TATA Steel Group declared its Consolidated Financial Results for the quarter ended June 30th 2014. Operating performance improved across all geographies as Group EBITDA for the Q1 ended June 30th 2014 rose to INR 4,325 crores from INR 3,755 crores the year before. Net profit for the quarter came in at INR 337 crores affected by exceptional charges of INR 262 crores.

Mr TV Narendran MD of TATA Steel India and South East Asia said that “The economic sentiment has improved in India after the general elections and the new government has been clearly communicating its intentions to bring the economy back to the growth path. Government's thrust on development of core industries like housing and infrastructure should boost steel demand in the coming quarters. We continue to grow our delivery volumes with enrichment of the overall product mix.”

He said that during the quarter we have started commercial operations of our continuous annealing line and a new galvanising line. In addition, the Coke Oven Battery 11 has been commissioned and the facility was ramped up in record time. Our KPO Phase 1 project is progressing as per schedule and will be operational by the end of this fiscal. In South East Asia, we are focussing on improving our product offering, expanding our customer reach and optimising costs to improve the performance.”

Dr Karl Ulrich Kohler MD & CEO of TATA Steel in Europe said that “European steel demand is moving in the right direction. Though demand remains well below levels we would regard as healthy, we can see greater stability emerging in the markets we serve. Our quarterly financial performance improved slightly, despite market spreads tightening compared to the previous year. This would not have happened without the work we are doing to reduce costs and improve our products and services.”

He said that “We maintained the good pace set last year in our portfolio enhancement programme. We have launched ten new products and increased the proportion of differentiated sales by almost 20%. Our operational performance matched that of a year ago, when we restored output to more normal levels. But Europe’s position as the world’s most open market is bringing in a rising tide of imports. While we fully support free trade, all trade must be fair and international rules fully respected and enforced. Our focus on operational reliability and costs will continue as we pursue further progress towards sustainable financial performance.”

Mr Koushik Chatterjee group Executive Director (Finance and Corporate), said that “With the new government in India announcing measures to put the economy back on the growth track, the business sentiment has improved. However, we expect the visible changes in the economy to flow through only on the back of higher government spending over the next few months. TATA steel’s profitability has improved in key geographies with Indian and European operations registering EBITDA margin expansion as compared to the last year.”

He said that “Despite significant capex spend during the quarter, mainly for the greenfield project in Odisha, we were able to reduce the net debt. The Company continued to pursue its strategy of monetising its non core assets as demonstrated by the sale of its stake in Dhamra Port. We have recently issued a dual-tranche debut USD bond of USD 1.5 billion to diversify our capital base and increase debt maturity.”