Posted on 25 Oct 2019
Leading steelmaker JSW Steel announced its decision to lower capital expenditure for 2019 by INR 4,700 crores, mainly on the back of slowdown in steel demand. The demand for steel grew only by 1% in September, said the company press release. Also, JSW Steel lowered its guidance for annual steel production and sales.
The company had earlier announced capital investment of INR 15,700 crores in 2019 on various organic expansion programs. However, it has decided to defer certain projects aimed at boosting its downstream capabilities and some other special projects to next year. As a result, the capital expenditure plan for the current year has now been reduced to INR 11,000 crores. Further, the company noted that it will be able to achieve only 97% of its guidance for 2019.
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JSW Steel’s net profit for Q3 this year rose nearly 22% over the previous year to INR 2,536 crores. The net sales reported decline by 18.5% at INR 17,572 crores, mainly on account of lower sales volume and lower realizations. The operating profit slumped 44% year-on-year to INR 2,731 crore. The net debt at the end of third quarter 2019 stood at INR 49,640 crores, said the company press release.
The quarterly crude steel production declined by 8% year-on-year to 3.84 million tonnes. The production had totalled 4.18 million tonnes in the year-ago period. Meantime, steel sales dropped by 9% over the year to 3.60 million tonnes.
