Structural steel tubes and pipes manufacturing company APL Apollo Tubes witnessed 30% year-on-year (YoY) growth in the first half of 2023-24 fiscal, is looking at the same growth momentum in the second half as well, Deepak Goyal, Director of Operation and Group CFO said on October 31.

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“In the past, we have also seen that H2 is better than H1. However, due to festival season spend, there is some fear of price corrections. There is some softness in the first half of quarter three. After that, demand will very sharply pick up. We will maintain our volume guidance of 2.8 to 3 million tonnes for FY24,” he told CNBC-Tv18 in an exclusive interaction.

Goyal explained that in October-November, there is some pricing pressure and softness in demand as regional sale prices are slightly low.

APL Apollo Tubes Group CFO’s remarks come a day after the steel products maker posted around 35% growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 202.87 crore for the September quarter 2023-24, helped by higher income. It had clocked a net profit of Rs 150.19 crore in the July-September period of 2022-23.

The firm’s total income rose to Rs 4,650.01 crore from Rs 3,980.81 crore a year ago. Expenses were at Rs 4,373.35 crore as against Rs 3,778.55 crore. Headquartered in Delhi-NCR, APL Apollo operates 11 manufacturing facilities at various locations in India with a total capacity of 3.6 million tonnes.

Reflecting on whether there is any demand pressure due to upcoming elections, Goyal said “We are very bullish due to the elections because before polls begin, many government orders and very good demand for the project segments will come up.”

Goyal also highlighted that in the second of the financial year, APL Apollo Tube Group’s volume utilisation is 40% and will gradually ramp up. By FY25, the company shall achieve 80-85% capacity utilisation at the Raipur unit, he said.

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