Indian state-owned steel producer Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended December 31 of the financial year 2019-20.
Accordingly, SAIL recorded a net loss of INR 4.29 billion ($60.19 million) compared to a net loss of INR 3.42 billion in the same quarter of the previous year due to decreasing sale prices. The company's net sales revenue amounted to INR 165.41 billion ($2.32 billion) in the third quarter, up 17.1 percent on year-on-year basis.
In the same period, the company’s production amounted to 3.9 million mt, rising by three percent year on year, while steel sales volumes in the third quarter reached 4.1 million mt, up by 26 percent compared to the third quarter of the previous year.
Meanwhile in the first nine months of the given financial year, the company registered a net loss of INR 7.03 billion ($98.57 million) compared to a net profit of INR 17.1 billion in the same period of the previous financial year. SAIL’s net sales revenue decreased by 6.1 percent to INR 454.89 billion ($6.37 billion) in the same period, year on year.
SAIL’s financial performance in the third quarter was affected by challenging market conditions and decreasing steel prices but the company made more efforts to improve process efficiencies and stabilize production at its new plants, while enriching its product basket and focusing on cost minimization, according to Shri Anil Kumar Chaudhary, SAIL’s chairman.
He further added, “Despite lower steel prices amidst stiff competition during the third quarter, we were able to achieve significant growth in sales and saleable steel production. With the recent improvement in the market conditions combined with the efforts towards cost reduction, we are hopeful of doing better in the fourth quarter”.