Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) aims to double its exports in the current financial year, said Chairman, Chandra Shekhar Verma.

Last year, SAIL exported about 3.3 lakh tonnes of steel, which is expected to touch about 7 lakh tonnes in the current year.

Currently, exports contribute about 3-4 per cent of our turnover. Last year, export revenues were around Rs 1,200 crore and it should go up to Rs 2,500 crore this year, Verma told media persons.

SAIL reported 35 per cent drop in its net profit at Rs 451 crore (Rs 696 crore) during April-June 2013.

The sharp decline in net sales realisation (NSR) of 10.9 per cent per tonne of steel in the quarter due to subdued market conditions adversely affected the profitability of SAIL, it said in a statement.

The Chairman said NSR reduced to Rs 35,077 a tonne in the first quarter of the current year against Rs 39,369 a tonne in the same quarter last year.

SAIL produced 6 per cent more saleable steel at 3.2 million tonnes (3.02 million tonnes) during the current quarter.

“SAIL’s first quarter net profit was better than our estimate on account of lower than expected raw material costs and higher than expected other income,” said Bhavesh Chauhan, Senior Research Analyst at Angel Broking.

The public sector steel manufacturer’s net sales decreased 5 per cent year-on-year to Rs 10,106 crore (lower than our estimate of Rs 10,452 cr). Its raw material costs and power and fuel costs declined by 6.4 per cent and 5.8 per cent to Rs 4,057 crore and Rs 1,153 crore, respectively, Angel Broking said.

However, staff costs grew by 15.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 2,295 crore, which resulted in its EBITDA declining by 36.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 967 crore.

The company has debts of Rs 23,300 crore as on June 30. Of this, Rs 11,588 crore is domestic loans, while remaining Rs 11,712 crore has been borrowed in foreign currencies.

>Siddhartha.s@thehindu.co.in

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