Coal news and updates

Birla Corp 2nd quarter net profit down 22%

November 6: Birla Corporation Limited, the flagship company of the MP Birla Group, reported a 21.93% drop in net profit for the July-September quarter of 2014-15 to Rs 32.46 crore against Rs 41.58 crore reported in the same quarter of the previous fiscal, the company said in a statement.

“The profitability of the company suffered owing to an all-round increase in costs, including those of pet coke, fly ash, gypsum, packaging material, diesel as well as railway freight… During the period under review, linkage coal could not be lifted owing to non-availability of railway rakes. This affected operations of the captive power plants in Satna and Chanderia. Consequently, an increased quantum of power had to be drawn from the grid at higher rates, leading to higher power costs,” the company statement said.

“Though, during the quarter under review, substantial quantity of limestone could be raised by mechanical means at Chanderia mines, it was still short of the total requirement which had to be outsourced at substantially high rates. The unit had to purchase about 2.7 lakh tons of limestone from the market,” it added.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, however, the company’s net profit dropped from Rs 99.52 crore in the April-June quarter.

In the first six months of the current fiscal however, the company’s net profit increased to Rs 131.98 crore from Rs 87.57 crore earned in the same period of the previous fiscal, the company statement added.

During the second quarter of 2014-15, the company’s income from operations increased nearly 8% to Rs 767.11 crore compared to Rs 710.71 crore reported in the same period of the last financial year.

During the quarter under review, the company’s cement production stood at 1.910 million tons (mt), up 3.92% from 1.838 mt produced in the same quarter of last year while cement despatches of the company during the quarter stood at 1.912 mt, up 3.24% from 1.852 mt despatched in the same quarter a year ago.

Following are the Q2 and six months results of Birla Corporation in 2014-15 and 2013-14 (in Rs crore):