• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram , Aug. 9

THE Kerala State Textile Corporation (KSTC) is set to turn around after being in the red for a decade.

The three mills under the corporation made a cash profit of Rs 12.18 lakh in July this year and, according to Mr Jacob Joseph, Managing Director, it is for the first time since 1994 that KSTC has made a profit.

During the month, Kottayam Textiles and Prabhram Mills, two of the mills under the corporation, made profits. The corporation had incurred a cash loss of Rs 28.18 lakh during the same month last year.

The mills recorded 36 per cent increase in value of production, from Rs 2.4 crore to Rs 3.27 crore, in July 2004 as compared to the same month last year. The raw material expenditure vis-à-vis production value came down to 52.51 per cent from 59.21 per cent, while the ratio in respect of expenditure on wages declined to 15.26 per cent from 18.72 per cent.

Mr Jacob Joseph said that though the situation in the yarn market had turned favourable for the industry since the presentation of the Union Budget for 2004-05, the same was partially offset by an increase in the price of cotton.

Despite this, the corporation could achieve profit on account of improved operational efficiency and higher capacity utilisation.

The mills were now operating at 90-92 per cent capacity utilisation and at this rate, the third mill under the corporation, namely, Edarikode Textiles, would also make a net profit in the current month, he said.

In the first three months of the current year, the operating loss of the three mills had come down to Rs 8.47 lakh from Rs 53.29 lakh in the corresponding period last year. The average capacity utilisation during the period was 87.84 per cent, while the productivity was at 73 grams.

Mr Jacob Joseph said that if the operations continued at this level, the corporation could achieve higher profits in the current year.

More Stories on : PSU | Kerala | Textiles

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
IMD project to finetune weather forecasting

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line