Net profit 147% to ₹1,735 Cr
NEW DELHI: State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) on Thursday reported a 147 per cent jump in its second quarter net profit on account of higher refinery margins and inventory gains.
Net profit in July-september at Rs 1,735 crore was 147 per cent higher than Rs 701 crore in the same period a year ago, HPCL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh K Surana told reporters here.
The company earned $7.61 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in the quarter as compared to $3.23 per barrel gross refining margin in the same period a year ago.
"Throughput at both our refineries totalled 4.64 million tonnes as compared to 4.04 million tonnes last year," he said.
Also, the company had an inventory gain of Rs 792 crore in the quarter as compared to an inventory loss of Rs 550 crore. Inventory gain accrues when a refinery buys crude oil at a particular price but by the time it is able to process it and turn it into fuel, the rates have gone up, helping it get higher price for the product. Inventory loss occurs when the reverse of this happens.
Gross sales increased to Rs 54,153 crore during July- September from Rs 47,750 crore in the same period last year.
"The increase in profit is due to higher crude throughput, better refinery margin, higher domestic market sales and inventory gains against inventory loss compared to the corresponding period of last year," he said.
During July-september 2017, the domestic sales of petroleum products increased 4.6 per cent to 8.37 million tonnes with petrol sales rising 7.1 per cent and diesel 4.4 per cent.
"HPCL continues to be No. 1 lube marketer of India and has become the first oil company from India to mark its presence in the lubricant market in Myanmar with launch of HP lubricants in two major cities of the country," he said.
Surana said as petrol, diesel and jet fuel (ATF) have been kept out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the company suffered a loss of Rs 90 crore as it was unable to take credit of tax paid on input.
HPCL'S joint venture refinery at Bathinda in Punjab has completed expansion of capacity to 11.25 million tonnes from 9 million tonnes previously.
He said the expansion of Mumbai and Vizag refineries are on track.
HPCL is investing Rs 20,928 crore in expanding its Visakh refinery in Andhra Pradesh from 8.33 million tonnes per annum to 15 million tonnes by July 2020. Also, the Mumbai refinery is being expanded to 9.5 million tonnes a year from current 7.5 million tonnes at a cost of Rs 4,199 crore. NEW DELHI: Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) registered 21% growth in net sales revenue which stood at Rs. 13,442 Crore for the second quarter of FY17-18 (Q2FY18) as against Rs. 11,080 in CPLY. SAIL'S emphasis on increasing the share of high value products in its basket has begun to positively influence revenue earnings.
SAIL recorded 4% growth in domestic sales in H1FY18 with 21% improvement in sales of high value products like Cold Rolled and galvanized products. There has also been a sizeable 30% improvement in sales of railway products during H1 FY18.
Registering positive EBITDA for the sixth consecutive quarter, SAIL achieved EBITDA of Rs. 967 Crore before exceptional expenses in Q2FY18, recording a growth of more than 400% against an EBITDA of Rs. 192 Crore during CPLY, and posting a cash profit pre-depreciation and exceptional items of Rs. 323 Crore in Q2FY18.
Notably, the EBITDA for Q2FY18 is higher than of the entire fiscal 16-17. SAIL'S EBITDA margin to net sales revenue ratio stands at 7.1% in Q2FY18 as against 1.7% in CPLY, indicating higher efficiencies across the production processes and value chain.
The Company reduced its losses by registering 26% improvement in PAT which stood at Rs 539 Crore in Q2FY18 as against Rs 732 crore over CPLY. Despite improved sales revenue, earnings were impacted by huge rise in imported coal price, which partially negated the higher accruals.
In order to neutralise the rise in input costs, the Company is continually ramping up production from new facilities.
SAIL'S operational performance also exhibited good numbers In Q2FY18, registering the highest ever quarterly saleable steel production at 3.659 Million Tonnes (MT) and surpassing the previous best of 3.626 MT achieved in Q4FY16-17, with growth of 5% over CPLY and 14% over preceding quarter in the current financial year. NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said it has asked state-owned SAIL and the world's largest steelmaker Arcelormittal to expedite setting up of their proposed joint venture for a Rs 5,000-crore auto-grade steel plant.
"I think they (both the parties) have set certain timelines. They are moving on those timelines. We have asked them to expedite it (the proposed joint venture)," Steel Joint Secretary Sunil Barthwal said here.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of India Steel Summit 2017 organised by Assocham. Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Arcelormittal in May 2015 entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore the possibility of setting up an autograde steel manufacturing facility under a joint venture in India.