Tata Steel on Wednesday reported a net profit of Rs 758.84 crore for the September 2024 quarter, helped by lower expenses.
It had posted a net loss of Rs 6,511.16 crore in the July-September period of the preceding 2023-24 fiscal, the company said in an exchange filing.
The company's total income, however, fell to Rs 54,503.30 crore during the second quarter against Rs 55,910.16 crore in the same period a year ago.
Tata Steel reduced its expenses to Rs 52,331.58 crore from Rs 55,853.35 crore in the year-ago quarter.
In a separate statement, Tata Steel CEO and MD TV Narendran said the global operating environment remained complex, with key regions facing subdued growth.
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Macroeconomic conditions in China continued to weigh on commodity prices, including steel. In India, steel demand continued to improve, but domestic prices were under pressure due to cheap imports, he added.
"We have signed the grant funding agreement with the UK government and are progressing on the proposed transition to green steel," Narendran said.
In the Netherlands, deliveries stood at 1.5 million tonnes and subdued steel prices weighed on performance. "We are undertaking pilot projects to avoid or convert captured carbon emissions," he said.
As per the statement, Tata Steel has spent Rs 4,806 crores on capital expenditure during the quarter and Rs 8,583 crores for the April-September period this fiscal.
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The company's net debt stood at Rs 88,817 crore. Its group liquidity remained strong at Rs 26,028 crore, which includes cash and cash equivalents of Rs 10,575 crore.
In the UK, the remaining blast furnace at Port Talbot was closed to pave the way for the next generation of green steelmaking.
During the quarter, Tata Steel UK revenues were 600 million pounds, and EBITDA loss stood at 147 million pounds. Liquid steel production was 0.39 million tonnes, while deliveries were 0.63 million tonnes.
Revenues from the Netherlands operations were 1,300 million pounds, and EBITDA for the quarter was 22 million pounds. Liquid steel production at 1.66 million tonnes and deliveries at 1.50 million tonnes.
"In September 2024, India’s largest blast furnace at Kalinganagar plant was commissioned. With the ramp-up of Kalinganagar facilities, the crude steel capacity will increase to 26.6 MTPA," the company said.
Koushik Chatterjee, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer at Tata Steel, said, "We have placed equipment orders for our 0.85 MTPA Electric Arc Furnace plant in Ludhiana. Our performance in the UK and Netherlands was adversely impacted by the compression in steel spreads. Further, the UK was also weighed by the transitory nature of operations as the blast furnaces were safely decommissioned, and steel stock was built up to operate downstream".
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