Kolkata, Aug 1 (Representative) Tata Steel Consolidated revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 were Rs 54,771 crores and EBITDA was Rs 6,822 crores, according to Koushik Chatterjee, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer. Consolidated EBITDA margin was around 12.5 per cent with an improvement of more than 100 bps on QoQ basis, he said. India revenues were around Rs 33,194 crores and EBITDA was Rs 7,029 crores, which translates to an EBITDA per ton of Rs 14,227 and an EBITDA margin of 21%. Netherlands revenues were broadly stable despite subdued demand dynamics but cost profile continued to improve with stabilisation of operations leading to EBITDA improving from -ve £27 million in 4Q to +ve £43 million in 1Q. This was partly offset by EBITDA loss at UK operations which is in the midst of restructuring and transition. Given the planned closure of blast furnaces in UK, there has been steel stock build-up for the downstream operations which impacted working capital. “We continue to focus on growth in India and have spent Rs 3,777 crores on capital expenditure during the quarter. Net debt stands at Rs 82,162 crores,” he added.
“Group liquidity position remains strong at Rs 36,460 crores, which includes Rs 10,799 crores of cash and cash equivalents. We also remain focused on cost optimisation, operational improvements and working capital management to maximise cashflows. With respect to the UK transition, we are proceeding as per previously announced timelines for the closure of the heavy end, a step which is critical to address the deep cash burn associated with the upstream end of life assets.” “We are also on track with regard to supply chain preparedness for imports of semi-finished steel which will be utilized by the downstream assets to continue to service customers, after the closure of the blast furnaces.” “We are fully committed to supporting affected employees, have offered the best ever package of support in Tata Steel UK, and continue to engage deeply with the Unions in this respect. The Voluntary Redundancy Aspiration process was launched on July 10 and will close on August 7. We have also started active engagement with the government in Netherlands on support for the decarbonisation project,” he stated. T V Narendran, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, said, “During the quarter, subdued steel demand across most regions weighed on global steel prices.
In India, steel demand was broadly stable despite some impact due to elections and heat waves. In India, our crude steel production was up 5% YoY to around 5.3 million tons.” Deliveries at around 4.9 million tons were the ‘best ever 1Q’ sales aided by 4% YoY growth in domestic deliveries. Among business verticals, automotive witnessed 9% YoY growth aided by higher than market growth in select sub segments. Tata Tiscon continued to grow aided by enhanced reach and scale-up of consumer connect programs. “ The 5 MTPA expansion project at Kalinganagar is on track for the blast furnace to start in September 2024. The heating process for blast furnace stoves and coke oven batteries has commenced as planned. Additionally, the commissioning activities for Continuous Annealing Line of the 2.2 MTPA CRM complex at Kalinganagar are progressing well for start up in August 2024.” “In UK, we have safely ceased operations at one of the blast furnaces (BF #5) at Port Talbot and are on track to close the remaining blast furnace by September 2024. Further, Tata Steel remains dedicated to enhancing diversity and am happy to share that we recently deployed the first-ever crew of female firefighters in the Indian steel industry,” he added.