JSW Steel lost nearly all of its bottomline in the December quarter, bearing the brunt of a high base and low commodity prices during the period.

The company's net profit of Rs 474 crore was 90 percent lower than the Rs 4,516 crore during the same period last year. The figure was also nearly half of the CNBC-TV18 poll projection of Rs 990 crore.

Overall topline for the company stood at Rs 39,134 crore, a growth of 3 percent from last year, but below a CNBC-TV18 poll of Rs 40,700 crore.

On the operating front, the company's EBITDA as well as margin halved when compared to the same period last year. The company's operating performance was dented by higher expenses, which rose 20 percent year-on-year, and a 42 percent jump in finance costs.

The company had recently released its December quarter update, where Indian operations had grown 20 percent to 6.06 million tonnes, while total combined volumes increased 17 percent to 6.24 million tonnes. On a sequential basis, the metrics increased 9 percent and 17 percent respectively.

Average capacity utilisation for the quarter has been at 91 percent, compared to 84 percent during the September quarter.

Financial performance for the company was better sequentially, on expected lines, mainly due to lower coking coal prices.

The company expects the reopening in China and declining global inflation to provide growth tailwinds in the second half of the calendar year. "Despite a challenging global economic scenario, healthy steel demand growth is expected in India, which should aid the company's performance in the coming quarters," the management said in a statement.

On expected lines, most of JSW Steel's subsidiaries remained loss-making during the quarter, including Bhushan Power and Steel. Although, barring JSW Steel Coated Products and JSW Steel USA Ohio Inc., most of the others reported an operating profit during the quarter.

JSW Steel informed that the 5 MTPA brownfield expansion at Vijayanagar is progressing well and civil works are underway at the site. The project is likely to be completed by the end of financial year 2024.

The Phase-II expansion at Bhushan Power and Steel from 3.5 MTPA to 5 MTPA also remains on track to be completed by financial year 2024.

During the quarter, the company spent Rs 4,114 crore as capex. For the first nine months, total capex stood at Rs 10,707 crore, as against the revised capex guidance of Rs 15,000 crore.

First Published:Jan 20, 2023 3:54 PM IST