Tata Steel today said its consolidated net loss has come down to Rs 3,213.76 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2016, from Rs 5,702.28 crore in the same period last year.
Total consolidated income of the firm, however, fell by 12 per cent to Rs 29,507.55 crore in January-March quarter of 2015-16, against Rs 33,666.18 crore during the same quarter of 2014-15.
The net loss includes a non-cash write down of Rs 1,724.18 crore of the fixed assets mainly relating to the European assets, the firm said.
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However, the net loss in the latest quarter was higher than Rs 2,127.23 crore loss reported in the previous October-December quarter.
Steel deliveries for the March quarter were lower at 6.94 million tonnes (MT) against 7.06 MT in the year-ago period.
Kalinganagar Steel Plant started commercial production and the stabilisation process is currently underway, the firm said adding that it has declared an equity dividend of Rs 8 per share.
"Exceptional items comprise redundancy provisions of Rs 441 crore in Tata Steel Europe and non-cash impairment in some of the downstream businesses in Tata Steel Europe and Tata Steel Minerals Canada," the firm said.
During 2015-16, Tata Steel undertook a restructuring exercise involving 2,950 employees, it added.
Tata Steel incurred a capex of Rs 11,486 crore in 2015-16 of which around Rs 3,695 crore was spent on the Kalinganagar greenfield project.
The firm's liquidity position remains strong with Rs 20,514 crore of cash and cash equivalents including drawn and undrawn bank lines.
It continued to divest its non-core assets and raised about Rs 4,478 crore through monetisation of same.
"Given the challenging situation faced in Europe, the company has taken several steps to restructure the European operations, the firm said.
For the entire 2015-16, Tata Steel's consolidated net loss was lower at Rs 3,049.32 crore against Rs 3,925.52 crore in 2014-15. Total income was lower at Rs 1.17 lakh crore from Rs 1.40 lakh crore in the previous year.
For the entire 2015-16 fiscal, Tata Steel deliveries were lower at 25.92 MT against 26.32 MT in 2014-15.
Tata Steel Group ED (Finance and Corporate) Koushik Chatterjee said, "While the pressure on the product prices continued during the quarter both in India and in Europe, our operations during the quarter were very resilient across most of the geographies and have reported much improved underlying performance compared to the previous quarter.
