Vizag Steel FY08 net up 36% at Rs 1,850 cr

[N.Sukumar]

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) has posted a 35.73 per cent rise in
net profit at Rs 1,850 crore for the financial year ended March 31,
2008, as compared with Rs 1,363 crore in the previous year.


Despite a drop in production, the plant's turnover grew 5.63 per cent
to Rs 10,425 crore in 2007-08, as against Rs 9,869 crore in 2006-07,
on the back of increased output of value-added steel (special steel),
said Chairman and MD P K Bishnoi.

During the year, the firm produced 1.9 million tonnes (mt)of special
steel, a rise of 74 per cent over the last year, and sold 1.82 mt as
against 1.11 mt in the previous year. Exports also grew to Rs 556
crore. Bishnoi said that the cost of the firm's proposed expansion
plan had increased by about Rs 2,000 crore.

"Post expansion, about 85 per cent of the total production of 6.3 mt
would be special steels," he said.

Commercial production is likely to commence from February 2010. VSP is
investing Rs 500 crore in International Coal Ventures, a special
purpose vehicle being set up jointly by VSP, SAIL, NTPC, National
Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Coal India Limited.

N.Sukumar
Research Analyst