Tata Steel Plunges On Poor Quarterly Results

Business

oi-Sunil

By Sunil Fernandes

Updated: Monday, February 9, 2015, 10:32 [IST]

Shares in Tata Steel fell sharply by almost three per cent after the company's results lagged estimates. The stock was last trading at Rs 359 on the National Stock Exchange.

Tata Steel's reported a dismal set of numbers for the third quarter with earnings badly missing estimates as weaknesses in Indian and European markets continued to weigh on the company's performance.

The company's net profit touched just Rs 157 cores for the quarter ending Dec 31, 2014, as against Rs 1254 crores witnessed in the previous quarter.

The turnover also declined to Rs 33,633 crores from Rs 35,777 crores seen in the previous quarter.

"During the quarter, the Indian business faced strong market headwinds in terms of weak steel demand and a surge in low priced imports, which led to significant softening of the domestic steel prices. In addition, regulatory challenges led to disruptions in our mining operations.

Despite all these challenges, deliveries remained steady in a weak environment and crude steel production increased marginally with the best ever Q3 production at the Pellet Plant, the New Bar Mill, the Wire Rod Mill and the Cold Rolling Mill," the company said in a release.

Hot metal and crude steel production totalled 2.38 million tonnes and 2.29 million tonnes respectively in Q3 FY‟15, while saleable steel production increased to 2.22 million tonnes.

Deliveries in 9M FY‟15 increased to 6.34 million tonnes versus 6.11 million tonnes in 9M FY‟14. Q3 FY‟15 deliveries increased to 2.13 million tonnes versus 2.11 million tonnes in Q2 FY‟15 and 2.07 million tonnes in Q3 FY‟14.

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