Tata Chemicals, the fertiliser and chemicals arm of Tata Group, today posted over two-fold jump in net profit to Rs 275 crore for the second quarter of 2011-12 fiscal on the back of higher growth.
Net profit of the company had stood at Rs 127 crore in the same period last year.
"This was a good quarter for the company as all the verticals have shown sound growth in demand," Managing Director of the company, R Mukundan, told reporters here.
Mukundan said the company had posted the current profit numbers despite an impact of Rs 47 crore towards MTM (mark to market) on account of currency fluctuations.
Net sales of the company rose by 19.7% to Rs 3,571 crore during the period compared to Rs 2,983.53 crore reported in the same period last year.
During the last quarter, the EBIDTA margin for the firm stood at 18.9%.
"While margin for the soda ash segment was around 20%, the fertiliser posted above 10% margin in the domestic market," Mukundan said, adding that rising input cost had some adverse impact on the profitability.
Cost of inputs like imported coal and limestone had gone up by 18% on year-on-year basis for domestic business, most of which had been passed on to the consumer, he added.
Referring to the slowdown in the domestic economy, he said that barring demand for glasses in automotive and construction sector, there would not be much impact on other verticals like fertiliser.
"Despite economic turmoil in the euro zone, demand for our products in overseas market in the US, the UK and Kenya remained strong," he said.