Coal news and updates

Birla Corp net profit halves in Q3

February 10: Birla Corporation Limited, the flagship company of the MP Birla Group, reported a 50.36% drop in its net profit during the third quarter (October–December) of 2013-14 to Rs 15.99 crore compared to a net profit of Rs 32.21 crore reported in the same quarter of 2012-13, mainly on account of lower demand and higher input and logistics costs.

During the period under review of the current financial year (2013-14), cement despatches of the company increased by 16.49% to 1.808 million tons (mt), compared to 1.552 mt in the same period of the previous financial year. With this, income from operations rose by 15.88% to Rs 709.84 crore during the third quarter of the current financial year compared to a net income of Rs 612.55 crore in the same period a year ago.

“The realisation was substantially lower, particularly in the northern and eastern regions compared to rates of the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. Though during the quarter under review, substantial quality of limestone could be extracted from the Chanderia unit of the company through mechanical mining, almost 30% of limestone had to be purchased from the market at a higher rate. Additionally, the cost of mechanical mining too is almost 30% higher compared to conventional mining,” said Harsh V Lodha, Chairman, Birla Corporation Limited.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis too, the company reported an almost 62% drop in net profit from Rs 41.58 crore earned in the July-September quarter of the current financial year (2013-14).

During the first nine months of 2013-14, net profit of the company fell by 47.48% as well to Rs 103.56 compared to Rs 197.19 crore in the same period of the previous financial year.

The following table gives the quarterly performance of Birla Corporation Limited in 2013 and 2012 (in Rs crore):