NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Tata Steel Ltd
The strong showing in Europe would come as a relief to the company's new management, which has intensified cost cuts and focused on high-margin products to cope with softness in the region's economy.
Tata Steel got a foothold in Europe through its $13 billion acquisition of Britain's Corus in 2007.
"Europe appears to be entering a phase of solid economic growth, which is supporting a recovery in steel demand," said Karl-Ulrich Köhler, chief executive of Tata Steel in Europe, which is also its biggest production centre.
"But EU steel use will remain at low levels historically against a background of continuing global overcapacity."
ArcelorMittal
At 54, Markit's final Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in January was the highest since May 2011. The manufacturing recovery accelerated at the start of the April quarter, a survey showed.
Tata Steel's bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter profit was also helped by product launches in Europe throughout the year, 30 in total. The volume of new products sold in the region rose more than 75 percent in 2013/14 compared with a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
Net income hit a three-quarter high of 10.36 billion rupees ($173 million) in the three months ended March 31, compared with a year-ago loss. Net sales jumped 23 percent to 420.18 billion rupees.
Analysts on an average had expected a profit of 9.64 billion rupees on sales of 391.9 billion, according to data from Thomson Reuters StarMine.
($1 = 59.7800 rupees)
(Reporting by Krishna N Das and Siddesh Mayenkar; Editing by Matt Driskill and David Holmes)
