock-in-trade at Rs 235.68 crore compared with Rs 81 crore in the same period last year.

The company