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SAIL reported a 43 per cent dip in December quarter profits, dented by high coking coal costs, forex losses and lower sales. However, the company is bullish on March quarter prospects on a rebound in demand from construction and other segments.
Net profits for December quarter stood at Rs 632 crore against Rs 1,107 crore in the corresponding last year. Income for the quarter was lower by about 5 per cent at Rs 11,686 crore against Rs 12,276 crore in corresponding last quarter.
The SAIL board approved an interim dividend of Rs 1.2 per share on par value of Rs 10 each for fiscal 2011-12. The SAIL scrip ended 2.4 per cent lower at Rs 110.35 on the BSE on Monday.
“The high costs of hard and soft coking coal and indigenous coal impacted the profits by Rs 867 crore,” said SAIL Chairman, Mr C.S.Verma told reporters. The forex losses on account adverse impact of the weak Rupee stood at Rs 466 crore.
Volumes were down to 2.62 million tonnes during the quarter against 3.24 million tonnes. The average sales realisation was Rs 37,326 a tonne against Rs32,000 tonne in the corresponding last year. The sales were impacted on account of lower output due to shutdown of some plants for maintenance during the quarter.
However, Mr Verma is bullish on the outlook in the January-March quarter, which is the last quarter of the terminal year of the 11th Five Year Plan. “The demand is good and we see a brisk quarter. The prices are likely to remain firm over the next few months,” he said.
CAPEX for FY 13
SAIL has charted a capital expenditure plan of Rs 14,500 crore for 2012-13, an increase of 15 per cent over current year's Rs 12630 crore. SAIL is in advanced stages of a Rs 72,134 crore modernisation and expansion plan, which will increase its capacity to around 23.5 million tonne by March-2013, up from the present 14 mtpa.
“About half of the planned capex in 2012-13 will be funded through internal accruals and the rest through borrowings of Rs 7,000 crore,” Mr Verma said.
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