• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

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

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

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

Our Bureau

Kolkata, July 18 Riding high on rising prices, Tata Metaliks reported 31.7 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 20.23 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, up from Rs 15.36 crore during the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The net sales for the quarter rose by 48.9 per cent at Rs 314.55 crore (Rs 211.28 crore).

“Higher prices contributed to the growth in sales value, though the volume remained almost at the same levels,” said Mr Harsh K. Jha, Managing Director, speaking to newspersons after the 18th Annual General Meeting of the company, here.

Tata Metaliks expects a revenue growth of 15-20 per cent in 2008-09 due to firming up of pig iron prices. The pig iron prices were expected to remain stable at the current Rs 3,500 a tonne, he said. The total revenues of the company were at Rs 1,185 crore in 2007-08, according to Mr H.M. Nerurkar Chairman.

The company’s board approved an investment of Rs 75 crore over a period of two years for setting up a sinter plant in Kharagpur. The company plans to diversify into the manufacture of small and medium sized castings to cater to automotives and engineering industry.

“We have the necessary expertise; we will now have to figure out how to go about it. We are hopeful of finalizing a concrete plan and the investments required in the next five-to-six months,” said Mr Nerurkar, refusing to give further details.

The Chairman identified Kharagpur as a possible location for the castings plant. The ductile iron pipe plant in joint venture with Japan-based Kubota Corp is expected to start operations by early 2009, he said.

To meet the drop in demand for the company’s products caused by the present inflationary situation, Tata Metaliks, according to Mr Nerurkar, was adopting various cost reduction strategies including broad-basing the customer base.

“We’re hopeful of tiding over the crisis,” he said adding that the company was studying the impact of inflation on its greenfield projects also.

Expressing concern over the rising input costs, he pointed out that the prices of iron ore and coal, the two principal raw materials, have gone up by 65 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.

More Stories on : Steel

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

Stories in this Section
UltraTech Q1 net profit rises 2 pc, sales up 10%

Copyright © 2008, 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