Mumbai: Tata Steel, India’s biggest steel producer has reported a
mild growth of 8.11 percent in its net profit for the three months
period ended September 30, 2007, on the back of advanced metal sales
and forex gains.

The company’s net profit during the second quarter stood at Rs
1,190.83 crore, as against Rs 1,101.49 crore in the same quarter of
last fiscal.

The company has recorded 14.31% increase in its quarterly net sales
to Rs 47,850.90 million from Rs 41,857.50 million in the corresponding
quarter, a year ago.

Healthy demand from construction and the automobile industry and slumping Chinese exports kept steel costs strong.

Tata Steel has big expectations from this year’s $13 billion purchase of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group.

Total income gained 11.83% to Rs 48,794.10 million in the second
quarter as compared to Rs 43,629.80 million for the same period last
year.

The earnings per share (EPS) for the period under review stood at Rs 19.55.

The company’s interest costs during the second quarter reached Rs
202.15 crore, which was shown in the company’s net profit margin that
descended to 24.8 percent in the same period to 26.3%.

Its total expenditure increased to Rs 2,725 crore from Rs 2,480 crore during the same quarterly period of the last year.

The raw materials consumption in the second quarter valued at Rs
799.86 crore. The steel production remained flat at 1.2 million in
comparison to the year ago quarter. But, the exports reached to $146
million from $116.99 million, during the last year’s period.