Tata Steel sales rise 14%

Tata Steel today said its sales increased by 14 per cent to 1.66 million tonnes in the July-September quarter of the current financial year over the year-ago period, mainly on account of rise in demand for its products.

“Tata Steel completed the second quarter and the first half of the current financial year with a significant increase in its production and sales volume, as compared to the corresponding period of last year,” the company said in a statement here.

The company had sold 1.46 million tonnes of steel in the second quarter of the last financial year.

For the half-year-ended September 30, Tata Steel said it sold 6 per cent more steel products at 3.06 million tonnes as against the sales of 2.87 million tonnes in the year-ago period.

“The second quarter of 2010-11 witnessed some best ever production and sales in various units of the steel company,” it added.

During the quarter under review, Tata Steel saw its saleable steel production surging by 6 per cent to 1.61 million tonnes against 1.51 million tonnes last year. For the half year period, the company saw production in the segment growing by 5 per cent to 3.2 million tonnes, as compared to the output in the first six months of the last financial year.

Tata Steel’s crude steel output for the second quarter of the current financial year surged 5 per cent to 1.72 million tonnes over the year-ago period. The company had produced 1.64 million tonnes of crude steel in July-September last financial year.

For first half of 2010-11, the crude steel production surged by 7 per cent to 3.35 million tonnes as against 3.14 million tonnes in the year-ago period.

The company said its hot metal production rose by 6 per cent in the second quarter to 1.89 mt. Tata Steel had a hot metal output of 1.79 mt of in the same period last year.

For the first half of the current financial year, Tata Steel saw production in the hot metal segment rising by 7 per cent to 3.72 million tonnes, as against 3.48 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year.