Tata Steel Q2 net profit up three-fold to Rs 3,116 cr

Tata Steel Tuesday posted a three-fold surge in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,116.2 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2018, led by robust operational performance.

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,017.7 crore in the year-ago period, Tata Steel said in a BSE filing.

The consolidated income of the company in the July-September period increased to Rs 43,898.53 crore from Rs 32,675.5 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

"Tata Steel Group has delivered extremely strong results this quarter driven by robust operational performance and favourable business conditions in India. This quarter, despite a seasonally weaker period, we sold 4.32 million tonnes across Tata Steel standalone and Bhushan Steel. This demonstrates our strong customer relationships and the strength of our marketing franchise," Company's CEO and Managing Director T V Narendran said.

"We continue to work on our strategy of increasing our Indian footprint as we ramp up operations at Bhushan Steel and implement our 5 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) expansion at Tata Steel Kalinganagar," he said.

In line with this, the company has also signed definitive agreements to acquire the one MTPA steel business of Usha Martin which will strengthen Tata Steel's capability in longs products, Narendran said.

"We are making good progress on the TSE ThyssenKrupp JV. We are in discussions with the European Commission for the phase II review which typically takes 90 days. While we are positive on steel demand outlook especially in India, the risk of trade wars and increasing imports remains a concern," he said.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 589.15 a piece on the BSE, up 1.07 per cent from the previous close.