Steelmaker Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) on Thursday posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,432.20 crore for the quarter ended December 2020, mainly on account of increased income. The company had recorded a net loss of Rs 257.36 crore during the same quarter a year ago, JSPL said in a BSE filing.

VR Sharma, MD of the company said that they were confident of holding EBITDA per tonne above Rs 13,000.

“EBITDA is basically a cumulative factor of what kind of value addition you are doing right from iron pellets to the finished goods. We are a steel company for the infrastructure and most of the product line is a very high value added line. So, we are expecting EBITDA should be always more than Rs 13,000 a tonne in years to come also,” he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

He also said that in Q3 they have consumed more than 1 million per tonne stock from Sarda Mines. He further added that another 3 million per tonne was still available for consumption in Q4 and Q1 next year.

Sharma said that the Q3 numbers were boosted by sales in value added products. He also said that the strong EBITDA was driven purely by operational performance and there were no one-offs.

“The overall quantity, what we produced and sold, is the highest ever. We have also done a lot of value addition and the company is now working on the value engineering and value addition philosophy,” he said.

He said that Indian steel markets have been witnessing strong demand in the export market. He also said that the current steel prices are stable.

“The prices are stable at the moment and steel is being pulled by European markets. So there is substantial export going out of India. Countries like Italy, France, Germany, and Denmark are importing quantities in bulk. This is the reason that all of the domestic suppliers are busy in exporting steel to Europe. Simultaneously, there is big demand from Taiwan and Vietnam. So, east and west, both sides the demand is pretty high,” he said.

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(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)