The quarter saw the amalgamation of the full years' result of Southern Iron and Steel Company (Siscol) with that of the quarter of JSW Steel following the approval of the amalgamation by the Bombay High Court.
Net sales of JSW for the quarter was up 68 per cent at Rs 4,189 crore as compared to Rs 2,486 crore posted in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Siscol reported a net turnover (included in JSW's net sales for Q4) of Rs 1,064 crore for the year.
Despite a robust growth in JSW's net turnover during the quarter, price reduction in the market in an effort to ease general inflationary pressure, led to a nominal increase in the company's bottom line.
Sajjan Jindal, VC and MD, JSW Steel, said, "The EBIDTA squeeze was felt in the last quarter even as net sales grew robustly. All steel players had decided to moderate price increase and absorb the raw material costs."
Standalone net profit of the company for the year stood at Rs 1,728 crore, up 33 per cent as compared to Rs 1,292 crore posted in the previous year. Net sales for the same period was at Rs 11,420 crore as against Rs 8,699 crore.
"There will be a substantial squeeze on our EBIDTA margins for the rest of this year but we will try to mitigate that by expanding our capacity. During the year we will try to increase volume growth, increase product mix, improve operational efficiency and also integrate company through raw material. Our iron ore mine in Chile will be operational by 2009", added Jindal.
Due to duties levied by the government on exports to cool-off high domestic steel prices, JSW will bring down its exports by as much 10-15 per cent of total sales from 26 per cent currently or 948,000 tonne. However a company official declined to elaborate on the company's move if the government decides to slash duties during the year.
The company however is bullish on the expected demand from the domestic market for steel as the it will grow at 12-14 per cent but the capacity addition during the year by steel producers will be less than 5 per cent.
The company's stock closed at Rs 898.65, down by 1.90 per cent as against its Friday's close of Rs 916.05 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
