A demand slump in Europe saw Tata Steel’s operations being adversely affected, resulting in the company reporting a consolidated loss of Rs. 763.06 crore in the third quarter of 2012-13 against a loss of Rs. 602.67 crore in the same period last year.
During the quarter, consolidated net sales fell 3.5 per cent to Rs. 31,821.5 crore though operating profit was higher at Rs. 2,252 crore (Rs. 2,023 crore).
Addressing a teleconference, Koushik Chatterjee, Group CFO, Tata Steel, said, “there is no magic bullet, and we have to ride out the short-term because of the situation in Europe.
“We are working on measures for cost saving and increasing productivity.”
For the nine months ended December 2012, Tata Steel reported a consolidated loss of Rs. 529.11 crore against a profit of Rs. 4,956 crore in the same period of the previous year. Last year’s figure included one-off gains of around Rs. 4,050 crore. Group consolidated turnover was up at Rs. 1,00,061 crore (Rs 98,901 crore), operating profit was Rs. 8,286 crore (Rs. 10,114 crore) and net debt was around $ 10.5 billion.
Sliding demand was a key problem for European steelmakers in 2012, and this was reflected in the December quarter deliveries. The European operations reported an operating loss of Rs. 428 crore in the third quarter compared to a loss of R.s 781 crore in the same period last year. Deliveries were 3.02 million tonnes (3.35 million tonnes).
