Tata Group-owned Tata Steel on Wednesday said under global subdued demand in steel consuming industries and increasing steel imports from China, it has incurred a consolidated loss of Rs.3,926 crores in 2014-15 compared to a profit of Rs.3,596 crore in 2013-14.
Even as its net consolidated revenues declined by 6.1 percent at Rs.139,504 crore during the period under review against Rs.148,614 crore in 2013-14, steel deliveries also fell marginally to 26.32 million tonnes during 2014-15 against 26.56 million tonnes in 2013-14.
"It has been a very challenging year for the steel industry with several macro headwinds at play. Steel realisations fell sharply during the second half of the year due to the deluge of imports combined with sluggish domestic demand. In addition, our performance was impacted by mining disruptions during the year," managing director T.V. Narendran said in a statement.
According to the company, the Indian steel industry witnessed subdued demand across steel-consuming industries.
"There was a surge in low priced imports especially from China, Japan and Korea, which led to a sharp correction in steel prices especially during the last few months of the year," the statement said.
The turnover from its Indian operations during the fiscal stood nearly flat at Rs.41,785 crores compared to Rs.41,711 crores in 2013-14.
It said the volume output in its European operations was stable during 2014-15 despite being constrained by demand and operational issues but a lower turnover resulted from reduced sales prices.
"Sales of new products surged 16 percent by volume and the company raised the total of new products in its portfolio to 113 by the end of the fiscal year 2015," it said.
The European market yielded the company a turnover of Rs.79,878 crore in 2014-15 versus Rs. 84,666 crore in the previous year.
Like the Indian market, its south-east Asian (SEA) operations were affected by weak demand and a contraction in the rebar-scrap product category on the back of a significant increase in Chinese imports.
Although the company's deliveries increased at NatSteel's operations in Singapore, it declined in China.
Its turnover during 2014-15 from SEA declined to Rs.13,048 crore compared to Rs.16,988 crore in 2013-14.
"Performance of the SEA operations was also impacted by higher imports and lower market spreads," Narendran said.
Group's executive director of finance and corporate, Koushik Chatterjee said surging imports, declining commodity prices, muted demand and regulatory uncertainties in its captive mining operations to have impacted the company's performance in the fiscal in India.
"We spent Rs.13,492 crore on capex during the year, with a large proportion deployed on the greenfield Kalinganagar project (in Odisha). Despite this significant spend, we were able to keep the gross debt level stable over the year. The company's liquidity remains strong at Rs. 21,000 crores including undrawn lines," he said.
During the fourth quarter of the fiscal, the company has suffered a loss amounting to Rs.5,674 crore compared to a profit of Rs.1,036 crore during the corresponding timeframe last year.
Its net consolidated revenues, during the aforesaid period, also went down nearly by 21 percent at Rs.33,666 crore against Rs.42,428 crore in the same period last year.
