Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) – India’s 2nd largest steel making company in terms of production announced its quarterly results for Q1 FY18 on 14 Aug’17. The company reported EBITDA of INR 23 crore in Q1 FY18 against INR 143 crore in Q4 FY17.
Company’s crude steel production was recorded at 3.31 MnT in Q1 FY18.
Below are the key highlights that we learnt from SAIL’s investor conference call conducted:
1. Flat steel prices to increase further in September – After raising flat steel prices by about INR 1500/MT in August, the company plans to further raise the prices by INR 1600-1900/MT (USD 25-30/MT) in September. It had raised steel prices in July too but increase in flat steel was higher than that in long steel. Higher raw material prices like iron ore and coking coal have resulted in uptrend in steel prices apart from costlier imports.
2. Sets finished steel production guidance at 16-16.5 MnT in FY18 – The company has laid guidance for finished steel production at 16-16.5 MnT in FY18 and sales guidance around 15 MnT . The company has also laid finished steel production guidance of 18 MnT for FY19 and 19 MnT for FY20. Production figures include inter plant transfers.
3. Less interested in NMDC steel plant disinvestment – SAIL looked less interested in disinvestment of NMDC Chhattisgarh steel plant with capacity of 3 MnT pa and it expects the steel plant to become operational only by FY20.
4. Saleable steel sales up 7% Y-o-Y – The steel maker recorded its saleable steel sales of 3.03 MnT in Q1 FY18, against 2.8 MnT in Q1 FY17.
5. Saleable steel production at 3.2 MnT in Q1 FY18 – In Q1 FY18, SAIL recorded saleable steel production at 3.2 MT, down by 7% Y-o-Y.
6. Operations at ICVL to resume shortly – SAIL is shortly to resume operations at ICVL (International Coal Ventures Ltd) which will add to coking coal supplies to the company.
Leave a Reply