By IANS,
Kolkata : Speciality steel and wire rope manufacturer Usha Martin posted a net consolidated profit of Rs.185.34 crore in 2008-09, up 5.7 percent from Rs.175.39 crore in 2007-08, a top company official said here Tuesday.
“This is the highest net profit in the history of the company. The turnover grew by 24.5 percent to Rs.3,146.79 crore and net sales grew 27.8 percent to Rs.2,949.85 crore in 2008-09,” Usha Martin managing director Rajeev Jhawar said at a media briefing.
Wire ropes sales have constituted 50 percent of the total revenue, he said.
For the fourth quarter (January-March) of 2008-09, net consolidated profit stood at Rs.28.83 crore, an almost 43 percent decline from the Rs.50.52 crore in the corresponding period the previous fiscal.
Citing the reason behind the steep decline, Jhawar said: “The results were adversely impacted by Rs.10.96 crore for the quarter and Rs.78.32 crore for year ended March 31, 2009 due to revaluation of long term foreign currency loans because of rapid depreciation of the rupee.”
Talking about the Rs.1,683-crore capacity expansion programme of the company, he said Usha Martin commissioned four “important” plants this fiscal so far.
“A 30 MW power plant, a bloom mill, the second direct reduction iron (DRI), and the wire rod mill that was shut down for 24 days for increasing the capacity from 300,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes, have started production.”
The company now has a manufacturing capacity of 700,000 tonnes, he said, adding: “We hope to touch 900,000 tonne-capacity by the end of the current fiscal.”
Usha Martin undertook the expansion plan to ramp up steel production capacity to one million tonnes at its Jamshedpur plant.
Two more projects – a sinter plant and a blast furnace – will be commissioned by December-January.
The company has manufacturing facilities at Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Hoshiarpur in India, apart from units in Britain, Thailand, the UAE and the US, with a marketing network spread across the US, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia and Australia.
Its global exports stood at Rs.650 crore in 2008-09, up from around Rs.450 crore in 2007-08.