Tata Steel back in black with Rs 4,010 cr profit in Oct-Dec

Tata Steel swung back into black in the October-December quarter posting a consolidated profit of Rs 4,010.94 crore for the quarter on the back of increased income.

The company had clocked a loss of Rs 1,228.53 crore in the year ago quarter, Tata Steel said in a BSE filing.

During the October-December period of the current fiscal, its total income rose to Rs 39,809.05 crore from Rs 35,613.34 crore a year ago.

Its expenses were at Rs 34,183.18 crore, lower from Rs 35,849.92 crore in October-December 2019-20.

Tata Steel Ltd has already exceeded its annual debt reduction target of $1 bln by more than double between AprDec, and plans to keep this momentum going in the current quarter.

The steel major has reduced net debt by around $2.55 bln or about 186.09 bln rupees in the nine months of the fiscal year, and intends to bring down its gross debt by more than 120 bln rupees in Jan-Mar.

Tata Steel had gross debt of 1.09 trln rupees as of Dec-end, and net debt of 861.70 bln rupees.

It has cut net debt by 103.25 bln rupees, and gross debt by 56.40 bln rupees in the December quarter, helped by strong profitability at its operations in India.

The company reported its earnings for the December quarter after market hours on Tuesday, and its shares closed at 699.20 rupees on the NSE, down 0.5% from the previous close.

Tata Steel will restart work at its pellet plant and cold roll mill in Kalinganagar, which were originally scheduled to be commissioned this year.

In June last year, the steel-maker had said its capital expenditure in the current fiscal will be at least 50% lower than that of 2019-20 (Apr-Mar).