The first company to declare its first quarter ended 30^th June 2014 performance, YoY, there has been a turnaround in the net profit at Rs.3.6 crore v/s net loss of Rs.7.5 crore in Q1FY15. Even net sales showed a smart jump up of 68% at Rs.69 core. But sequentially, the performance has dropped, with sales going down 19% and net profit down 55%. Noticeably, its interest cost, QoQ has come down 37% though tax outgo burgeoned from Rs.13 lakh in Q4 to Rs.2 crore in current Q1.

The poor QoQ is a seasonal factor due to always lower offtake during the Q1. Of the 90-odd days of working during the quarter, the Goa plant was shut for 53 days, Bilaspur plant for 45 days  and Paradeep plant for 30 days. This maker of calcinated petroleum coke (CPC) has a manufacturing capacity of 75,000 TPA but its operations vary significantly every quarter, due to erratic delivery schedules of customers and company’s inability to pass on price hikes. The company is in the process of establishing a greenfield 3 lakh tpa CPC plant in China, which appears quite ambitious. It has got approvals from Chinese administration but now awaits nod from RBI and bankers for funding this project. It hopes to get all clearances within a year.