JSW Steel Q4 net profit plunges 87 pc; plans Rs 9,000 cr capex

JSW Steel today reported an 87 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 62.38 crore in the March quarter due to high cost of production, higher imports and uncompetitive exports.
The company has, however, chalked out capex plan of Rs 9,000 crore to expand its brownfield capacities.
The company's net income fell by 12 per cent to Rs 12,599.70 crore in the January-March period of the 2014-15 fiscal from Rs 14,342.41 crore in a year-ago.
The company's bottom line was cushioned by the Rs 112 crore write back in the March quarter.
The quarterly performance was also hit due to fall in revenues from steel, power and other business segments.

"The cost of production for steel in the domestic market is not coming down, rupee has depreciated less than other global currencies, imports remained high and exports become uncompetitive. All this has reflected in the performance," JSW Steel Managing Director and Group Chief Financial Officer Seshagiri Rao told reporters here.

During the quarter, JSW reported crude steel production as well as saleable steel sales volume of 3.06 million tonnes.
However, for the year ended March 31, JSW Steel reported over three-fold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,796.57 crore from Rs 451.95 crore in the 2013-14.
The company's total income grew by 3.4 per cent to Rs 52,971.51 crore from Rs 51,219.62 crore in the said period.

"The company was able to partly offset the headwind of intensifying price competition from surging imports with product mix enrichment," Rao said.
He said that ramping up of new downstream facilities led to the share of value-added products in overall volumes improving to 33 per cent during 2014-15.
Going ahead, the company has planned a capex of Rs 9,000 crore for the next two years with brownfield expansion worth Rs 5,200 crore in the current fiscal, Rao said.
The company's capacity will increase from 14.3 million tonnes to 18 million tonnes in the next two years period.