On January 27, Indian steelmaker Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) issued its unaudited financial results covering the October-December period of 2009 or the third quarter of the financial year 2009-10 (FY 2009-10).
The company reported a net profit of Rupees 16.76 billion ($362 million), marking an improvement of 99 percent over the corresponding period of last year. The company's net turnover during Q3 was Rupees 96.97 billion ($2.06 billion), 11 percent higher year on year.
In volume terms, sales at 2.9 million mt during the quarter were 24.5 percent higher than in Q3 of the year before. The lower growth in turnover as compared to volume growth was primarily due to the 12 percent year-on-year drop in the value of sales in Q3.
The substantially improved Q3 performance helped SAIL to keep its net profit for the first nine months (April-December) of FY 2009-10 at Rupees 46.69 billion ($1 billion), merely 0.4 percent lower year on year. In spite of sales growth of 14 percent in volume terms during April-December of 2009, the net turnover of Rupees 285.96 billion ($6.17 billion) for this period was about nine percent lower year on year, primarily on account of the drop in the value of sales.