Lloyds Steel Sales Up 37 Per Cent

Addressing the 26th annual general meeting, chairman R N Gupta told shareholders that though the demand for flat products continue to be good, the company saw a threat in the form of increased supply and competition. Besides, the increase in power tariffs meant an additional burden of about Rs 30 crore a year.

Owing to the slack in international prices, increased supply and competition, increases in input costs cannot be passed on to customers immediately, Gupta said, adding that the factor is expected to be a major dampener in the coming years as it will have a direct bearing on the margins.

 

Explaining the reason for a high interest burden of Rs 101.61 crore, compared with Rs 29.73 crore in the previous year, Gupta said the increase was primarily due to the full year's interest on borrowings for the HRC project and the commissioned portion of the forward integration project being charged on the profit-and-loss account as against capitalisation of interest up to commissioning of the project during the last year.