JSW Steel net up 1.48% at Rs 410.68 cr

BS 200 SCORECARD

JSW Steel reported 1.48 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 410.68 crore for the quarter ended March 2006 compared with Rs 404.14 crore in the same period last year.

Total sales was down 24 per cent at Rs 1,734.91 crore from Rs 2,292 crore. Profit before tax for the quarter stood at Rs 592.16 crore, down 10 per cent from Rs 659.33 crore in the year-ago period.

For the financial year ended March 2006, the company reported drop of 1.6 per cent in its net profit at Rs 856.53 crore from Rs 870.11 crore last year.

Total income was down 3.8 per cent to Rs 6,766 crore from Rs 7,035 crore.

"Though steel prices have come down by 12 per cent within a year, an annual cost reduction of 12 per cent and better volumes meant that EBIDTA was down by only 6.5 per cent," said Sajjan Jindal, vice-chairman and managing director.

Sales realisation was a quarterly fall of 12 per cent and on a yearly basis, fell by 27 per cent, added Seshagiri Rao,director"�finance.

The company repaid debt of Rs 1,014 crore during the year and the present long-term debt outstanding is Rs 3,878 crore. The interest cost for the year has come down by 23.3 per cent. The company declared a 80 per cent dividend.

The company expects to increase its crude steel capacity from 2.5 million tonne per annum to 3.8 million tonne per annum by the second quarter of the current financial year. The capacity in pellet plant will be expanded by 0.8 million tonne per annum and will be completed by end June 2006.

Among its new projects, the one million tonne cold rolling complex is expected to be operational in the first half of FY08. The company has charted out plans to expand the capacity of crude steel from 3.8 to 6.8 million tonne per annum.