MUMBAI: Tata Steel on Friday said its net profit for the second quarter ended September 30 surged by 50.13 per cent at Rs 1,787.81 over the same period last year.
The firm had a net profit of Rs 1,190.83 crore in Q2 of fiscal 2008, Tata Steel said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Total income rose by 43.14 per cent to Rs 6,850.67 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 4,785.90 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
However, the scrip today touched a 52-week low of Rs 174.15 on the BSE, down 16.45 per cent over yesterday's close, amid a weak domestic market that plunged over eight per cent.
For the six months ended September 30, the world's sixth largest steel maker reported a net profit of Rs 3,276.21 crore, up 36 per cent over the year-ago period. The firm had a net profit of Rs 2,412.94 crore in the first six months of the previous fiscal.
Total income of the firm during first half of the current fiscal rose to Rs 13,016.36 crore from Rs 9,009.36 crore in the year-ago period.
Shares of Tata Steel were later trading at Rs 181.40, down 12.98 per cent on the BSE.
The company's cost have been higher in this quarter because of coal and coke prices, Tata Steel CFO Koushik Chatterjee said here.
The company entered into new contracts for coal and coke from July and the costs are reflected in this quarter, he said.
The company has paid 10 per cent of term loans in Corus books. There would be no short term or medium term payments till December 2009, he said.
Corus books had a term debt of Pounds 3 billion. "We have prepaid 10 per cent of the loans that is Pounds 300 million," Chatterjee said.
The company's pension fund at June-end was Pounds 690 million. By September end it went up by Pounds 100 million, he said. Now the pension fund stands at Pounds 790 million.
The company has a cash of Rs 1,500 crore to meet any liquidity requirements for the short term. It is meeting its capital expenditure through internal accruals, he said.
Going ahead, steel prices domestically would fall Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per tonne, the company said. Margins would soften, he added.
Steel demand from medium and heavy vehicle makers has gone down, he said. But the company does not see any slowdown of steel from cars and light commercial vehicle makers, he said.
