On February 16, Indian steel giant Tata Steel (Tata) announced its financial results for the first nine months and for the third quarter of the financial year 2009-10 (FY 2009-10).
Tata posted a net profit of $102 million in Q3 FY 2009-10, dropping 42 percent compared with a profit of $175 million in the same period of the last financial year. When the same periods are compared, the company's sales revenues fell 21 percent from $7.13 billion to $5.63 billion. The company posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $731 million in Q3 FY 2009-10, increasing 14 percent compared with a profit of $644 million in the same period of FY 2008-09.
Group deliveries during Q3 FY 2009-10 at 6.21 million mt were down three percent from 6.02 million mt in Q3 FY 2008-09.
The company posted a net loss of $955 million in the first nine months of FY 2009-10, compared with a net profit of $2.04 billion in the corresponding period of the last financial year. When the same periods are compared, the company's sales revenues fell 38 percent from $26 billion to $16.1 billion. The company posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $861 million in the first nine months of FY 2009-10, dropping 79 percent compared with a profit of $4.04 billion in the same period of FY 2008-09.
Group deliveries during the first nine months of FY 2009-10 at 17.77 million mt were down 21 percent from 22.53 million mt in the same period of FY 2008-09.
Commenting on the results, Tata Steel Europe MD and CEO Kirby Adams stated, "Trading conditions in Europe remain tough and margin improvement programs continue. The weakness in the construction sector is a challenge for all long products producers, while the recovery in strip product demand remains moderate and heavily influenced by European GDP growth, government stimulus programs and automobile production."
Also speaking on the results, Tata Steel MD Hemant Nerurkar said, "We have recently been producing at beyond our new capacity level and are well placed to take advantage of the growth in Indian steel demand, which this year is predicted to be very robust at eight percent. Our operations in Southeast Asia are also in a good position to benefit from the accelerating recovery in the rest of Asia."