The Hindu Business Line : Essar Steel full-year income up 4.4 pc

Essar Steel, part of the $6-billion Essar group, reported an increase in income by 4.4 per cent in 2005-06 even as the company completed its integration programme during the last financial year.

Also, the company is expected to complete capacity expansion to 4.6 million tonnes by December this year.

Hy Grade Pellets Ltd and Steel Corporation Gujarat Ltd were merged with Essar Steellast year. The eight million tonnes per annum iron ore beneficiation plant at Bailadilla (Chhattisgarh), the 267-km-long slurry pipeline and the doubling of capacity to eight million tonnes at the pellet plant at Visakhapatnam were also completed during the year, the company said in a release here.

The integration and strict cost-management enabled the company to emerge among the lowest cost producers of steel in the world.

Product portfolio

With the 1.2-million-tonne cold rolling complex operating at near full capacity, Essar Steel's product portfolio now addresses the high value, discerning customer profile in the automotive, white goods, construction, general engineering and ship-building industries, the release said.

Essar Steel, which exported 0.69 million tonnes, received the top national and regional exporters' trophy from the Engineering Export Promotion Council.

Essar Steel said its most important achievement was the refinancing and repayment of the entire CDR debt. The company's net worth has gone up from Rs 1,725 crore to Rs 4,032 crore. The company reported a total income of Rs 6,390.72 crore (net of excise) for the last financial year (Rs 6,121.27 crore), an increase of 4.4 per cent.

It recorded a satisfactory performance in a market that saw prices falling by as much as $150 per tonne, the release added.